+ enjoying every bit of summer

+ loving the new 3191 & excited for a year of sundays

+ picking freshly bloomed zinnias from the garden for the dinner table

+ preparing the freshest of meals & enjoying every delicious & perfectly ripen tomato

+ happy to have visited the goat farm that supplies our weekly raw milk. met some pretty cute chickens, too. a goat farm in our future? probably not.

+ ordered our first chicks! should arrive late september (!!)

+purchased this book as a guide. truly a book for beginners. i love it!

+ did you see the week of guest posts at tend?

+ & for some inspiration: amanda’s kitchen will brighten anyone’s day

+ off to make a delicious chocolate cake for luke’s birthday this saturday! lets cross our fingers & hope it doesn’t slip off the plate & onto the floor like last time. hah!

we are truly enjoying the long days of summer. we harvested the first tomato & cantaloupe from our garden. i am so proud of the herbs we started from tiny seeds. they are growing just enough for making pesto & drying for the winter months ahead. we made our first batch of pickles & have been blessed with cool mornings. cool enough for a bit of weeding & tending to the flowers.

i am finding that this space, my writing & most of my photographs reflect the rhythm of the seasons. as i grow into who i am, i feel myself also growing closer to nature, its landscapes, patterns & life. i’ve been searching recently for a new form for my blog to take. after almost three years of writing & changing radically as a person throughout, i do believe that my path is leading toward one that is sustainable & reflective of the seasons. i want to focus on the food we grow & eat, the choices we make in our home & the ease of simpler living.

if you have suggestions on how to improve this space or things you really enjoy about my blog, please do let me know. i know that i am so encouraged by your ideas & am thankful for the relationships that have flourished throughout this process.

i am so proud of luke & the work he is doing at kerr. last week, luke & his director hosted a garden tour for surrounding farmers to learn about sustainable projects happening on their organic farm.

i learned so much about composting, vermaculture, water-saving irrigation methods & heat-tolerant varieties of heirloom vegetables. i was beaming when luke presented his work on composting with resources from the farm & using worms as nutrient-rich additives for soils. he is a real organic farmer & providing for our family! i just couldn’t help but feel incredibly thankful for his passions, hard work & efforts.