Author: Anna
Quiet Please and Thank You
I feel gratitude each time I turn down my gravel driveway. I’m grateful to be home. I’m grateful that my home is a woodland, and I am grateful for the “Quiet Thank You” sign that reminds me to be silent. If guests are staying at …
Blue Birdhouse
My neighbor’s husband made this birdhouse, which my neighbor gifted to me awhile back. In fact, a nest of baby birds hatched within its walls last summer. I finally got around to painting it this past week, and here it hangs – on the patio …
Cultivating Log Grown Shiitake Mushrooms
When the mushroom spawn arrived, our patio became an inoculation station. Fortunately, sunshine also made its glorious appearance – lighting and warming our tasks. We were working with shiitake spawn from various strains and logs from red oak, white oak, and sugar maple, which Pat …
Welcoming Spring!
This excerpt from Dan Deacon’s song, “When I Was Done Dying”, captures my feelings about Spring which dawns today in the northern hemisphere. This season smells like a fresh new playground ball mixed with ice melt. It feels like sticky, squishy mud, and it looks …
First Steps in Mushroom Cultivation!
This month, Patrick has been harvesting oak and maple logs for shiitake mushroom inoculation! For now, he is stacking them (about 100 logs) in the shade of these yew trees. At the end of the month, we will be drilling holes in them, stuffing the …
Maple Syrup Season!
A few weeks ago, on our way to Milwaukee, I noticed maples being tapped in someone’s backyard. I smiled. Temperatures in Northern Illinois must have reached above freezing during the day and below freezing at night. This sap seeking process is a seasonal ritual that …
Skunk Cabbage Unsticks Itself
Skunk cabbage is a happy harbinger of Spring. This cabbage patch is popping up in the muddy banks of our creek near the rickety wooden bridge. Skunk cabbage is a good reminder to steadily grow in spite of the cold, clingy mud that threatens to …
Caps For Sale!
The sun will come tomorrow – or if not tomorrow – very soon! When the sun does show itself again, Keep its beautiful rays off of your face while supporting your favorite team – be it team berry, mushroom, snail, or leaf! Which is your …
Donut Ornament!
Oh those donuts! They’re dough delicious! Here’s a hand stitched donut ornament made from upcycled, hand dyed fabrics – including a vintage napkin. This cake donut is apparently frosted in raspberry glaze and adorned with fun sprinkles.
Snowdrops Despite Lack of Snow
I sort of can’t believe that these snowdrops have surfaced. I mean, it’s the usual time that they bloom, but they usually sprout after several feet of snow have melted. At this point in the season, we have forgotten what the ground even looks like, …
Donuts and Coffee
Coffee and Donuts! Coffee and Donuts! Coffee and Donuts, today! That’s my song celebrating this beautiful dunking duo, and here is my artwork. Happy Wednesday!
Donuts So Good You’ll Go Nuts
Happy Fat Tuesday! This is my favorite holiday – for obvious reasons. How do you indulge today? In past years, we made pancakes for dinner or ate chocolate for breakfast. Tonight we are going to make a rich and creamy mac and cheese and homemade …
Hide The Pickle Ornament
A pickled ornament – guaranteed to keep for eternity – to be hidden on your Xmas tree – and found on Xmas morning by the child most motivated to be the first to open a present.
Pickles As Tablescape
A portrait of a table set with a platter of pickles! Pickles make a meal special. They’re a bit extra – a briny bonus.