Once again, my sweet friend Anne gave me a generous nod in her newsletter, and a few new readers have found their way over here to sewandsowlife. Welcome friends! I hope you’ll find some sanctuary here amidst the noise of the world.
Jacob’s ladder, lupine, iris, violets and lobelia are blooming in a riot of blues and purples in the garden beds and window box. Tiger Swallowtails are gulping down the last of the lilac nectar. The bluebird babies are fledging and the barred owl starts its hooting just as the sun peeks over the ridge in the morning. The peony crescent garden is just about ready to explode. The lettuce is coming on strong in the hoop house and the chives are blooming. We are eating most of our meals out on the three season porch, where we can keep an eye on the deer grazing in the meadow. I think we need to thread the fishing line through the hook eyes at the top of the fence posts around the veggie garden beds.
I bought asparagus and sugar snap peas at the farmers market on Saturday and made a pot of spring minestrone last night. I love Heidi Swanson’s book, Super Natural Cooking… she also writes the blog 101 Cookbooks. I remember years ago, bringing local ingredients home from VT in a cooler to our place in CT and making this same recipe. Batman and I sat out on the front door stoop, bowls in hand and longed for the days when we could be in VT full time. :-)
When I last went to visit my Mumsie in MA, I took my 100 days of stitching book to show her. She sat with it for a long time, turning the pages and running her fingers gently over the stitches. She asked to see it again the next day when I stopped by on my way back to VT. I asked her if she would like a little book of her own and her eyes lit up. Driving home, my brain was in full imagination mode. I was flooded with ideas. Sometimes when I’m working on composing pages, I like to create collections of things to inspire me. I thought I’d share one of these “groupings” with you, above.
I also turn to children’s books for inspiration. Trina Schart Hyman’s Little Red Riding Hood is one of my all time faves, above. My Mumsie adores foxes, and so the first page I stitched for her book includes a scrap from this project which I sewed for our granddaughter Maggie during the pandemic.
The background for this page was dyed with avocado skins and pits. The turquoise silk was dyed with home grown indigo. The sweet hibernating mouse is from a fabric collection called Tilda’s World. I think this page needs a little bit of “something”, so I am waiting for something to surface.
My Mumsie is a miniaturist and she loves children’s books, too. She loves the natural world and animals of many kinds. She taught me to sew at a young age and so I am really having fun with this project.
On my cutting table…a gnome, some mushrooms, a badger…
A quick word about audiobooks. Thank you all, for the recommendations! I have tried a few options and have settled on both Libby and Libro.fm. I finished listening to The Lioness of Boston, about the life and times of Isabella Stuart Gardener, and I loved The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. Both works of historical fiction, they document the lives of two very different women! Now I am reading Amor Towles’ newest book Table For Two. What do you have a bookmark in, dearest readers?
I do so wish we could all gather on the deck, shaded a bit now by the growing crabapple tree. We could have iced tea, or maybe lemonade and watch as the afternoon shadows slice across the meadow. The breeze would keep the bugs away, and our conversation would drift from books, to hand projects, to recipes, to hopeful things and to our dreams. I am there with you in spirit, friends. Pull up a chair and join the circle. xo