Our Weekend

A slow, simple weekend filled with family, good food, nature connection, knitting, reading, writing and lots of laughter.

How was your weekend?

Joining Amanda

{This Moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. Inspired by Soulemama.

Visiting the Canadian Canoe Museum

"The Canadian Canoe Museum is a unique national heritage centre that explores the canoe’s enduring significance to the peoples of Canada, through an exceptional collection of canoes, kayaks and paddled watercraft. We’re an engaging, family-friendly museum with more than 100 canoes and kayaks on display. Visitors will enjoy interactive, hands-on galleries, a scavenger hunt, model canoe building and puppet theatre for children. Through inclusive, memorable and engaging exhibits and programs we share the art, culture, heritage and spirit of paddled watercraft with our communities.

Founded on a collection of the late Professor Kirk Wipper, and established in Peterborough, Ontario, in 1997, the museum’s holdings now number more than 600 canoes, kayaks and paddled watercraft. Together they span the country from coast to coast to coast and represent many of the major watercraft traditions of Canada.

The museum’s artifacts range from the great dugouts of the First Nations of the Pacific Northwest to the singular bark canoes of the Beothuk of Newfoundland; from the skin-on-frame kayaks of northern peoples from Baffin Island in the east to the Mackenzie River Delta in the northwest to the all-wood and canvas-covered craft manufactured by companies with names like Herald, Peterborough, Chestnut, Lakefield and Canadian. Over the years paddled watercraft from as far away as Paraguay and the Amazon have helped the Museum expand its reach and scope to include International examples."

We had an awesome visit to the Canadian Canoe Museum yesterday, so much to see and do. Reece enjoyed "fishing", building canoe puzzles, playing with mini canoes and making paper canoes. As a family we had a blast with the scavenger hunt and visiting all the exhibits. I personally loved the nature poem table; a table filled with magnetic words and magnetic boards to create poems on. I could have sat there all day with those words.  

Next up....taking my little man in his first canoe on the waters of Lake Ontario. Can't wait!

Around the Garden

Do you see those empty beds in the first photo? Yup, they have been completely harvested. One has actually been empty for a while, that was the garlic bed. The other one we have been slowly harvesting the beets from and getting them put up for the winter ahead. The last batch came out of the ground on the weekend along with the onions that were planted in there too.

The bed has been worked over, compost and manure added and will be seeded tomorrow with kale, Swiss chard, arugula, mesclun mix and beets. If all goes well we will have a lovely fall harvest.

We have been lucky this year in that the bugs have not been too bad, but after a few busy days away from the garden some of the squash and zucchini got hit with powdery mildew. We have been treating it naturally, but I think I can safely say most of the squash is gone. There are four plants that seem to have fought through so we are keeping a close eye on them and hoping we can get a few squashes from them. The zucchini was caught in time and didn't suffer too much damage. And truth be told we have harvested so much zucchini already this summer, I wouldn't have been too upset if it had been struck. 

Other than that the garden is doing great. The strawberry plants are still giving us lovely juicy berries. We planted some alpine strawberries this year and they are super sweet, almost like a dehydrated strawberry. Different, but good. The tomatoes are slowly ripening and cucumbers, green beans, zucchini, kale and Swiss chard are on our dinner plates regularly. I have been patiently waiting for the potato greens to die back and couldn't wait any longer, I dug around on Sunday to take a look and harvested our first potatoes. We promptly ate them for dinner. This was our first year using the no dig method for growing potatoes and it seems to have worked very well. Definitely will do it again next year.

The herb garden is growing well and I have been harvesting herbs daily for both cooking and infusing. Comfrey, yarrow and lavender are being infused on my kitchen windowsill right now and calendula flowers are harvested as they bloom and drying. As soon as I have enough they too will be infused in oil and later made into healing salves.

It has been a great year in the garden, and I am feeling so very grateful for the food it is providing for us.

How are things around your garden?

Wildflowers and Water

An afternoon in the woods with my little man searching for wildflowers, looking them up in our wildflower guide, taking photos and then heading for the creek to dip our feet and cool off.

It's a good way to spend a few hours.

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I was guest posting over at So Fawned yesterday, sharing a little about our decision to homeschool.

His Own Way

Last spring Reece was gifted a bicycle from my parents. He was excited to move up from his tricycle to a "big boy" bike, training wheels and all. Shortly after receiving it he was out riding with my dad and had a little fall, not a bad one, but enough to shake his confidence. The rest of the summer was spent on his scooter with a little bit of time here and there on his tricycle. I would ask occasionally if he wanted to ride his "red" bike, the answer was always, "not today."

This spring, once the snow had cleared, Reece was back on his scooter and also spending time on his tricycle. Again, I asked occasionally if he wanted to ride his red bike, but I was still met with "not today."

Throughout the summer the scooter has seen the most use and he as moved up from a three wheeled scooter to a two wheeled scooter. He has been happy flying up and down our walkway or the bike path on his scooter. Then last week he switched focus, he wanted to ride the red bike. He has been riding it up and down the walkway, on the bike path and on our quiet country roads.

Friday night Justin brought out his bike after dinner and the two of them rode up the road together while I walked behind with the dog. Upon arriving home I heard a little voice say, "can we take the extra wheels off?" I was already making my way into the house and continued to do so, not wanting to put too much pressure on him. Inside I could hear the chatter as Justin took the training wheels off. Then the call "don't let go". I watched quietly from a window as pure joy swept across his face.

I waited patiently for him to call, and finally after thirty minutes he came running inside asking me to come and watch.

There are no words to describe this moment. His pride shining through. His smile filling his face. I stood watching, in silence, wiping away a few tears and then ran over and gave him a high five. He was beaming, and so was I.

This little man of mine is growing up. I watch as each day he wakes up a little more confident and independent than the day before. He is testing himself, trying out new things and succeeding. Succeeding in his own way and in his own time, no pressure from me, or Justin. Instead we sit back and watch his journey unfold, walking with him, holding his hand when he wants us to and letting go when he wants to move ahead on his own.

Reece is carving out his own path in this world and I am so very happy and grateful to be along for the ride.

{This Moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. Inspired by Soulemama.

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I am sharing a little piece over at Anchor and Plume Press today, stop by and say hi.