when you feel warm and fuzzy

last year i bought a book called "how to pick a peach" by russ parsons. the book tells you where certain fruits and vegetables originated, where they are grown now, what to look for when choosing , it also includes a few recipes. what was really interesting to read is how fruit such as peaches have changed. did you know they used to be white? but retailers complained that you could easily see the bruising so growers developed different kinds. while i do not remember a white peach i do remember when the the flesh of the peach was stuck to the stone( pit) and i would suck every each of the remaining sweetness from it- well guess what 90 percent of the peaches, apricots, nectarines and so on are grown so that the stone no longer sticks to the flesh, for some reason this makes me sad. I am happy to say that the peaches i received the other day had me sucking on a stone!! have great weekend every one, if only on this day everyone could have the chance to eat a peach.

a farm stand and new friends

this weekend while trying to find a supermarket i ended up getting lost but what i ended up finding is the perfect farm stand. catherine the owner with her large smile explained that this was their first year. I listened and asked questions, took pictures and went home with all the ingredients for a ratatouille( thanks sheila) and ate a delicious apple on the way home. well yesterday needing to go get more veggies, i found myself driving there. the stand is in ct, and i must pass many farm stands before i get there but i knew it would be hard to find people as kind. i arrived and quickly gathered more veggies a couple of apples to try, they have many varieties. she handed me a big basket of peaches and a few other things on the house, how lucky was i! I grabbed a bottle of locally made ginger ale, when she said "how did your picture turn out?" i said "okay" and she said would you like to go to the orchard and take photographs? would i i was in heaven! The orchard is beautiful it has fifteen hundred apple trees of every kind and color not to mention peach trees and a pond. I was under the weather so i will return there to take more pictures. I can't help but think how quickly life has changed for k and i, their i am getting my produce in connecticut having four pets, listening to crickets under the biggest starlit sky..while eating peach crisp and ice cream!

a weekend

this past weekend a friend came over to share the farm with me. we walked through the pastures and into the forest where we spent some time with the horse and the cow. we made the freshest caprese salad and had iced hibiscus tea by the light of the moon. we baked banana bread and made a big ratatouille with the vegetables from the farm stand. we also walked down the road where we found the most gorgeous varieties of pumpkins and if that was not perfect enough there were new born kitties all about. we ended the evening with bowls of mango and vanilla ice cream while watching grey gardens and long conversations about the grey areas of our own lives.

* the last photo is from our pumpkin patch, a little behind no pesticides and lots of rain.

a new beginning

well here i am, in a new place therefore it must be a beginning. we have moved, left the city and we are in the country on the farm. we live on a farm in the country but wait, we are only twenty five minutes from the city. that might be perfect! so i decided that i would just give a little newness to the blog. i am nervous, the old is so familiar to me and perhaps to you so let try it together, i think we can get used to it.

the farm has a name, cucumber hill farm and i like it very much. i also love saying it, well mostly outloud to the dogs:)we introduced sophie and grace (dogs) to mike the horse and clarabelle the cow( not isabelle as i had thought). grace tried to play with the clarabelle and mike, we kept our eyes closed as we prepared for grace to be kicked by clarabelle, she tried her hardest but it is clear that she was happy to have grace around. sophie is much more calm and her and mike seem to have this quiet understanding and respect.

Oh dear friends, i am nervous, excited for this new beginning. there is so much to learn, like how to get clarabelle back into the pasture when she runs to the corn field for extra treats. or how to clear all the weeds from the pumpkin patch(1/2 acre of pumpkins), where to start the vegetable beds this year for next spring but mostly how to put my camera down, i am so inspired i can barely stand it: do not worry though the city has tall beautiful historical stone buildings, cafes and my studio so i will not just be a farm girl:) i also will be doing a few special photo shoots, working on special projects that i hope to share with you in the months to come, hopefully mixed in with some travel - so i guess what i am trying to say it will not be dull around here!

* i would like to say a special thanks to aran and paul for helping me with my blog redesign!

changes

things are changing:)

the dusk of summer

it is the dusk of summer. the contrast of the house with kids and without is harsh, the move to the farm comes in good time. I learned a lot about others and myself this summer. the summer was full with meaning, fun and growth. I also believe that somehow i am no longer stuck to some it might have looked like i was still, but no i was stuck caught in between two hard places one i created and one that was my reality. I miss the kids did i say this already?

a few weeks ago k. called the children to the window to show him a spider who had caught a giant fly right before their eyes. the spider had created a gorgeous web, it was no bigger then a dime(includes the legs) weighing nothing yet it went for it something larger, something that should be beyond it's reach with wings, i thought about it all night and realized i could do it. I took my young ambition for granted, went for everything my heart desired and got it, if it was work, travel, store fronts it came with hard work yet it felt easy. when i became "stuck" i believed i lost it, that the run was over. i decided it, i gave up on what i knew and that is go get what you want, do it, just do it while keeping your values and ideals in check!

these pictures are from vermont on our way to take my niece and nephew back to montreal. it was dusk, k and i were feeling a little melancholy about the end of the summer with kids. then as a good old friend the sky, it's sun, clouds and mountains painted us a prettier picture!

grey, old and i love it!

I went home this weekend. home is cobblestone roads, the sound of horse drawn carriages, words spoken in many different languages, street performers on every corner. It is menu boards with moules, vins et frites written on them. home is where style pours out in every alley way and every shop facade. oh how i love walking up and down the streets of old montreal with my family.

*google has been giving me trouble wi th storage have to use my own name for a few est je n'aime pas cela!

do you like the size of these images or back to the way they where? they seem blurry to me?

oh my!

dear friends, how are you today? my head is spinning! tomorrow we will be heading to montreal to take dylan and elle back to montreal, how fast this summer has gone. so fast, too fast, oh my! see head spinning!

summertime!