thankful

Green tea, fallen leaves and an autumn lake walk.

The hurricane. I feel so fortunate we were only a few days without power, kept safe and nothing was damaged. The winds were strong and scary. Trees crashed in the near distance. Halloween came and went without a notice. But we are ok. Halloween was celebrated yesterday. Now the air is beginning to turn cold. I love winter but I’m not sure how I feel about this yet. happy to have tea to keep hands warm and squeezing in walks to see the last of the leaves. Happy November.

ginger gold

As autumn-ish things come to an end (we are in for a hurricane which while remove every last leaf I am sure) I am still thinking APPLES!! My little guy absolutely loves to go apple picking. This season we started all autumn festivities early, picking apples mid-August. Ginger golds are the seasons first apples. They are absolutely perfect for pies!

Happy late autumn all!

clover and primrose

…growing by the sea. Oh, we are having such a summer. I don’t care if it never, ever ends. Taking trips to the ocean is one of my favorite things to do so far. And we found a new spot!

So peaceful and inspiring. I snuck away for some alone time while my husband and little one played in the sand. The board walk was small but it was a quiet bee and butterfly oasis with all sorts of wild things growing in the sun. Simple, small wonders and wild things make life big and rich and beautiful. I have been working on keeping my eyes wide open for these things and they are inspiring me to pieces. Thank you all for visiting here in quiet times, and happy summertime ramblings to all!

fields of clover

Hooray summertime is finally here! Today, in this sweltering heat, we went to the beach again but we have been spending most of our time outdoors at parks and such (and on my favorite meadow path which is quickly becoming my son’s favorite too). The wildflowers combined with the sounds of red winged black birds is just all-too-much for the senses (the sound of red winged black birds always hits me in a way no other birdsong can). I just love to watch the wildflowers bloom there and we have been picking a few. My son mimics everything I do so when I put a crown of clovers in my hair he wanted to do the same.
Happy summertime to all!!

Museum Visit

Raindrops have been falling and filling our days with adventures of the most watery kind. And then, yesterday it happened. Yesterday was warm and humid and dare I say sunshine-filled. And today is even better. But, on the topic of rainy day adventures (sometimes the best kind!) we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, then onto Central Park to show my son the Alice in Wonderland sculpture and the sailboat pond (and out of all of these he was most taken away by the ducks).

Exploring the museum with my son was inspiring (and a bit challenging as the hours passed) but I took lots of photographs for inspiration. Right now I am most inspired by beautiful hands from the 1800’s, subdued colors and a special medieval exhibit (of which they did not allow photographs). And today we are going to take a long woods walk at the park after lunch to celebrate the weather.

you can find me at the sea…

If the rainy weather had not arrived this morning, today would of been another trip down to the ocean. Last week was our first visit of the season. I had forgotten how the ocean and sandy beach can be so inspiring, calm and healing. The crowds had not arrived to our tiny seaside destination just yet and the beach was oh-so-barren.

But today, oh! the rain! Instead I took my little one treasure hunting and found some antique frames and other treasures. Now we sit at home listening to the rain go pitter-pat pitter-pat on the windows. Sometimes gray rainy days are almost as relaxing as sand and waves.

gray day strawberry picking (with a few sunny spots too)

So many adventures as-of-recent! I am awakening from a long slumber (and hopefully this blog is too).

June begins the fruit picking season. Strawberries are first to ripen, then raspberries, peaches…

I took my little one to the orchard a few days ago. The day was gray with a few sunny spots and so perfect for being out in the strawberry fields. I’m not much of a sun person so when it peaks out from the clouds for brief moments I am most happy. The strawberries were just so red, plump, juicy and warm from their brief encounter with the sun’s rays. Most of the fields were full of delicate blossoms awaiting to grow into succulent berries.

By the time we left the field we were dappled in strawberry juice from head to toe (little one more so). And as soon as we arrived home I had this delicious cake baking in the oven. So perfect for early summer, with baked-in strawberries, it’s a nice change from classic strawberry shortcake.

And so it begins, onward with all of summer’s adventures!