{this moment}

A sunday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.
A simple, special, extraordinary moment.
A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
~~inspired by amanda soule

drying food

Several years ago, my mom got us an electric food dehydrator, which is a lot of fun and really easy to use. Our favorites have been dried apples and tomatoes. We've dried several quarts of apples so far this season. I just thinly slice the apples, taking out the seeds. Dip the slices in a little lemon water and place on the dehydrator. These guys will dry out pretty fast, so you've got to rotate the trays every once in awhile, taking off the thinner slices that dry more quickly. I need to make some more since I've already eaten so many. :)

We've also used the food dehydrator to dry several quarts of tomatoes this summer. We are still picking baskets full of tomatoes from our garden and David (as the primary sauce maker) has declared that he is done canning sauce for the season. After canning over 40 quarts of sauce, who can blame him?! So, I took it upon myself to use up some of this week's harvest with a new method of drying. I followed a recipe for Oven Dried Tomatoes posted by Heavy Petal, where you just cut the tomatoes in half, drizzle with olive oil, and then place them in a 250 degree oven for 5-6 hours. The dried tomatoes can then be frozen. I made about three quarts worth and it was difficult to stop eating them right off the pan! YUM! Taste like candy! Can't wait to eat these things all winter: mixed in pesto over pasta, on crackers with cream cheese, on pizza, with goat cheese! yum, yum, yum!

{this moment}

A sunday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.
A simple, special, extraordinary moment.
A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
~~inspired by amanda soule

Alpacas!

Gotta love the Internet. I posted some pictures of yarn that I had spun on Facebook and one of my high school friends saw my pictures and got me connected me to her parents, who just happen to own an alpaca farm. David and I went on a little road trip today to visit Dan and Kim at Day Star Alpacas and I brought home two bags full of gorgeous fleece.
I believe the alpaca below is Ooh La La. All of the alpacas were really curious about us and most of them came right over to visit. Ooh La La was especially friendly.
Aren't they amazing?! The little fawn colored one isn't even a week old yet!
and I saved my favorite for last. Meet Godiva! She's got a memorable face and incredibly soft fleece. I plan on spinning her fleece into some gorgeous yarn.

made especially for David

The pattern is by Jared Flood called Turn A Square, which I found on Ravelry. I was hoping that the hat would be a surprise, but when I asked David for color recommendations at the yarn store, it just was easier to tell him that I was making him a hat. I think it looks great on him! Seeing as how he hasn't taken it off today, I think he really likes it, too! :)

{this moment}

A sunday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.
A simple, special, extraordinary moment.
A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
~~inspired by amanda soule

"He who plants a tree plants hope." -Lucy Larcom

Today we planted two trees: a Sango Kaku Japanese Maple and a Norway Spruce. We planted the spruce in the front left side of our garden and the Japanese Maple is in the back.



This particular kind of Japanese Maple is famous for the red bark that we are hoping will add color to the garden - especially in the winter.
Speaking of color - here are some other new additions to the garden. We are adding an aster and a creamy yellow rose bush. The plants were on sale and I couldn't resist them when we bought the trees today.