Photo Project Complete - Autumn

Today is the first day of autumn. It might be one of my favorite days of the year, because of its promise that cloudy weather, beautiful fall colors, rain, and the holidays are just around the corner. 'These are a few of my favorite things.' :)

Also today, I bring my nine-month-long photography project to a close. I have photographed these same spots now on the First Day of winter, spring, summer and fall, respectively. Always at the same time of day (so that any lighting differences are actually an indication of the earth's orbit).

There were quite a few different spots that I photographed, but for the sake of your time and attention, I'll only share the most interesting. (you can click on the photos to enlarge them if you want to)

winter

spring

summer

fall

 

I don't know if it's the preggy hormones running through my veins, or if I'm kinda sentimental anyway (probably both) but taking these last photos got me to thinking about the seasons changing, not just in the natural world, but in my personal life as well. I thought about where I was a year ago. Or even nine, six, and three months ago when I came back to the park to take these photos.

winter

spring

summer

fall

 

It was a year ago today actually that my mom passed away. At the time, although I knew it was coming sooner than later, it still pulled the rug out from under me and left me reeling. As Lemony Snicket writes... "It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one.... It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise..." That was definitely a hard season, but some might say as inevitable as the biting cold will arrive in January, the one that makes you ache to your bones. When you draw into your lungs the frigid air of long, dark winter nights like that, it imparts its stillness and loneliness to your heart...

It took a good long time to get over that one. I spent most of the winter wallowing in depression and self-pity. But I allowed myself those feelings so I could walk through my grief properly and come out to the other side, to the spring.



Also a year ago, we had been wanting another baby for quite awhile, and I was feeling discouraged that it was taking so long. But six months later, we found out we were finally pregnant and one week after that, I was shooting the spring photos... :) My belly has grown progressively bigger as I've shown up to the park in summer and fall. And now here we are, only about a month away from his arrival.

winter

spring

summer

fall

Another dream that we had for several years was to own a home. As of winter, we had been looking and making offers off and on for about 7 years. By spring, we had made an offer on a cute little fixer-upper, but I didn't have my hopes up too high. But by summer, our dream had finally become a reality and we had moved into our first home, deep in the throws of a major remodelling project.

winter

spring

summer

fall

 

So as I look at these photos and study the changing face of the seasons, how the same spot can look so different over such a short amount of time, I correspondingly marvel at the changes in my face. A little more weathered, a little older - a few more wrinkles from new projects and less sleep, a few more gray hairs of grief and worry, skin a little darker from working my land, a twinkle in my eye for a new little one to love, and the woman in the mirror seems more of a mother to me now and a little less of a daughter.

 

So much has happened this year, I can only imagine what the next season will bring...

 

 

 

 

Reusable Snack Bag

In honor of my son's first week at preschool,

I just finished these reusable bags for him to take to school!

 

(Pattern can be found here).

 

He picked out the fabics himself. :) He loves dogs. And yes, he loves ladybugs! Although just to be funny, we call them "man-beetles" around here. And Winnie of course. I might make him some Lightening McQueen ones later if I can find that fabric in my stash. ;)

 

The inside is ripstop nylon. My first time working with it, and it was kinda fun. It is not waterproof, so these bags can't hold like... a cup of sliced peaches or anything without leaking a little probably. But the nylon does wipe up nicely and can handle all the dry snacks like little crackers, nuts or dried fruit. I have some BPA free little tupper-type things for wet stuff.

 

If you are interested, you can research different fabrics to line with. Some people used organic cotton. Some people used something called PUL, which I am not familiar with. But I am told that once you get into waterproof fabrics like PUL, you are using essentially plastic-lined fabrics. So I would look to be sure that the lining is BPA free or specifically states that it's food safe. The ripstop I used is 100% nylon, not waterproof, and seemed benign enough to use with food.

 

 

Hope everyone is enjoying the back-to-school season. Can you believe it's gonna be September in a couple of days?!

The Pothole Gardener

Came across this last week:




Kind of reminds me of yarnbombing, but seems even less intrusive and more benign. What do you think about pothole street art? :-)

Bring out the figgy... jam

This is how I spent last tuesday night. :)

 

Homemade fig jam

 

If it weren't for the fact that I now own a fig tree, I probably would've never thought to can figs. But the fig tree we have in the backyard has been producing lots and lots of fruit and it seemed such a pity to waste it and watch hundreds of figs rot. It's funny - when you own a fig tree, you learn pretty quickly which of your friends love figs! :) Even still, we couldn't give the whole fruit away fast enough so on the suggestion of a friend I decided to look into making fig jam.

 

Having never made or even eaten it before, I experimented with a few different recipes. And by experiment, I mean I took nerdy notes and saved samples to taste test against each other. 8) But since most recipes call to leave the skins on and chop them, they all seemed to result in a very lumpy jam. I wondered if lumpy jam was normal or if I was making it wrong, so I consulted a few friends to see what most people expect to see in a fig jam. In the meantime, I also experimented with making the jam with peeled figs. But cooking it without the skins really effected the taste - made it way sweeter. My favorite of the jam experiments was actually cooked with skins, then manually remove the skins after cooking/before processing. But that was pretty labor intensive, so I was looking for something simpler. And if most people expected lumpy jam anyway, it seemed unnecessary.

 

The results from my poll came back conclusive - most of my friends did expect lumpy jam. So I decided to keep the skins in after all. But also, just because I'm stubborn, I took an immersion blender to it before I processed it. :0) That smoothed it up nicely too.

 

Hope you are all having a great weekend. :)

 

 

 



First Day

Today was my son's first day of Pre School...

He's SO excited. He's been looking forward to this for months. We even made a paper chain a few months ago so he could see how many days he had left before school starts, and he loved tearing a link off every morning and watching his first day of school get closer and closer.

Of course, my mommy heart thinks about how it wasn't that long ago he was just a newborn, cooing in his boppy. And look at him now, such a cool little dude, wearing his backpack. I can't believe what a big boy he is.

I spent the morning frantic, trying to get him ready and making sure I wasn't forgetting anything... Did he have his snack? Water bottle? Did he go potty before we leave? Why was his hair not staying combed? All his cowlicks were acting up again. Then, when we got there, it was finding a parking space... figuring out how to check him in and show him his cubby. I wanted to get that great First Day of School photo, but none of my them were turning out very well because of the morning light, so that was all frustrating.

Then all of the sudden, his teacher, very sweetly came over and welcomed him to class and asked if he ready for some school today and made him feel at ease. He was being whisked away to a half day of learning and fun and friends. Our time was up, so we made our way to leave. I kept looking back at him to see if he would smile or wave to me one more time, but he was already caught up, his eyes glittery with excitement as he listened to his teacher explain what fun things he could do today. Joel lead me out the door, and I peered in the window to check him one more time. And that was when I finally lost it. Do you think he'll be OK? Does he know we left? Should I go back for one more hug???

No, it was too late. I already had tears in my eyes and didn't want him to see me that way. Besides, it was clear to me that he was fine. I was the one having the hard time... :}

 

 

 

I am so excited for him, because I know he's gonna have SO much fun and he'll make lots of new friends... But this morning... my house is way too quiet and my arms feel kinda empty. Even though it's only a few hours, I miss him! :} Joel asked me what I was gonna do with all my free time (a rarity in my life). I said, "Well today my plan is: to cry" Haha. It's true though. I doubt I'll be able to get anything else done this morning.

 

Can't wait til he gets home and tells me all about his first day at school. ♥