Monday, December 2, 2013

Remember This Moment


Both and E. and J. want to go to school. Since the move we know no children their own age. Well... no children at all really not for many many many miles.  And J. (my sweet little M. replica) is a very highly social child.  She is an extrovert.  I don't always understand her need for people and noisiness but I do understand that despite being with her best friend every single day she wants more.  And E. my sweet little highly sensitive child will go to school because she doesn't want to be alone and enjoys a bit of gentle competition.

So this moment right here. I'd like to keep hold of it make it last till high school at least but my kiddos have their own ideas and dreams and hearing J. tell the orthodontic assistant the homeschool can be kinda lonely nearly broke my heart.

xx Jo

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Yarn Along in pajamas



It has been a looong time since I did the knit along. Mostly because I haven't been able to sit (curse you back troubles) so my knitting has been on GOOOOOO SLOOOOOOOWWWW.  Now I'm way more mobile its going faster.

This project is the tail end of something experimental.  I am making sleeve, leg and tummy extensions for E's favorite pajamas.  I am not normally ambitious enough to bother with this sort of thing because E.'s clothes go right to J. as hand me downs and everyone is happy. 
 However....  


These particular pajamas are for E. the best-est pajamas ever created on the face of the planet. They are boy's pajamas (eg nice and comfortably baggy) we bought in the UK before we moved and they have guitars and other rock/music equipment on the shirt.  I am lengthening them only because when I told E. they were getting too short and she had to hand them on her eyes teared up and J. started jumping around crowing because E.'s precious "Coolest PJs on the Planet" would soon be hers!  

So here I find myself... doing the thing that seems totally futile for the sake of a pajama obsession that is probably quite unhealthy... 

I will post pics next week with a how-I-did-it-and-if-you-are-a-masochist-or-cheapskate-so-can-you!!

I'm reading Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore.  It is a fantasy novel which has two others in a sort of paralell series. I've found it  interesting and I love the world the author created but the book is slow and pushes hard against some moral issues that I feel quite strongly about so I have found it occasionally uncomfortable enough to skip some reading. I would read it again if it weren't for a lot of (gentle) references to said moral/sexual issues which this is not the forum for discussion.  It has a villain I find very very repulsive and A LOT of victims. So I dunno. Thumbs sideways I guess.

You can see E is re-reading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.  Excitement for the The Desolation of Smaug is reaching fever pitch in our house as the girls all know it opens the day after M.'s birthday and I've already bought us tickets at our local cinema (surprisingly good for a small town) as a surprise for him (he LOVES The Hobbit).

Happy kitting!

xx Jo

California's Pilgrims

E. and J. have just finished their fall homeschool history project. JUST in time.


The girls tend to work from books for all their main classwork but for history we always make it a little more exciting with a topic project three or four times a year. We have made a medieval newspaper, had Roman feast for M.'s birthday and traveled the world with craft paper passports which get a "stamp" once a culture has been "visited".   Having just moved back to the states from a town on the south coast of England (only a little way away from Plymouth)  we have been studying the pilgrims and the Mayflower. To most Americans the idea of being completely ignorant of Pilgrim history probably seems incomprehensible but my kids were. 

Completely. Ignorant.


They have had such a great time researching and writing these diary. For example their characters existed and survived the first year in the New World when most of the immigrants died in the terrible conditions. Also E. and J. know where their characters settled married and how many children they had.  I had nothing to do with the research and writing (other than book buying/spotting and insisting on a minimum of ten diary entries) just the physical leather manufacture of their amazing Pilgrim Diaries.




We used regular printer paper aged and stained with coffee but not crumpled up a la fake treasure maps.  They wrote their diary entries leaving a good size margin on each page so that there was space to trim the paper down to fit leather sheet covers.  Which we punched with a bradawl tool and they stitched their diary up using leather thong.  They then wanted to mark the initials of the character on the cover. E. was Remember Allerton, and J. Mary Allerton. I didn't have the right tools but my girls really didn't care. A screwdriver did the job nicely.
 


The leather is rather expensive for a faux diary cover and only comes in one size from Michael's or Beverly's by us but a bigger one might have more options.  Having said that the work the girls put into writing up each entry, spell checking the lot and then by hand carefully re-writing them onto diary paper deserved a more noble finish than a fake leather or felt cover so I caved and bought the more expensive stuff.  In retrospect it was the very best thing I could have done. Children put value in the things their parents value.  By covering their work in leather I told them (inadvertently) that their work was worth something more than throwing away.  They are so proud and excited.  Just in time to share them with the family at Thanksgiving.


xx  Jo

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

In which I give away the secret to growing tasty sweet tomatoes...

In the spring I planted 40 square feet of vegetables in out back acre. We have been swimming in tomatoes, squash, white corn, watermelon and onions. Still there are little watermelons on the vines (which may never amount to much now the cold seems set) the pumpkins are ripe and hardening on the vine, and our butter nut squash have my mouth watering just looking at them all smooth and skin-peach colored

.

The problem is the TOMATOES.
Not a problem perhaps just so many.  I had planted a lot with the intention of canning and using them for sauces. Three weeks ago I spent hours and hours processing a big pail of them only to finally get out at the end about three cups of tomato for canning. It was so disheartening. 

When I talked with friends about it they kept telling me: don't skin them just throw them in the sauce and puree the skins down.  Well... I have found that too is a faulty plan  for a couple of reasons:

1: My Uncle Tom who is the most wise and thoughtful person I know on this planet has been growing tomatoes as a farmer for over half a century and has a reputation both locally and further afield for raising the most delicious and sweet tomatoes.  His advice is to water starve your tomatoes if you want them sweet.  Our tomatoes are exceptionally sweet because I followed Uncle Tom's advice and hardly ever water them. They look like they are dying (they aren't- tomatoes are like weeds) but we have mountains of gorgeous red sweet tomatoes with  firm skins (another sign of water stressed tomatoes). 
2: Salt or sugar in sauces causes tomato skins to harden and become little strips of tomato leather over the heating time. Not nice. And salt or sugar are kinda necessary for preserving food. That's why your tin tomatoes always come skinned.


So thoroughly disheartened and  now completely incapable of standing for several hours let alone canning anything I spoke to my Auntie (Uncle Tom's wife) about what she does with theirs and she (being very practical) said:

 "I just bag them and throw them in the freezer we pull them out and wizz them into soup all winter long!"

Duh!

So that's what I did. We pulled a bag out the other day for M. to make curry with and...  Voila! It works beautifully. The skins are "wizzable" or  (because I am removing the stalk before bagging) you can squeeze the tomato out of it's skin after defrosting which is MUCH faster than peeling them fresh. It also has the added benefit that if you need something thicker than a tomato puree you can strain the defrosted skinned tomatoes and a huge amount of their water gets separated leaving behind a much thicker paste great for ragu.

So here are my trade secrets:
Water starve your tomatoes- only water them when they start to wilt. (Also works with Watermelon BTW- stop watering them for a week before harvest and they will be super super sweet).
And freeze the blighters!

xx Jo

Monday, September 30, 2013

The sharpest crafting implement

So recently (before the crippling back took over my life) we went to our local fair where we were delighted to discover that there is an annual wool and fiber festival. It was so amazing. I could hardly manage to restrain myself from blowing an entire months rent on wool. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, it was truly drool worthy.  Additionally I was reminded of my plan to learn tatting by a lovely woman selling beautiful filigree shuttles silver plated.


Tatting.
Ohhhhh tatting how I love you!

I've had these books for awhile, I can't remember where I got them only that they came with me from the UK. Learn to Tat by Connie Ellison and Tatted Jewelry by Lyn Morton.  Learn to Tat comes with a instructional DVD which I have to admit to not using as of yet, probably I should have as I absolutely had to access online video tutorials to  get it all to work properly. I have this feeling that it is one of those skills best learned sitting at the foot of your grandmother!!
And then I visited Pintrest (oh man- just look up tatted jewelry!!!) and some other blogs etc. There are some beautiful designs at Le Blog de Frivole






Its brilliant when laying in bed and I read that traditionally it was a craft taught to people recovering from illnesses. It is so suiting I find the whole situation slightly embarrassing.

So now my head is spinning with ideas and designs. It is sparing me the absolute soul destroying level of boredom I could be hunkering under.

However Tatting shuttles are the sharpest craft implements I have ever had the misfortune of partially laying on in bed!! They have a horrific little sharp point on one end which is entirely useful and practical until you loose it!

Yike!



As an aside Autumn has set in here in an amazing way with breezes, crispy mornings and rain showers.
I don't remember ever having rain before the end of September when I was growing up in Mariposa. We are closer to the coast here but it has still taken me by surprise and it is so cold in our house. 
My poor little homeschoolers are working in scarves and hats and mittens!



Last week the thermometer was recording overnight lows of 34 F and it felt it. Today the rain is falling in earnest so it is a little warmer.  In the UK there is a quiet battle of  hardiness and pride in how late into the year one can last before turning on the heating... well its not yet October and we are having morning fires.  Guess that means I loose.


Isn't it beautiful? Almost worth waking up with frostbite!

xx Jo

Friday, September 20, 2013

Good news. Bad news.


Good news:  My bedroom walls and ceiling are very well painted.
Bad news: I know this because I have spent the last 7 days staring at them from my position in bed.


Good news: I've finally taught myself how to do Tatting and it is so much fun! (More on that later!)
Bad news: Doing any sort of craft flat on your back is a little tricky and involves your fingers going numb every few minutes.


Good news: I've found my girls are exceptionally willing to be  helpful around the house.
Bad news: I've found M. is really bad at grocery shopping so our repertoire of meals consists almost entirely of  thing a college boy might eat.


Good news: We have Prime membership so I've been able  to watch unlimited Jane Austen adaptations from my supine position.
Bad news: We've reached our data limit. Boo Hoo!!

Anyhoooo... because of all this back stuff... grrrr... I am feeling very very sorry for myself.  So do please excuse me a little whine and a few spelling errors.

xxJo


Wednesday, August 7, 2013

The hip Victorian silhouette project

I love the trend for Victorian silhouettes that has come up in the last few years but the dull black leaves me a little uninspired and quite frankly makes me think of funerals. 


I also love to make mementos of my children at different stages of their life. Particularly a set of three showing all three girls at the same time. When the girls were little I did a set of their footprints all at once (ages 4 years/2 years/ 3 months) which were the things we most feared getting lost or broken in the move because they are irreplaceable and utterly priceless.


So here is my work in progress and a little (very very little and simple) how to:

You need:
1:  a digital camera and computer.
2:  tracing paper.
3:  a large enough piece of fabric to fit comfortably in an embroidery hoop of your chosen size. I used a 10 inch diameter hoop which is what I will display the portrait in long term as well, but you can mount it in a frame if that’s more your style.
4:  Your hoop
5: two coordinating pieces of felt- I used the acrylic kind that’s really cheap.
6: needle and thread in coordinating colours.
7: a stencil if you wish.

Seat your subject in a chair in front of a white, smooth  background (I hung a piece of paper on the wall) and shine as much light from every direction as possible. Take your photo and upload it to the computer. Size the photo on your screen to as big/ small as you fancy and trace your subjects profile onto tracing paper directly from the screen- carefully don’t press hard!!

Carefully cut out the profile- that’s your silhouette template. Cut out one exact copy from your top piece of felt and an enlarged (by only a ¼ to ½ an inch) copy from the bottom felt colour. It’s okay to be less precise on the bottom copy but try to keep the enlargement even all around the silhouette.
With your fabric in the hoop and your two felt silhouettes placed on top stitch in small even stitches all around the edge of the top silhouette.

If you are going to skip the stenciling- you are done.  Either cut away the excess fabric from your hoop or stitch it back behind and hang your portrait. Alternatively frame your beauty and make it look as proper as you choose!



For the stencilers… I am ashamed to show you the messy back of my work but I feel it is only fair to show you how I am adding pattern to my piece…  My stitching looks great at the front but is a 
PAR-TAY 
at the back….
***BLUSH***
I used a stencil which came as a set of three for free with a magazine and I traced my basic design onto the back of the outline of my stitching and added embellishment where it looked too bare.  


Voilà! Hip Victorian Silhouette! 

 Use your template for other projects too. 
I used mine to make porcelain silhouettes which I hang in a group. They took (surprisingly) less time to make than the stitched versions. But you could use the template to cut sheet icing for a special birthday cake or to paint a drawer in a shared room  rather than putting names on the drawers.

Have fun!

xx Jo

Monday, August 5, 2013

The place I'm at when I should be doing something else...

Soooooo....  You know I've been busy. With lots of things.

I have the ABC's of busy...

-------------------
A is for Apples
 in the orchard- more than I can keep up with cooking, canning, feeding to my children, our neighbor's cows or the deer.


B is for Bird-sitting

 our chickens when they are out of their pen in order that the nasty bobcat that ate one doesn't get anymore!


C is for Canning

because I planted too much veg, inherited too many fruit trees and generally got too ambitious when ordering peaches via our friends at Live Power Community Farm with our CSA (Community Sustained Agriculture... its a mouthful to say and eat) box.


--------------------------------


The alphabet goes on and on and on (like Gone With the Wind but with no war, elegant dresses or Rhet Butler ... just lots of me looking flustered and throwing tantrums about someone messing up the quilt draped artistically over the back of the couch AGAIN!!!!!) finally ending in:

------------------------------

Z is for Zombie*

...sometimes... sort of... not really...
but M. sometimes acts like one.  He has been really really busy too and starts talking about going to bed the moment the children are up the stairs to go to sleep at 9 p.m. Naturally my instinct is to rebel and go to bed at 3 a.m. so I'm kinda a zombie too some mornings. 

*no photos of "Z" for the protection of the innocent

------------------------

  but the letter that has been consuming my time and mental space is S.


-----------------------

S is for Sweet Little Wood

and Shop!  I am officially set up in a beautiful shop called Gin'Gillie's Vintage Home Collective in Gyserville California!



---------------------------

When we left England we had some idea of opening a vintage/handmade sales space of some kind but we were uncertain of what exactly we wanted to do and more importantly where! I have a space on Etsy but in order to make it work you need a large-ish shop and really you have to push yourself to be proactive in order to keep your listings popping up because there are so (I cannot stress this enough) SOOOOOOOOO many sellers on Etsy. 

So the reasons Etsy is not really for me are that I am: 
1: too lazy. 
2: too annoyed/terrified by the postal system in the USA. 
3: to lazy


So this is what I enjoy doing. I find stuff. Old busted (sometimes) not really loved stuff. I take it home buff it up and show it I love it and then put it where someone else might pick it up and decide they love it too. Then I spend time with my family and make stuff I love with my hands... while the kids do homeschool... while I wait for the twelve jars in my canning pot to get to the right temperature... while I sit and wait for yet another interminable visit to the orthodontist to end...  while I inwardly gripe that M. has gone to bed at 9:01 and I'm not anything like tired yet.  Then I put that handmade stuff where someone else might pick it up and decide they love it too.


The long and short of it all is that when I should be watering watermelons that are taking over the back acre, keeping my little chickies from going stir-crazy in their pen, or sleeping with my husband at 11 o'clock.:  I can often be seen thinking about, designing, creating, washing, dusting, stitching, drawing or daydreaming about  Sweet Little Wood, my sweet little space that I can play with and make my own.

x(yz)  Jo




P.S. if you have never seen a tiny little baby watermelon...
 they are the cutest darn things ever!!

P.P.S. Does anyone know if apples are bad for cows?!?!

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Sorry about the postmove hangover...

We have been computerless for some time. Our third computer in two years in fact. How are we managing to kill them so quickly?!?  Fortunately because they are so new when they break its all been under warranty.

If I had a computer over the last few months this is what I might have talked about:

 12 Ducks: cute when ducklings, messy when ducklings and getting messier as they get older, stinky, nightmare to pluck. Now sat in my deep freeze waiting roasting. NEVER EVER AGAIN!!! (hear that Matt... NEVER!)

25 Chickens: cute when chicks but not to be ordered by post as you have the horror of opening your box of chicks to find a load of dead ones, and they can drown in shallow water dishes... again not a nice surprise to come home to. Now a total of 17 chicks. 2 are Cornish giants, they will also join the ducks in my deep freeze- for now they are called "Chickzilla" and "Jabba-the-Chick" because they are huge and ugly compared to the other chicks.

Vegetable beds: do get someone with a tractor to till a 50 foot square area. Do get it tilled before the ground has hardened into a form of steel disguised as dirt. If for some reason the plow doesn't break up portions of the steel-soil do get your husband to wield the pick axe to break it up because you are likely to injure yourself. Do check for bindweed in the areas you want to plant: no amount of weeding is getting rid of that crap.

Weather: just because you are in California does not mean the weather and temperature will be perfect in the summer. June has been cold in our house, cold enough for jumpers and slippers and wrapping up in blankets. And now rain- lots and lots of rain. So that crackling/springing noise is the sound of all the weeds in my garden (which I only recently beat back in preparation for fire season) worming their way into the soil and springing up with glee.

So... Hello. Sorry for the long absence. Next time a proper post with pictures.

xx Jo

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Yarn along and Pack up... again.

I know how tedious this must be getting to hear that we are packing boxes... AGAIN.
Think how it feels for us though! 
 I am truly and sincerely hoping to just settle after this.
 Our little yellow farmhouse in the country is a rental but I have every intention of not thinking or dreaming or wishing for anything different for a LONG LONG LONG time.  This will be our third move (fourth home) in 9 months. For a person who likes to nestle in, get to know the inside-out of a place, learn the little signs of the changing seasons, know where the warmest shaft of sunshine lands, find the best patch of blackberries and anticipate the harvest: the last 9 months have been a slow cruel kind of torture.

This packing job is a breeze though. We have some furniture (mostly bought at the awesome Lytton Salvation Army ) and the bulk of our possessions, already here, came in five suitcases and will leave the same way and I've been doing new home shopping in the last two days and have more than quadrupled the things we had with us. However it does mean I now have crockery (goodwill) glasses and mugs (goodwill/Khols/Target) and some pots and pans (family/friends/goodwill/Target) and can actually prepare food for my family in the new place.
 
Matt believes he can read my stress levels by how much knitting I get to do. I am happy to report that the crochet hook (a useful and fun tool but not my preferred modus-operandi) has been tucked away and the knitting needles are out again! I finished the tissue box cover, which was a lot of fun to design but I would change some things next time.
 
The base I did as a granny-rectangle (is there such a thing?!?) because it takes up less yarn and I only had one left-over ball of grey and just the dregs of mustard and aqua. That was great but I should have gone through only one loop on the round when I turned up the side of the box, and again at the top, which would have made it more willing to conform to the shape of the sides of the box.  By the time I realized my mistake (and being essentially very lazy) I couldn't be bothered to undo all the stitching and redo it again.

Delphine is almost done. She needs some buttons and a silk ribbon. So I'm holding off sharing till she is there. The fit is truly spectacular even though I had quite a few "Hang on this looks minute and is never ever going to be my size" moments before and during blocking.
 
I've made quite a lot of headway into Paloma  using Rowan wool cotton in Ship Shape. It is a delicious soft wool but I think it may be too heavy for the pattern. I bought the wool with help from the knitting ladies at John Lewis before I left the UK but sadly they were not entirely correct. I have since found that there is a great conversion chart UK-USA yarn weights on Wikipeadia and indeed: my beautiful Ship Shape wool cotton is too heavy. However before anyone starts to wonder that a tension square didn't notify me earlier of the issue I would like to remind you of the afore mentioned fact that I am essentially very lazy... and heartily sorry for it. So I'm in two minds. Do I carry on and hope for the best or pull it out save my beautiful and delicious Ship Shape for another day?
  
Jo xx

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Just click your heels together three times...

When we saw it on Craigslist we fell in love.
When we walked through its rooms we felt at home.
When we learned we were going to get to live there we danced for joy.
 
 
 Its a little yellow farmhouse out on a country road. It sits on enough land for our vegetable patch and some chickens. Perhaps a porker if our landlord is willing. 
In one week time its our home God willing.
 
Jo xx

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Yarn Along and nesting

 
Between rental hunting, homeschooling resettling and just the crazy hurley-burly of building a household routine from scratch all my creativity is being crammed into tiny little bursts of crochet. And all these tiny little bursts of crochet are making tiny little items of homeliness to dot around the 'not quite home' like space we are living in at the moment. So already down are coffee mattes (made out of the leftover Rowan yarn from Delphine), a short runner and a little doily which looks lovely under a gorgeous blue vintage hobnail jug I found at an antiques market in the gorgeous little town of Healdsburg where Matt works.
 
At the moment I am creating a crochet box cover to fit a tissue box.  Instead of there being a hole for the tissue to pop out of I'm covering the box bottom and sides so the top can be cut off and the box makes a handy  *pretty*  holder for tape/calculators/glue sticks/erasers etc that tend to wander homeless around our schooling space. Next in line for a cover is a small coffee can for a pen holder also for the girl's homeschool desk.


I'm almost there with Delphine. She is at the point of blocking but I haven't had an iron or a suitable place to block since before we left the UK. So she sits in a corner of the cupboard languishing for want of blocking. I've also started Paloma in a slow/haven't got the focus/haven't got the time/ haven't got the mental energy for a lace pattern sort of way. So she mostly sits in my knitting bag languishing for want of focus perhaps another yarn along she will make an appearance in all her gorgeous teal coloured yumminess.

Also... did you see those little people by the hobnail jug... Really. So delicious. They are my little souvenir from Paris. There were whole cityscapes for sale (v. v. expensively) but these little folks with their sweet little dog looked very Parisian to me. Maybe sat by the Seine admiring the view of the Eiffel Tower.
X Jo

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Two weeks

 
There has been a dream like quality to the time since we landed in San Fransisco and traveled to our new temporary home in Northern California; so two weeks has felt like four months.
 
I read once (I can't remember which book but it was a psychology for laymen book) that when you are actively doing something different to your normal routine your brain registers time as moving more slowly because it is laying in more experiential memories than if you were experiencing the same-old-same-old thing. Thus time goes faster as we get older and become less curious and less adventurous...  So i suspect this year will feel like one looooong golden dream for me before January 2014 arrives. I have no objections to actively trying to make it so.
 
We have been very blessed in this 5000 mile journey. Besides Matt getting a job so quickly, the greencard taking 6 months less than expected and our house selling for the right price almost immediately: we have been given through pure generosity and love a place to stay for as long as we need it.  I cannot express how much this has meant to Matt and I but in reality it has been possibly the greatest blessing of all our maneuvering between countries.
 
So I am making a little temporary niche in the home of one of my mothers best friends. It has been a great joy to get to know her husband who is the most amazing glove to her hand and to simply feel the gift of friendship.
 
I will eventually try to get some sort of routine back in order but for the time being the girls and I are doing small amounts of homeschooling with a few books off amazon, multiple trips to our local library and exploring within our reach. Matt works (as always) with a lot of cheerful enthusiasm finding his feet in his new job about an hour away from 'home'. And so starts our long golden dream.
 
x Jo

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

 
When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.
– D. H. Lawrence

 
Occasionally things occur which remind me of how much life has changed me; how living in a different country and surrendering my sense of belonging to the ether has altered my vision of the world.  The feeling of being altered is generally strongest among my own compatriots and cultural background where I can observe variations with the greatest degree of contrast.
 
 
 It has lead me to believe (please feel free to argue with me if you disagree) that travel* is one of the most startling catalyst for transformation in the human mind outside of the conscientious pursuit of faith.
 
 
*By travel I don’t mean trekking round the world in a gap year or going for a week in an all-inclusive holiday resort in Sharm el-Sheikh. I am referring to going somewhere new with your eyes wide and ego dampened. Of course you may do just that trekking around the world in a gap year or in an all-inclusive holiday resort in Sharm el-Sheikh. But you can also experience it in your own town or the one down the road. Fundamentally becoming well-travelled is far more about cultivating a sense of curiosity without the self-rightness we construct like defences against change to our well laid patterns of thinking.
 
 
Travel is a mysterious thing: it can encourage humility and insight or it can reinforce prejudice and nurture pride. There are some much “adventured” people I know who remain un-humbled by what they have seen and done but instead believe that they have seen everything in the world and can make absolutist statements on any topic of conversation.
 
Proust said:  The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes; in seeing the universe through the eyes of another, one hundred others - in seeing the hundred universes that each of them sees.
 
The world would be a much better place if people allowed themselves to be awake to the differences in the minutiae of other people’s human experience.
 
Its nearly time that I return to my native soil so for the next few weeks while I "travel" I will be away from posting here and keeping my eyes wide to the wonders of the earth around me.
 
x Jo

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

A peaceful new year to you

 
Quiet peaceful times spent together with my children are among my greatest joys.
In a suddenly and suprisingly quiet house we spent the dawning of a new year feeding our beings with comfort, creativity and faith together.

Morning- headed home from the airport
Noon- warming our tired bodies and minds

Night- exercising creativity