The Peace of Wild Things~

The Peace of Wild Things

BY WENDELL BERRY

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~ Paul

Life Happens~ Bird Nerd

We have been taking a lot of time lately to absorb life. 

Well, that and working... alot...on the garden and with the animals.

When I look over my photos it seems like all I do is sit on my deck, but really that is the only time I stop to photograph anything. Funny.

My knitting/design time is spent on my couch, where I have full view of our deck and pond, where I can watch the BIRDS! This year they are my favorite.

Who knew I was already turning into a crazy bird lady? We laugh at how much we soudn like our grandparents, all excited about the birds at the feeder.

I put feeders on the deck this past winter. Feeders and a lot of suet cages. This spring we have had so many new birds.

We are not native Pacific Northwesters, we grew up on the East Coast.

Wildlife here is a neverending wonderland for us. 

This year the Grosbeaks came to eat!  

An entire flock of them. Two types, Evening Grosbeaks and Black-headed Grosbeaks. 

The Evening Grosbeaks are my FAV. It looks like the male is wearing yellow sunglasses.

   

Here is a Black-headed Grosbeak~

This year, several pairs of Red-winged Blackbirds nested in the cattails by our pond.

Paul waded in the water and took this photo right after their eggs hatched!

This photo was taken exactly ONE month ago~

And this one a few days ago!

It's astonishing how fast they have grown.

They are now feisty babies, still wonky with the flying thing, fighting over suet cakes on the deck. 

If we get too close to the nest, the Papa will dive at us.

Yesterday we had the debut of a family of Mallard Ducks!

Mom was so subtle, we didn't even know she had built a nest.

Paul and Eve took the canoe out and got some fantastic photos of them, 

learning how to swim and catch bugs.

 Here are some more shots of life around here lately~

Wanna see more photos???

Visit my Flickr Album HERE.

Back to birdwatching!

Later.

xo

reenie

Teo's Tomten Sweater~ 2013

 

 My little buddy Teo is growing so very fast. 

He is just 5 months old, yet is a big boy!

This sweater is a 4T~! Of course he has a lot of room to grow in it.

Yet another sweater by the amazing Elizabeth Zimmerman, this customized Tomten Sweater is perfect for a growing boy. (Ravelry Pattern Link)

    

Yarn is Northampton by Valley Yarns, color is Fawn.

5 st/in. on sz. 7  needles.

The custom button band is inspired by and knit from

the Latte Baby Coat pattern (Ravelry Link) by Lisa Chemery.

I decided to make an icord edge, I love how it cleans up the edges of the garter stitch 

and it completed the woven pattern nicely.

Buttons are from my Gram's button tin.

As he grows, we can move the buttons closer to the left edge, to give him 2 more inches around.

The garter stitch will stretch as he grows, and will give the needed length.

Sleeves are rolled up for now.

Back view~ 

My favorite part of this sweater? The hood!

I love the decreases at the back of the neck and the gnomey peak.

Love to see how this sweater will grow with Teo.

xo

reenie

Home Laundry Detergent~ UPDATED with notes!

I updated my Homemade Laundry Detergent Post from lat summer.

New notes and photos!

This recipe is cheap, works really well and uses all natural ingredients!

It takes a small amount of time to make and I now store it in the pot I cook it in, 

so no messy transfer time.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE DETAILED POST

Have a great day!

xo

reenie

Peanut Butter Granola~ Reenie's Recipe

 Here it is... my super, fantastic, deliciously yummarific peanut butter granola recipe!

It goes great on ice cream, yogurt, in milk, or just out of the jar!

Use organic ingredients as much as you can, everything I used was organic but the peanut butter.

Wet Ingredients:
~ 1 cup all natural peanut butter. (The kind with NO sugar or high fructose corn syrup added.)
~ 3/4 cup maple syrup
~ 1/2 cup unsulphured molasses

Dry Ingredients:
~ 5 cups rolled oats
~ 1/2 cup bran or ground flax
~ 1 cup peanuts
~ 1 cup raisins or other dried fruit (optional)... (dried cherries give it a PB&J vibe).
~ 1 cup sliced almonds
~ 1/2 tsp salt
~ 1 TB cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
~ Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
~ Mix all of your dry ingredients in a large bowl.
~ Mix all of your wet ingredients in a saucepan. Heat until mixed well.
~ Pour wet over dry and stir until everything is well coated.
~ Bake in the oven for 10 min or more, depending on how crunchy you want your granola. I do mine for 10 min. and when I take it out, it seems too soft, but it hardens up when it cools.
I add any raisins or dried fruits after I bake it, so they don't get hard in the oven.
You can also play with the maple syrup amount, make it more or less sweet to your taste.

My kids go crazy for this. Enjoy!

Spring Pigs~ 2013

Hello, stinky piglets. Welcome to our farm!

This morning Paul and I drove to our favorite breeder in Salem, OR 

and picked up six 7 week old piglets. Three boys and three girls...

We named them Floyd, Daryl, Leroy, Daisy, Lulu and Earline.

They are so entertaining! For now they are in the orchard next to our house.

They will live there until they are trained to the electric fence and are large enough to move to our woods. Plus they are close enough to watch all day long.

Here is a quick video clip to share the cuteness-overload.

Spring is HERE! woohoo!

Gelatin Printing~

A few weeks ago, Jackie came over for some messy, fun studio time. 

We made prints, her using her Gelli Plate, and I using my homemade plate made from gelatin.

Click here for a link to the recipe~

The idea came from a pinterest pin I saw about Linda Germain. She is the artist who shares the recipe I used along with a LOT of other videos. Go watch them, they are fun.

I LOVED it. It had a fantastic texture and so much fun to mess around with. Of course it is not as durable as the commercial version. And I was not really too concerned with keeping it pristine.

Ezmaralda inspected it before I pulled it out of the cookie sheet.

 It came out easily.

Voila!

Hi Jackie!

I made most of my prints using strands of yarn and threads.

First I rolled a layer of paint on the plate, then I placed random wads of threads and yarn on it.

Ghost plate... which is what you have left once you pull the threads off the plate. This is the paint that was left underneath the wad of thread.

These are my favorite prints... all pulled from the same plate.

Print #1, 2 and 3... and the pink one at the bottom was the ghost print.

 This print is two layers, the first in black (see the feather?) and the second in white.

I printed on an old, beat up, written-upon manilla folder. I use folders as bases for painting or as book pages when I make my art journals.

 Black paper~

 Black paper and purple iridescent paint. love.

 SO much fun and a terrific mess.
It is now three weeks past this printing frenzy and my plate is still wrapped in plastic wrap, on a tray in my fridge. I plan to 'recycle' it soon-ish... 
There is a video HERE that shows how to chop up your old gelatin plate, put it in the blender, then heat it in the microwave yo melt it down and repour! 
This of course cracks me up, it seems silly to worry about recycling gelatin, BUT the crazy hippie in me cannot resist trying it. 
I will post about it once I get it done, but for now, there is a coop to build and baby pigs to prepare for!
Oh, yeh and flowers to plant.
I lurv spring!