This and That around the House

Dear Friends,

A happy weekend to you! We hope that you are finding something to love today, and sharing that love with your dear ones.

We are excited to be almost finished illustrating our first "real" book, and to have acquired a nice new artist's clipboard to keep track of our work!

We are also excited that our letter we submitted to Victoria Magazine was published in the current issue; it still seems unreal to see our name in print!

We've been enjoying the wild blackberries that are ripening in our backyard, as well as the mulberries near my in-laws' house. We just learned that mulberry leaves are beneficial for high blood sugar, so we've harvested lots of them to dry. There is always something new to learn about this beautiful world that we live in, isn't there? There are surprises in the commonest things.

We'll leave you with a bit of cuteness we encountered the other day. Evangeline and Frankie were enjoying a nibble of something yummy and didn't know they were being photographed. It's brother and sisterhood at its finest! :)

Love,

Marqueta

Happy Fairy Day!

 

 Dear Friends,

This is our Midsummer's Day post, a few days late, since Blogger would not allow me to post photos that day. :) I was invited to participate in Fairy Day, which is today, and drew the above fairy for the occasion. I drew her in graphite, then set the graphite with hairspray. I then colored her in with colored pencil and outlined with pen and ink. Unfortunately, I drew her on cheap sketchbook paper, so when I scanned her all the wrinkles and creases showed. Audrey came along and fixed her up for me in PhotoShop, so she's all pristine for you. :)

 

 We had a lovely Midsummer's Day, setting out feasts for our fey friends. We think we saw a few fairies around on that day, or maybe just fairies' friends?

 Perhaps this lady knows the answer!

We read Mabel on Midsummer Day by Mary Howitt, which is our yearly tradition. We typed it out in full for you to enjoy on this post~

Have you seen any fairies lately?

Love,

Marqueta

For Little Things

Last night I looked across the hills
And through an arch of darkling pine
Low-swung against a limpid west
I saw a young moon shine.

And as I gazed there blew a wind,
Loosed where the sylvan shadows stir,
Bringing delight to soul and sense
The breath of dying fir. 

This morn I saw a dancing host
Of poppies in a garden way,
And straight my heart was mirth-possessed
And I was glad as they.

I heard a song across the sea
As sweet and faint as echoes are,
And glimpsed a poignant happiness
No care of earth might mar.

Dear God, our life is beautiful
In every splendid gift it brings,
But most I thank Thee humbly for
The joy of little things.

~Lucy Maud Montgomery

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. . . .

 (. . .Uninvited, of course!)

Anything good on the menu?"

Love,

Marqueta

Happy Birthday Dear Audrey

Dear Friends,

Thank you for coming by today; let us pour you a nice cool  glass of raspberry/mint tea! We have had two more days of cooler weather (whew!), and are extremely grateful for them. Each day has been a real treasure, complete with cooling rain showers.





We celebrated our dear Audrey's 12th birthday on Saturday, and fortunately Mr. Graham had the day off to be here for the party. Grandma and Grandpa Graham came, too, as we commemorated another year of life of our second-born child.

Happy birthday, Audrey~ May you always be blessed!

Love,




Marqueta

Teeny Toads, Terrific Turtles, and Spiders Great and Small

 

 Dear Friends,


We are happy to report that the weather has cooled a bit, and that we even had a bit of rain today. We shall be dreaming of screened-in porches and vine-covered pergolas for the next few months!

The other day we were delighted to discover a family of "wee wittle" toads that had "hatched out" in our yard. We made them a little pond out of an old casserole pan, to cool off on a hot day (when they're not hiding under the house).

We were even MORE delighted yesterday to discover our very first Three-toed Box Turtle, in the neighbor's yard~

 

The resident president of the Nature Bature Club was especially delighted!  

We planned on keeping the turtle in a box overnight and releasing him in a wilderness preserve, but he was so unhappy being captive we released him in the woods behind our house, instead. We hope he knows enough to stay out of the busy road nearby!

When Mr. Graham went to start the lawn mower the other day, out popped a humongous  Fishing Spider, which was not sure what to make of things! We popped him in a bottle and released him faaaaaaar away in the woods behind the house, too (how wonderful to have woods behind the house!).

 

~These little Blacktailed red sheetweaver spiders are much less spooky-looking, for sure!

Tomorrow is Miss Audrey's birthday, so we'd better be off to put the house to rights before the party! May you have a most wonderful day.

Love,

Marqueta

Baby, it's Hot Outside!

Dear Friends,

A happy day to you! We have been hiding out in our basement lately, since it's the coolest place in the house (and the sewing machine is down there, calling to us). But when it's cool in the mornings and evenings, we've been having lots of fun doing things like~

~Playing with chickens

Discovering new bugs~

Catching up with "Majestic", the Osage Orange that we're following this year~

 

(Woodpecker holes)

Seeing if we can fly as high as an elephant's eye~

 

And playing with chickens again!

 

We've discovered that brown thrashers can sound like mockingbirds~

And that cleavers can make a nifty bandelo~

And that dachshunds don't hold still very well when they're having their portraits taken!

We hope that you are making some time to explore and learn, as well!

Love,

Marqueta