Walking to Preschool

Our new house is about seven blocks away from our old house, but those seven blocks have changed some patterns in our lives. Now we are closer to my daughter's preschool and the elementary school she'll go to next year. They are both a ten minute walk from our house. That was one of the major selling points of this house for us. I really don't want us to spend a lot of time in the car driving daily. My hope is that they will find friends in the neighborhood to ride bikes, play, and walk home from school with when they are a bit older. 

Preschool started up last week and we have been enjoying our morning walks there. After little brother and I say goodbye to big sister we walk over to the community garden to pilfer a few raspberries and enjoy the beauty. I'm thoroughly happy that we moved, but I have missed having a garden this summer. I'm so glad there is such a big, bountiful one nearby.

Fall is in the air, despite the temperatures still being a little hot during the day. There's a chill in the air in the morning and at night that isn't present at the height of summer. I love it! I look forward to this time all year long. Soon enough, usually in time for Halloween, it will be raining, so I'm going to take walks every opportunity I get now. 

The canopy of trees on our street catches me off guard every time I drive down it. It is so quiet here. Our last house was on a busy street. Here I've heard the neighbors singing 'Happy Birthday,' some kids playing, and nightly a group of dogs bark all together for about 20 seconds. 

sunny january

last night, while watching the first half of a movie, i finished the scarf! i would include a photo of it completed but my husband is wearing while out roller skating with our girl. the construction of it called for knitting two halves of the scarf and then using the kitchener stitch to connect them together. of course, i'd never done the regular kitchener stitch, never mind the kitchener stitch for ribbing, but thanks to youtube it all worked out.

my little guy is having a rough transition from two naps to one. he hasn't figured out that he needs to sleep for more than one hour for that one nap. last night i put him to bed an hour and a half earlier than he had been (because he was just wrecked with exhaustion and it gave me time to finish the scarf!) so naturally he woke up extra early today at 5! we got up, made some tea and watched this lovely gardening show, The Edible Garden, that i recently discovered. i don't think it ever aired in the states. youtube has full episodes of it though! i'd love to have a wild, yet controlled garden like hers. it was the perfect motivation to get inspired to start planning my spring and summer garden. snap and shelling peas get sown next month, with greens following closely behind. maybe we'll add a few more hens to our flock too.

this is the first day of a three day weekend for us. swim class, hiking, cooking, home brewing, knitting and i don't know what else is planned. time for me to get the stew in the crock pot for tonight. happy saturday everyone!

garden update

i took this photo almost a month ago. (apologies for the iphone quality) 

i can't believe how much it has grown! clearly the garden has enjoyed all of our rainy days more than we have...

the first blossoms on our purple snap beans!

i love those purple vines.

the purple snap peas are still going, although i think they're coming to an end soon. i'm hoping to get some raspberry canes from a friend to put in their place.

the beets are about the size of golf balls. i guess i need to compile my pickling recipes soon...

guard cat.