On a clear weekend afternoon in December, we set out to find a tree. I wanted to write this story all about how we went out to our favorite sustainable tree farm on this woman's land way out Lynx Hollow road, where she lets the trees grow up like a magical forest, and the ground is carpeted in moss and toadstools. Now, we probably sound like the sort of folks who would go out in the forest ...
Home is Where the Hearth is
Mountain Hearth Handcrafts
With the holidays fast approaching, I have been busily stitching, felting, gluing and beading in my craft room. Colorful wool is piled around in baskets, little scraps of this and that are becoming beautiful creations, and the midnight oil is certainly being burned. When we bought this old farmhouse, one of the selling points for me was an extra downstairs room with lots of ...
Deck The Halls: Do-It-Yourself Holiday Greenery
When the weather turns cold, and outdoors-people like myself are spending less time in the great outdoors, there's nothing like bringing a little outdoors indoors! There's also something really nice about making a home festive for the winter holidays. It just warms your bones. Over the past several years, I have made a lot of efforts to decorate with natural materials and reduce my ...
Give Thanks
I have learned over the years to recognize the vast importance of being thankful in day-to-day life. No matter how many things are not going well, acknowledging those things for which you are grateful, however small they may seem, can shift your focus, put you in a whole new place, and ultimately change your experience of your life. Sometimes this is easier said than done. Being thankful for ...
Autumn in the Country: A Tour in Photographs
In the rolling hills, and fields, and farmlands Autumn has covered everything like a warm colorful quilt in preparation for the winter. Gardens are harvested, pantries are full, flocks of geese are departing overhead and cheerful wisps of smoke curl out of chimneys. This fall has been magnificent with the late warm weather and sunny days. My wish to have my favorite season go ...
Cast-Iron: Not Just Your Grandmother’s Frying Pan!
How many of us are still cooking today with our grandmother's cast-iron skillet? We might think lovingly of grandma or great-grandma standing at the stove, cooking up some delicious morsels as only a Grannie can do. Ever pictured Grannie wielding her skillet as a weapon? Perhaps she used it to smack an intruder or surly spouse over the head? There is a story in my husband's ...
Summer in the Country: A Tour in Photographs
The garden grows First sunflower of the summer The garden gate Onions and tomatoes The corn patch (it's Bodacious!) Mr. Scarecrow Pumpkins ripening on the vine Ornamental Baby Boo's Herb garden in flower around the front porch Strawberry border around the herb bed Hothouse gone wild! Hops Chickens in the shade Ripening apples Clementine Rose takes a cat nap on a hot afternoon. ...
A Canner’s Inheritance
My Grandmother recently gifted me a box of my Great Grandmother's canning jars. Many of them are the old blue glass with rubber sealing rings or glass with metal clasps over the top. They were so beautiful that I couldn't resist sharing them here. "Ideal" "Improved Gem: Made in Canada" These jars must have travelled with my great grandmother from the old family farm in Alberta. Just ...
The Fields of My Youth
Do you ever go back sometimes to visit the house where you grew up? I love the house, forests and fields where I spent my childhood. Our house was originally part of a historical settlement in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains, built by families from Oklahoma displaced by the dust bowl. It's still labeled on maps as "Little Oklahoma". On a trip back to my home ground ...
Springtime in the Country: A Tour in Photographs
Spring sunrise over the back field Our garden An apple branch we trimmed this Winter becomes a living garden fence post! Roses dripping with rainwater Spring chickens Ms. Frizzle the bantam frizzle rooster (any Magic Schoolbus fans out there?) The neighbor's field to the East, in bloom with native camas Birds nests from my craft room Birdhouse in the old apple tree ...