My littlest little turned six last week.  While it may be cliche to say, it truly is jaw-dropping how swiftly the time flies.  Six!  And with missing front teeth to go along with his weeklong festivities.  We had a lovely family day together, trying out the skatepark for the first time, followed by a swim in the pool as the weather was most uncooperative last week and playing at the beach was not in the plans for the day.  My boys are newly obsessed with skateboarding and I’m all for encouraging them…what mama wouldn’t find a few hours sitting in the sunshine watching her kids ride around on boards… with knitting in hand.  Lots of knitting!  Yes, I think I like this sport quite a lot.

For Huckley’s birthday party, we invited several of his friends over for a treasure hunt and homemade water park.  This basically means last year’s greenhouse plastic stretched on a gentle slope with the water hose on it.  A little sprinkler and kiddie pool with kids splashing the slip n’ slide made for great fun.  Though, it is apparent my young boy really does best in smaller crowds.  While his older siblings enjoy the noise and activity of many kids playing about, Huckley seems to prefer a quieter celebration, out of the spotlight, with just one or two friends.  It is always a good reminder that each of our kids are so different from each other and need different things.

Lately, we have been grilling up meals old school on a little fire pit in the yard.  Ohhh, burgers taste sooooooo much better over old cherry wood.  We are in the midst of garlic harvesting which always marks the beginning of our food preservation for winter.  We begin by saving our biggest and fattest heads for re-planting in October, and then we make twelve braids for the months ahead.  Our sauna becomes a temporary garlic shed and it smells absolutely wonderful in there.  We are just finishing up last year’s harvest and have room to hang the braids in our entryway.  Any leftover bulbs will be made into pickled garlic and dried for sesonings.

On Wednesday I will have new yarn in the shop!  I sold a good amount in my opening week and had several private orders, so thank you so much for your support!  Between birthday festivities, I managed to squeeze in some dye baths and have several beautiful skeins coming in…and new colours!  The skein above is my new favourite yellow, with highlights of white, inspired by the dozens of chicks and poults feathering out in our coop.  I am calling it Hatchling.

In the meantime, there is garlic to finish braiding, a barn to muck out, pesto to freeze, cukes to pickle, and lots of berries to pick.  Oh!  and skateparks to skate in and knit beside!  I love these busy, summer days!  I hope you are enjoying yours, too.