bellevett

long hot summer.

 

we spent a fair amount of time on the road this summer. 

we visited so much family for extended periods of time.

we backpacked.

we canned 75 pounds of roma tomatoes.

we swam.

we wrote, and wrote some more.

we picked berries.

we visited friends.

we made friends.

we played farkle.

i knitted a few sweaters.

i sewed a few shirts.

we tore out our bathroom.

we built half of a new one.

we i are am forcing ourselves to be ok with unfinished projects.

we read books.

and more books.

and we went to the library on days when the heat was unbearable.

we now have a walking, talking, book reading, song singing, art making, train loving little boy.

summer happened, and now i am ready for fall.

as a matter of fact, i have a few bushels of apples on their way to me right now. fall is almost here.

 

I stopped writing and updating this blog after crosby's 1st birthday, mainly because i was spending so much time on the computer, and i needed a limit.  i officially deleted my facebook account and it turns out that i think that was more of a problem than writing a few sentances here on ye old blog. 

facebook never made me feel good like writing a blog post does. 

writing is good for me.

onward and upward.

 

 

 

tour of the grounds.

daily tour of the grounds begin like this:

wanna join us?

first stop, watering pail.

beets:

kale, still growing strong:

looking up:

looking down:

and we're off:

 

 

Friday was a beautiful sunny day.

by the time crosby and i got home, it was a bit overcast. 

that didn't stop us from our daily tour of the grounds.

crosby has gone from laying on a blanket outside.....

to sitting up attempting to reach the nearest sticks and rocks......

to scooting to get a stick........

to crawling to find the biggest stick and most dirt......

to speed crawling around our house for his daily tour of the grounds.

his daily adventures happen in the cold and the sun and the warm. 

in the beginning, i thought i would be taking crosby for a local hike at least daily.

i have learned that it doesnt matter if it is the top of the mountain or the patches of grass and garden around our house, adventure is adventure.  when your 11 months old, if you're outside, the awesome factor is pretty high.

*************

i was actually kind of getting depressed that we don't seem to be getting a decent winter. 

i am the type of person who enjoys a lazy day on the couch with some knitting and a fire in the woodstove.

but, big news.  i have moved on.

i am tired of waiting, so  i am accepting our non- winter winter, and i am now moving forward.

bring on spring!

and my fresh vegetables.

**************

i have been watching my frozen and canned veggie stash dwindle away slowly. 

i used the last of our frozen blueberries the other day. 

i am ready to start again, and every year, my garden and preserving plans get bigger and bigger.

i am hoping this is leading me up to finding a super awesome and cheap piece of land in the near future.

one can hope. and dream.

pretty sure my sourdough starter would for real be better on some land.  on a farm.  yes indeed.

 

ohhhhh, forgot to mention, i have moved my 365 project pics over here:

http://bellevett.typepad.com/threehundredsixtyfive/

add it to your reader and visit. 

on december 7th.

yesterday it did this:

i began to believe my dreams were finally coming true of an early december snow.

but, alas, it stopped.

inside i was finishing up this:

now i am officially casting on for a few confidential christmas gifts.

also, i finished letting these dry:

 

they are all packed up in a tin, waiting to be dipped into some white chocolate.  which will happen this weekend. if they last that long.

 

Thankful five- day 2: fresh foods.

 

 

when we bought this house 5 years ago, we had big gardening plans.

each year, our garden plots have expanded, adding new ones, enlarging old ones.

each year, we plant more and different and we hope and plan and tend as much as we can.

we have lots of failures.

we have lots of successes.

i am so grateful for the fresh quality food we have been able to grow each year.

 

"inch by inch, row by row, were going to make this garden grow."

 

 

five days of thankfulness links:

day 1

thankful five- number 1: fresh air.

 

 

on days when its sunny, rainy, snowy, windy, cloudy, i can always find a reason to get some fresh air.

i am so thankful for the peaceful solace that the outdoors provides.

i used to be trapped in an idea that you had to GO somewhere else to enjoy the outdoors. 

now i spend an hour minimum on a blanket in the grass outside of my house.

crosby crawls, eats leaves, shakes leaves, bangs them together, and digs into any single dirt pile he can find.

i am thankful that i am able to be energized by something as simple as fresh air.

outside is good. 

outdoor goodness.

exactly 2 months ago, 2 weeks before our first almost frost, we dug up our sweet potatoes and planted our garlic.

on this day, it was unseasonably warm, think 80's. thus, the baby in the onesie.

we thinned our beets, lettuce, and our kale.

yesterday, we spent the day corralling leaves. mixing them into the composter with the last of any fresh grass clippings until next year, and layering them over our garlic.  we gave all of our ridiculously out of control kale and beets a good composting layer and then topped it with leaves. 

i picked a rediculously large amount of kale to eat this week and freeze, and covered our spinach up with compost and leaves, it will come back in the spring.

i thinned our baby carrots with the intent of bringing the thinned carrots in and steaming them for crosby.  they never actually made it that far.  actually.

i made plans to move a random shaded blueberry bush to the front where it will get sun and most likely produce blueberries, but i guess that is a project for the spring- no need to shock the roots now, with the cold moving in.

i also moved my collection of rubber gardening shoes to the basement instead of right outside of our door, which produced a fake protest: "awww, why did you move our rubber shoe collection out of eyesight??" insert sarcasm.

in one month, garlic is sprouting, the cover crop is growing good, the beets are standing tall, the kale is pretty much out of control, all of our carrots are growing straight, and the weather is about 30 degrees cooler.  if i could be a farmer, it would be a cold weather crop farmer, because somehow, i have the magic with cold weather crops.

you may be asking yourself why there are no pictures of yesterday.  well, in one month, we have a baby that crawls. no more sitting him with a bucket of potatoes to let him gnaw on while we slowly finish the garden chores, while casually snapping a few cute photos.

if you read what was accomplished above- maybe read it again in your fastest speed reader voice, and that would have been more of the pace that i kept yesterday.

as the keeper of the crawling baby, we spend a lot of outdoor time doing multiple mouth sweeps to clear various species of leaves and branches and dirt from actually being ingested. 

also, he is now obsessed with crawling after the dogs, and i have visions of the dogs leading him down the road and away from the house to rid themselves of the constant hair pulling and general dog obsession shenanigans.

this all may sound crazy to you, or normal to you, depending on your situation.

but the truth is, no matter what the pace of our outside time, it is always extra enjoyable.  crosby is an outdoor baby.  he would live, sleep, play outside if that was an option.  he can be at his fussiest, and when we leave the inside, no matter the temperature, it calms him.  the outdoors are like a drug for him.  comforting, soothing, and entertaining.

 

 

on top of old smoky, all covered in wool.

that explains our weekend.

 

(above: second 6 hour sweater from more last minute gifts, quick scarf for myself, and infinity scarf)

this past weekend, i pulled off an epic surprise for cody.  we had plans to go camping for the weekend with two friends of ours and their baby.  what he didnt know, is that for months now, i had planned on several more people joining us in the mountains for the weekend for a camping birthday bash complete with chocolate cupcakes with salted caramel icing. 

it was a lazy daisy weekend with lots of cast iron dutch oven cooking (new for his birthday) and delicious micro brews. 

it was a weekend of big fires, short hikes turned long by multiple treacherous creek crossings that claimed the life of a pair of sunglasses, and wool..... lots and lots of wool.  especially for the baby. 

and leaf eating in the sun of course.

 

finally i am in a place in my knitting life where most of my warmest clothes were made by me.  of course, as i have camped for years and years, i have loads of "name brand" warm outdoor gear from all the best outdoor stores.  but there is no warmth like wool warmth that was made yourself. 

heck, even the above shirt that crosby is wearing is an old merino wool icebreakers shirt of mine that i downsized to make into a long sleeve merino shirt for him.  it was the perfect next to skin wool layer for him, along with some merino wool nappy pants. 

i actually took no pictures the entire weekend. all of these pictures were thankfully taken by my good friend carah. 

 

 

the above hat is a new little hat that i made with some leftover spud and chloe outer that i had laying around.  it was the shroom hat pattern and it was free free and free.

oh!  and did i tell you i finally put some buttons on the adorable and awesomely warm levenwick??

i promise myself i will photograph those buttons.  vintage.  glass.  multi colored.  need i say more?

 

what a good weekend with good memories.  and good people.  and good food.  and good beer.  and most importantly good wool.

 

pebbles

a large majority of our recent camping trips have been spent by crosby's side assisting him in his rock explorations. 

read: clearing his mouth of any and all pebbles and leaves.

(he does enjoy a good mouth full of tiny pebbles and sand, that is for sure. he is that age.)

knowing that it was going to be fairly chilly on our nc trip, i cast on henry's pebble vest.  It seemed a quick knit and i knew i was going to be able to finish it on the drive there or at least the first day.  i had also planned on crosby wearing his 6 hour cardigan and his little cotton cardigan that i had knit for him before he was born.  that however turned incredibly laughable when i tried them on him and the looked like 3 quarter length sleeve bolero's.  luckily i had a few fleece jackets in his closet and the almost finished pebble.

 

 

as i neared the end of this little pebble on our first day, and after a long day of cody and i taking turns making sure he didn't ingest an entire tree, we resigned to playing an incredibly intense card game of phase 10 in the tent.

 

the buttons ended up getting sewed on, and he has been wearing it every time i feel a chill in the air, or even just a small breeze, cause i love it that much.  

i might make a few more of these.  so adorable.

ravelry link.

 

the trip formerly known as beeryarnhikingfoodpalooza-part 2

the handknits.

i lived in handknits.  what is nicer than going on a camping trip and staying warm as a result of your own two hands.  really.

winner of most worn handknit:

the february lady sweater. 

any sweater that looks and fits equally well when pregnant, 5 days postpartum, and a back to normal body deserves an award.  this sweater is a true fav. 

 

2nd place:

 the rhubarb and custard sweater/vest. 

this is by far one of my favorite projects.  it was quick and easy.  super cute on.  snuggly warm. etc. etc.

i sewed up the sides a bit, making it a bit more fitted.  true love.

 

third place:

the unfinished levenwick.

i hastily sewed some buttons on this and threw it in my bag unblocked.  it is so warm and comfy that i knew i needed to bring it.  i just ordered some vintage glass buttons to go on this baby, and i will be extra extra pleased.  i am going to move the buttons over a bit to make it a bit more fitted and help the collar stand up a bit better. 

ravelry links:

february lady

first february lady

rhubarb and custard

levenwick

i obviously trust my handknits.  did you know that i most definitely did not bring a single jacket to wear?  i was supremely warm by way of my merino wool long sleeve undershirts, worn over my dress, and under a wool handknit.

 

 

the trip formerly known as beeryarnhikingfoodpalooza-part 1

this is the trip that is formerly referred to as beeryarnhikingfoodpalooza.

 

actually, all of those activities were achieved on our recent trip to our old digs:

went to favorite local sustainable brewery

went to favorite local yarn shop

went on several hikes

ate some delish food

but there was no palooza.  meaning, a little less of each of the above activities than the former.

we enjoyed a long weekend trip to our former homeland in north carolina.  as usual, we pondered and discussed why we had left there and when we could move back.  we camped in our favorite spot, we hiked along a familiar lake that we hope to spend many a summer on, we bought food at our most favorite local food store, we had familiar conversations- the kind you only have when you are road tripping and away from the constant stimulation that is homelife, and ate our most favorite foods.  we vowed, as always, to spend at least one more day in these spots than we did this year.  a goal that we have achieved each year.

last year, on this same trip, crosby was still in utero- enjoying the splishy splashy life of amniotic fluid and constant bouncing.  this year, he was enjoying the fine life of what can be known as the terrible pain of getting a new tooth.  but this boy stands unshaken if he is outdoors.  he is at his happiest when in nature, and that worked for our benefit during a weekend of teething pain. 

 

 

after a delish brunch on sunday morning, we headed home.  armed with a little r and r, some local organic brews, a few new skeins of yarn, and a few new handknits.

there is something about have a "spot". the place that you go from year to year, month to month, or season to season.  there is something magical about sitting in the same spot, discussing the past and the future of this exact spot.  memories that come back from being in an exact location that you were one year or season ago- memories that do not need a picture or written down words even to jar those memories back to life.