nuggets :: lucky

nuggets :: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week

It kind of looks like the basketball on the trophy is going up G's right nostril.  Lovely.

We attended an awards' night for the CYO basketball season that ended last week.  Did you know CYO stood for Catholic Youth Organization?  Well, it does.  Grady's team jersey said COA all season long and no one could tell us what the heck it meant.  Found out during the last game - Church of the Assumption.  Well, how do you like that?  I guess the assumption would be that we should at least know who we're playing for, right?  It's good to know they accept Pagans in this league!  Great season overall.  A lot of lessons learned (like how to handle crushing defeats...) and it turns out that the boy wants to play again next year.  

Winter visited us in a big way this last week and decided to rain for five days straight.  I enjoyed the downpour and it gave me lots of opportunities to drink warm pots of hibiscus lemongrass tea and read my book club selection for April, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.  With spring arriving in just a few short days, it was nice to see winter show up and show off.

One more month of being eight years old

Friends called to check on road conditions in Valley Ford, as we can see a problem spot for flooding on Highway One from our living room.  I love a good storm and the feeling of camaraderie that grows out of everyone watching out for each other as the skies open up and inundate us with the wet stuff.  Is the road clear?  Is your power on?  No?  Well, then come over here for a cup of coffee and wait it out here.  Yes, I love a good storm.

Jill's world famous Irish soda bread, Leprechaun Traps & my spot of green

We were gifted Irish soda bread and the boy made a heavily taped leprechaun trap to help us usher in St. Patrick's Day here on the home front.  Grady seemed to really believe he could catch a leprechaun and I was delighted to play along and leave him York Peppermint Pattie's for his enthusiasm and efforts.  Just when I think he's just about done with the make believe world of Santa and the Tooth Fairy, he reminds me that he's still only eight and loves a good game of make believe.

The hills and grasses soaked up all that good rain we had and were lush and green this weekend.   I wrote about a tree falling in our back pasture on St. Patrick's Day back in 2009 here.  Usually, there's not a lot of fanfare for the Irish holiday in our household, but strange things do seem to happen on this lucky day.

G's fave was the bird quilt illustrated by children & sewn by an adult (upper right)

We attended the Voices in Cloth quilt show over the weekend and saw a lot of amazing quilts created by some very talented fiber artists.  My good friend and work colleague helps produce this show and we enjoyed the artistic displays, as well as the children's scavenger hunt (which is genius and keeps children busy looking for objects in the quilts, allowing you time to enjoy the show).

Oreos grave marker & our new fancy satellite provider 

We came home to a really bizarre St. Patrick's day afternoon at our house.  Steve came in the house and calmly let me know that one of my chickens was just killed by a bobcat.  Apparently, it had a staring contest with Steve and was not leaving our property without that dead chicken.  Well, insert a lot of phone calls up and down our lane by yours truly, lots of commotion, curiosity, gun-toting, funerals and a big discussion about the circle of life.  Yes, nature is constantly teaching us about ourselves.  Once again, we were reminded about the beauty of life - even in death.  We now have a flock of five hens.

Growth is everywhere.  The buds are bursting on the trees, the grasses are begging to be mowed and weeds are taking over our property.  The afternoon sunlight is warm and wraps itself around us like a blanket.  This afternoon light has made the dinner hour my favorite time of day.  Our little kitchen glows and there is no need for artificial light, as I prep the evening's meal and G finishes his homework.

Doesn't everyone have a Guinness with their crepes? G journaling his Yahtzee victory as it's happening!

We made it over to Gourmet au Bay on Sunday and enjoyed freshly made crepes from the Ultra Crepes Food Truck they had on-site.  We enjoyed a few savory crepes, while the boy was in Nutella heaven with his.  We rounded out the day with a little family game of Yahtzee (where Grady rolled three, yes, three Yahtzees in one game!) and we called it a weekend.  He would like to be referred to as The Yahtzee King from now on.  I think he earned it!

This is the dirt gravel road leading to the Moody Ranch just down the hill from our house.  My little wannabe frog wanted to demonstrate his ability to levitate and I finally got the shot in the headless fourth frame.  He resisted doing this little photo shoot but, obviously, got over it pretty quickly.

Ram-like hair?  Yes, absolutely.

I see this glorious mustard field from my kitchen window (and it is the same field I spy in the summer months during haying season) and it brings me such joy.  I've written about a previous jaunt to this field here.  It starts blooming in February and is in it's full blooming glory this week.  I knew I had to get down there and take some photos or I'd regret it.  Grady was my super silly model and cracked himself up during our mini photo shoot.

I really love seeing our funky little green, yellow, blue & pink houses dotting the hillside from this vantage point.  All of this gorgeous mustard has me excited for spring.  I'm ready to plant some seeds, weed a few garden beds and buy a few new chicks to add to our flock.

Happy Spring, friends.