New do..

'Cos I'm just so freakin' sick of winter.....

Snow mountain...

Taken from the shelter of Nanna and Grandad's front step with a powerful zoom...the two mighty snow explorers scale Snow Mountain....the gigantic pile of snow in the court, courtesy of the snow plow. Seriously, it's gigantic...like about 10 feet high gigantic....

Nanna and I sipped tea and watched the fun through the living room window while Grandad shovelled the driveway and supervised. The novelty of winter has definitely worn off for me....

Word-Wednesday....Glass

I was trying to capture the dirty *glass* on the outside of my windows--which I so desperately wish I could clean but the weather won't allow....perhaps they're not so dirty after all.... :)

Kitchen-witchin'

Weatherbound once again, and quite Ravenhearst-ed out (I have a huge kink in my neck/shoulder at the moment which gets worse as I sit at the computer) we deemed today to be Baking Tuesday.

On the menu for today....vegan peanut-butter chocolate chip cookies (I had printed the recipe off last time and wanted to try it -- it called for tofu!! How cool is that?) and Big Fat Chocolate Chunk muffins....

First we beat some eggs.....(for the muffins, but of course)...this was actually the only part that Sebastian joined us for....it seems that his culinary aspirations do not extend beyond the preparation of eggs


Using our magick spoon, Savannah stirs the cookie dough. This is where she got off the baking train...I drove the rest of the way myself....

The muffin dough.....

Ta-da! The cookies -- I thought they were a bit crumbly but apparently that didn't matter to the kids (who mysteriously reappeared as they were coming out of the oven.) Probably something to do with my substituting whole wheat flour for white or brown sugar for white....undoubtedly some universal baking laws broken there. Renegade baking doesn't always produce the same results as renegade everything else...

Case in point - the muffins - a tad 'rocky' but delicious nonetheless -- oh, and apparently, butterscotch chips don't melt well....at least these ones didn't (had to substitute for some of the milk chocolate chip quantity as we were a bit generous to ourselves in the peri-baking sample department)

Photo art..

Not having any interesting photos for today - we were chained to the computer playing Ravenhearst - I decided to play with a very blurry pic that B took of Sebastian on Saturday...

These boots are made for walkin'...

Sebastian tries on the REALLY BIG BOOTS that B got from a friend of his who is moving to Egypt for a three-year work contract. What is it about a pair of really big boots that makes kids want to put them on? And what is it about a small child in really big boots that absolutely BEGS a photograph?

Winter lockdown and A Return to Ravenhearst

Yes, the weather outside is frightful.....and so we turn to indoor entertainment. Currently at the top of our list is the second Ravenhearst game from Big Fish Games. It's highly addictive and we've been labouring over the mystery for days now....some parts the kids can do themselves and some requires my reading and puzzling skills. Still, their powers of deductive reasoning and logic never fail to amaze me...unschooling rocks!

When he's playing by himself, Sebastian mostly likes to ride up and down in the spooky elevator to the underwater cave where the big snake lives....

What do you think?

Savannah ponders a computer puzzle and asks for wisdom from her faithful companions...

End of an era...

In an unexpected revelation, Savannah has decided that she no longer *needs* her cat costume. This resulted in a frantic search through long-forgotten piles of clothes in her closet. And although I have been more than happy to support her during this phase of her life and steadfastedly defended her right to do so, I am also truly enjoying her smiling and Joy-filled Self in her bright and colourful clothes....

Word-Wednesday....Door

Night snow...

A rare treat in these hibernatory times....time to play with a friend....and in the dark, the snow is just so much brighter and more magical...

Sebastian moving much faster than the shutter...leaps up to 'let's see' the photo before it's even taken..:)

Winter...

We've been struggling under the burden of the wintry weather over the last week and grumbling abounds over the continued cold temperatures and dumpings of snow. In an effort to shake off the ennui I've tried to catch some of the beauty of this dark season....


This probably says a lot about the insulation of our windows but....Jack Frost treated us to a lovely design on the inside of Savannah's window...


The bird-feeder post-last night's snowfall.....I cleared a path to it and the squirrel feeder and then dusted it off for our feathered friends. Not many of them about today though....

Our beloved maple, dressed for the winter in a lovely gown of white...

Even the evergreens have pulled on a snowy coat....

And this - the face of winter - unfazed by the cold or the snow, she plows valiantly on in the pursuit of Joy....except about 5 minutes after this was taken, she got snow down her back and was NOT pleased....:(

Work space...

I was in Savannah's room, putting away laundry, when I noticed her 'work table'. I was absolutely enchanted by what I saw...it was like a little snippet of her days 'work', left in-progress as she moved on to other things....her current passion for My Little Pony combined with her ongoing passion of colouring...LOVE it!!

And so I decided to capture everyone elses' space...the space where we play, learn and create...oh, and work too!

Sebastian: Ongoing...a castle and the books he borrowed from Auntie Sarah; the remote control for his tarantula and a container full of bugs.

Sebastian's reading corner.....remnants of a dinosaur altercation...

My lovely desk...bought at a garage sale for $25....I LOVE this desk....tucked into a cozy corner of our bedroom.....

B's home office....you can actually see the top of the desk so that, in itself, is worthy of a photograph....

If you build it, they will come...

Bought for the bargain price of $5.99....a lovely, unfinished wooden birdhouse...

Add a coat of paint (fairy colours...but, of course)...


...glue on some wooden motifs and some shiny baubles from our collection...


And ta-da!! A house fit for our very own "Thimbletack"....

We added some fuzzy cottony stuff and put the under-the-stove treasures inside....all we need to do now is hang it up by the stove and we're all set!!

Household spirits and the Great Bean Experiment...

Today we learned that our household guardians often dwell beneath the stove -- it's warm there and representative of the hearth. Following that line of thought we pulled the stove out to see if there was evidence of an inhabitant - popular thought around here suggests a brownie (a la Spiderwick). In addition to the dust bunnies, here's what we found....

A few shiny baubles, an almond and one of Savannah's painted rocks....

After a thorough cleaning...we pushed back the stove and placed the 'treasures' on a plate for safe-keeping. The plan is to supply another 'home' in the form of a little wooden birdhouse where we can put the treasures and leave gifts in the hope to minimize mischief. To appease our friend for disturbing his stash, Savannah added a snowman ornament (didn't make its way back into the box after the holidays), a penny and some Cheerios. Naturally, we'll be leaving the honey out also. Oh, and the Cheerios? Honey-Nut.

The Great Bean Experiment: Day Two...(Day One saw them being soaked in water). Today we set them up with their wet paper towel...and now we wait...

Vegan cookies and the macro setting...

First of all...a big thank you to Miss Daisy and her reference to the macro setting on her camera...it finally clued me in as to what its for (duh!!) and now I can take lovely close-ups with my zoom without them being blurry.....I suppose I could have read the instructions but....:)

We wanted to make cookies this morning...but then realized that I'd used the last of our eggs to make Sebastian's french toast. B was still out getting the shopping in so...we had two choices. Wait or...improvise. We fired up ye trusty ol' computer and searched for vegan cookie recipes..learning what 'vegan' meant as we went...

Presenting....vegan oatmeal-raisin cookies...(with several further improvisations - omitting the white sugar portion and substituting whole wheat flour - we're just oozing health today).

I only had whole cloves so Savannah got to work with the mortar and pestle.

"I'm good at squashing things,"she confides as she bashes away.

A very nice pile of 'squashed' cloves... close enough to a teaspoon for this renegade baker...

Shaping the dough....squishing it between your fingers is the best part

Waiting.....

Tucking in to the final product.....yummy delish with the added bonus of being healthy too...

One final shot with my new-found setting...munching up-close...

Inukshuk...

Down in the Bat Cave....building an Inukshuk out of wooden blocks...(note: eagle totem on the top). Tragically, this one didn't have the staying power of the real thing and collapsed in a catastrophic heap when the caribou tried to join the eagle.

Puppet theatre...

Discovering a long-forgotten box of finger puppets....a decision was made to launch a theatrical production...

Savannah decided she'd rather use her home-made sock puppet - Snowbunny -




Sebastian preferred the 'villain' from our set...


Hmmmm...an unexpected cast change from Sebastian....Savannah waits...not very patiently...

Tempers start running a bit high as our budding thespians clash over the plot line...Sebastian has once again redefined his character...

...finally, irreconcilable artistic differences win out and Savannah storms off....Sebastian, it seems, will never work in this town again!

Flight school...

A Master of 'parchment aviation', B spends some time demonstrating engineering concepts...it's all in the fold, apparently.



A very keen student looks on....

All attempts at in-flight photography were disastrous....when the design is that good, the aeroplane is just waaaaayyyy too fast and besides, its patent-pending...;)