First official flower...

The lungwort is in bloom...totally blurry and weirdly-focussed, but I was pressed for time...

Another rainy-day Art-a-thon

A delicious pile of beautiful paper from a swap I did with a friend....



...transformed, with a little bit of Art Magick into these....(idea and implementation entirely by Savannah, I might add -I was doing Other Stuff). Original animal ATC's, destined for pen pals..we hope....



...and when we were done, we drank and we feasted....

Sunny days are here again...

What better combination than sunshine and sand toys?

Our first *real* visit to the park....

Sebastian facilitates the building of sand *castles* with each mold...a job that my inner child is only too happy to embrace.

Fearless, the girls climb to the very peak of the twisty climbing thingy...I tried not to look (I'm afraid of heights). It was all very exciting because there was a BOY who kept *chasing* them to the top....high drama indeed!

This started as a great shot of cousin M, playing in the sand but she was up and off before I could get the button pushed...such are the trials of child photography...

Say Cheese!

Savannah often asks me to draw things for her. The other night she was in her room, busying away at her table, colouring and cutting things out when she came to me and asked that I draw her a wedge of cheese. I had no idea at the time what it was for.

This is what I found in the fridge the next morning.

She never ceases to amaze me, this crazy, Shiny kid.

Squirrel whisperer....

Practicing the long-forgotten art of being Still....

Sunshine snoozin...and feelin' fancy..

Looking back...

In words and pictures, some thoughts on family for the Memories blogparty....

One of the best things about spending time with my grandparents is hearing their 'stories'. Tales from their childhoods; what it was like when they got older and when they met and married. My Nanna grew up in the Lake District in England, in a village, where her mother baked bread with heat from the fire and she and her best friend would spend their days fell-climbing and exploring the woods and fields. My grandfather grew up 'in town' and he and his brothers would race to see who could get out of bed first, because the early riser got the only pair of 'football boots' (soccer shoes, for my North American readers). He went down to work in the coal mines at a very young age and only went to school for 'half-days' -which is why, he claims, he's not a very good speller.

Their stories are rich with life, a life so far removed from how I grew up and how my children are growing up. It was a simpler time - something I often crave - but it was a hard time too. I treasure these tales that they tell; they're a part of who I am and where I came from. I often think I should be writing them down. Perhaps I need to stop thinking about it, and start doing it.

My mom is our family historian - she's been assembling our family tree for years now. She knows the ins and outs of tracking down birth certificates and death certificates; of censuses and ships records. She pursues her leads like a dedicated detective and I'm often amazed with what she comes up with. Written records from all those many years ago are often illegible, not to mention inaccurate, but she's unearthed some absolute treasures. As all families, I'm sure, we have quite a few skeletons...lots of illegitimate children, someone with a wife and children living at a different address and a 'housekeeper' under his own roof, mental illness, the 'poor house' and many more. Its surreal to look at these entries in public records and realize that these are our ancestors, whose blood runs through our veins.

Growing up, and even now, looking through our family photo albums, faithfully assembled and then carted across the Atlantic when we left England, was a favourite pastime. All those photos - with the funny fashions and strange hairstyles; visions of my parents when they were my age and before - they were parents in their 20's and I can't imagine how that must have been.

I often wonder if, in this digital age, we haven't lost something of the magic of the photo album. Most of our pictures now are on a disk or a flash drive - we can pull them up and look at them any old time but its not quite the same as turning the pages on a slightly musty album. Its harder to gather around a computer screen, laughing and joking and remembering, than it is to gather around someones lap, or sit at their feet while they take that trip down memory lane.

And I often wonder if, 100 years from now, a descendent of ours, will look back on our photos and imagine what it would be like to live and grow in our version of the world. I can only hope they don't judge us too harshly.

Soldiering on...

We are under seige by a wretched cold virus that has us alternately feeling just fine and then just crappy...snotting, coughing and raw throats...but today, Nature saw fit to bolster our spirits with a beautiful spring day.

Still, we started off rather sluggishly....a late brunch of my famous oatmeal-banana-chocolate chip pancakes was preceded by a foray into the Lego bucket....


Some dogs-turned-horses....

A weiner-dog-turned-long-backed-horse......we are anti-kit when it comes to Lego here at Chez Leavey...we choose to let our imaginations guide us rather than be dictated to by some preconceived idea of creativity. We also are not very good at following the instructions on aforementioned sets. :)

Our energy levels and moods were boosted by the news that I didn't have to go to work this afternoon after all, so we dragged ourselves into our clothes and harnessed up the dogs for an absolutely wonderfully long walk (upon which I forgot to take the camera which was a trifle irritating because I could have got a really great close-up of a female robin and some lovely purple flowers growing in a little stand of trees). After we returned, Sebastian took his weary self down to watch a few episodes of Blue's Clues and Savannah and I stayed outside to soak up some more of the Sun's healing energy.

Savannah set about tending to the newly-sprouting plants and transplanted a few of the baby maple trees which have sprung up everywhere. Look closely and you can see Slobbers watching from the window.

Then we put our feet up (I say *we* but mine had already been up - I was being very helpful with my suggestions of what she might like to water and what needed moving into the sun). I had some green tea and Savannah had apple juice - icy cold, just how she likes it. And we mused on the poor suckers that had to be at school and at work on such a beautiful day.

We are smug.

Sharing is caring...

Good Friday which means B was home from work which means....Tim Horton's coffee!! Oh, and Timbits for those who care to indulge in yummy, donutty goodness....such as all of us.


Savannah munches merrily away, Simba is watching the birds....


...until his keen feline senses pick up a whiff of icing....

..."Hmmm, whatcha got there?"

..."Aw...c'mon....what if I just lick your fingers?"

Meanwhile...Tyler Bean slept through it all.....

Ostara/Easter preparations...

Having been tipped off by Anna to actually boil the eggs in the dye rather than just dip, for bolder colours, Savannah and I embarked upon our egg-dyeing mission. We used beets in one pot and a combination onion skin/turmeric in the other. While the water turned delightful shades, I hadn't factored our farm-fresh BROWN eggs into the equation and our eggs really didn't turn any sort of colour at all.

Note to prospective egg-dyers: Use the pasty-white anemic eggs for your projects.

No worries...Savannah ate hers and I saved mine to paint later.

And not wanting to waste our lovely dye...we decided to dye some paper upon which we would write our wishes for Ostara to bless.Then it was seed-planting time! I had bought some herb seeds earlier in the year and was waiting for some semblance of spring to try and germinate them. All things converged and the looming Spring festivities made it feel like a good time to get them started. I worked on mine....
...Savannah worked on hers. She plucked another sunflower seed from our birdseed as well as what looked like an oat. Can't wait to see what grows....

Then we changed things up on our family shrine to honour Ostara and celebrate Easter - being a multi-faith family, we're incredibly all-encompassing. Not quite coincidentally, I'm sure, Ostara is represented by many of the same things as are associated with Easter...eggs, bunnies, etc. - representations of new life and fertility. So, in our tray you will find...my painted eggs, a bunny figurine, a feather (essence of Air), a seed pod containing bird-seed, our bundled wishes (thanks to Snowbell for offering a whisker, which I tucked under the string), citrine (for Ostara), rose quartz (Motherhood) and amethyst (my own stone), and a healing stone(the one with the painted turtle design). Also there are our 'regulars' - rocks and stones from around our home, an acorn, shells and coral from Tinian, some fossils, some bones from the beach and a piece of a wasps nest.


Whatever you are celebrating....have a happy one! May Ostara bless your fields and the Easter bunny fill your basket with yummy chocolatey goodness!

'Soul House'...

Flipping through my soul journal during our rainy-day Art-a-thon yesterday, Savannah decided she'd like to do the 'house' portion. The idea was to create your vision of a home (whether it be real or imagined or a combination of both) and fill it with people/things in the form of paper dolls from a time(s) when you felt most safe. I had actually welched on the paper doll part - not 'feeling' the doll thing, but Savannah took it most seriously.



I am intrigued that her soul house is lived in by a Dalmation, a fox, a raccoon and a rabbit. The picture doesn't exactly do it justice - her colours are very vibrant and her animals most endearing...



The house is currently taped to her bedroom wall and the animals are now tucked safely inside the 'pocket' of her soul home...

A purple flower....

...found lying on the grass and rescued.

Welcome back....

....Bushy!

Our favourite, and most bold, squirrel-friend stopped by for a peanut or twenty. Also spotted to day were Scruffy and Rocket. Seems the neighbourhood weathered the winter well.

Blog Candy

Want some? You know you do....visit me here. (and no, it's not anything weird or illegal). :)

'Grow-Op'

Savannah successfully germinates a sunflower seed (plucked from our bird-seed, no less) by the light of only her........(drum roll please)


......groovy shell night light! (a treasured gift from Aunty Jude in Tinian)
I think I'm going to put her in charge of my herb seeds....

Rainy Friday...

A very gloomy day...rain, rain and more rain....soooo....

Savannah set up a movie theatre, complete with darkness, popcorn...
...and other patrons. (I was permitted to put on the light in order to take the picture)

And what's a rainy day without a fort-building session?

More no-flash fun...

And on a sunny note - I actually got the house cleaned...the state of which had become both Dire and Desperate.

Word-Wednesday.....Cake

Here's a pic of the birthday cake I whipped up for myself this morning before heading out to work.......HA!! Of course, you know I'm kidding.

I was a big fan of Noddy as a child.....I would have liked to have found a Dougall cake like the one my Auntie Pat made for me when I was little....(hope it was Auntie Pat..I'm sure it was her...) but Noddy will have to do.


EDIT: There it is!! *sigh* I'm sure mine didn't cost that much!