Sleeping on the sleeping porch

is fun.

But it can be difficult to settle down!

Tadpoles and Toads

Another Picadilly Farm adventure!

Here are the gorgeous crops in orderly lines of deep color.
















We had spotted small tadpoles in the irrigation ditches a few days earlier so we came back prepared with cups and buckets.







Georgia caught some tiny toads and named them Ribbet and Leap. She was so pleased with them. She kept peeking to make sure they were still there in her hand.














Here's one Lily found that still has a tail!










Then Lily caught a big green frog with shimmering gold around its eyes. So beautiful and slimy and strong!




We brought 6 tadpoles home with some water from the ditch to watch them transform in our bathroom. (The water was evaporating so quickly in the ditches that I convinced myself we were saving them not stealing them!)

Poem Rob brought home from yoga...

"Even after all this time
The sun never says to the earth,
You owe Me.'

Look what happens with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky"

Hafiz

Character cannot be developed in peace and quiet.

Character cannot be developed in peace and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision be cleared, ambition insured and success achieved."

Helen Keller

Lily's last day of school!

Bittersweet.

Sad to leave her wonderful teachers and friends from second grade.

Glad to be set free into summer!

Mums 2

Young mums in pots are starting to appear across the huge field!
The irrigation hoses lay on top of the pots.

"The pigs are here. I know it. I can smell them."

Georgia was right! Even though she said it as we parked the car in the far-away parking lot.


The piglets have arrived at Picadilly!

Life in the coop

seems to be OK, although the first night a chipmunk dug holes under the yard, then the next night Rob found a big sneaky raccoon trying to break in.
Yikes!
I'm trying to stay calm, but it's difficult to have a bunch of foolish prey animals in our care.

Laurel Lake

Oh it's named Laurel Lake because of the Mountain Laurel!

It was blooming all around the lake. The flowers are so gorgeous! The stamens are crouched like spiders that pop up when you (or a bug) touch the center of the flower. The plant is very poisonous so I never want to talk it up too much to the kids, but the flowers are so pretty.

The wet white flowers were floating in the water where they looked like geometric seashells.




Rob and Lily are out deep but standing on a big rock!



Georgia named the three salamanders she found. Oh she loves them so much, it is so hard to release them back in the water. She kissed them before she set them free.



Here she is hunting for them, watching for their little bodies floating along under the water.

Creamie-Love

Lily busted for eating jelly under the table!

after we told Georgia she had to wait until the toast arrived.

A cool bug (a Green Stink Bug)

landed on the house.

Happy Summer Solstice!

“When all your desires are distilled
You will cast just two votes:
To love more.
And be happy.”
~Hafiz

Flower magic

Georgia and I went to pick strawberries, but the fields were closed!

I was so sad!
Georgia cheered me up by reminding me that we can still get berries at Picadilly.

We decided instead to go to NMH farm and see the horses and cows.

I have some herbal formulas I am working on and I need to make some flower essences.

The rose tincture I have had steeping on the windowsill is almost ready but I need Angelica and Johnny Jump ups to add to it. (I made my herbal formulas up in the winter when I could pick anything I wanted to make whatever combination seemed most magical.) I have been looking everywhere for Johnny Jump Ups and I couldn't find them anywhere. I was getting nervous that I was going to miss my opportunity and the season would pass.

My eyes have been scanning the ground wherever I go. So I had that in my intention while trying not to be anxious. As we drove to the farm we passed a beautiful patch of perfectly blooming Angelica. Amazing!


They look like bright bodies with open arms.

They are as tall as a person.

I was so glad to see them!











Then we walked around the beautiful farm and looked at the garden, all the while hoping for Johnny Jump Ups but I couldn't find any.

Just as we were leaving I turned to the steps of the sugar house and there they were!!
A sweet little bunch of bright flowers!
Hooray!



I went back the next day and collected enough for flower essences.
Good stuff!

Upingill Strawberries

How could it be the end of the season already!?
Georgia and I picked a flat as quick as we could before school yoga and work.
The season is ALWAYS earlier and quicker than I think it should be!
I made one strawberry glazed pie and froze the rest.

Rainbow out the window of work

after a huge downpour.
We all ran to the window
I grabbed my camera and snapped
In a moment it was already fading

Time is passing!

Today we scrubbed out the coop and got it ready for them after Lily yelled, "I just found Mama's chicken walking in the kitchen!" when we got home from the grocery store.

I guess that means it's time.

The coop was handed down from a friend and it seems quite sturdy and cozy.

As we walked back and forth up the yard with soap and water we could hear the baby wrens going crazy, chirping while their parents constantly flew around the yard, bringing food or taking away dropping from the nest.

We tried to enjoy all the activity because we know it means they'll be gone soon.




Sweet bossy birds.

Saturday morning

now means some picking at the farm

















then maybe some coffee at Amy's

Lily makes faces and looks away when I try to snap her picture so here is her current wrist situation. When I got a good look at the bracelet, I said it looked pretty grubby and she whipped back, "Well it should. It's three years old!" Yikes. Has it been that long? She and her cousin both got them in Maine and swore to wear them forever.

She likes to have a constant supply of hair twisties, too.

Chicken Love

we are so fond of our chickens. They are soft and fluffy and let us do tricks with them.

They are getting too big for the mudroom but seem too young for the big bad world.....

Roses!!

I planted roses when we moved in 5 years ago.
I picked a few old climbing roses that had strong fragrance and then some modern ones that were reliable but didn't smell so heavenly.
I finally got a bloom on my Albertine above. It grows near the door and the prickers catch our clothes and hair. The family wondered why I would grow a rose that has no blooms and plant it near the door so if we drop anything coming into the house we have to reach into a sea of prickers.
But this week Georgia ran in to tell me it had a flower!
It is gorgeous and fragrant.
Finally.




The sturdy William Baffin has grown enormous and is in full bloom now; the lack of fragrance makes me feel a bit stingy towards it, but it is beautiful.


























This is my Belle Isis that has the most plush dense blooms, like layers and layers of sweet smelling soft paper. So lovely.

I actually tinctured some of this, too. It will make a sweet tender medicine after some steeping on the windowsill.











Then the New Dawn which grows like mad and is really nice. It has a pretty scent and grows up around Rob's bathtub on the back porch.