Wordless Wednesday: Spring Blooms

Summer

I'll be honest, it hasn't feel much like summer. Rain, rain. Cold days. A desire to light a little fire in the evenings. I mean, really, what is that about?

But here I am on the Friday of the long Victoria Day weekend, thinking summer is here.

And although it is overcast outside (but warm at last), there are a number of signs that make me believe this. Here's my top ten.

1. It's the long weekend. So it has to be summer.
2. My Bridal Spirea are in full beautiful bloom.
3. The grass needs to be cut. Again.
4. My Linden Tree has leafed (and this makes me so incredibly happy after the disasterous events of last summer...Just glad it survived, even if we don't get the full lime smell and visual glory this year.)
5. There were June bugs last night cracking their little hard bodies against the windows.
6. The windows are all open and the breeze is sweet.
7. There are packages of seeds all over the kitchen and a roughly drawn garden sketch.
8. It's Erik's birthday tomorrow and I promised him summer would start on his birthday every year (because I'm his mom and I can make promises like that).
9. I can sit and have lunch on the veranda without a sweater.
10. It's the long weekend. So it has to be summer. Yes that's repeated, but it's the most important point.

Happy Victoria Day Weekend, everyone.

The Camps of Proved Desire and Known Delight

Who hath smelt wood smoke at twilight?
Who hath heard the birch log burning?
Who is quick to read the noises of the night?
Let him follow with the others
For the young men's feet are turning
To the camps of proved desire and known delight.
~ Rudyard Kipling

How many of you have had the wonderful experience as a child of running around with friends until the skies turn black and darkness falls? Of listening to the distant chatter of parents over by a cracking bonfire while you escape into the recesses of the night. Twilight comes on grey and flat, and then the evening. By starlight and moonlight you race around, a gang of kids reporting to no-one but each other, laughing and playing and chasing imaginary dragons.

We had friends over for an impromptu dinner and fire last weekend. Six adults sipping wine by the fire. 10 children out in the wilderness enjoying their freedom. The two youngest came back to the fold early, but the older ones were having way too much fun, and when they finally came in, the embers were low and the cool spring air was chilly. The kids had smoke and leaves and dirt on their faces and clothes, exhaustion written all over them, and big smiles on their faces.

Exactly how it should be.

On My Own

What does a Saturday on your own look like? Here's mine:

• Drink coffee, kiss husband and kids goodbye and watch them drive away to camp.
• Check emails, twitter, facebook
• Drink more coffee
• Tidy kitchen, throw in laundry, load dishwasher
• Morning run, followed by hot shower and more coffee, on back steps, facing the warm morning sun
• Figure out what to wear to a writer's conference on a day that is neither cool enough for pants or warm enough for bare legs
• Writer's Conference, hang out at library
• Treat myself to a Cafe Latte and lunch, read a book on my kobo at the coffee shop before heading home
• Hang laundry, do a garden reconaissance, figure out what needs to be done, make a list
• Read on the deck in a lawnchair for a blissful, precious hour.
• Write
• Decide some work is in order so head back to garden to rake away some of last year's foliage and reveal new shoots :)
• Walk the dog through the fields, shout back at the nosiy snow geese, wish I had my camera
• Read
• Write
• Open Wine
• Listen to opera. Loudly. While having a long lesisurely bubble bath
• Eat scrambled eggs
• Blog
• Watch a chick flick - Eat Pray Love tonight. Will it hold up to the book (which I quite enjoyed)?

The End

(my plans to have dinner with a friend and then head to the arts evening fizzled after I raked my gardens and realized that what I really wanted was some down time. So lovely.)

Transition

Where there should be fields, there are lakes.

Where there was a merrily burning wood stove, there are ashes.

Where there was ice and snow, there are patches of grass and pavement.

Where there were clean floors, there are muddy tracks and doggy footprints.

We are in Transition. Winter is bowing out, none too gracefully.

It's messy and soggy and damp and grubby.

But we love it.

Spring is coming.

All Is Well

I've had a couple of people ask if everything is okay this week because I've been largely offline.

Yes, everything is good.

Better than good really, that's the problem.

There's so much happening that I'm busier than normal, and something has to give.

And this week, it was being online.

I was on the computer, make no mistake. I've been organizing parties (two of them), making invitations and cake toppers and fun crafts. And I've had three big editing jobs to do this past couple of weeks as well.

On top of that, work has been super busy with a big push for innovations, which happens to be the team I am on, so I've been organizing brainstorming sessions and breakout meetings.

And on top of that is spring. Which means there is so much to do around the house and garden that sometimes it feels impossible. But that sense of satisfaction that I got from spending an hour combing my asiatic lilies to find the murderous red beetles that were eating it alive makes it all worthwhile. As does the promise of new potatoes, fresh herbs and baby carrots and snowpeas in the months ahead.

So busy, yes. But good busy.

And today, I feel like I am on top of it all. I even have time to meet a girlfriend for lunch.

That's something to be happy about.

Trilliums

As if by magic the trilliums have sprung up. Tiny flowers dotting the shadowy woods with their white light.

Pictures don't do them justice. They;re shy, but unmistakable. Popping out of the bracken and leaves, bright spots of spring. We stop, admire them, enjoy them in this moment. Before the moment has gone.

Notice the one red trillium. Beautiful.

Sure Signs of Spring

Wellingtons and Cleats in the Mudroom.

Cherry Blossom Budding

Muddy, Dirty, Tailgate

Garden Waiting To Be Tilled;

Wood Waiting To Be Stacked & Dried

Maple. Ash. Come Back To Me Now.

(This was me channeling Treebeard)

New Grass Seeding. New Path.

My Darling Spirea Shrubs. Hmm. And Weeds.

Pastoral Sheep

One of them on the wrong side of the fence

(Because they truly believe the grass is always greener.)

Spring Cleaning (and a touch of vanity)

The windows are all flung wide open today and the curtains are gently billowing in the breeze. Afternoon sunlight dapples the wide pine planks making them glow golden, and the red tile of the kitchen floor is cool and smooth underfoot. There is a cold ham, potato salad and grilled vegetables sitting on the oak counters in pretty dishes ready for dinner and two types of pie for dessert on the windowsill next to wilting daffodils and sprouting alyssium. And the kitchen table is empty save for a glorious cream-coloured lily in full bloom.

Freshly laundered linen is folded on the edge of my bed ready to be put away. Every piece of clothing in the entire house is washed, dried, ironed and hung in closets or placed in drawers. Every surface is dusted and the house smells faintly of lemon. Winter gear is stowed away in labelled totes, and soccer cleats are lined up ready for a new season of use. Birdsong filters through the house, trills and whistles and cheery chirping making every room brighter. A line of pots filled with soil and seeds sits next to a trowel by the back door - the promise of fresh herbs, broccoli and tomato and other summer culinary delights.

With the help of my house elves (see house elf #2 at left), we are ready for spring. We decluttered with a vengeance in bedrooms, laundry room, family room and mudroom. Unused, unwanted, unworn clothing was bagged and sent off to the St Vincent de Paul society; we were ruthless about stuff, filling garbage bags with anything broken or unloved, and finding a place for every single piece of paper in the house - filing cabinet, portfolio, or trash; and we stashed movies and books in the library on shelves, with the caveat that when we ran out of space we had to start weeding out the ones we no longer wanted.

It feels good. To be this organized, this uncluttered. It won't last, I know. But for a moment, allow me to bask in the reward of a hard Friday and Saturday morning's laour.

It was a very productive day and a half, and we finished in time to shower and change into pretty easter dresses for a family dinner.

Yes, even me. Mostly delighted because while decluttering my own rather large, horribly disorganized closet (four bags to give away, two bags of junk), I discovered this hidden away from my pre-mom days. And it still fits. Jubilation.

March Break 2010

Wow, what an amazing week of weather we just had. As I write this it is snowing, but last week while we were all off, it couldn't have been nicer - the kids were out in shorts half the week!

Last year we went to Quebec City for March Break, and enjoyed a blustery week exploring the Plains of Abraham and eating in small downtown creperies. Nothing quite so adventurous this year, but sticking close to home with the temperatures in the mid teens gave us a great excuse to get outside.

There was the trampoline, where it looks like Anna is attempting a Yoga pose, while Erik tries to launch himself into the air.

There was the Treehouse because you never know when Tarzan-esque skills will be in demand.

 

The Swing. You know that expression, no room to swing a cat....I don't think this is what it means...

And of course the Archery range. If you ask me archery is a long lost skill. Anna blogged about this in more detail in one of her rare posts.

Somewhere in the middle was St Patrick's Day, and some pesky leprechaun got in and turned the cereal milk green in the morning and the ice cream green in the afternoon.

And in reward for yard clearing, we had a great bonfire. Some friends came over and we roasted sausages and marshmallows and drank wine while the kids all ran around. There's nothing like an early Spring bonfire to bring out everyone's wild side.

Then late Friday afternoon, when all possibilities were nigh exhausted, and we were waiting for the roofer to arrive to give us a quote on the roof, Super Mom (me) saved the day with a dozen plastic containers, water, baking soda, vinegar, food colouring and cooking oil. Experiment, I told them, and amazingly, they did. For two hours. It's incredible how entertaining a few basic household ingredients can be.

Back to school tomorrow, but it's been fun.

Spring

The weather is fantastic!

I know this makes me seem dull and pathetic, but one of the things I most look forward to this time of year is this:

The sweet smell of air dried linens.

And a fresh breeze whispering through open casement windows.

Begone mustiness!

Mouth Watering

My mouth is watering. Partly because I forgot to eat lunch (so busy and excited was I about completing the final stages of the marketing project I am doing) but partly because there has been a shift to the season.

It's still winter, and I've lived here long enough to know we can still expect more snow yet. But the mornings brighten earlier, dusk falls later, and there is a definite springiness to the world.

I'm a compulsive menu planner, always planning two weeks ahead and fitting in new recipes among the tried and true we all love. And menu plans, like the seasons, have a natural flow to them. Summer grills yield gracefully to the soups and harvest fare of fall, which in turn gives way to the hearty casseroles and slow-cooked meals of winter.

This spring-like shift in season speaks to me of a new food palatte. Lighter, greener, more delicate, like the spring snowdrops which will be popping up in the next month or so. And I've started to think about lightening the menu a little, switching it up. I've been tossing around some ideas, such as:

• Taking out Chicken Pot Pie and replacing it with Chicken Crepes in Chardonnay Sauce;
• Switching Cream of Cauliflower and Cheddar Soup with Cream of Asparagus with Parmesan or (heaven) Fiddlehead Soup drizzled with creme fraiche and pepper;
• Taking the Salmon en croute out of its pastry crust and serving it sauteed and herbed on a bed of minted peas;
• Swapping decadent chocolate brownies for a light cream cheesecake topped with lemon and blueberries (a recipe stolen shamelessly from Chez Piggy in Kingston).

I have to go now before I drool over the computer.

9 Years Old

Who said....

this baby....

was allowed to grow up?

Happy Birthday, Erik.

Six Years On

It doesn't seem all that long ago that she first learned to sit up. Self defence, mostly. With two older siblings you need to be able to look about you...

From sitting to walking to running...

With a wisp of hair forever out of place, and an adventurous spirit that never stops...Attitude galore and a great deal of independence.

But also an affectionate nature and a cheerful disposition.


Happy Birthday, Grace!

Easter Football

It was the Nielsen "Killers" against the Nielsen "Giants" at yesterday's breezy Easter football game. On the sidelines, fortified with glasses of red wine, spectators cheered indiscriminately for both teams. The Giants made a strong start, but the Killers had a couple of seasoned players who made it tough to make much progress.The dogs were no help whatsoever.

The game ended when the youngest Nielsen brought out bubbles and half the players out on the field abandoned play altogether.

Which was not such a bad thing for the other players who had not realised how much energy it would take to play against these youngsters.

Bambi Comes To Breakfast

Look who showed up at breakfast time this morning...!

With her pal...

They weren't afraid. Not even of the dog who was outside barking at them.

(But then, she is only a labrador - not exactly scary.)

The deer wandered around, then headed into the orchard to check out last year's fallen crop before wandering into the field. We almost missed the bus watching their antics, but as soon as we started the van they fled gracefully away.

March Break in Quebec City

We had a terrific time in Quebec City over March Break. We drove into Levi and crossed on the ferry giving the kids a first hand look at the ice floes drifting down the St. Lawrence and getting the best view of the Chateau Fronenac going.

I love old Quebec - it's where Andrew and I met for one thing; I also have a good many memories of my time living in this 400 year old city. I could have wandered the old streets for hours.

The kids thought that was great - for about five minutes.

Still, they liked the battlefields and we took the dog for a long windy walk over the Plains of Abraham, after watching a great multi-media show about how the city was settled. Kids like bloody history, so they were enthralled by the knowledge that both General Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm died after the battle.

They also liked the caleche ride through the city gates, although it almost ended prematurely when Anna lost her hat in a gust of wind. Good old Dad ran after it all the way down a cobbled hill and then back up again. Whew!

But the real hit was the aquarium where polar bears caught fish, a playful walrus played tag with us, and a multitude of sealife could be observed.

And that was it really. Fun filled days in Quebec.Yup! That's pretty much how we all felt at the end of it all.