these days

We are so eager to be out of doors that we bring out snacks our whenever we can.

Are so happy to see a bit of virgin green peaking out of the dead branches of our thyme.

Were surprised when winter came to visit us for one last time....I think.

Are spending countless hours feeding grain to our ewe, Miss Ella, who will give birth in a few short weeks. I can hardly wait!

Are so, so happy that the sap is running over from our few, plump maple trees. Maple syrup may very well be one of my favorite things!

may

w  e  l  c  o  m  e    m  a  y .

egg hunt

we are

sipping tea on the porch

wrapping packages for friends

watching seedlings sprout

turning mistakes into treasures

marveling at the whiteness of these eggs

loving the smell of melted beeswax ready for dipping

boiling

I just remembered that I never shared some of the photos I took of boiling our sap to make maple syrup. Here they are! We have used both an outdoor fire and our wood stove inside. It is quite a long process. It takes many hours for the water to evaporate and you need many gallons of sap to make a good amount of syrup (40 gallons of sap makes about one gallon of syrup!) Once the process is done, we put it to cool in glass jars and the next day we(thanks mama!) filter it through coffee filters. What we are left with is nothing short of pure, delicious perfection! The syrup is a golden amber color, as sweet as nectar and has a wonderful woodsy, maple flavor to it. It is like gold I tell you! And really it is almost too good to be poured on pancakes. I think it deserves to be eaten by the spoonful straight from it's jar, or gently poured over some good vanilla ice cream! 

Here are some picture of our dear maple trees!

Mother Maple

Have I mentioned before how much maple syrup my little family goes through each year? A ridiculous amount I tell you! It's a guilty pleasure and one we will be enjoying for a life time I presume. Luckily, we do live in New England where there is a great bounty of that golden deliciousness. This year we tapped a couple of our big maples. We have one in particular who we've taken to calling Mother Maple. She is dear to all of our hearts and is so grand and old, old, old. When her leaves turn a crimson red in the fall they float down to the ground below and make a brilliant ring of red around her base. And when we had to put down our beloved dog just a few weeks before welcoming our son, we went down and dug a deep hole in the frozen, snow covered ground below her to bury him. Somehow, the thought that he would be protected by her expanding roots and hovering branches above made the heart wrenching experience just a little bit more bearable. It seemed she would be watching over him.

Anyway, we have been busy collecting sap and boiling it down into syrup. I will share some pictures of the boiling process soon!

Oh, and I hope you can join me later in the week when I share an interview I did with mother, artist and teacher Unni Strand of StrandRedesign!

Until then, a happy spring to all of you!

petals and egg shells

1. The hens they are a laying.

2. Little double headed daffodils.

3. Newly sewn spring curtains out of this cheery fabric.

4. First Quince blossoms.  

spring

Spring, in New England, is like a mischievous little fairy who likes to play tricks on people. One day the sun is out clear and warm, we take off our socks and show our toes to the sun for the first time in months. We start thinking about which sweaters to box up in the attic and excite over how much more space we will have when boots and hats, winter coats and mittens are packed away for the warm months ahead. And then, just as quickly as the sun came out, it gets cold again. The rain comes pouring down, we chop up the last of our wood for the stove and pull out our mittens again. So, while last week we basked is some spring like weather, this week has been cool and raining. Socks still cover our toes and hats still sit happily upon our heads. Oh, but just that little taste was enough to get us a bit giddy at the thought of being warm. We were reunited with the sand box and made the most delicious cupcakes out of sand. We were called to paint the bright colors of the day and open our windows wide! Soon enough our spring will come!