And some angora too.

It rained for a week and a half, or was it two?  And then suddenly the sun came out for the long, warm weekend.

This particular visit resulted in a lot of begging to bring home angora rabbits.  Do you think it’s disgraceful to admit that I behaved that way?

I’m kidding.  It wasn’t me doing the begging.  Not that I can’t see the appeal.  Only more so, because I see pet, plus fiber.  But I don’t want outdoor bunnies, because that just ends up a sad situation (cold, coyotes, fisher cats, raccoons, mink, need I go on?).  And indoors I have concerns about chewing.  As things stand now, I feel like I’m keeping just ever so slightly ahead of the complete and total destruction of our house and everything in it.  Sometimes.  On a good day.  I’m not sure that the other side needs such a powerful furniture and wire munching ally, or many, as was requested.  So, until I get all of that straightened out in my head, I think we’ll all have to be content with just visiting the bunnies.  And maybe occasionally smuggling little bits of fiber away in my purse.

Wearing a bunny bonnet while cuddling bunnies?  Just an insanely adorable coincidence.

Elijah befriended a part sheep, part cat creature.  One little scratch behind the ears and he was being nuzzled like mad.  “Pet me, pet me, please, please, please!”  Looking up at him with lovey eyes and everything.  I’m really quite convinced that she just wanted to curl up in his lap and have a good purr.

What a character.  She actually had me laughing, and as you can see, she was quite interested in my camera as well!

While we didn’t come home with any fiber animals, some fiber from animals did find it’s way back with us.  Fancy that.  Who’d have thought?

I think this is going to be very cozy and comforting.  This is just the kind of yarn you want to curl up with at the end of a long hard day…

And this yarn? This yarn is sexy.  Silky soft, almost lighter then air, shimmery baby alpaca, with two scrumptious shades, plied together.

It kind of makes me giddy.

These were my thoughts, several weeks back now, as I set the last of this year’s additions in the orchard.  Our growing spaces are divided into three main sections.  There is the kitchen garden out back, a flower garden in progress in front of the house and further up, out by the road, the orchard.  Or at least what I’ve insisted on calling the orchard since before we moved in.  Even when the little field’s most prominent feature was a telephone pole.  And really not a whole lot has changed.  The few little twiggy things sticking up are still dwarfed by that pole and it will never be big enough to be what most people would consider an orchard, but setting that last plant in the ground, all felt right with the world.

They say the best time to put fruit trees in the ground is ten years ago.  The next best time is right now.  ‘Tis true and we did both.  The first four trees to go in the ground here are the ones to replace the trees that we planted at the old house for each of our children, with one extra, for the extra little person that never got her tree.  Which also means that for the first time in nearly three and a half years, there is no longer a placenta in my freezer.

Two cherry trees and two peach trees.  I’ve been playing it kind of fast and loose with both the definition “orchard” and the types of fruits planted there.  Along the side closest to the house there are rows of furrows planted out with 103 strawberry plants.  In the back I have a row of little snippets that I hope one day will be a lilac hedge.  Along the driveway there will be a high-bush blueberry hedge, currently seven little plants that I believe will fill in rapidly.  The first three in the row belonging to Little Rosebud and Goosey, who pooled their birthday money to buy them (completely and totally their own idea).   And the fourth side is bordered by the forest.

“It was a vision to develop slowly into fulfillment. Grandfather King was in no hurry.  He did not set his whole orchard out at once, for he wished it to grow with his life and history, and be bound up with all of good and joy that should come to his household.  So the morning after he had brought his young wife home they went together to the south meadow and planted their bridal trees.  These trees were no longer living; but they had been when father was a boy, and every spring bedecked themselves in blossom as delicately tinted as Elizabeth King’s face when she walked through the old south meadow in the morn of her life and love.

When a son was born to Abraham and Elizabeth a tree was planted in the orchard for him.  They had fourteen children in all, and each child had it’s ‘birth tree’.  Every family festival was commemorated in like fashion, and every beloved visitor who spent a night under their roof was expected to plant a tree in the orchard.  So it came to pass that every tree in it was a fair green monument to some love or delight of the vanished years.  And each grandchild had its tree, there, also, set out by grandfather when the tidings of it’s birth reached him; not always an apple tree-perhaps it was a plum, or cherry or pear.”

~except from “The Story Girl” by L.M. Montgomery

Yes, just right.  Next year Steve and I will set out some trees to commemorate 15 years of togetherness.  And each child that joins our dear little family shall have his or her tree as well.  With trees or bushes set out for other milestones, ones that I can’t even fathom and one that I can only dream of right now.  Fancy thinking of planting trees for grandchildren, while all my own little ones are still here at home with me!  Well, I guess I have time to make space for them anyhow.

So, I totally missed the Kid’s Clothing Week Challenge this year.  Which is a pity because I really do enjoy participating in that event.  At least there is still the flickr group to scour for ideas and inspiration.  If I ever actually find the time to do so.

Which is not to say that I haven’t been sewing.  Oh, no.  There has been sewing.  Spring seems to bring that out in me.  Gardening when it’s fair and stitching my way through the thunderstorms.  That’s spring.

A spring dress for the Little Miss and a matching one for her Little Miss.

You tell me how I was supposed to pass up a fabric called “Kittens Knittin” (by Michael Miller, I believe it’s out of print now) when it appeared on the remnant wrack?  Don’t even bother to waste your breath.  Obviously it would have been impossible.

The pattern is view D from the 2001 Butterick Fast and Easy pattern #3045.  I think I’ve deemed this the spring dress pattern of 2012.  I’ve made two of them so far.  And it has proved to be both fast and easy.

This time I added some length, a bit of eyelet trim and changed the position and size of the bow. Sweet little Rosie‘s dress was improvised.

And a couple of her with my dad, just because they’re cute together…

to our yard, earlier this evening.

a.k.a. the rainy day skirt

The forecast for the boys’ baseball season opener?  Low 40′s and rain.  Splendid.  And high time for a defensive play of my own…

I whipped up this skirt in about 15 minutes, using the wool leftover from the Wee Girl’s jumper.  Because I’m all too well acquainted with the 6th inning feel of metal bleachers during a crisp mountain evening in the spring time.  In fact, it’s almost as quintessential as peepers or maple syrup.  I paired them with my wool leggings for added warmth.  And yes, it was still cold, but bearable.  I had been planning on saving this fabric to line my hunter rain boots, which was not a bad thought, considering my numb toes by game’s end.  But this little skirt is seeing a lot of use.  And even a bit of snow at a game last week.  Ah, New England in the spring!

Last weekend started off with work on the house, followed by baseball.  My parents arrived for a brief visit on Sunday.  Upon flipping through her photos my mom remarked that in less then 24 hours she had pictures of the kids at the playground, singing in a concert and at the beach.  She said that it looked more like a week long visit.  That’s just the sort of steady clip we move along at this time of year.  And don’t worry, we fit in some more baseball before they left again.

The water at the pond is not warm enough for swimming yet (I don’t care what Galen says!), but it was a warm sun-shiny day, just right for a bit of sun bathing, sand castle making, and stone skipping, before heading off to the next activity.

Well, I did it!  I managed to finish it all, though it only took us a week to live it and me two to record it.  This is kind of a supplemental post.  I wasn’t as good about capturing our living space throughout the week as I would have liked.  So late on Week in the Life Sunday, I went about and took some pictures of what things are like right now.  It’s especially relevant as by this time next year, I imagine that very little will be the same.

We have three bedrooms on the second floor, none of which are being used because we are still working on flooring them.  In the meantime, we’re all sleeping on the first floor.  Which in turn means that our beds and things are displacing the objects that rightfully belong in those spaces.  It’s a bit cluttered.  And there is a lot that we haven’t been able to unpack yet, because we haven’t been able to prepare the space for it.  But really I don’t think it’s bad at all and soon enough we’ll be upstairs as well.  We’ve lived in much, much tighter quarters.  Go way back in the archives and you’ll see what I mean.  It will be nice and funny to be able to look back at these and say fondly, “oh yes, remember those days?”.

This is the view from the dinning room into what we’ve been calling “the bunk room”, current bedroom to all three boys and future homeschooling space/home office.

Galen’s area.  He made his bed himself.  It should also be mentioned that I took these after 7 kids had spent the day playing and running about in here, so it’s all very lived in, with nothing at all being arranged ‘just so’.

And the other side of the room, where Iain and Elijah reside, with a big pile of boxes, containing all their worldly possessions stacked up behind their beds.

Along with our little, make-shift area for homeschooling supplies…

Arranged on the changing table that Steve built when I was pregnant with Little Rosebud. No closets for anyone either, so dress clothes hang off the edges.

The heavily rumpled space above, also off of the dining room, is my future studio and current bedroom to The Man, The Girl and myself.

Which means that all of my crafty stuff is in the living room, along with a great many boxes and lots of plants.

~The answer to the question, “doesn’t it sound like that woodpecker is pecking on the house?!?” is, yes.  Because he was.  This yellow bellied sapsucker (my father-in-law’s favorite bird name ever, by the way) took a wrong turn and ended up stranded on our screened in porch.

~Cooking and cleaning this morning.  We have friends coming to brunch.

~I made that fabulous chicken with lemons and olives, quinoa and butternut squash.  They brought a yummy salad of golden beets, red onion, dikon radish and cucumber.  For dessert Iain and Elijah made my friend Heather‘s absolutely amazing orange-chocolate covered dates (as a side note, if you all clamber for it maybe we can convince her to do a guest post with the recipe.  Because believe me, you want this recipe!).

~It was just one of those glorious, golden days, where the weather is beautiful and everyone more or less gets along, with good food and good company and everything just generally being right with the world.

~I know I’ve mentioned before that my Middlest Boy has a great love of horses.

~Well, while we are not in a position to get him that pony he has always wanted, we have decided that for his 10th birthday, he is getting riding lessons.  He found out today, when we took them all on a visit to the horse farm.  He can’t wait to start.

~Màiri Rose was gifted a pretty green araucana egg.  I made a snack of it for the two littles, along with odd and ends thinned from my seedling trays.

~The big boys are off at practice again tonight.  The last one before opening day.

~Have I mentioned that my children are the owner/builders of the worlds most elaborate cardboard box house?  Work on the third addition has stalled out due to running out of tape.  There is however, a fireplace (complete with chimney) and some shelves inside.

~I finally got around to unpacking our books.  It was like greeting as many old friends.