Daisy chains!

One of summer's simple pleasures...the daisy chain. Do you know how to make one?

Pluck a daisy....

... and use your thumbnail to cut a little slit in the stem...about an inch or so from the bottom of the stem (so it won't tear through). The length of your daisy stem will determine the spacing of the blossoms in your chain. (Short stems = blossoms close together, longer stems = alot of space between blossoms in your final chain).

Pluck another daisy and slip the end of its stem through the slit you made in the first one.

Draw the new daisy through the slit until the blossom head is snug against the stem of the first daisy.
Now make a slit in the new daisy's stem and proceed chaining daisies together.

Spend a happy hour in the new summer sunshine indulging in this pastime.

River days...

Strange visitors....

Earlier this spring, the girls and I returned home on afternoon to find one of our cats standing at the base of the dogwood tree staring up into its branches...silly cat. No, wait...What is that?

Can you see it? How about now:

A groundhog??!! And that was how we learned that groundhogs do not necessarily spend all their time on the ground.

In the few weeks that have followed we have met several other visitors here in our own yard.

Come follow, follow, follow....

Yesterday, after a long day that included driving through a neighborhood that was particularly hard hit by the devastating floods (mentioned a few posts ago) and not being able to do anything about it, I felt depressed and a little hopeless. Sodie, Naya, and Mado move through these recent days in a cloud of urgent tension as they work to complete the obligations of the ending school year. We dragged ourselves from the family car and headed indoors, towards an evening of certain drudgery. My gloomy eye was distracted by Toucie as she flounced off into the backyard, wearing the rose-tinted glasses that seem to come standard with most 5 year-olds. I left my belongings in the car, grabbed my camera, and followed her....

The fields all around our home are teeming with buttercups.

Hiding among the buttercups are hundreds of "Indian Strawberries"...completely inedible, but beautiful to look at....Toucie gathered a few and put them in her pocket.

Out where the horses have cropped the grass short, she found a small stand of daisies. She picked one for herself and one for me, whispering, "They smell like feet." in a reverent hush as she tucked it behind my ear.

The odor of the daisy must have prompted her to seek balance, for she sprinted across the pasture to the fence where honeysuckle runs rampant. I breathed in deeply of the rich perfume as I caught up with her. Ah...this is a scent that instantly brings to my mind a lifetime of clear memories of springtime bliss. Just as the scent of damp, fallen leaves or raw pumpkin pulp can summon up autumn recollections and pine sap or gingerbread aromas bring winter thoughts to mind, honeysuckle is a hallmark of spring to me.

There must be true medicinal qualities in the combined essence of daisy and honeysuckle. After sipping the nectar of the few blossoms she plucked for me, the heavy feeling I'd been carrying all day began to give way to a childlike lightness of heart.

As Toucie made the rounds to what were obviously special spots in our yard that brought her joy, the contagion of it all finally overtook me. My 5 year-old was an accidental therapist...here is some of the beauty that she lead me to witness that day:

Here is a girl who knows when to take a break from the drudgery and escape into nature.We found Mado in the backyard. She has the magical gift of being able to call forth a four-leaf-clover from any clover patch...open virtually any book in our home and you will probably find a four-leaf-clover pressed inside - some of them many years old.

Look...she found another before I'd even turned away...she makes my heart happy.

Life is going on, ever forward, flowering, fruiting, bursting with radiance.

Its good to look around yourself each day and recognize this affirmation: the world is a place of beauty. It is good to surround yourself with people who can give you a nudge on those days that you forget to look around.

Toucie is 5!!

Pancakes breakfast for the birthday girl!
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 Before heading off to work early in the morning, Daddy left a surprise at Toucie's place at the table: this tiny little Japanese tea set...so cute!
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Toucie's special present this year was to get her ears pierced...it is partly a cultural thing (I had mine pierced when I was 5, too) little girls in my family are adorned with little gold rings in their ears when they are babies. She has been asking since she was 2 to have them pierced and has always been told that she had to wait until she was 5. She was bursting with excitement to think that the day had finally come...can you tell? The other thrilling rite of passage was to go and sign up for her own library card. I'm afraid there are no longer any babies in this family...

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We had a 'Rain Party' in the park...although, as it turned out, it only sprinkled a little.
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Sloshing through the rills was the favorite activity of the littles.
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Big kids tried out some other challenges.
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 Those girls can rock the hula hoop! Omigoodness...is that my hubby there on the right? I am surrounded by talent, people...utterly surrounded.
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My mom and dad have got the moves, too!! (well...at least my mom does! keep at it, Dad!)
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Naya and Sodie sheltering from the drizzle.
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Toucie surprised us by requesting pie instead of birthday cake...we made one apple and one blueberry (from the last of the summer's frozen berries...can't wait till blueberry season is here!)
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Yeah, kiddo...I'm totally with you...birthdays are awesome!
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Back at home, with just the family, the special request for birthday dinner was Spaghetti and Meatballs (we've been reading "Bread and Jam for Frances")...a wild experience for mama who had never before made this dish!
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(Yes, there was an excess of cakes and pies...you're only 5 once!) Those are the candles Toucie dipped back at Candlemas....look at that happy face :)
Happy Birthday little one!
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