Equinox + Spring Growth

Leprechauns left G a jar full of rainbow-colored jelly beans and gold foil-wrapped rolos in the center
Fog lifting over the beautiful maze-like fields in Valley Ford

The hillsides are receiving their inaugural mowing from the local farmers.  They are mowing rows and patterns into the swaths of land that gently roll through our valley.  They are trying to beat the rain that is in our local forecast.  I think farmers are really artists and dreamers at heart and I feel in sync with nature monitoring their field work and snapping pictures of their art-form.  The soil is their canvas and they put a lot of hope into the itty bitty seeds they place in the ground.  I just love me a farmer.

Moody Ranch mustard (the thin strip of horizontal yellow above left)
Our yard has hundreds of daffodils opening this month 

The mustard fields are in full bloom and the daffodils are just waking up from their winter slumber and dotting the neighbors' yards and roadside stretches along Highway One.

Common thread :: Pink

I've taken pleasure this week in trying to find a common thread with my photography and syncing them up here for the blog.  The pink camellias fell in an unorganized heap on my entry into work, so I stopped and gathered them up and made this heart on the entryway to my office.  It made my co-worker smile when she arrived and that's all I wanted.

The peach tree at my house had small, pink bud break and I just hope with all my might that we get a good crop this year.  I have plans for canning peach jam.

Grady painted me this sweet painting and titled it "Lone Flower".  It reminds me of the post-apocalyptic world in The Road by Cormac McCarthy.  Sad and beautiful at the same time.  I love the titles he comes up with for his paintings.

I've been using a training schedule to get me motivated to start running again.  I love how I feel after I run, but it is damned near impossible to get me out of the house.  I'd much rather take pictures, read, talk on the phone or putter around with G.  Those activities would not get me in shape for our future trip to Australia and so the time was now to start moving this body.

Grady has been a big help in this department.  He rides ahead of me singing a little ditty, spotting birds and riding back to tell me their names and location.  I keep my eye on his little body fading into the distance and I run after him at a steady pace - a metaphor for the transition we are both taking part of right now.  My breath is ragged when I catch up with him, but I feel healthy and strong.  He rides the last mile home with me and downloads about his day or a cool stick he just spotted.  I'm really enjoying this time together after school on Middle Road.

This house saw a lot of cooking and entertaining over the weekend.   This ooey gooey concoction (pictured above) consisted of a rustic loaf of french bread, smothered with Époisses (the stinkiest cheese around), crème fraîche & sauteed fresh rosemary and then melted in the oven for about 15 minutes.  It was aptly named.

I also made my first loaf of Irish soda bread using local food writer, Michele Anna Jordan's, recipe.  It was so easy, had a fantastic crumb to it, served warm and slathered with honey butter.  I'm definitely going to add this to my bread-making repertoire.  It's not just for St. Paddy's Day.

The weather has been fantastic and I've dug around in the back garden beds readying them for planting.  Not sure what I'm going to plant this year, but it will most likely be used as my kitchen garden.  Herbs, onions & I may try my hand at snap peas.  We'll see.

Grady and Steve have been doing little projects out in his shop and I love seeing them out there together.  This weekend they worked on a vintage clock that was running a bit loud.  I have no idea how or if they fixed it, but I think the part I liked was seeing Steve impart his fatherly wisdom on Grady and see G's eager eyes transfixed on his father's every word, asking good questions and his general interest in learning something new.

Took my first trip to our local Pasta King to purchase fresh pappardelle.  Walking into that shop was like stepping back in time.  The sign above spoke to the small town nature of the business.  They've been around over 50 years and it will be hard to go back to store-bought pasta after tasting the amazing freshness of this man's flat, plump doughy, delicious ribbons of pasta.

G has been adventurous lately.  He kind of needs a push to get outside and explore, so I've tried to be the impetus for this over the last week.  We tried to hike the back hillside behind our house, but some snappy cattle ranchers yelled at us from afar to get off their private property.  The day was dreary and there was a little chill in the air.  I wandered around and snapped photos and Grady explored his treehouse and played with lots of sticks-turned-swords, of course.

The week was also filled with new routines and trying my hand at reinventing the old with yogurt-making and repairing my vintage typewriter.  The yogurt making was a mild success and I'll keep trying to perfect it, but knowing I'll be able to use my typewriter in the near future brings me a simple kind of joy.  Being a former legal secretary and having a fondness and affection for the written or typewritten word, I think of this turquoise beauty as a vehicle to bring me a tiny bit of happiness.  I want to add typed words and phrases to my watercolors and see what the end result looks like.  Stay tuned...  

Life has been full and the weather has been gorgeous.  Grady has been maturing and pushing limits and I think it's about time I start letting go a little.  It's hard for me like I never thought it would be.  Having Grady turn into a 10 year old has opened my eyes and made me realize that I need to soak up the quiet moments and celebrate his transition.

It's a hard balance, you know?

Birthing, coddling, swaddling, feeding, walking, preschool, talking, creating, sending to public school, encouraging, supporting, getting involved, documenting, loving, absorbing it in bits and pieces and then feeling like I need to voraciously absorb and document so that I don't forget.

Border on smothering, taking stock, pulling back, still documenting, analyzing, pondering, discussing our parenting roles and the next step.

Feeling a heart string get pulled and letting go.  Just a little, but still letting go.

Watching, hoping, fearing and celebrating this wonderful, smart, funny, imaginative young man.

It's gonna be a long, hard couple of years ahead of me.

I'm ready, but I may cry and stretch my heart in order to absorb it all.  I'm learning that parenting is much the same as being a kid.  I get to experience the joys of childhood all over again, through him.

It's like your do-over and do-better.

Grateful for the chance.