sun and shine

My great friend Annie and I took our chitlins down to Florida for a last minute girl get-away. We're quite fortunate to have such superbly awesome neighbors and friends. Our five-year-olds have grown up together and are 'best' friends, but can egg one-another on like antagonistic little sisters. Nothing a beach can't cure!

Some highlights from our sunny trip: the ringling circus museum model , the mote aquarium and the ski-a-rees.

I always dread returning home from holiday or any sort of get-away , but this time was different. my partner surprised me with freshly painted rooms, home repair and mopped floors which makes coming back to real-life quite A-OK!

winter recap

We've been buried again.
74.9 inches of snow this winter = a little crazy & slightly beautiful. I surrender.

it's friday

and nearly 32°F!

december!

We've had a family-filled and snowy December. Passing time making and knitting, with interludes of cocktails and shoveling.

Hoping you all are having a gleeful holiday too!

fall miscellany

we've been quite busy here with parents visiting, school school and more school, flickring, gardening and some fall fieldtrips!

so here are some pretty shoddy photos for y'all!

plaster circus toys from the state fair museum
should have bought circus game creatures from hunt & gather
lived in backyard from above
small things gathered before vacuuming
+
a friendly restaurant in nyc.

summer beasties!

I've got a backlog of summerfun and new findings that I must share—my three week holiday followed by school prep has left me short of time. Whhohoot, I'm back!

1 kiddo under bucket. 2 freaky garden fruits. 3 huge spider living on our window.
4 cool monkeylion found at mn state fair. 5. sidewalk antics.

wales

the last portion of our summer has been travel-filled! we spent the later half of july and beg. of august in midwales visiting tim's family and their many pets (they are down to one indoor bunny named Wyn, tortoise Olga and Matty the horse). I'm still fascinated that tim grew up with an owl residing in the livingroom and a kestrel in the kitchen.

Anyhow our tripped was filled with hiking in low-drifting clouds, wine-filled evenings, rainy beach days, getting lost in Snowdonia National Park and catching up with cousins that aren't really kids anymore. the holiday was looooong overdue as it'd been three years since our last visit.

NOW, no more summer lolligagging > school madness begins on Monday!

magnificent new fence from ro/lu

my noonhour excursion

crazy golden night sky

and my favorite pool.

localtrip 2 and 3: camping!

We tried out two state parks in one week—both were new to me and much closer than the north shore.

The first was Afton State Park, where we hiked in a couple miles to our camping site. We lugged in a ridiculous amount of stuff for just one night and were completely secluded from other humans which was quite magical. We sawed our own wood, were harassed by raccoons, serenaded all night long by wild turkeys, whip-poor-wills, and woodpeckers——don't know if a full moon means active animals??? next morning we hiked to our own private beach on the St. Croix river for some good swimming.

The second trip was e a s y camping (don't know if camping is even the right word). We drove up north——the moment before you reach Superior) to Jay Cooke State Park situated on the big and broad St. Louis river. There we stayed in an amazing log cabin which was fairly new and well crafted. I had a bit of cabin envy as there was a really great one (Slate cabin) which butted up against a huge rock wall and was a bit more private. Next day, we drove to Duluth, swam in the mighty Lake and ate at one of our favorite restaurants called the New Scenic Cafe. Yum, the tempeh reuben is crazy good.

Lucky us, no mosquitoes on both ventures!

spring break

The ice has officially melted off our nearby lake and all surfaces in our house are quite productive. I've got the next week off!