smiling hill

the family took a little trip out to Smiling Hill Farm at the end of last week. we drive by on the way to pick up our CSA and it is hard to resist the ice cream and animals. of course, i have a weakness for the cheese, too. i do miss working there!

they have a lot of fun wooden play sculptures, cars, trains and planes.

mini pony's.


my favorite is the little brown spotted calf. i could have played with him all day.

Waves

we had HUGE waves over the weekend from Bill. it is hard to show the scope and size of these even with pictures. the top one is at higgins beach. we drove by a few hours before low tide (when this was taken) and then just before high tide on our way home from two lights. at high tide there was no beach left to see.

the following are from two lights state park. they didnt allow anyone on the rocks and were planing to close the park at high tide. it was amazing. the feeling in the crowd was like a big fireworks display. there were lots of oohs and ahhhs. the sound was so loud and the rumbling under foot gave me goosebumps. there were lots of people camped out with lawn chairs just enjoying the show. eliot thought it was all pretty unimpressive and asked to go on the playground every two seconds, but the parents surely enjoyed it.

weeks sneak by

i am not sure how the weeks seem to sneak by so fast in between postings. the end of summer has been keeping us on our toes getting ready for school and new experiences all around. kevin had a birthday come and go and it feels like time is speeding up again.

eliot is enjoying cutting things with his new kiddie scissors. he doesnt really get how to cut things out but he does like snipping away. it is a nice project to get him into while im making dinner. i tried glue at the same time and that was not nearly as successful.


some of the humongous sunflowers at the csa farm.

and this chicken was fascinated by my wedding ring. i was kneeling on the ground trying to take its picture and it kept pecking my finger. they are fast! i thought it was going for a reflection on my camera but it followed my hand like a cat after a mouse. eliot thought it was 'hilarious', his new favorite word.

foraging 'fruits'

although i havent found any actual fruits, yet, here are some pictures of my latest doings. well, i take that back, i have been stalking a couple of rose hip bushes and crab apple trees for this fall. i hear rose hips are perfect after the first frost. im thinking i will try a pie, or maybe just more tea. i think i need to make a foraging bag.

these are some mustard seeds. they come from a plant that seems to love the sandy seaside around here. eliot likes these a lot, they have quite a little kick to them. i havent sampled the dried ones i have on the screens yet - and i am not really sure what i am going to do with them either.


some of the yarrow and bee balm all dried out. i like how they look in the jars. now i am going to see if i can find some foraging tips in my vintage copy of Joy of Cooking - thanks for the tip Kirstin! when are you going to start a blog??

pin zone

a couple of the first edits from my pinhole/zoneplate experiments. i am happier with them now that i have edited them. although, i can really see how dirty my sensor is with these! forgive the dust. the top two are zoneplate images and the bottom is a pinhole.

getting outside

the weather is improving so we have been getting outside a lot more. we took a trip to the Audubon and saw this odd yellow slime/mushroom on the path. any thoughts pam? i haven't looked it up yet. i have been keeping up with my foraging and am delighted to report that yarrow, bee balm and clover all taste very good. i have some goldenrod drying at the moment. it is supposed to taste like anise.

here we are taking a swim a macworth island. it is a nice calm beach with small numbers of people and not a lot of wave activity, perfect for little guys learning to enjoy the ocean.

and back to Audubon to catch frogs and poly wogs in the pond. eliot can spot bullfrogs with amazing speed and accuracy. here's hoping his vision stays better than mine!


big news for kevin, he has been accepted to the nursing program early! it has meant major hustle on our part to get our lives squared away for him to start in 3 weeks. i am starting to interview nannies to look after eliot a few days a week during the overlap times. wish me luck!

some crafting activity

i dusted off the sewing machine and made eliot a pair of pants from the Oliver and S sandbox pants pattern. It was really easy to follow and i think they came out nicely. they have awesome girl patterns, i wish they had more for boys! i probably should have made him the 2t as i think he will have to grow into this 3t pair a bit. the stripped part is a jeans material and the pockets came from an old place mat. a tad girly but i'm not going to sweat it.

i still have to put the buttons on the back pockets.


i have also started to learn to hook rugs. so far so good although it has turned hot and humid around here so i haven't really wanted to pick it up and have burlap and wool stuck to my skin.
i am a little panicked about color choice but hopefully that will pass with a few attempts.

more rain

a little more rain today. it does make interesting patterns on our front walk.

and justifies lots of baking. eliot and i have been making scones in the morning at least once a week. the addition of anise seed to our last batch turned out nicely.



and the rain breeds silly indoor behavior. im afraid we do let eliot jump on our bed. when we decided to join him i think he though we were crazy. i sense a christmas card coming on...

kissing lobsters

we have been enjoying the fruits of a maine summer now that it feels like summer again. the sun has been shining most days and the lobster is under 4$ a pound. the strawberry harvest is just about over, although i think strawberries (or maybe root beer??) have been the culprit for my latest headache bout.

i forgot to post these pictures from my dads visit. we went to the trolley museum in kenneybunk. it was really fun to ride on the old trains and check out the storage/work shed. we were able to ride on two of them because the first one broke down.

the very busy day

yesterday was about the busiest day a kid could have. first eliot gets up with his mama as usual and then i head off to work. I therefore i give photo, and fun, credit for the top three pictures to kevin.

daddy and eliot started off on their morning jaunt to the coffee shop when they walked by the fire station near our house. they happened upon it during a shift change so there were firemen and firetrucks all out in the yard. eliot was invited to come and sit in the firetruck and then he actually got a ride in it when the pulled it back into the garage! eliot thinks firemen are the coolest people on earth so the day started off with a bang.


then as they were about to get to the coffee shop there was a fancy harley chopper parked on the side walk that eliot was checking out. the owner of the bike took a fancy to eliot and let him 'ride' it at and play on it. eliot was very impressed as his other favorite people are motorcycle riders.

then, after coffee, they headed to the farmers market where eliot danced and sang with his friend olive to the music of one of our local celebrities Samuel James.

about this time i get home from work, send kevin off, and eliot and i head on our way to the clam festival. he did take a tiny nap in the car on the way to yarmouth so he was rearing to go for the rides and fried dough. i was very impressed at his bravery on the car ride but i guess after a day like he had it was old hat.

he slept extremely well after that very busy day!

a little visitor

we had a little visitor yesterday morning. eliot and i made our way into the living room when i saw this little guy floating above the couch. upon closer inspection we noticed that the little spider had made a perfectly beautiful little web between the couch and the french door that opens next to it. i think the top connection was all the way up at the ceiling. i misted it with a spray bottle to get a better look at it (and picture).

eliot adores the story of charlottes web so this was a real treat. if she had made a web in the kitchen i would have left her in hopes that she would catch a few fruit flies but we ended up putting her outside in the garden instead. Click on the picture to get a better look.



we are headed to the clam festival fun this week. i will get my yearly fix of fried dough and maybe let eliot venture on a ride this time.

CSA and visits

My dad just left from a two week visit to Maine from his current residence in Houston, TX. He beat the heat and brought some sun to us at the tail end. We did lots of fun things while he was here and Eliot thought he was quite a fun guy.

Here they are, Dad testing his linguistic skills with Fox in Sox.

Foraging through the woods at Broadturn farm on our CSA pick up day.

There is a little waterfall with a small pool on the farm property. The water is so high right now and it was so muddy to get down there that it felt like quite an adventure. I have had the desire to photograph Maine waterfalls for a while now. I have a great map (Delorme, atlas and gazateer) that shows their locations. No better time than now to start!

The chickens, ducks and turkey chicks at the farm have been growing SO fast. It is fun to check their weekly progress. This is from last week. This week the chickens are at their awkward teenager faze - in between baby fuzz and real feathers.

A stop to give the baby bunny some clover. I keep forgetting to take a picture of the pigs. I think I am always holding Eliot because I am paranoid he is going to touch the electric fence. Hopefully the sun will stay out for the vegetables to grow! We certainly started this on an off year, but I am happy for it just the same.

is it summer yet?

i dont recall seeing as many mushrooms as i have recently until later in the season but they are interesting just the same. eliot showed me this one he found in the yard. we have had lots of talks about how they are not for little boys etc..so, it took me aback when he came over and showed me one he had freshly picked. he was repeating my words of wisdom the whole time so at least it stuck a little bit, just not enough to overpower toddler impulse.

start with a haircut...

i need to start with the haircut. kevin was much more prompt about posting this on his blog but i had to add it here too, so cute. we went to 'ben the barber' in town. it is a small shop with one seat and a hip young barber. you have to wait your turn, he doesnt take any appointments. we arived early with one person ahead of us. eliot watched as he got his hair cut while staying very safely in my lap. when it was his turn he very bravely sat in the booster seat and held my hand through the whole thing (i did take a few pictures though). he had a very serious face on but didnt move a muscle. for the $8 it cost us i am definitely doing this again! no more mama haircuts for this little guy. the best part was the lollipop he got at the end. he talked about that for a long time.

gratuitous cuteness and he has ears!

a sunny day several weeks ago at my mothers house i dug out the 'tub' and he had a fun nude dude afternoon. we have been lucky to have sun the past two days, too. everyone is talking about it and it seems southern maine is getting their inner solar batteries recharged.


other updates include the headaches getting marginally better. im going to start adding in some eliminated foods soon to see what happens.

i am busily identifying plants for some foraging adventures. the few that i am interested in that are easily identify include: rose hips, wild chamomile, cat tails, clovers and honeysuckle berries with maybe a crab apple if i can find one. i feel a little weird collecting things in public spaces but i suppose it's fair game unless otherwise posted.