My Little Explorer
On a recent hike my little explorer lead me into the forest………
just a sliver of light peeked through the vines
we found a friend
and some flowers
we took a rest on the cool forest floor
A sweet afternoon it was.
sparta
a couple of weekends ago we had a magical sunday. we rode with our friends lee, rinne, claren, and seabright out to a farm/homestead in the country near sparta, georgia.
for me it was one of those days that seem to be in your memory already, somewhere between nostalgia and deja vu, created from the books i have been reading, the drives we have been on, and the dreams i had as a child. i felt at home.
the property is owned by bill and gail bolig , but is maintained and farmed, for the most part by their daughter megan and her husband brad. in years past it was a large, 4000 acre cotton farm and the 16 acres the boligs now own is where the main homestead was and still is located.
as soon as we got out of the car they took us on a tour of the property.
they have horses, chickens, goats, pigs, dogs, cats and donkeys.
in the old general store on their property they have made a large studio space for megan’s letter press and Brad’s drums.
along with space for countless other inspiring things.
maypop, claren and i found brad’s drum set. there was an amazing sound atmosphere in the old store.
after working out our musical chops, we settled down for a light lunch and some afternoon wine.
pops and claren played some version of bocce ball. part of the game seemed to include unintentionally coming close to thowing the ball directly at the other player.
seabright decided to hangout with the non bocce players.
during lunch i found this small handmade version of a georgia covered bridge. i forgot to ask about its story.
after lunch megan and brad took us to the csa farm that they maintain in downtown sparta. The property is owned by the curries who used to own a furniture company. they could open a small church with the chairs they’ve collected.
the farm portion of the property had one of the nicest chicken coops i have ever seen.
the memory of this day resides in the part of my brain that it occupied before the visit. i don’t know if i should blame the wine or the intoxicating environment and company.
This who Maypop and I hung out with on Easter.
Make a GIF using Picasion.com
EGGMAGEDDON 2012
Our friends Jamie and Aarron had an egg hunt last weekend. It was our first egg hunt and we are now looking forward to the next…..which happens Easter Sunday.
I love this…
Our Athens Easter Bunny rolls in style + a six pack.
And we ended the day with some ‘ring around the rosie’ with Loretta and Scarlet. A pretty sweet day.
bringing my strollet to the atanical gardens
The other day I surprised Maypop and picked her up from school. I usually work late and don’t pick her up often. When I do get the chance to pick her up, I usually take her to the Botanical Gardens- we both love it there.
So I arrived to her school and she shouted “Atanical gardens”!!!! You don’t have to pull my leg to get me to go there, so off we went!
check out her azalea eyes!
Every visit she has to hug each of the 10 sculptures. I have a lover on my hands!
..mrls..
they’re back…!….
due to the unseasonably warm winter, the morels have started to show up early. kat invited us out to pick some of their eggs and while we were there we thought we might look around the creek bed.
we didn’t find many, but all of us each found at least one and it was the first morel that kat had ever picked which is always exciting!!
look at that find!
the crew decide to celebrate with some spirits and pretzel crisps.
after the hunt and celebration we went to find some eggs. maypop, being the constant pessimist, brought her crisps along having no faith that we would find those eggs.
but once she found them she dove right in.
we brought home almost a half dozen. kristen made a frittata out of the eggs, some greens, and our morels.
even thelma got in on the foraging finds.
…..
on the hunt….
word on the internets is that the morels are starting to pop up around here…….i know, crazy right?!? so pops and i thought we would take the dogs into the woods and just look around a little.
of course the reality of hunting for mushrooms with a 2 year old is not nearly as productive as the idea might sound. willa was constantly and patiently waiting for us.
eventually we found one of those georgia lakes that seem to appear out of nowhere.
fortunately maypop never gets tired of hiking through the leaves and bramble. look at the pure joy!
i tried to explain to penelope and willa that in order to find the morels we would need to push into the leaves, under the low branches of trees and stay close to the ground.
they thought it better to get a birds eye view……..fools.
deciding to leave, we thought we would throw our beverage container on the ground as a kind of revenge on the land for not rewarding our efforts on this hunt. seems to be a popular plan in a lot of the woods around here.
…..
birthday pops!
i have heard it said that you have one year from the date of an event to make a blog post about it. sooo….within those rules we are actually a bit ahead of schedule with this post.
maypop’s birthday party was inspired by one of our favorite books “The Little House” by virginia lee burton. i actually had the book as a child and remember loving it. here is the invitation that kristen made, modeled after the book.
our friends kat and susan have an actual little house on their property and they were kind enough to let us host the party there. it is a magical little place.
kristen made a small activity book for the kids.
kristen, catie and kim showed up early to prepare the little house for all of the visitors.
eventually our friends started to arrive.
check out this amazing candid photo we got….incredible!
after cupcakes we headed over to the hobby farm portion of the property.
kat and susan have been lovingly rescuing animals from the area that need new homes. they have a small collection of pigs, chickens, alpacas, donkeys, geese, dogs………more species then I can really remember.
kids and non-kids seemed to enjoy hanging out with the animals.
there was a goose attack and kristen’s sister, kim, was the victim. but look at how well she took it!
here is the happy family.
riding high from her big day, maypop acquired superhuman powers and, with them, thought she might mow the yard.
thanks to everyone that helped make this one of our great days!!
…..
