butterfly magic

We've been in for a bit of a treat this summer with the two caterpillar friends we took in.  The first one (sorry I didn't take a picture of the caterpillar) created this magnificent chrysalis:

I didn't know treasures like this even existed in nature! After a couple of weeks (sorry, not a very rigorous scientific method around here--it's lucky I happened to check the jar on the kitchen windowsill one day and see a butterfly because it probably would have starved to death otherwise)

The butterfly that hatched out of this looked like this:

 The kids were amazed.  Eli didn't even try to smack it--which is his go-to for pretty much all members of the insect class these days.

I think we caught it so newly hatched that it was drying its wings still.  We put it on a tree by our porch so it could safely undergo child supervision and still have a chance at survival.  It flew away in about 30 minutes.

Next up: We caught this spiky fellow at the kids' grandparents' house.  Within a couple of days he dropped off a part of his caterpillar body and made this chrysalis:

Not quite as brilliant as the first one, but not to shabby nonetheless. Fast forward a couple more weeks and Loren discovered that this butterfly had emerged:

I didn't get a very good picture of it, because as soon as the kids took it outside...

it flew!  How amazing.  I could probably do a quick google search and find out what kind of butterflies these were, and also why they drip pink liquid when they hatch, but for now I'm pretty content with the whole not-so-scientific side of butterfly magic.  Thank you butterflies for letting us observe your amazing metamorphosis!

nature tables

The sun has been shining and the weather has been trying to fool us into thinking spring is finally here.  It's not.  Not in early March in Alaska unless the world's weather has just turned on its head for good {can't entirely rule that possibility out at this point}.  The kids have been collecting treasures and Sadie and I have done a couple crafts to celebrate nature in this inbetweener season.

 We painted these birdhouses and decorated them with twigs and moss.  Sadie did the green one and I did the other one. 

Loren found this tiny birdhouse blown down in the woods after a big windstorm a few weeks ago.  We've been admiring its remarkable craftsmanship (even some horse hairs in there).

 This is Eli's nature table.  Sticks and pine cones he's collected and some birch bark that came off the firewood.  A nice yellow backdrop painted by Sadie at preschool reminding us of the spring sunshine.  This nature table gets taken down and reassembled by Eli about 5 times a day, so it is in a constant stage of evolution--kind of like nature. 18-month old kids are miniature zen masters.

I finally got around to staining the shelves I built in November....Yikes!  They are housing the kids treasures and some very wonderful driftwood as well as our Valentines willow, which is growing leaves!  The kids are in total wonderment that you can plant a bare stick in water and in a few weeks it will sprout.  I'm sure there will be all kinds of sprouting experiments to look forward to in the very near future, what with seed-starting season just around the corner.

and speaking of seed starting.  This is Sadie's new self-designated project.  She has been cutting out all the flowers she likes from the seed catalogs {all of a sudden she can do scissors quite proficiently!} and pasting them into this book.  Yesterday she asked me if Marry Poppins could bring some magic water and sprinkle it onto the book to make the flowers grow into a real garden.  I love the three-year-old world of magical realism.  I see an all-pink flower growing plot for Sadie amongst the garden projects this year.  I love that she is a February garden dreamer just like her mama.  But March is not just dreaming time, it's planting and building and scheming time....It feels wonderful to have some purposeful, satisfying work ahead--like we've finally rounded the corner on winter and are heading full-speed ahead to spring! 

August in the Garden: Flowers and Squash

 

August is a good month to stop and smell the flowers.

Zinnia Green Envy, Love Lies Bleeding, Rannuncula, Baby's breath & Nasturtium

If I could give awards for the strangest & coolest looking thing I grew this summer it would have to go to the Bells of Ireland,

Accumulator of most biomass in one growing season goes to Borage, as pictured with Sadie for scale.

The sunroom porch is now officially a flower jungle.

Out front in the fern garden is Astilbe, more pink Rannunculas, Zinnia, Calendula, Nasturtium, and the most riotous hot pink geranium I have ever laid eyes on. 

Begonias, Astilbe & more Begonias...plus enough strawberries to make this an edible landscape for little grazers.

  

 

A wiggle of rannunculas and Papaver somniferum.

 The lovely blue of delphiniums by the front porch.  Pretty even when they are tipping over because you forgot to cage them up...oops.

and out back it's a pumpkin party (top) plus a good bed full of brassicas and some winter squash growing with nasturtiums, rutabega, sweet allysum, and bee balm.

This summer has been ridiculously hot, sunny & gorgeous for Alaska.  I had no expectations of what this gardening adventure would bring, so honestly I feel pleased as punch with what we've come out with so far.  We have enough lettuces and greens to feed an army of rabbits, we have been enjoying broccoli, kale & chard, and will hope to have a few tomatoes and zucchini soon. Sadie constantly grazing on carrots, so even if we don't end up with any big ones, it makes me happy that she is experiencing the marvel of pulling those perfectly delicious little orange baby ones out and munching them as the day goes by.  She is such a wee forager, if she isn't eating carrots you're sure to find her in the raspberry patch. Next year, we are going to get a little more serious about the business of putting food up for the winter.

 It would be amazing if we actually get some squash, or one of our tiny pumpkins grew into something substantial...but hard to say if they will.   There is just a whisper of fall in the air these days.  The fireweed has almost bloomed to the top.  Here and there a golden cottonwood leaf is falling.  How can it be August already?

but August is always my favorite too... So much energy to savor the last and sweetest drops of summer and busily plan for the cool months ahead.

Hard to believe that just this same time last year we were eagerly anticipating the mystery baby:

And now he's nearly one... full of wonder and sweetness, toddling all over the place, saying half-words and starting to look more like a little boy than a baby. 

My oh my, how the seasons do fly.

visitors in the lilacs

Tonight Loren and I though we'd spotted a hummingbird in our lilacs from out the kitchen window.  It was moving like a hummingbird, and had the same rapid wingbeat while it zipped all around...so I grabbed my camera to snap some pictures of our first hummingbird sighting of the summer.  To my surprise, when we looked up close at the pictures it turned out to be a moth.  A quick google search informs us that this is a sphinx month, and strangely, it seems to most resemble the White-Lined Sphinx Moth Hyles lineata.  If true, than it is a rare sighting indeed--they aren't supposed to be this far north. 

for the birds

Sadie has been after me to make a bird feeder for all the chickadees that have been flitting around our porch.  I saw this quick and easy idea for a pine cone bird feeder in a book we have, and we decided to give it a try.  It is a perfectly textural and messy project for a 2-year-old.  All you need is a pine cone, birdseed and some peanut butter.  I didn't have peanut butter so I mixed coconut oil and a little bit of almond butter--I'm sure you could use suet or any other sticky fat that birds would dig.

Directions:

1.) Tie a piece of twine (for hanging) around your pine cone before you slather it with the nut butter. Believe me, it is easier to do this way.
2.) Glop the nut butter all over the pine cone (you may need to taste test it first)
3.) Roll sticky messy pine cone in birdseed
4.) Apply a few lingonberries to make it festive.
5.) Hang in trees and wait for birds to come eat it (or squirrels, OR moose and bears according to Sadie).

Happy Holidays to our backyard friends.

moving in

We met some of our new neighbors yesterday.

 They were so kind to stop by unannounced and do a little impromptu trimming of the raspberry patch.

 Things got a little awkward when they spied the old couch {this belonged to Loren's fam since he was a little kid, it now sits in the garage awaiting a re-upholstery job to begin it's third or fourth life}. 

 I guess they didn't care for our taste in furniture, because they up and left without so much as a goodbye.

 Geeze guys...have some vision.

Well at any rate, we are getting settled in.  Who needs furniture when you have a crackling fire?...and dogs who are generous enough to share a corner of their bed.

the summer that came and went

The summer kind of got away from my camera this year.  I guess that happens when you are umpteen months pregnant and chasing a two-year-old, not to mention trying to buy a house in a different town over 500 miles away from the one you live in.  But it really was, all in all, a wonderful, delightful summer--especially the month of August, which we spent mostly together as a family and Sadie got unlimited dad time, much to her delight.  I think we visited every other playground and walking trail in the Anchorage area.  Sadie even told me that the baby needed to come out of my belly so I could start going down the twisty slide with her.

Among our adventures, we happened upon the gem that is the Anchorage Botanical Gardens.  While I'm sure the prime time to go is early summer, it was stately in it's late August colors, and I just happened to have my camera with me. Some of the photos were quite lovely--I thought I'd share them here, so I can sneak back in the white months that are fast approaching for a warm dose of colors.  If you let your mind wander you can almost smell the peppery nasturtiums and hear the hum of the bees.

 And for this girl...I photo-documented the mushrooms.  She was quite enamored with her fungi on this trip.  She can even tell you why you shouldn't eat them.

But they sure are pretty.

hiking with tots

It was a perfect morning for a "hike" at the top of Anvil Mountain with our friends Zoe, Jasper, Elise & Huckleberry.

 I've decided that when you are 7 months pregnant toddlers are the best hiking companions.

Warm & Improving: a tour aboard the USCG Icebreaker Healy

Today we got to go on an unusual outing of sorts.  If you have been following national or state headlines, you might have heard that due to some poor planning and unfortunate happenings, an "emergency" (The emergency is in quotes because there really wasn't one.) fuel delivery was very recently made to our happy little hamlet via a Russian Icebreaker and the Coast Guard's very own vessel the Healy.    But it certainly has been pleasant to have our icy ocean view broken up by the cheery red hulls of these two boats.  The crew of the Healy was awesome enough to host an ongoing open tour to all Nome residents over the last two days.  With the temperatures a balmy 20 today (probably more like -5 with the windchill) we ventured out to check out what an icebreaker is all about.

ice lantern

The arctic has sunsets to take your breath away, but catch them quickly,  because in the blinking of an eye they are gone.  

a straggling beam from tonight's sunset illuminates a sea ice lantern.  

A little light house for the seals.

Magical.

our autumn nature table

Lately I have been inspired by the Waldorf concept of having an ever changing collection of kid-selected, seasonal things grouped together on a table at child's eye level.  We have designated the corner table in the living room to be this table.  Right now we have the tundra terrarium, Sadie's beach rocks (now colored on by crayon) and the assortment of pumpkins Sadie has been picking out on our grocery shopping trips.

That middle pumpkin became a jack-o-lantern a little earlier than planned, since Cash chewed off the stem and part of the top.  Sadie and I had a fun time carving it--she liked digging the seeds out, squishing her hands in the center, feeding the guts from the pumpkin to the chickens, roasting the seeds... I was feeling really proud of our seasonal fun UNTIL I lit the pumpkin up.  Immediately she became terrified of it.  I suspect it will be disappearing from the nature table soon.

Mindful Holidays: for the planet, for the people

The holiday season is upon us.  Walk into any place of commerce (large or small) and you are apt to see a plethora of gaudy, disposable Halloween/ Thanksgiving or even Christmas decorations cluttering up your field of vision.  Does that make me sound humbug?  I'm not...I swear.  I love the holidays, but I hate the commercialized, consumerist frenzy that seems to be what a lot of people celebrate these days.

art rocks

 

It's starting to get cold here (a tiny bit of snow this morning even).  Sadie and I have been trying to make the most of the beach while we still can.  Yesterday we collected some nice, BIG, flat rocks in a bucket.  Today we decided to add our own embellishments.  Not sure if Sadie enjoyed scribbling on the rocks or eating the crayons more.  It was probably a toss.   

Speaking of rocks, Sadie also picked up a tiny one on the way to the library today.  I thought she had dropped it along the way, but as we were in the library browsing for books she managed to sneak that thing into her mouth and choke on it.  I had to perform the Heimlich maneuver right there amongst the library shelves.  It about scared the crap out of me.  I was beginning to think that Sadie had almost grown out of the putting everything in her mouth phase.  Sheesh.

That's one thing about 1-year-olds...they sure keep you guessing.

the littlest berrypicker

 I think today might have been one of Sadie's happiest days ever.

 Finally, she can pick as many plants as she wants...AND there are blueberries (and blackberries) as far as the eye can see.

Its always a little sad when it's time to go home.