surprise!

although i have 2 gardens - my backyard garden and my plot at the community garden - they are both small - and i'm continuously looking for suppliers of local organic produce. since june a group of us have been buying all we can from kim at the greenhouse in little rapids. last week she started offering a $20.00/week food basket - anything that was ready to be harvested . and i can pick it up each week at the farmer's market. this week i got beautiful beans in every colour (my beans in the garden are still just flowering) the first cucumber of the season, garlic scapes, lettuce and some herbs - chocolate mint and lemon balm - that i've hung to dry for tea. i love the surprise each week - never knowing what i'll be getting. the baskets will continue till the end of october and start up again in june - so get your name in on the list now...

just hangin' out

yesterday eamon needed a day off. he's been here almost two weeks and flat out like an 11 year old is flat out. this week he's at basketball camp - full day- and then playing with robyn's fin and lucy after camp and into the evening on wednesday. so yesterday was a quiet day at home with nana. we:
1.continued our monopoly game (which finished off this morning with me being creamed by landing on his boardwalk hotel).

2.watched 2 movies (an airbender movie (eamon's choice) and great expectations (the 1946 b&w) my choice (which he actually is loving (we didn`t get to finish it last night because keith`s folks showed up).
3.researched how to make a jabbawalkeez`face mask out of plaster banadages and then walked downtown looking for plastic bandages (no luck so far so we may have to wait till we go to st. john`s next week to make it).

4. and in the lovely late afternoon, started reading `the hobbit`.

a perfect day together. eamon`s back for his last day of camp today. and i`m back at work.

for this moment

for this moment my "carding station" is organized. everything has a place - the fibre, the mohair locks, the dyed newfoundland wool, the bamboo and other exotic fibres, the angelina. when i look down, i see what i have. and my decisions are clear. and excited. for this moment.

this is the plan

i've enjoyed having a dining room this month. usually it houses my drum carder and all my fleece for making batts. this month we've been eating at a table. and in the evenings, playing games.

so, yesterday i made a space for the carder in my studio and today i'll sort through and organize my fibre. and have a fresh start.

on the last day

lucy left today (picked up by some of her other grandparents (these children have 8) for a week of camping on the northern penninsula and a visit to l'anse aux meadows viking settlement).
lucy was with us for almost a month. i loved seeing through

her 6 year old eyes.
so yesterday - our last day together - we did some of our favourite things. a last dog walk and wildflower picking on "the mountain". a last tea party and read in the backyard. (the spearmint lucy picked in the yard, and hung to dry was ready so she "harvested" it.) and last evening a last visit to the community garden to see the peas she had planted beginning to sprout.

and now we are down to 1. switching gears to an 11 year old boy...

meanwhile

meanwhile. amidst all the coming and going. the garden grows.

coming and going

it's been a busy month. so much coming and going. sand and water and clothing and toys and food. and laughter. flowing in and out of the house.

and when we're not in the water

on or at or in the water

it is the peak of summer (although here in newfoundland, this year, still cool). we've spent the past week on or at or in the water

a zodiac trip along the trout river pond in gros morne

and every good day we could get

at the cabin

no more trains

there are no more trains in newfoundland. so the only experience my grand children will have of trains is in visiting the train museums.

i travelled alot on trains in my late teens and early 20's. it was the late 60's and it cost $50.00 one way to travel from toronto to vancouver. there was such an elegance and decorum (even if i was an impoverished backpacker). eating in the dining car with crisp white linen.

the cosiness of the sleeper cars.
the grand children find their own ways to enjoy trains.

what is happening at my house

the games people play

childhood summer for me was cottage and rainy day board games. keith does not play games. so it was a delight to discover that my oldest grandson eamon

is now a scrabble fiend. the dining room table (usually holding my drum carder) has now been set up with the scrabble board and it will stay there for the next 2 weeks.

lots of bodies

yesterday was spent getting ready for the rest of the family to arrive. this month is divided into stages. depending on the age of the family visitors. the different combinations of family visitors. and how many are here at a time. this week we are 8. so all attempts at organization or planning or keeping the house at all tidy would be futile. it's all about keeping everyone fed. and hoping everyone is having the holiday they had hoped for.

planted

the rest of north america seems to be experiencing a heat wave. not here in newfoundland. we are getting rain and single digit temperatures.
yesterday we planted the new plots at the community garden. because the weather has been so cold, we don't think we're too far behind the rest of the older gardens. and hope that we get summer well into september.

with help

yesterday, with help. in the cold rain. we got the new plots dug.

and just before we left.

we were visited by a little fox.

what lucy picked up

yesterday we drove up to gros morne park and collected memories.
1. stopping to see a secret fossil on the way to rocky harbour.

2. lunch at java jack's in rocky harbour where we ran into the watermelon queen from georgia, usa (don't ask).

3. the touch tank at the marine centre in norris point.

4. the butterfly garden at the insectarium in reidville.

5. picked up an uncle at the airport and brought him home.

one more please

yesterday i finished up the last skein of my last order. i decided i'd take a little break before i began my stock piling. my son is arriving today from montreal for a 10 day visit and on monday my daughter and the rest of the family are coming for a few days. so the house will be full and busy. i packed away all the fleece and cleared the table (it used to be our dining room table). but last evening lucy pleaded to be able to make some more batts and when i said i didn't want to make any more for now, she said "that's ok, i can do it all myself" and she did. carding the fleece, adding bits of mohair and bamboo and angelina glitter. cutting snippets of commercial novelty yarn. so last night found me spinning...