easter pic

here we are sunday morning after our household chocolate egg hunt and before we headed out to celebrate easter with the community.  it is not often we are all dressed up so we snapped this picture (thank you tripod) to capture the moment.

isaac speaks

yesterday was a long day for Isaac.  he was in his Montessori class from 8 till 11.30..then he had lunch and spent several hours in the extended day program.  at 3pm he went to an art class he is taking for the next few weeks.  when i picked him up at 4pm he was a little foggy with tired.

when we came home he had a snack and i asked him about the day.  here's the dialogue that followed:

isaac:  (long pause)

geoff:  are you okay, buddy?

isaac:  (concerned expression on his face) do you know why i look angry and sad at the same time?

geoff:  no.

isaac:  because i just spent 7 hours at school and there was so much talking i have a head ache.

(long pause - geoff trying not to laugh)

...and there were 6000 or more people talking to me today.  it's too much.

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he recovered later in the afternoon and was excited to be back into the fray this morning as i took him to school.

here's a picture of him in his Easter Sunday best.

garden update

we have been eager to get into the garden and as you can see from this photo we are trying to maximize food production from our modest urban plot.  our four raised beds are only half way there (the two on the right still need the sod and winter cover crop turned over - each bed it 14ft long by 5 ft wide) but to the far right and bottom of the photo you can see where we tore up the concrete in front of the garage to make more beds.  we are just a short way in to a long term project...our hope is to lay brick paths between the beds (we saved the bricks from our crumbling chimneys) and plant fruit trees along the fence to the left of the photo.  we already have 3 rain barrels around the house and can't wait to plant nut and berry producing hedges to act as windbreaks.  a real urban homestead in the making.  we are grateful our nearby friends have the room for chickens and others are even planning for rabbits and fish ponds for meat.

so we have seeds in the ground and some lovely seedlings coming up behind the garage...and then april sends us a blast of winter cold.  all day we have had sporadic sunshine and snow as well as hail showers.  last night dipped below freezing and we are expecting the same for tonight.

this photo (below) shows our peas growing nicely but surrounded by hail pellets and that cloth is our row-cover...an attempt at saving the spinach, beet, lettuce, and radish seedlings that have sprung up.

and here is a nice collection of hail on one of the rhubarb leaves.

the tulips were open basking in the sun yesterday....

today they were closed against the snow.

go green

check out this wonderful new book by our friend nancy sleeth.  a comprehensive and creative exploration of all things 'green'.  have you ever felt inspired to do your part about the environmental crisis but ultimately fallen short of your own ideals?  The scale of our wanton wastefulness and this desperate hour for our planet combine to paralyze the ones we have been waiting for: us!  This book combines everyday advice with global insight so that, finally, we can join the dots between air drying our laundry and global warming, driving less and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, switching out light-bulbs and mountain top removal.  Nancy has artfully combined thorough, up to date research, personal stories, and practical advice to make a way for creative, sustainable, life-giving sacrifice.  This is a fantastic resource for any household wanting to understand and practice the twin aspirations of Christian faithfulness and green living.

soccer

today was an exciting day for the household.  isaac embarked on his first team-sport experience.  thanks to our wonderful and generous friends, the Browns, isaac was signed up to play on a soccer team with his buddy, Z.  today was the first practice and in the cool air and setting sunshine of an early spring evening the lads ran around and had the time of their lives.  here are some pics...

urban orchard

sherry, ryan (seedleaf) , and billy (one horizon) have collaborated with several community groups as well as the city government to plant a 4-site urban orchard on the north side of our city.  great work peeps!

 

here's a blog from our neighbor (Rona) about the planting this saturday.  please come and help out if you can.

follow this link to Rona's blog.

the quotidian fragrances of the kitchen

we spent a good part of our sunday gettting ahead with baking/cooking for the week.  it was delightful to spend the morning in the kitchen as a family.  in a few hours time we managed to roast a chicken (an old rooster actually that geoff, himself, slaughtered), make a rich batch of stock and bake eight loaves of bread ( 4 whole grain, 1 white sandwich, 3 sourdough).

when it was finally time to set out from the house and take care of a few errands, i raced upstairs to change clothes.  as i came out into the upstairs hall i was hit with a delightful aroma from downstairs - rosemary, garlic, warm bread.  these were the most ordinary of fragrances that brought great comfort and seemed the perfect collection of smells for a rainy sunday.

at the moment geoff is reading a book called "the quotidian mysteries."  quotidian, being such an uncommon word, actually means ordinary or commonplace.  we continue to discover that the sweetest stuff of life is almost always wrapped in the ordinary.

isaac

here are a few pics i took of isaac this morning.  it is raining outside and cold but a nice filtered light is coming in from our north windows.  he wanted the third image to look 'tough'.

the not-so-long now

sometimes things take generations (see this wonderful story about the long now) while other things happen with grace at a fierce rate. 

these pictures are of the same plant - it is a tree in our backyard we call "isaac's tree".  5 short weeks of temperatures ranging from way below to freezing to 70F and now buds pop out where ice was layered thick like icing on a cake.  what a recovery!

 

a bit of lenten resurrection

yesterday we stepped in the garden for the first time this year.  after bitter, freezing temperatures kicked off the week, it was surprising to find the weather mild and inviting and green shoots pushing through the soil.  we worked without coats.  the majority of our efforts involved un-fun of gardening - weeding, removing leaves, trimming last year's dead growth, and poor geoff fixing a broken gutter from the ice storm.  but in the mundane tasks, i was converted all over again.

last december, racing against time, i put some potato onions in the garden (thanks to my generous neighbor and friend, rona).  it was a cold, dismal day and the ground was muddy - very unpromising circumstances.  this type of onion is just wonderful because it produces more like shallots, clusters of onions, that can be divided up for some to be eaten and the rest replanted for next year.  a solidly sustainable crop.  yesterday, as i scrounged around to remove a most-resented, ubiquitous weed that got away from me last summer, i found the green tips of these unexpected characters coming  up through soil and mulch.

 

three years ago, during the same lenten stretch, my faith had left me and the garden was the only place of refuge where the gentle grace and love of god would emerge and undo me.  at that time, i remember the same sense of wonder and spontaneous joy overcame me (and the tears too) when i discovered tiny swiss chard (silverbeet) seedlings presenting themselves in the poorest soil of our garden.  in that moment, i found the edges of myself and the beginning of god's good and always miraculous work of creation and recreation.

the garden reminds me to give thanks for the recreating work of the one who made all things.  it is always when i least expect it that i am converted again to a life in and with this mysterious creator.  and if i look to where hope comes from, at least in my life, i'd say a good bit of it is rooted in the soil, literally.