farm community

We arrived at my parents' a couple of days before we left for the beach. As I have mentioned before, they live in a rural area surrounded by farmland. One of the perks is having easy access to fruit and vegetables. Just up the road from their house is a large blueberry farm and the guy that owns it lets them come and pick all the blueberries they want for free.

We went one morning and ate blueberries right from the bushes (pesticide-free). Pure bliss. I hate to think of how many I ate! Actually, I don't hate too think of it because I was in heaven! We also had several bags to take with us.

{With her Sitti. She really does love that hat!}

{With his Papa. Note the "roll-up" sunglasses Larkin is wearing. Um, yeah.}

There were blueberries as far as the eye can see. It was glorious.

He also had corn as far as you could see in the opposite direction. I think corn is one of the most beautiful crops. I love to see the tops swishing in the wind.

There are peanuts planted on my family's land. One of my all-time favorite scents is that of "peanut dirt." For real, when you pull up peanuts from the ground the smell is intoxicating. I know it is just dirt, but it is amazing.

I love where I grew up. I love going home and soaking up all the things I took for granted as a child. Being surrounded by farmland is grounding. And I love the community that is woven through that farmland. It seems that every couple of days, my parents find a bag or box of fresh produce at their back door. Even when we returned from the beach, there was a basket of corn in the back of my daddy's truck. I love how everyone provides for each other while asking for nothing in return. That is community.

catching up

{My sweet boy serenading the passersby}

With the exception of my Easter post and my one last week, my posting has been, well pretty non-existant. And to tell you the truth, that is not the way I want this blog to exist. You know, to sink and sink and then come up gasping for air when I throw it a lifeline like once a month.

In the past few months I have been thinking about the blog and exactly what I want it to look like. I feel that my "taste" in blogs has changed and it has made me look differently at mine. I mean, my taste hasn't changed drastically, more like a smidge. Still, I want this blog to have more purpose or direction or something (as you can see, I am very clear on this mission).

Apparently, when I have all these thoughts going around in my head, instead of continuing to blog, I just freeze with panic. OK, maybe panic is a strong word. But I do freeze.

At times I have even wondered if people even read the blog. (It is kinda hard to read if I'm not posting. Hmm.) But then someone will say something about my blog that encourages me. And I realize people are reading even if they don't comment.

Anyway, I feel like I am about to start rambling. So, I will just cut to the chase. I am back. Hopefully, now that summer is upon us and school is out, I can really try to resuscitate this blog and give it purpose. I know you all aren't dying to read the words flowing from my head, but I still have a need to put them out there. I enjoy documenting life...capturing the simple everyday bits that make it so special.

In an effort to make up for lost time, I thought I would just give you photos that kinda document the past few months. And yes, they were all taken with my phone. The Instagram app is just too addictive and easy to use. But as I type, the battery for the real camera is charging.

{A little thumb war with Grandpa}

{Date night with the most amazing husband and father}

{Learning how to make salves and tinctures with my fellow farmgirls}

{A bit of resourcefulness}

{A whole lot of trips to the library}

{Blooming calendula (good for all sorts of things)}

{My little ballerina waiting her turn}

{Vintage girl wearing a dress that belonged to me}

{Some good ol' Rice Krispie treat making}

Oh, by the way, since I am trying to give the blog more direction, if you think of something you do like about it, feel free to tell me!

what blogging looks like with a headache

So, today I have had a bit of a headache. As much as I love the rain we are having, I don't always enjoy the pressure changes that bring on migraines. But I didn't want you to think I had disappeared.

We had some dear friends in town over the weekend and we were busy, busy, busy. And I managed not to take many photos. Go figure. However, I managed to catch a few things that made me smile yesterday and today (in spite of the headache).

{Proof that these really are the best cookies ever}

{He tweeted today "About to explode with love for my daughter." See why I love him?}

{Our first Better Boy of the season}

{It feels like I waited months for these to bloom}

{This guy spent all afternoon trying to get into the kitchen through the windows. Very entertaining.}

I do need to get in gear because I have much work to do for this before we leave. Here's to a good night's sleep!

p-p-p pickles

Our little garden is overflowing with cucumbers. I love cucumbers, but I needed some new ideas for serving them. Thanks to my friend Lisa, I found the perfect solution: quick and easy dill pickles. The recipe is from Annie's Eats. I have been following the site for a little while now, but this was from the archives and I hadn't ventured that far back. If you are not familiar with the site, go and check it because there are some dee-licious recipes.

I made the pickles on Friday morning (with cucumbers fresh from the garden which makes me oh so happy) and we were able to enjoy them with our Fourth of July festivities yesterday. And let me say that they were great! And nothing like store bought.

I made some spears and since I didn't have enough cucumbers to make another full jar of spears, I cut them into chips and was able to get a full jar. Also, to the jar of chips, I added a bit of red pepper flakes to see what would happen. I am happy to report that if you like things spicy, they added just enough kick to the pickles.

They were a hit all around and the fact that it takes less than ten minutes to make them (plus the two days of hanging out in the refrigerator), I can see that these will be a staple around the house.

scenes from the yard

There was a bit of sickness in the house last week. Therefore, there was not a whole lot of, well, anything going on around here. While the biggest of the smalls, who was under the weather, was napping, I spent some time on the front porch with the smallest of the smalls. While she brought me mail in the form of magnolia leaves, I was reading Summer at Tiffany (which I highly recommend) and enjoying the weather. There were some fun sights to see. The rose above is from a giant bush by our driveway. It is gorgeous and smells heavenly. I cut three flowers the other day for the kitchen and I could smell them before I even entered the room!

We also have a family of purple finches living in one of our hanging ferns on the front porch. I managed to get a quick photo of the new babies. Some hadn't even hatched yet. This was taken five days ago. I want to go and check to see how much they have grown.

We also have this little guy living in our yard. We have a circular drive with a magnolia tree and other flowers and bushes in the center. He can be found there at most any time of day. I just hope he doesn't find my garden! (Sorry for the less than stellar photo. I can't get very close to him and I only have a point and shoot camera.)

And, much like our experience in Atlanta, we have a family of cardinals living in our side yard. They are a busy couple of birds! Here is the female sitting on our fence. The male was just above her in the cypress tree, but he was too quick for me to get a photo.

I have really enjoyed having so many creatures to admire here in this yard. This morning our little rabbit and a squirrel were face to face in the driveway. Too bad I didn't have my camera!

I mentioned that I was looking forward to Kid Clothes Week last week. Unfortunately, with the sickies hanging around, I didn't get around to sewing. Maybe I can make up for it this week!

our little garden

We finally have a little bit of space for a garden. We usually have a container garden, but we expanded a bit this year. As for tomatoes, we usually just plant one cherry tomato plant, but this year we went with a few different varieties: Roma, Better Boy and German Johnson. We also had to have our jalapeno plant as well (gotta make salsa!) We also added zucchini, cucumbers and squash...

Everyone pitched in to help (someone Larkin managed to not get in front of the camera). Lucy loved laying the bricks around the edge...

Michael was quite proficient with the garden tools...
And Gypsy, well, was Gypsy...
So now we have a garden to go along with our existing strawberry plants, a little herb garden (oregano, lemon balm, lemon verbena, rosemary, mint and orange mint) and a beautiful fig tree...
I am looking forward to making fig preserves this year now that I have strawberry, blackberry and muscadine under my belt. Anybody else excited about their garden?

birthday fun

I celebrated my birthday last week. Above are the flowers that Michael snuck into the bedroom to surprise me. The were beautiful! My mom came and spent the week with us (best present of all!) She brought with her a trunk load of plants and flowers (sent to me by my sweet grandpa)...

We had a lot of fun planting strawberries and herbs on the back deck...
In just a few days this little treat had appeared...
And I hate that I missed getting to post this photo of this guy from February...

He turned seven years old the week we moved. We had no internet at that time. I was lucky to find the camera. It seems a bit sad to just now be posting it, but I couldn't leave such a huge gap between six and eight :). He may be a year older, but one thing has not changed...he is still awesome!

hints of spring

I found this little guy peeking through at the bottom of our front porch steps two days ago. I was so excited. Partly because it means spring is just around the corner and partly because I am excited to see what will come up in our new yard. I see lots of green appearing all over the place and I can't wait to find out what is already here. Yesterday when I went out the little guy above had gained some friends...

Lucy and I decided to explore the yard to see if there were any more surprises for us. And there were! These beauties were blooming beneath the fig tree (yes, the fig tree!)...

Then I discovered that we have a Lenten Rose that has bloomed. Are these pretty? The flowers actually face the ground. It wasn't until after I picked this one up for the photo that I found out they are poisonous and can cause skin irritation. Oops.

We also have a camellia bush, a gardenia bush, some hydrangeas, azaleas and lots of other plants I have not identified yet. I know we are going to have a lot of fun in this new yard.

Things are starting to come together in the new house. I look forward to sharing photos with you!