SUNSHINE AND PRODUCTIVITY

Blue sky…not a cloud in it…slight wind still trying to tether us to winter. But the snow is gone. The green is bursting, and the sky is glorious. It was downright WARM when the breeze would subside. Warm sun on my skin in my tank top….then the breeze, and the fleece goes back on!
We just set up a blanket outside on the deck and got stuff done. Little things but lots of them. We made some pretty fairy jingles out of some wood letter “o”s that I got from the store a while back. I just sanded the edges till smooth so Lo would have a nice comfortable grip and then used a beeswax and lavender finish on them to bring out the grain and protect.

Man that stuff smells good. You can put it on your lips, too!
I ‘ve been thinking of different woodworking projects to try out and came up with a great template for an intarsia puzzle. Actually, my head has been just spinning the last couple of weeks with ideas for so many things. Toy making, kid clothes design, photography, garden art, painting, writing, and so on. My ADD brain just jumps from one thing to the next. Things are only half planned out and then I’m on to the next thing. At some point I come back to everything with the cycle staring again-all the while adding MORE ideas. Wheeeeeeeeeeee!! It can be an all consuming Bacchanalia, relentless and overwhelming. It can also be a fun, exciting, and very satisfying ride if I can just harness the thoughts and the time-keep everything “filed and organized” so that I don’t just shut down and do NOTHING…

Let’s see, the load of branches I hauled up our property from the neighbor a couple doors down.

They slashed a ton of their alder(grows like gangbusters up here-skinny and stunted) and twas mine for the taking! This pile will become:

a trellis for the “entrance” to the play garden, walking sticks, a “spirit stick” or two, and a few sets of tree blocks.

The greenhouse! We have plans for beatification. Huz and I mounted some chimes, I mounted Lo’s birdhouse as well, finally cleaned all the speckles of paint off the greenhouse door, planted some sugar snap peas to grow up the sides

and drew out an idea for the painting we’re going to paint on the door. I envision a stained glass look, colorful and transparent . The kids can go nuts with the trim if they like.

Ugh. As I sit here trying to think of what else I got done today…I can’t. I HATE that. I would have to wear a little pad and pen around my neck like a mute to document everything. Oh! I painted my toenails To Dive For Pink and had time to blog.

Then there’s Lo. Playin’ and doin’ life during all my inner mayhem. Here she is cuddling in the sun with her rock “baby”, Annie,-inspired by the story, Elizabetti’s Doll.

And later, her set up of little dolls feasting.

Off to the Huz with me. We need our “adult time” at the end of the day. Helps to turn down the volume in my brain.
Nighty night.

SIGNS OF LIFE!!!

This started as a comment on another blog but I’m going to expand on it here. Cuz I’ve been sick all week and I feel laaaazy.

I don’t want to jinx anything by speaking of it….but spring is finally- tentatively- peeking through the doorway. With our last 2 surprise snowstorms and ongoing ominous weather, she’s arrived late. I have a feeling those buds that usually are so slow and deliberate in unfolding are just going to explode into green all at once to make up for lost time! It would be a very un-Alaskan spring! More of a taste of springs past- my childhood back east in New Jersey.

As Lo and I dinked around the yard yesterday I was elated to see tiny little signs of life. Little pink pearlescent balls of rhubarb and rosewood, the green tips of iris leaves just poking out from last fall’s decaying flora. A couple lazy bumble bees were buzzing around. That familiar rich smell of warming earth was carried on the breeze as we took stock of our “playgarden” almost completely emerged from the snow. We had a little visitor on our deck-a little baby mouse too young yet to have much fear or to be considered pesky. It scurried here and there nibbling on discarded birdseed while we watched.

So cute! The snowshoe hares have been venturing out looking for food as well. Their snow white fur is almost all brown now.

I’m just itching to till the soil of our little plot next to the house where we grow purple potatoes, sugar snap peas, and carrots. The visqueen covering our greenhouse was destroyed by wind and snowpack so we’re going to put up the hard plastic stuff when Huz gets back. I can’t wait to get our tomato and sunflower starts transplanted and start some other goodies in the greenhouse. I think I’ll enlist the kids in coming up with ideas to make our greenhouse more attractive!

We don’t have a “yard” per se. No green grass to mow or fertilize. What we do have is alpine tundra. Our property is shaped like a pie wedge. It contains conifers, alder, willow and aspen-fun to make a “fort” and hide under but too stunted to climb. We have a nice variety of wildflowers that bloom all through summer: and of course the beautiful fireweed that blooms a brilliant magenta towards the end of the season .

It’s leaves then turn from yellow to orange to red and maroon-just amazing to see our valley and mountainsides covered in those fiery colors. Sometimes we’ll get a dusting of snow over it and the juxtaposition is breathtaking.

In the winter our yard is a wonderland.

We stomp out a labyrinth of trails from one cluster of spruce to the next. And, since we are on a sloping mountainside, we have plenty of places to make slides for sledding. The longest being from our playgarden toward the top of the property, down along side our house, onto the driveway, into the road and if we’re lucky, our sled will make the left turn onto the next road and then a right onto the one after that! A bitchin’ ride.

Yeah. That would be a penguin costume. I have a weird family.

But enough of winter! Onward with Spring!