Mother

Today marks 5 years of your passing.

I can still feel the warmth of your nurturing hugs
I can still hear your words of endless wisdom
I can still smell your perfume and the lingering nag champa that was often on your clothing
I can still see the look of your ivory soft skin and peaceful face when you departed,
It's forever etched in my memory

Loving you, and honoring you today.
These are all your photos. And they bring me such happiness.

Artichoke

I often envy my father-in-law when he tells me gardening stories about his beautiful artichoke plants that are completely full and producing. Well, now I can say that we can join his club! This is our first year to have success with growing an artichoke plant because it was one of the only plants that survived our harsh winter freeze back in early February. This baby is huge. Mike protected it well, and now, we're reaping beautiful and fresh artichoke. We enjoyed some tonight dipped in marinade sauce with our Easter dinner. Mmmm!

Birth

Birth [burth]

–noun
1. an act or instance of being born: the day of her birth.



Meet Scarlett. This was her birth day. I felt honored to be asked to capture this momentous occasion for her family.  There is nothing more incredible to me than to photograph moments like this.

Printing up Memorabilia

I finally started the process of getting prints made from my mother and father's slides that I recently inherited. This first one in particular spoke to me. I've stared at it over and over and wondered.

Did my mother take this? Or my father?

What was written on that piece of paper? Was it a to do list that my father was working on? A poem my mother was writing? Did birds often come in and perch on the window? Or is that a ceramic bird?

And who was it that enjoyed Taster's Choice coffee?




For a moment, I thought that was an Ergo on my father's arm. What was that?
Could babywearing have been something he did? I can't imagine the Ergo being around in 1974.
Perhaps it's a backpack.


This photo makes my heart swell. My beautiful Mama in the background with her pelirroja hair, and my aunt Marjorie with my cousin Jason.


Me

A Morning with an Herbalist and then a Farmer

This past week, we had two adventurous outings. Earlier in the week, we met with a group for a wild plant walk with the fabulous herbalist, Ginger Webb of Texas Medicinals.  We have some of the most useful herbal remedies right in our own backyard and we saw (and tasted) several of them along our walk down to Bull Creek. I had taken extensive notes on which plants aid in certain ailments in my iPhone to only discover Sophia had erased them when she played with my phone later. *sigh* So, all I have is a photowalk.


Ginger pretends to be like a deer and eat one of their favorite plants, which is only the tip.


Very tasty!

 




A safe alternative if one doesn't have TP in the wildnerness. ;)






Sucking on the ends of these to get the nectar out is a super sweet treat.


Frolicking in the creek



Then we finished off our week with a farm day at Amy Kirk's property in Dripping Springs. Nestled on 4 acres, she's utilized the space well. We searched for eggs, visited with a friendly bull calf, Clovis, and dairy cow, Novella, made an earthworm habitat, ate lunch with other homeschoolers, and watched the beehive get prepared for its colony's arrival next week.

Animals, Animals

Once a week, on Mondays, we take a little drive to Ms. Jessica's Ranch for Sophia's horse riding classes. One of the perks of this weekly rendezvous is the animal watching on the property. I have never seen more varieties of chickens, bunnies, ducks, geese, guineas, and goats, in one place. And there is a noisy rooster too, and a small dog that comes and goes. We've yet to be able to get up close and pet any of the chickens, bunnies, or guineas, but the goals never seem to leave us alone.












Over the last few weeks, a few of the older children have been working on digging a reservoir for the ducks to have a pond. When I see moments like this, I see one of the many perks of homeschooling, and love that children are learning through real world experiences--how deep do we need to dig? how do we get water to flow into the reservoir? This is math and science, coupled with some good physical activity.



Sophia is doing really well with her lessons. She's learned how to stop her horse, walk, and is now learning how to turn. Below, she and her good friend Skye, help tack Mr. C. She is the proud owner of official saddle boots too.

[Field Trip] All About Bees!

We took a field trip yesterday for homeschooling families to learn about beekeeping. It was wonderful for the children to learn and see how the bees work together, how bees are responsible for 1/3 of the food we have, what foods they help pollinate, and the sweet story of honey!



Pointing out the Queen bee (she is marked with a red dot)










The children got to roll their own wax candles at the end.




Picnic at the park. A few bees even buzzed by to see if we had anything to offer and nobody freaked out. Imagine that!


Queen Bee and her Worker Bees by Sophia


Some fun new vocabulary the children learned:

beekeeper
beeswax
clover
colony
drone
flower
hexagon
hive
honey
insect
nectar
pollen
pollination
queen
worker