Such is Early Spring

Boiling sap on evenings and weekends... we've been so busy we haven't jarred any syrup yet, but we think we'll be done by tomorrow's end.

Hiking deer trails searching for antler sheds. No dice, still, although we did find an owl pellet, something I've also been hoping to find for a long time! Jake thinks this is a barred owl feather, but I haven't looked it up yet. Regardless, with the light from an early spring sunset shining through, its beautiful.

I spotted some daffodil leaves poking through muddy snow yesterday, and the calendar marches on toward the season of sun and heat. Spring is coming. 

Right? 

For now, I dream of trillium and morels. 

Why not?

Rubber duckies, you're the ones...

Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

I haven't made Easter eggs in several years, and I was more than a little excited about them this year, because of Xan, our own fowl's recent return to egg-laying, and because I need some spring in my life.
Xan and I brought some onion skins and goose eggs to our friends' cozy home yesterday afternoon and had a lovely time. We visited, played, and egged. When I got home I couldn't stop, and tried several more methods. They're beautiful!

My favorites are the marbled ones, like the large goose egg in the center. My friend showed me how to soak onion skins and wrap them around eggs, then wrap them in a clean rag and boil them.

We also pressed dried violets and herbs onto the eggshells and wrapped them in cloth before soaking them in dye made from boiled onion skins.

Blueberries

Beets

Turmeric

Brown egg in onion skin dye

Red cabbage

Promise of Spring

It is coming, isn't it?

Water Cress & Maple Sap

March, now

In like a lion indeed! We're all home today- schools and roads closed due to Winter Storm Saturn. She
sounds scarier than she looks, but I say that from the cozy comfort of the wood stove's warmth.

We're spending the day playing outside,

Climbing stairs, 

Playing peekaboo, 

Bathtime/Booktime, 

Chicken-checking,

And finally shelling the rest of last summer's beans. 

Perusing of seed catalogs, a snowshoe hike, a nap for Xan, work on our new table/dining booth for Jake, and a lot of homework for me ahead. 

Snow days, oh how I love you.

Driveway Sledding

We can't drive on it these days, but it is a great sledding hill!