hump day nuggets: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week
Did you know that milk chocolate covered raisins, red wine and a hot, quiet shower can be the most delicious dessert in the universe? Me neither. But it’s true when that’s what you’ve got. Heaven, I tell you.
Kids in bed late and it’s still light out. Birds are chatting outside and neighbors continue to walk by as if it’s just post-work when it’s really 10pm. My feet are filthy and the back door is just always open even though we still don’t have a screened door and, after six years, I’m thinking we won’t ever. So we live with flies, bees, an occasional chicken and muddy dog prints on the floor. Big whoop.
Summer.
Yeah, I know it could still snow and it will most def pour icy rain and all over my garden starts and beg for the thickest sweaters again. But, it’s June. And, in June, things leap for the sun in western Montana. Perennials wake up and stretch their limbs. People start to need things like rhubarb pie, sun-warmed spinach and spicy radish. We remember last year at this time when kids were a year younger, the peas were planted sooner and the beets later.
nuggets.
:: Oh how I love the river running through our town that is most famous for a river running through it.
I am thankful my daughters know rivers, notice high water, swim with beavers.
Every time Margot sees the Clark Fork, she says, mama, you want to swim with me? Yes, baby, I do. Let’s just let the melted snow warm a little bit…
:: And oh how I love spinach and beets and all the stuff that grows from nothing but a dried up kernel and some love.
:: And oh how I love that last Saturday we spent the morning at our friends’ house for a placenta celebration and the the afternoon at another friend’s buddhist ordination. And it was all within biking distance from our home.
:: And oh how I love gardening with my girls. How Margot begs to dig dirt every morning though her sleepy voice and Ruby is happy as a worm in a compost pile to just be outside.
:: And oh how I love having coffee with this every morning:
:: And oh how I love that four new little hen souls are healing our broken hearts. And, cheering our Paige right up. No eggs yet (anyone know how long it might be before she lays again?) but she adores her new coop mates who are nameless. Well, one has a name. Peanut because she is one.
^^^ Margot really wants to name this chicken ’16 Months.’ She kinda insists on it. And I have made her repeat it a number of times to be certain that is indeed what she is saying. And, yes, 16 Months. It just doesn’t seem very henny to me. I want to name her Honey because her comb is honey colored. Honey seems henny.
^^^ Plymouth Barred Rocks (name?)
^^^ The other Rhode Island Red on the left (name?) and Peanut, a fluffy little Silver Wyandotte on the right.
:: And how I love sisterly underdogs, big pink sunglasses and bonnets at a park where we’re the only ones and then an entire school arrives and I’m that mom…the mom who is staring, thinking kids these days. Shorts too short, faces too done up. As I sit there nursing Ruby and answering Margot’s every question. What are those kid doin’ mama? That girl sad? That guy have an owie? They play rough, those tweens.
:: And oh how I love that we walk two blocks to our polling place that is also the elementary school my kids will attend. And the trip there and back takes over an hour because we bump into all of our neighbors and none of them are in a hurry and all of them are so happy and chatty.
:: And oh how I love Margot Bea.
:: And oh how I love Ruby Jane.
:: And oh how I love their love.
The seasons are a continual and unforgiving measurement of time. And oh how I love it all.
Well, goodness, that turned into a sappy post. With all those oh how I loves all over the place. But, sometimes, I’m sappy. Actually, often I am. Especially when the seasons change. When events and feelings, remembered by the weather and clothes worn are only memorialized in thought (and on mama’s blog!).
37 Comments
Let the sappiness ensue! When I hugged my TEENAGE daughter last night I got a whiff of her freshly shampooed hair and it was enough to bring me to sniffle. 🙂
Gotta love the Love, Nici.
Oh, how I love you. Closing my eyes and imagining I’m by the river with you. And, oh how I love your summer food. Placenta celebration? Love. I love people who celebrate life and littles and see monumental moments like birth and burying placentas as completely celebratory events. My kinda people.
xoxo
You are the most beautiful writer. Honestly inspiring!
🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Kara Brown
You are the most beautiful writer. Honestly inspiring!
🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Kara Brown
You are the most beautiful writer. Honestly inspiring!
🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Kara Brown
You are the most beautiful writer. Honestly inspiring!
🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Kara Brown
You are the most beautiful writer. Honestly inspiring!
🙂 Thanks for sharing!
Kara Brown
loved this post! especially the part about leaving the door open and letting the outdoors in! we do that here, too, and i have to tell you … people think i’ve lost it, you know, what a mess it is!! big whoop.
margot’s ‘do is adorable, so big girl looking!!
and ruby’s drooly smile, just gorgeous!!
thanks for sharing …
That whole post warmed me to the bones.
I think “Sappy” would be a good name for one of the hens. What do I win?
xoxoxo Jean
oh how i love this post.
i love that you love.
it makes me want to love more too.
i’m so excited for that kind of coffee.
next year i dropped hours yet again! and quit our daycare. so that i can be at home with my kids. and i’m head over heels excited.
16 months? That’s a GOOD idea!! thanks Nici, once again I am still smiling on a Wednesday morning. My problem is is that I cant decide which picture to use a a screen saver this week. Ruby in the hat is tough to beat. Margot and the chickens…quite nice. Fear of eye poking must be over. The peaceful morning coffee scene is good too. Maybe i will use the one of Margot digging in the dirt. No Rubes in the bonnet. XOXO to all.
Your words are so amazing!! For your sweet chickens I think one of the ladies would be a perfect Molly. 🙂
sappy posts are the best! xo
Hi Nici,
Lovely post as always 🙂 I just wanted to mention that I think you have your chicken breeds switched. The one you called, “Peanut,” looks like the Barred Rock to me – they are black and white stripy with yellow legs and beak – very distinctive stripes. The other black and white one looks like a silver-laced wyandotte to me, which would look more mottled like that. Also, the Rock comb is single, which stands up straight with points along it, while the wyandotte has a rose comb which is wide and roundish, and flat to the head.
Enjoy your new chickens and the fantastic weather you look to be having! It’s still raining here in the PNW, but hopefully summer is right around the corner for us.
~Lisa
Great post..So warm and beautiful!! What an incredible back drop you have!! The mountains are incredible and your girls delish!!! So adorable!!!
Nothing like siblings loving the love!!
Enjoying your blog very much!
So happy to see the rain has lifted!!! Bring on the warm weather!
Did you really post this at 12:31 AM? Goodness, that red wine and those chocolate covered raisins must have been good.
We too have a river running thru our town and live in a walkable, friendly, chicken-legal community. It’s a little bit of paradise…shhh.
Your words and photos are particularly lovely today. Thanks for the boost.
From one sappy mama to another,
XO
Rachel
We had a hen growing up called Esther…love the post, especially the bit about the doggy prints. It’s easy to feel like we’re the only ones who’s house isn’t always “perfect” but when you think about it…if kids and dogs weren’t allowed to bring mud in, then that would mean they weren’t allowed to get muddy, and thats no way to live 🙂
My #3 kid … who just a babe yesterday I swear…will see that river for the first time today and most likely take a job there in the next few weeks. He grew up on the Oregon coast so he knows rivers too. It will be a definite change for me tho… it feels really far away. I think your blog might help me feel closer while he has his grand adventure.
Probably why those of us who love the changing of seasons love them so – the memories that churn to the surface from the clothes we get to wear for the whateverth season and OH the new vegetables we get to eat and OH the new things we get to go do…
I get sappy, too.
Also, I would vote for naming one of your chickens, Pointy. Because I am always afraid I’ll get pecked.
If you name a hen 16 Months, then you should also name one Social Interaction, which is what I named my stuffed bunny when I was 2.
Wow, I’m not the only chicken-geek…I had the same thought about the chicken breeds, but only because the leader of my hen house is a very matronly barred rock named Mildred- she’s my favorite so barred rocks are the only ones I’m usually sure about. Ahem, chicken geek, here.
I also have to comment on the stuffed bunny named ‘social interaction’ because Amelia has started calling her stuffed dog ‘regular bunny’ which is, granted, not a good name for a hen, but cracks me up constantly!
This post makes me miss Missoula in June…don’t know if there is anywhere better…although we’re quite charmed with Dillon so far.
Thank you for sharing!
What about swapping “Sissy” for “16” and running that by Bug? Maybe it’s similar enough that she won’t mind?
The other red looks like a Mabel to me, and the last little lady I keep wanting to call Fiona, for reasons unknown.
Nevermind Fiona for the Plymouth girl. I wanna add my vote to Molly instead.
Molly, Mabel, Sissy, Paige, and Peanut. Sounds like a team to me.
16 Months?! That’s a hoot! Theo is really in to describing things in terms of time…things like “tomorrow at 54 o’clock, we’ll go there and it’ll be 27 inches from 6 years. Okay? Uh, Okay!
Oh my is Ruby growing. The bonnets grab my heartstrings every single time.
loving and missing you guys over there….
Oh how I love a post that resonates with me to my bones! I love that you can slow down to appreciate the moments… I don’t do this enough, and your posts are such a reminder to make the time to feel the love, the changing of the seasons… this season I am in total flux, so much shifting and changing, so many good things to come. Oh, and in my dreams, I live in a town with a river running through it (one of my first loves)… in my real life, I live in a town with scary flooding rivers and lots of destruction… so keep your babes safe! xoxo
Those are some nice looking beets, lady.
And I marvel at how similar (and maybe a little different!) our lives are.
Oh how I love that you love so much! AND OH how I love you!
xoxo, Mom
ps….I still think one of the hens should be named Sweetpea…
pss….sappy is good, you come by it naturally 🙂
psss…..Margot holding Ruby, my new background!
,,,Oh how I love the “Big whoop”,,,summertime beckons for the windows and the doors to be left wide open,,,
,,,it just does’nt get any stinkin cutier then Margot and Ruby,,,Margot’s hair is beautiful,,,and Ruby’s eyes sparkle,,,you’re a mother after my own heart,,,
Big Whoop is another good name…
Well, good to know I was calling my hens by the Wrong breeds! Thanks, ladies. OK so Peanut is actually the Barred Rocks. Got it.
Amy, Mabel is totally sticking with me! I love the name Mabel.
Lashley, Social Interaction has be laughing so hard! I LOVE that story. Thanks for sharing it.
Cathy, Missoula is such a lovely place! You’ll adore visiting your ‘baby’ here!
LOVE those pictures! And the sappy-ness! The portrait on the wall is amazing.
Everyone must have a hen named Matilda. Come on. Waltzing Matilda? Doesn’t it just make you think of chickens? Love the baby bonnet.
i hope you named that chicken “16 months”.
What a heart-warming treat your posting is! A joy to read of you at the Masseys with my dear friend/ neighbour Meg and Ian from Lake Tarawera, New Zealand. Meg and I share a summer garden in their section. We bring loads of compost, seed and plants and we weed and harvest together before our daily swim around the island till the autumn comes and we return to Hamilton one and half hours away from the lake.My daughter and family have just built a chook house and installed 4 hens….my son-in-law has called his chicken “Butter”!! Warmest greetings from New Zealand!
A complete absence of anything to complain about is so refreshing. As are your photographs. The old pickup trucks in the background of many shops are making me miss America, and my beloved Vermont. Thanks for the escape.
Have the hens gotten names yet? I don’t really expect Social Interaction to make the cut, but I’m glad it gave you a laugh!
We’re on the path to hen ownership (just caught my guy surfing Craig’s List for coop supplies while consulting The Urban Homestead). He’s excited for the eggs, I’m excited for the naming. I think we’re going to go for a “queen” theme – Cleo, Esther, and Beatrix are finalists so far. It’s likely we’ll have more names than chickens at this rate.
Discount Breitling has been accomplishment watches back 1884. Originally created for aerodynamics pilots, Bentley Motors are incomparable if it comes to attention time keeping, functionality and superior that can bear acrid altitude and top pressure. As Bentley Motors T apparatus up for its 125th anniversary, a new Navitimer Watches will hit the scenes. The Cosmonaute is a new watch based on an “oldie but goodie”.
The existence of Christian Shoes as a status symbol is evident from the presence of these bag models in the social gatherings and functions involving the high class. Christian Louboutin Pumps is infamous for its high prices but still the shopper base of the product is extraordinarily robust so that the loyal customer will purchase the items of Christian Louboutin Boots even though the prices are terribly high. The class and the quality backed by sturdiness can be raised as an incentive for the costs of the Christian Louboutin Sandals but still the rates are a little too high.
Now, the most important thing to consider before you buy your Coach bags is the purpose for which you are buying it. Night parties and similar occasions do not require you to be practical; Coach Gallery require you to look beautiful and stylish. It is for this reason why you should go to a Coach Hamptons boutique to find the perfect bag suited to your taste if you are planning to carry Coach Legacy while out clubbing or partying.