meanderings...

meanderings of the feet and the mind...beautiful walk along the back road to the bridge that looks upon the slocan river and valley... the nature around us is such a blessing... thoughts about the future as we are living on our friends' land, surrounded by a lot of loud barking dogs (seventeen in total!!) and a not so friendly neighbour... our child will be born here though and i want to respect our baby's need to have very little stimulus, especially in its first year... but that means we will need to stay here, and "here" seems a bit unstable... what to do? listen, wait, dream, act? meanderings... 

happy turnip...

mid-fall walk...

i had my midwife appointment the other day and all is well, yay! honey came with me and heard the baby's heart beat, which is now a lot stronger than before... my midwife let me know that all the oogies i am experiencing are normal: feeling faint due to lower blood pressure, hemorrhoids due to loosening of blood vessels and pressure of baby growth, and the outburst of allergies perhaps due to the hormonal changes of being pregnant... i must say the sinus congestion is the most annoying, but alas, that is a small disturbance overall as i am feeling quite good...the baby weighs as much as a turnip right now! i never eat turnips, they just don't seem to add much to my palate... but i am enjoying honey's breakfasts in the morning, he is a true wonder...

fairies and avocados...

i felted this fairy for my little friend who is turning six in november!

some oogie news, i've got them ol' pregnany hemorrhoids...they are just swollen blood vessels in the nether region, which i never actually knew...and witch hazel watered down does wonders if you ever need to know!  does put a cramp in the magic of pregnancy, but as long as the avocado is healthy right?! (i thought it would be fun to call the babe what its size is compared to, and i read that at sixteen weeks, it is the size of an avocado!) and i do love avocados!  i love a lot of fruit that comes from the south actually...post petroleum, that will put a crimp into that! doing yoga at home the last couple days, which feels great, researched second trimester asanas and that really helped... these days concentrating on knitting, felting and finding christmas presents for the family... the rains have come and boy have they come! inside time indeed!

tomato surprise...

wrapping green tomatoes in newspaper does work! these had to be taken off the vine early as our september was cold and rainy, so i wrapped each tomato individually in a piece of newspaper, and i revealed them today happily since many of them were red!  i will use them in the bean and rice burritos i am making today for dinner!  i have been feeling good and energized these days, although work causes me to go very lethargic, it is such a difference than when i am home and very content and filled with energy... but alas, I must sacrifice this winter to work as it does keep us fed... it is nice to plan for the future these days, and i have been reading lots on waldorf, especially the baby information... very good articles indeed! definitely resonates with how i feel and see life...

fairy fun...

i had my first needle-felting experience yesturday with my friend kathy... it was great fun and i absolutely fell in love with my fairy, she even hitch-hiked home with me today! she is going to be a good friend indeed... and i also made a little fall baby for our fall table... yup, i can see myself doing more of this craft, life is too short to limit ourselves, right?! i have been enjoying steamed kale lately and tomato salad (tomatoes, salt, and olive oil!)... i have also been craving protein, so i had kathy's spaghetti and meat balls and it was delish! (of course all organic and well taken care of animals!)... i do still have some anguish about killing animals, i just have to see where this goes...
steamed kale...
a bouquet of kale
soy sauce
peanut butter
garlic
salt
Chop kale coarsely and put into a pot with about a cup of water with its lid on and let boil until all kale has cooked.  Save about a quarter cup of water and mix with a heaping spoon of peanut butter, a tablespoon of soy sauce, garlic and salt.  Mix with cooked kale and serve!

chilly nipples...

 four months!

we had our first official frost last night, and wow is it ever chilly today! chilly nipples day that is! and once again i don't have practical clothes to wear, somehow that always happens!  new clothes are just so expensive these days, and no one is giving away clothes that suit my ballooning figure, okay, not a balloon yet, but i know what i am heading towards!  i have had two near-fainting spells, which i will have to talk to the midwife on monday, have no idea what caused them... but overall, i am feeling good, although work is a repetitive doldrum for me... yesturday, my quote of the work day was: "i feel that the world has gone into a coma, and i with it"... i was reading modigliani's biography too which did not help brighten up the day, but it was a good book... i also finished my baby toque which turned into more of an acorn than a pea, which i like even more... and i am also making one with rainbow yarn... and i finally baked the pumpkin pie i have been salivating for ever since thanksgiving since we didn't have one then, yummy!

a day of thanks and giving...

a beautiful warm fall day for this year's thanksgiving...went for a forest walk with my furry friends, went for another walk with my wonderful honey, started to knit a baby toque (although i will probably redo it in rainbow colours with the right needles this time!)...and at this very moment i am cooking up my very first chicken (eating meat for the first time this year since i was fourteen!)... it smells absolutely divine, i wish i could send it through the computer waves... a day of thanks for love, nature, crafts and good food! thank you!  
Smothered Turkey Wings
6 turkey wings (I used a full chicken:)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon salt 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper 4 cloves garlic (chopped)1 ½ teaspoon chilli flakes
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Sauce
1/2 cup butter 2 celery sticks (chopped)
1/2 medium onion (chopped)
1 teaspoon dried thyme 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper 7 tablespoons flour 6 cups turkey or chicken broth 2 cups milk
Directions
1. To make wings: heat oven to 350°; brush wings with vegetable oil and place in a large roasting pan; stir together salt, pepper, garlic, chilli flakes and onion powder in a medium bowl; sprinkle and rub over turkey wings.
2. Bake until browned, 45-60 minutes.
3. To make sauce: melt butter in a large heavy saucepan or dutch oven; add celery and onion; cook over medium-low heat until soft but not browned, about 5 minutes; stir in thyme and pepper; cook 1 minute; add flour; cook, stirring constantly, until light brown, about 5 minutes; slowly whisk in broth.
4. Heat liquid to a boil; reduce heat and simmer uncovered 20 minutes.
5. Strain sauce through a sieve and return to the saucepan; slowly whisk in milk and stir constantly until sauce returns to a simmer.
6. Pour sauce over turkey wings; cover and cook until tender, about 1 hour.

october...

we now light the fire every morning as it is that beautiful crisp autumnal time, where the coziness begins! the smell of this time of year is just so amazing, but people are talking winter already!

now that my nausea is completely gone, i have been working a lot more, and i wanted to give honey a break since he was working lots, and we can deal with the public only so much until we go mad...
it's weird though, now that i am starting to get a belly, i don't feel pregnant?! we are still wainting to tell the family, since we want to see that the baby is all okay...i guess this is post-miscarriage stress, since we just don't want people to get excited again like last time...but phoenix (whose name came to me vividly in a dream when i was pregnant the first time) definitely chose the right name, since if all goes well, she had to leave the first time to be sort of reborn this time...very interesting indeed

halloween fun begins...

i had to fool around with this image program called picnik, it is just too cool, and i do love halloween, the dressing up and the scaryness surrounding it... and of course when i was a kid, i loved the trick & treating, i think i did it until i was sixteen! it was just fun to be out at night and making my own costume (of course!)
... plus i just read stephen king's "salem's lot" which was very scary indeed!

my honey...

my honey is so wonderful, baking delicious pancakes for breakfast, something i, for some reason have trouble with, but he does it with ease! and they are delicious, especially with my mama's homemade jams, yum!  i definitely have my appetite back, and today i made perogies (from scratch! very easy actually), and some carrot apple muffins since i want to use up my very fat carrots before frost since we don't have cold storage...
top things on my mind lately are the baby, the business and the future...plus all the nit picky things in the present... i really can't wait for my next midwife consultation, but that is only on the 25th! too long of a wait... i want to hear the heartbeat again just to make sure everything is okay, since now that i don't have the nausea, i don't feel anything... ah the worries...