Waterfalls and edible gardens

With the temperatures slowly rising our need to be outdoors is awakening. I feel like I am coming out of hibernation and wanting to be outside all the time. Soak up the sun, breath that air that hints of spring and daydream about what I'm going to plant on the balcony and our little piece of green next to our front door. The kids are enjoying all this outdoors time as well. Esther is always pointing at the front door, looking at me and nodding her head. She wants out, this girl. And Sebastián is easily coaxed outside these days, just as long as he can spend time playing with his "waterfall". All that snow melting on the garage roof is pouring out of the rain gutter. Add some ice, sticks, last falls acorns and dirt and you have a very happy three year old.

Watching him play so happily with his waterfall got me thinking about contentment. We live in a apartment that is getting just a bit crowded by the stuff of four people (oh what I wouldn't give for a laundry room), and we have been looking for a house that suits us for quite some time now. I feel that I am the type of person that is usually quite content and easy to please, but this whole house-hunting thing has made me so unhappy with what we have. I hate that. Its such a waste of energy, isn't it? The home we have now may be a far cry from what I dream about, but it's home. It's filled with the things I love and like it or not, it is the stage of most of our everyday life. Every so often I need that reminder, to lay aside the daydreams and longing and realize that what we have now isn't so bad. This is just fine and works for all of us. This can be a great waterfall, if we just give it a chance and enjoy what it has to offer. Kids can be great teachers, without even knowing it.

I'll end this with a little bit of inspiration. Ah, inspiration, what would I do without you? I was working on Sebastiáns cardigan this evening and watching a gardening show that was just lovely. The host of the show, a gardener named Alys Fowler,  guides you through her transformation of a small urban garden to a garden that is not only pleasing to the eye but is overflowing with vegetables. The show is called "The edible garden" and will apparently focus on community self-sustainability in an urban environment (love it!). She's also written a book with the same title that I am quite excited about (OK, I'm excited about all of her books, *sigh*), here's a link to "The edible garden". I've been planning on growing a lot more veggies this summer despite not having a garden, and I'm sure this show will be a great source of inspiration. I don't watch much tv, but I'll make an exception here. Plus, she has chickens in this rather small garden - that really got my attention. Its a secret dream of mine, to have my very own chickens. Ok, getting side-tracked here, back to the show. This first episode ended with with a great tip: buy dried peas at the supermarket (much cheaper than at a gardening store) and plant them quite densely in a pot. You can have it indoors, say a sunny kitchen window (that I do have!), and instead of letting the plants bloom you harvest the leaves. Pea shoots. I googled this and found a how-to here. Sounds delicious and looks gorgeous. I will definitely be trying this out!

Oh, and while I'm sharing all this inspiration, I just have to throw some knitting in as well. I stumbled upon this beautiful pattern today, I just have to make this! I see matching pullovers for Esther and Sebastián in the future, yes I do!

This and that

Oh but its been a while! Chicken pox got the best of us, Esther had it pretty bad and I've been using my free time to work on my thesis. I've also had my nose stuck in a book - or should I say four of them - these past few weeks. I caught the Twilight fever. These books are much better than the movies, very entertaining. Thet're obviously written for a younger audience, but the story sucked me in. It was like a soap opera, I just had to know what would happen. I did most of my reading in the evenings, by the light of my iphone, with my sick little Esther lying beside me. She wouldn't sleep if I wasn't there, and  since I had these books to whisk me away I really didn't mind having to go to bed at the same time as her. I guess I should have been reading scientific articles instead, *ahem*, but this was way more fun. I'd like to say that I'm "back in business" and will be posting regularly, but my thesis is still far from finished and will need a lot of attention in the coming months. I will be posting every now and then though.

Here's the view I've had from my kitchen window these past few weeks (at least up until a few days ago). The sun is coming up earlier and earlier, the light is just beautiful. We've gotten a lot of snow and cold weather lately. I've done my best to try and enjoy it as I mentioned in my earlier post, but nah, I'm still longing for spring. I love the slower pace of winter, but life with small kids is just so much easier when its warmer outside. Esther started walking amidst the chicken pox and teething hell we've been in, and I am so looking forward to a lot of outdoors time with her, watching her discover the world.

Our sledding outing was a bit of a disaster to be honest. We went out on the day that Esther got sick, which we hadn't realized yet, and she wasn't digging the whole outdoors thing that day. But she did enjoy a little ride in the sled before she started protesting. My boy did a lot of protesting as well, loudly. Wasn't too pleased with his parents, who wouldn't let him ride down the steepest slope by himself. He did get to go down a tamer slope alone and of course fell, leading to even louder protests. I think the one that enjoyed the outing most was me. I'd forgotten how much fun it is whooooosh down those slopes!

Speaking of fun, I had the best time last Sunday. A few friends and I took the day off from our families and visited a crafts festival in Stockholm (Syfestivalen). It was absolute eye candy - there was yarn everywhere, and every handcraft you could think of was represented. Knitting, crocheting, sewing, quilting, jewelry making, needle felting and probably more things I can't think of now. It was so inspiring and so. much. FUN.  We spent hours walking around, talking and checking out the booths. And buying of course.

 I bought fabric for the smocks I'm planning to sew for Esther, some yarn for a neck warmer I've cast on for (more on that later) and a book by Cath Kidston with simple sewing projects. The book includes fabric for the bag that's shown on the front cover, how great is that?! I am totally in love with this book, there are so many projects in there that I want to do. So much to do, so little time, right?!

Checking in

Mostly just checking in here, it's been quite in my corner. Chicken pox, sleepiness and trying to find time to work on my thesis has kept me unwillingly away. Not even time for knitting, so no yarn along post from me this week. *sigh* A week without knitting is a sad week indeed!

I'm in a total funk. Trying once again to kick my bad coffee habit, but here I sit with just one little cup to rid myself of this awful headache and hope that I will be up for some sledding soon. It freezing cold outside today,  -16 C, but out we must, every day, to soak up what sun we can and breath in that clean, crisp air. We have promised my boy sledding today, so we'll be heading out in a bit. Hopefully it will be a bit warmer then, I don't know how long we can be out at these temperatures.

Winter came so late this year, I'm hoping we won't have one of those winters that drags on for too long. But that's whats been happening lately. Winter comes late and encroaches on what should be spring months, and spring seems like just a small hiccup before summer. I'm doing my best to enjoy this cold weather, trying to capture the beauty of all that snow and ice outside, trying to make the most of cozying up with my hot water bottle and blankets inside.

Mushroom man

But secretly, I am still longing for spring and summer, I can't help it. I miss having the front door open all day, letting Sebastián run in and out as he pleases, bbq's, fishing, planting things and just everything that warm weather brings. But for now, I'll try to enjoy what we have left of this season. Spring will be here soon enough.