What a glorious day

It's a rare no-commitments day where we get to stay home and catch up on things and not have to head to town at all. We spent most of the morning weeding (me and the boys) and landscaping around the new shed (dh and the boys). Took a few pics too.

Our wild blackberries are blooming like crazy. We hope to have a bumper crop this year that we can freeze and eat all winter. Last year's spring was so dry we hardly got any. I weeded around the water garden where it's been a tad over-grown. Dh would like to make the area more of an herb garden than it is now, although, I have to say, the chives, sage, and cilantro have been trying to establish themselves as the Axis of Herbals, crowding out my lavender and Japanese Irises. The pond's needing a good cleaning too, even though that doesn't seem to deter the frogs. After getting all hot and sweaty, the kids took a dip in the water. I believe it was 72 degrees Fahrenheit...brrrrr! Here is our dog suffering from the heat. She'd be lying in the shade somewhere if we weren't outside. She is rather clingy (I believe the Farm Collies people call them "velcro dogs"), and wants to be our shadow as much as she can. We had a lovely picnic lunch, and have to admit that, over all, life is good!

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Thursday Thirteen

The Thirteen Faces of Me

Now before you go thinking I have multiple personality disorder, I am merely referring to the many different roles we all play in our daily lives or the different faces we present to the world. So here are some of mine:

1) The Canadian me (the flag's a bit distorted). The U.S. doesn't recognize dual citizenship, but in Canada, I'm still considered a Canajun! The photo is of the dh and the boys riding bikes in Steveston, BC.2) The writer me. I didn't manage to finish Nanowrimo last year, but I'm still getting reprint checks (or cheques, for the Canadians) for previously published works, which is even better.3) This could be the artist me or the nature-lover me. This is my charcoal drawing of an anole.4) The mom me; this is a sketch of one of my boys from several years back.5) The cat-lover me. This is a drawing of an old cat of mine, Willow.6) The birder me. It's a colored pencil piece of a common yellow-throat.7) The homesteader-wanna-be me. No homestead is complete without chickens. These girls were our very first batch.8) The chicken-herder me. Ok, so I love chickens so much that I had to put 2 photos of them here. ;) This is CH (or Chicken Hawk for those of you who are Merry Melodies or Foghorn Leghorn fans). He has since gone to live with friends of ours because we already had a rooster.9) The baker me. A friend told me I should open a "on a whim" bakery, making goods to sell when I feel like it.10) The knitter/crafter me. I just love to create things. But more than that, I hate not having something to do with my hands whenever I have to sit and watch a movie or TV show. This was one of the first pairs of socks I ever made. Ds#2 was wearing it.11) The sci-fi me. I was raised on Star Trek: The Original Series, and enjoy most sci-fi, with some of my favorites being Asimov's books, Alien (the movie), and Firefly (the best Joss Whedon creation ever, and that's saying a lot!).And completely for fun...
12) The LEGO me:
and, 13) The Meez.com me:
Join the Thursday Thirteen fun! Visit other Thursday Thirteeners at:
http://thursdaythirteen.com/2008/05/28/thursday-thirteen-147th-edition/ and let the TTers know you're participating by leaving the link to your Thirteen in your comment.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Thank you, Anne-Marie!!

Our satellite internet connection, WildBlue, was an absolute pain and a half the past couple of days. It was more off than on, and I could barely get my emails read (some were important too). That means I couldn't visit blogs like I normally like to do so there will be a lot of catching up to do today.

Anyway, I just want to say to huge thank-you!! to Anne-Marie! I placed an order from Bramble Berry, and had mentioned on Anne-Marie's blog that I wanted to make sushi soaps with one of the pans I had bought. Well, guess what she included in my order which came yesterday? BB's Wasabi fragrance oil! How cool is that??!! What a great way to start the week!

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

And speaking of indie products (from a few days ago)

I just got around to using Soapalaya Soaps' Gentle Facial Cleanser, which I had bought a couple of months back, and my goodness, do I ever love it! The first night I used it, I thought the skin on my face felt extra smooth and soft. Since I had had a bit too much pom-tini than I normally do, I thought I could have imagined it. But, when I used it the next morning and again in the evening, I really could tell that my skin was noticeably softer after each use. I'm astounded because while I usually good (often organic) products on my face, this really was the first time I'd actually felt a difference in my skin.

On the doggie front (Marlon Brando isn't in this...haha...oh wait, is anyone else reading this old enough to remember the reference of my silly pun joke? You know, Eva Marie Saint, a very slim and good looking Brando?), I used the Portland Pointer Dog Shampoo from Twin Birch Bath and Body on the dog a couple of days ago, and oooooh: the scent was mah-velous and it lathered very well. Gali actually smelled extremely good for a change...and it lasted a whopping 6 hours before she rolled in chicken poop again. Farm dogs *sigh*. Luckily, her fur remains really soft after the shampooing. :)
Thanks for a kewl product, Heather; can't wait to try the other dog shampoos in the four-pack!

And last, but not least, you remember the Lilac Romance soaps the boys made? I kept one of them for myself (the one with the Chinese character because the filling of lines didn't turn out quite right), and have been enjoying it thoroughly. Bramble Berry sells such high quality things. The pink hasn't oozed out of the soap at all (unlike this other homemade mp soap we bought locally recently where the yellow kept leaching out of the soap), and the scent has remained strong, but not in that over-powering way, and true. It pays to use high quality ingredients in one's products.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Thursday Thirteen

You know how there's been a whole spate of books on X number of places one needs to visit before you die, or turn 12, or turn 50, etc, these days? Even Smithsonian Magazine had a feature on that not too long ago. Now, I don't usually have lemming type tendencies, but since I'm also too brain-dead to think of anything more clever, I'm going to go with the theme.

Below are 13 places I've either been to and loved or really want to go (if someone invents the teleporter and I don't have to fly there). I apologize in advance for quality of the photos. I'd taken all of the original photos from at least 16 years ago (some are from 22 years ago), and since my scanner is not attached to this computer (don't ask; long sordid story), I had to take photos of the original photos, and, well, the quality kinda sucks. :}

1) The Acropolis. Summer of '86, baby! If I were Shirley MacLaine, I'd say that I must have been a Greek maiden in a previous life. I don't believe in previous lives, but I can't explain the affinity I feel for that place and Greece in general.2) The Sphinx. Wanna go, wanna go, wanna go. I always think of the Asterix & Obelix cartoon where Obelix knocks the nose off the Sphinx when he was climbing the face of it.

3) The Great Wall of China. Had to go see my heritage, after all.4) The Taj Mahal. How romantic is that? I'm not a romantic, but I do appreciate cool architecture, especially cool architecture involving a pool! Maybe some day, I'll get to India.

5) The Badlands. Not really sure why I wanted to go there; maybe it's the name that appeals to my inner rebel? It was as spectacular as I thought it would be.

6) Bryce Canyon. Mars on Earth. That's really the best description I have of it. I'd go again in a heartbeat. We were there in '92, and almost took the kids in '05, but the car decided to have a hissy fit on our way home from Vancouver. Next cross-country drive, maybe. We have to take the kids because it's the namesake of ds#1. (There's dh in the corner...16 years younger than he is now.)

7) Pompeii. Simply amazing. I could almost feel the dead people's pain while standing in the eerie excavated town.
8) The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Dream on, honey.

9) Leonardo da Vinci's studio...while he was still alive, and me fully-clothed of course. Another dream.

10) Attu Island, Alaska. It's all about the birds. Try reading The Big Year by Mark Obmascik

11) Machu Pichu. Archeology in the New World. What more can I say?

12) Petra. The Smithsonian magazine had a good article on this stone city. It's a good mystery.

13) The Andromeda Galaxy. I had a dream when in my youth of becoming an astronaut and taking on a one way mission to our sister galaxy. Alas, I'm too short and not good enough in math or physics to become an astronaut.

Join the Thursday Thirteen fun! Visit other Thursday Thirteeners at:
http://thursdaythirteen.com/2008/05/21/thursday-thirteen-146th-edition/
and let the TTers know you're participating by leaving the link to your Thirteen in your comment.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Goodies galore!

This is a sampling of the goodies I bought this month:I couldn't put everything I got in the photo (too crowded, and some of the stuff went home with my sister), but I am so eager to try out wonderful things from Spotted Cow Soaps, Twin Birch Bath and Body, and Product Body. These ladies make terrific things that clean you up, softens your skin, and smell faboo to boot!

Other goodies in my life include the tender and juicy greens from our garden:There's chard and beet greens, choi sum and baby bok choy in the photo. We had them for dinner last night.

And off topic (although not totally since my sister is a good thing in my life too), here's a pic of me and my dear sister from her visit (me on the left):
"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Back to my regularly scheduled programming

I'm so sad; my sister returned home on Saturday. The house feels really empty without her. And who's going to wash our other windows?? ;)

The only bright side is, I will now be catching up on my blog reading. I'll be visiting my blogging friends today!

It was a busy weekend. After taking sis to the airport, we had to do a bit of shopping, then attend a party for a former colleague of dh's.

Sunday, we ran errands for dh's dad and visited with him, stopped by our local health food co-op's "truck-load sale", then went to the Schacht Farm's Open Farm event. They are a lovely young couple who are raising chickens, turkeys, and sheep organically. They have llamas guarding the sheep and chickens. Apparently, dogs never worked well for them as guards, and llamas give them fiber as well as protection. The main road that our road comes out on is still flooded. What are normally corn or soy bean fields (don't get me started on diversification and the mess of the agribiz culture) are currently ponds and lakes that waterfowl have been drawn to. We saw a spotted sandpiper the other day on one of the new "ponds" off this road! The view yesterday, with the puffy cumulus clouds and bright yellow wild mustards, was particularly pretty:
"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Soaps...come and gone

"Lavender Romance - a softly scented, moisturizing soap hand-made with the highest quality soap bases and fragrance oils.  It'll remind you of love and happiness every time you use it!"

 

The kids finished their second soap attempt a couple of weeks ago, creating beautiful Lilac Romance soaps.  These turned out perfect in both fragrance and the feel and latherability (yup, just made up a cool new word to describe soaps...LOL!).

I never got a chance to post them for sale because all of them, in addition to the pretty Honeyed Verbena soaps are sold.  The boys' wonderful aunt bought them for friends and business clients.

Now, we'll need to make more soaps...maybe for Fourth of July!

Shed update

They are pretty much done with the shed, except for delivering some gravel to fill in one side of it, as well as cleaning up some leftover wood and such. Here it is a few days ago,And here it is as of this morning:What a nice present for my 44th birthday - haha!

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Mom's Day, soaps, shed, etc.

A belated Happy Mother's Day to all the moms I know! (Thanks for the M Day wishes, Joanna!) I apologize for my tardiness, but I've not been online as much during my sister's visit since I only get to see her twice a year.

We have, however, been soaping a little bit. Finished off the heart soap embeds, that we will name "Lilac Romance". ;) The boys are excited that their wonderful aunt is buying a bunch of soaps from them. She is their first soap customer. I also tried filling in the lines on another soap with a Chinese character (mold from Bramble Berry, of course!), but I definitely need a lot more practice to make it look good.The shed is coming along nicely. This picture is from some time early last week. They've gotten some siding up since then, but we haven't taken a photo yet.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Good times and more shed

Don't tell me we don't know how to show my sister a good time:

The first full day she was here, I had her wash the dog with me, and then had her help weed the garden. The next day, I took her to my mammogram appointment. Today, she sat through my kids' playdate.

No wonder she comes back, year after year! ;D

The shed's looking more like a shed bit by bit. Here's a photo we took on Sunday - me, my sis, and the dog. There's more progress by today, but will have to post later. Need to do more fun things with my sister, like wash dishes. Haha!
"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Guess who's coming to dinner?

Nope. Although I'd never say no to Sidney Poitier coming over for dinner! :)

It's my sister! And she's staying for 2 weeks. I'm so excited! She'll be arriving this evening. Busy day ahead though with dh having to attend graduation (one of his grad students is finishing up), and the boys having a piano recital. Those graduation ceremonies are incredibly long and boring, but hopefully, with Will Shortz giving the speech this year, it won't be quite so dreadful for dh.

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Building schtuff

After talking about it for years, we're finally getting a storage shed built up by the house. Dh created the basic design: an open area on the left side for storing firewood and a closed right half for storing bikes, bird seed, and other miscellany. We lucked out and got the guy who built our home 10 years ago to build our shed for us between jobs. Norbert, of Homes From the Wood, builds custom, often log or Lindal style, homes and he's very good at what he does. Here is a photo of it 2 days ago. The crew got a lot more done yesterday (but had to leave early today due to thunderstorms and heavy rains), so I'll post a pic when I get a chance. (That's me in front for scale.)And speaking of building, here's what ds#1 was doing when he was supposed to be working on his Ancient Greece Co-op homework:He set his little Bionicle up to look like it was writing its own name. I keep telling him if only he'd use his brains for good rather than for slacking....

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Thursday Thirteen

I want to do a list of people, dead or alive, that I've always wanted to meet. I don't hero-worship anyone, but I admire a lot of people. No one is perfect; everyone has flaws, but that doesn't make them any less admirable or interesting in various ways.

1) Isaac Asimov – I love all his books, and would have enjoyed being there for one of his famous talks, as he was known for being both witty and brilliant. 2) Hypatia – I want to ask her how it was to be a famous mathematician and philosopher (and head of the Library of Alexandria) back when men dominated the scientific world even more than they do in our times. Ds#1 named one of our chickens after her.
3) Phillis Wheatley – Her incredible life as an eventually freed slave and famous writer is awe-inspiring.4) David Attenborough – I wanna be his groupie; what else can I say?
5) Nickola Tesla – I am thoroughly intrigued (and this is way before David Bowie's very nice portrayal of him in the movie, The Prestige) by a man who opposed Edison and is at least as brilliant as – and by some accounts, even more so than – Edison.6) Marie Curie – Again, a woman scientist in a man's world, yet making it big. I want to talk to her about her research, her personal life, and how she felt when she found out she got cancer from her research.7) Mahatma Gandhi – doesn't everyone wish they could talk to him? I would like to ask him about the years that led up to his activism.
8) Richard Dawkins – Gotta love a man who is immensely logical and intelligent.
9) Hatshepsut – Way before Oprah, Hatshepsut showed us how a woman can be all powerful.10) Richard Feynman – I would have loved to learn quantum physics straight from "the horse's mouth."11) Confuscius - My dad tried hard to teach me and my sister about him, but I can't remember a thing, so I would love to meet him in person and learn.12) Leonardo da Vinci - Man, that dude takes the cake! Artist, inventor...simply amazing!13) George Clooney and Nathan Fillion – well, I'm a bit embarrassed about putting this one down since it seems like such a fluffy item, but what straight woman wouldn’t want to meet a couple of exceptionally handsome men who also seem to be such nice guys? (Of course, they don’t hold a candle to my dh who can cook, garden, and do science like nobody’s business!)Clooney, above, and photos of Fillion can be found at this link.

Ooops, forgot to add this the first time...and, yes, Firefly Mom, I did copy your text...will you forgive me?!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in your comment. It’s easy, and fun!

View other Thursday Thirteeners here:
http://thursdaythirteen.com/2008/04/16/thursday-thirteen-141st-edition/#comments

"To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act." ~ Anatole France (1844 - 1924)