Tuesday, June 19, 2012

G's painting

G's contribution the the River's Wish auction this year is to paint an original watercolor based on the item winner's photograph of choice.  She can paint landscapes, still lifes, animal portraits, and classic cars.


I kind of really want to win this myself, though I don't have any particular photo in mind.


Also, the other day this old painting of Mom's turned up behind the record-player in the dining room at Step-Dad's:




Between her and Step-Dad, G's got this art thing in her genes, big time, the lucky girl.


Love, J

Monday, June 18, 2012

Dad's day '12

G painted this watercolor of Step-Dad with all 7 girls for Father's Day:


After gifts, we went on a hike with Luna and Cooper the wonder-dog, who can still go on hikes with just two good legs.  Imagine that.


Then we saw a marmot in someone's front yard and got milkshakes from Ron's on the way home.  There are good pictures of this part of the day, but they're on Step-Dad's camera.


Finally, we hit the in-laws' to hang out, enjoy MIL's mad cooking skillz, and play chase-the-baby for a few hours.


I'm not in any of these pictures, but I was wearing the same exact outfit as MIL.  It was weird.





Here, the Hubs is insisting he can hurdle this huge pile of jagged metal.
But MIL said, "No."




Love, J

Friday, June 15, 2012

Cute little blog

Have you seen Never Seconds?


Probably you have.  It's in the news all over, but I've been neglectful with my web surfing lately, so I just saw it for the first time tonight.


Anyway, it's by this little girl in Scotland who takes pictures of her school lunches and then blogs about it.  She's kind of a big deal now, and with all the attention her blog has gotten, her school's lunch offerings have improved mucho.


I mostly like it because she writes so cute, like this:


"I was so keen to eat I dashed out of my class leaving the camera behind."


Love, J


PS~ Aunt Sue I got your note today - thank you times one hundred!  


And your stationary is beautiful, like something I imagine the queen would use.


(That sounds like I'm making fun of you, but I'm not.  Really.  I want fancy note cards that make me feel like royalty too.)

5 minutes between clouds







We just had one of those "Quick!  It stopped raining!  Get outside now!" moments.  


The garlic (which was coming up SO gorgeous) seems doomed.  It's all shriveled and moldy.


But we found our second beautiful strawberry of the season, and the lavender is long and lovely and perfect for braiding into Ms. G's hair.  So things are all right, really.


Love, J

Thursday, June 14, 2012

It's not like we have 50 or something

I must come clean: we have six rabbits.

And have for some time now, though I've resisted sharing this tidbit because I know it sounds like too many pets to some people.

But it doesn't *feel* like that many, and we so love them all.

Francis and Paul are the two I've neglected to mention on the blog.  These two brothers are totally nuts.

They're silky and gorgeous and curious and sometimes they're so fast that my eyes can't even register their path across the yard.  I suspect they have feral relatives not-too-far back in their lineage, because while they can be friendly, mostly they freak out if you even make eye contact with them across the room.

But of the six, these two are by far the most animated and hilarious to watch.

Paul's brown and Francis is orange
A while back, Paul jumped through the window in the greenhouse.  I found him, scooted him back outside, and shut the window.  Only from the ground, he couldn't tell it was shut, so he kept trying to duplicate his first success, and wound up repeatedly thunking against the window and falling into the dirt, confused.

It was just the best day.

Love, J

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

I'm making pies


Thursday night - I go and type - down at the church - for Father Mike.  It gets me out - and he ain't hard to like - at all.

~ Making Pies, Patty Griffin  


(Not her best song, but not too shabby, and SO stuck in my head as I roll out pie dough.)


I made a couple of the strawberry-rhubarb variety last weekend, and they were pretty fantastic.  So much so that I felt brave enough to go ahead with my plan to donate a "Pie a month for a year" as my item in the River's Wish auction next month.  I'm excited for this plan, because it will:


a)  Raise bunny money


b)  Give me an excuse to bake at least every month


c)  Get me super good at pie-making by the end of the year 


and d)  Make me feel like Ned


(Though I'd still rather dress like Chuck.)


Love, J

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Jumping lambs


I WANT THESE GUYS SO BAD !!!





I'd let them jump all over our furniture, too, you know I would.


Love, J