A furry friend visits us - #6 MaryJanes Blog-a-thon

Here is a little furry friend I saw the other morning as I went out to my garage. We have seen foxes many other times, mostly in the evenings, but this one was out chasing squirrels at 10 AM!

I stood quietly awhile to see if it looked aggressive, but I think it was just playing around. Or hungry for a good squirrel lunch.....

He (or she).....actually I think it is a she, had three young ones with her last fall. She came to the yard each evening at dusk when we would put out left overs. Her little ones were near, down by the stream, and in the mornings early we could hear their little barks. The barks sound like something between a cat and a puppy - sharp, mewly barks. But cute. Anyway, several years ago, we also had a pair of foxes, and the hubby would come to the yard, check out the food, and curl up beside it until mommy was done eating...then he would finish it. Isn't that sweet?

We do not have any domestic animals anymore. Our last one, a doggie, lived over 18 years, and when he passed, we decided to enlarge the garden, and not have animals..... we want a simple life, but at this point, animals do not seem simple!

Anyway, please check out www.maryjanesfarm.org. She covers all aspects of farm life, and you will really enjoy her website and her new magazine!!! And, she is a fox, too! :)

In the Garden - MaryJanesFarm Blog-a-thon Continues!!

So....a recent theme for the blog-a-thon was "In The Garden".......I have gotten out of order in my posting, I think, but I am trying to keep up!

Our garden this spring is absolutely great!!!!! It is because we have had lots of cool nights and sunny days. Less rain and muggyness means less bugs and rot, in Florida anyway. My sugar snap peas are taller than my hubby and he is 6 feet. I have so many peas I do not know what to do with them! We love to eat them fresh steamed with a little salt and pepper. And we put small ones raw on our salads. I also include them with other veggies in my fish dishes.

But I have never had to "put up" peas before and have no idea if they freeze. Sounds like I need to do some research.

Our pepper plants and our tomato plants are blooming and each have small veggies on them. The cucumbers are flowering. And one little broccoli plant, which still looked so sturdy I could not bear to take it out, still lives among the spring garden plants.

We have 3 small organic gardens in our front, side and back yards. We have about one acre, but there are LOTS of trees in the back, and sunlight is an issue. When I can, I will take a photo of the snap peas....I cannot go out the door without wandering over to them and picking. It is so fun to pick peas....Guess I am just a peapicker!

As always, check out www.maryjanesfarm.org. Talk about luscious gardens!

Getting Crafty

As part of our ongoing salute to MaryJanesFarm, a weekly theme was about crafting. The only photo I have online of something I made is of a sampler I stitched and dedicated to my grandmother.

Going up our staircase, I have hung 14 samplers I have made through the years. I just love the look of old samplers, and I love the stories they tell of family, of a young girl's ability to stitch, and of the memories of living through the generations. The really, really old samplers, like those on display at Williamsburg, Virginia, are astounding in their loveliness. Anyway, I decided I would start a collection of my own. I have made samplers honoring our home, our marriage, our daughter, our mother's and grandmothers.....

I love to sit in the evenings and stitch, looking at the beautiful colors of floss nearby and feeling linen between my fingers.....to think that in the olde days, these samplers were done by 8 and 9 year old girls at schools especially made to teach young women the crafts of keeping a home!

Remember to check out www.maryjanesfarm.org and see the lovely stitched crafts shown in her new magazine! I almost hate to use the word crafts because it is really art. Fine art in my book!

Here is the sampler dedicated to my grandmother:

Jeannie's Kitchen

Here is a photo of my blissful kitchen - at least part of it. You cannot see the floor length window or the stove on the other side of the table. It is little, but I love my kitchen! For 22 years it has fed us!

Bliss in the Kitchen

As part of the MaryJanesFarm blog-a-thon, bliss in the kitchen is the theme for week three. Well, to coin a kitchen phrase, that really opens up a whole can of peas! My bliss in the kitchen began early with memories of my grandmother's kitchens. I can remember every detail of both of them, both farmgirl kitchens for real.

My paternal grandma had a kitchen on a dairy farm in Iowa. It was complete with big windows, blowing curtains, and a table right near the stove and sink. She cooked huge meals for the farm hands and she would always sit down and eat last. As she grew older, she could not do as much, so mom would do the cooking and washing when we were there. Grandma also began to lose some of her memory. The last time my mom stood washing the dishes, grandma walked up to her, put her arm around her and said, "I don't know who sent you to help me, but you are a jewel!" She thought mom was hired help! We laughed at that one and always told mom she was indeed a jewel in the kitchen. Family bliss in that memory, for sure.

My maternal grandma had a pump at the sink in her small town kitchen until the 60's. She also always had a daybed on one wall. Above the daybed was a wall lamp where one could lay and read. Anyone not feeling well could always convalesce there where she could keep a watchful eye on them. Her back door went right out the side of the house into her garden, and she canned constantly it seemed. Wearing an apron of course. Her house had no dining room, so we always ate in the kitchen or in the back yard. It was blissful in that room, too.

My mom's kitchen was big, bright yellow, and in the center was a yellow mother of pearl kitchen table. When my grandma came to live with us, my parents gave their bedroom to her and they slept in our kitchen on a roll away which got tucked away during the day. The sink was so deep, she gave me baths in it as a small child! It was so sunny, and had a huge walnut tree outside the back window. Each morning mom would stand there with her coffee. And on late nights, she and I sat and had hot chocolate and talked at the table.

So for me bliss in the kitchen goes a lot deeper than meals, recipes, or the latest appliances, as important as those things are! In fact, it goes backward in time to kitchen living that provided childhood bliss. The best kind.

Check out http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/! Much more bliss in the kitchen can be found there!

Later, I will tell you stories about my kitchen and my daugher's, too. Hers is yellow and sunny, by the way.

Tie One On - An Apron that is!

Last October, my daughter and I had the fun opportunity to meet MaryJane Butters. She was visiting the Atlanta area, and we had a great day together eating, making rag rugs, chatting, and of course taking photos. Here is one memory of that wonderful day when we all had our aprons on and enjoyed a day of farmgirl friendship! Here you see maryjane's daughter Meg holding Stella, MaryJane, me and Julia, my daughter.

Visit www.maryjanesfarm.org and find out about her!

MaryJanesFarm

In May 2004, I found a great website. MaryJanesFarm. Now I am not one to visit chat rooms, and surf all over the net. But this is the one place I visit and shop at regularly and it's a keeper.

Many who visit this blog will already be very familiar with MaryJane and what she stands for. If you are not, go to http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/. It is a great place. A place where folks who want to live life in a simple way can learn how to grow an organic garden, buy organic food products, and meet with similar minds from all over the world. This is one site that is safe, well moderated, fresh and interesting.

Since I am such a newbie at blogging, I do not know yet how to show a link to her site, so that is why I listed it above.

I have met MaryJane personally. She is a wonderful and genuine person who has found herself at the head of a "farmgirl" movement. She promotes a cause that many of us strive for - good family life, creating things with our hands, making homes and farms and businesses that reap positive results, both in the fields and in the family.

So visit there! You will have fun!