This week has been one of those ordinary but brimful weeks that spring is made of.
The snow finally melted, and our winter doldrums with is. We find ourselves eager to make, explore, and do – day in, day out.
Because: spring!
I threw together my version of the Blood Moon Tonic found in the current issue of Taproot Magazine (HEAL), (more about that here) and Sage whipped up a big, beautiful batch of organic marmalade, then taught himself to water bath can, all while baking a loaf of Einkorn bread, impressing me and everyone else.
The marmalade is delicious and being consumed far too quickly for my sugar-loathing sensibilities. (The bread was gone within hours.)
Because this spring was so hard-earned, I’m feeling desperate to make medicine. Each day you can find me hovering around my nettle patch and cheering their growth onward (Totoro style).
In the meantime, I’m making lots of herbal shrubs and vinegars and syrups to get me by until the spring herbs take off.
Inside? there’s lots happening there, as well. Though we moved into our little house some five-plus years ago, we never got around to painting or reworking most of the house. Our bedrooms, for example, have never been painted.
The trouble is, our house is small. There isn’t adequate space to move anyone out of a room without them having to sleep in the yard, so we have long felt stuck as to how to make space in order to paint. We’ve painted the kitchen, bathrooms, and hall, yes. But bedrooms? We just didn’t know how to make that work.
Finally this spring Pete and I came up with an overly complicated plan that we think will work, and the kids temporarily gave up their bedrooms to make it happen. Lots of belongings have been moved to the barn and the basement, and yesterday it was time to get started.
First up? Wallpaper removal! At long last. Next we’ll learn to patch, skim coat, and put of a much needed fresh coat of pain. Commence our spring homeschooling life-skills unit!
And because that wasn’t quite enough to round out our week or our day, Lupine begged for a hike to the top of the ridge yesterday. How could I resist? After stripping wallpaper for a couple of hours it felt like the best possible end to our day.
Or was it the end?
Because I don’t think I mentioned the rabbits. Oh, the rabbits.
You see, Lupine heard a kerfuffle in the barnyard as I was putting a late (and somewhat lame) dinner on the table after that overfull day. Pete went to help her to see what was going on, and they found that our barn cats had pillaged a rabbit nest.
Because of the size and constitution of her heart, this meant that a baby rabbit rescue was undertaken, leading to a hastily eaten (cold) dinner eaten while researching the best way to get these scared babies back to their mama.
Which we did, thank goodness. Just before collapsing, gratefully, into bed.