The last few weeks have been crazy. Gwen started preschool, Ben started a new job, and I had some issues with this site. We had some fun exploring the forested 2.5 acres that we now live on. I put Gwen’s name on some of her stuff for preschool. And did a few other crafty things these past weeks.

Forest Fun

The Morrissey house now sits on 2.5 acres. There apparently used to be pigs, a pig stye, a small field for growing vegetables, and a flower garden. Pretty much all of which have been reclaimed by the surrounding land in the years since they were left on their own. The wild blueberries that Grammy Littlewood (Susan) and Jane have fond memories of going into the woods to go pick have been found and identified. We also found several other fun plants and things on our trek.

Crafting

The craft projects for the past few weeks are quite fun. The preschool asked for EVERYTHING to be labeled so I took some time to embroider Gwen’s name onto her backpack. This took a few hours and Gwen picked out the colors, some of which turned out to be a bit hard to see.

I also finished her capelet, sacrificing not one, not two, but three Tunisian (afghan) crochet hooks to the project. But it turned out cute as a button.

Now that it as cooled off significantly here in New England, I picked up a blanket for Ben that I had started quite a while ago. All that is left to do for it is the border, which is more busy work than anything else at this point.

The craft that I am by far the most excited about has been spinning wool into yarn. I got a drop spindle in the mail. And have been playing with that as a way to get a feel for drafting and just spinning in general while I wait for the parts of the spinning wheel. I have ideas on an experiment with some natural dye made from barberry bark and berries for my first few small skeins of yarn.

Baking!

The girls and I also made an apple pie with apples that we picked at the orchard so I could test a new gluten-free pie crust recipe. It turned out really well! I need to make it a little thinner next time but it was Ben approved. Which is huge because he usually dislikes pie crust.

So there are our most recent adventures. I am hoping to go through the guest room a bit more and possibly take a few steps into the attic and see what pops up but we will see. I am also working on some wool socks so we will see how that project unfolds.

Thanks for joining our adventure!

Lots of Love,

The McMullins