Maybe it comes with getting a bit older, or more mature, shall we say (it's hard to believe 30 is looming large), but I'm beginning to notice that  there are certain things in this life that I really enjoy.  I've also noticed that most of them are rather prosaic.  That's alright, though--I wouldn't really want my greatest earthly pleasures to be great, extravagant things...hardly achievable or likely to come by.

I derive a sense of calm and accomplishment from a clean and organized home, softly lit, candles burning, Norah Jones humming in the background, and that particular absence of sound that signals a contentedly slumbering baby boy.  Ahh.

Hot tea, and I mean hot, with steam that curls your eyelashes as you hover your lip over the rim of the mug for that first, tentative sip, and the slightly scalding sensation that follows the first swallow.  A good magazine and a piece of really dark chocolate complete this trinity of tranquillity.

Natural fibres, wood, stone, earthy colours and streaming sunlight...slightly imperfect items, repurposed objects, and furniture and household items with history or a good story behind them.  All these combine to create a calming yet energizing environment for me.  I would love to combine them all into my ideal home someday.

Pottery.  Any kind, all kinds, especially mugs, for that really hot tea.

Cooking a good meal, following a recipe using delicious-smelling and fresh, healthy (and preferably organic) ingredients.

There are lots of others, but I will stop there, so as to enjoy my tea whilst it still burns my gizzard.  :)

So, I went to all the bother of "privatizing" our blog, then never really blogged again.  So, I've UNprivatized, and will attempt to make some kind of regular post here, although I will stick to FB for pictures and such, since I find technology to be a bit of a time suck, and the fewer applications that I use to broadcast my life to the masses, the more time I have to live my life.  :)  I truly believe one could spend more time documenting daily life than actually experiencing it, what with digital cameras, texting, twittering, FB status updating, and, yes, blogging.  And here I sit.  Everything in moderation.  Well, almost everything.

Termites eat through wood two times faster when listening to rock music.

Happy Friday and crank the AC/DC!

I am not a big fan of change. Looking at my life thus far, you might not guess that.

However, I have switched up the template for the blog, and in the process lost my blog roll (whoops!). Not sure if I will bother with it again, since there are not too many regular bloggers around these days...we'll see.

I am kind of interested in finding out what my readership looks like lately...so, if you don't mind...if you are reading this, leave a comment so I know who's out there!! Thanks!

Just a little video of our boy, getting bigger and more "grown-up" every day. What happened to my teeny baby?!?

He does some pretty cute things, and some things that would be cuter if they weren't actually not very good, like putting remote controls and cordless phones in the toilet. You just have to laugh...

As I mentioned in my last post, I really miss the "traditional" Fall season as I knew it. While looking for a quote about Fall to update my Quotables box here, I found this poem by John Updike. It not only reminded me of why I love Fall, but also of how much I love and miss a good English Lit class. Enough to make me want to go back to school. Almost.

September
John Updike

The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.

Another quote that drifts to mind this time of year, from perhaps a slightly less prestigious source, is this:

Well, I guess I was not as inspired as I thought I would be. A couple of months have rolled by, and I guess I was "too busy" to blog. Priorities, I guess.

Lincoln is napping for the moment, and I am hoping the kettle boils and I get a cup of tea before he wakes up. The weather here in FN has gotten much cooler, it's around 8 degrees this morning, and raining. The rain has been pretty steady over the last few days. I like it. It started off with a thunderstorm so intense, it really felt like the ground was shaking. It must have, actually, because it made our car alarm chirp.

Fall is such an itty-bitty season here, just a slight pause on the way to winter, really. A far cry from the gloriously coloured and moderately tempered autumns of the Maritimes that I grew up with. Fall remains my favourite season, but had I grown up here, I doubt it ever would have been. Spring is certainly the darling around these parts! Understandable after 8 months of darkness and -40.

With winter pending, I've been contemplating how I will fill my days, well, I know my little Lincoln will be keeping me on my toes, but in my "spare" time I am hoping to work on a few hobbies. Some that I've been mulling over:

Quilting: I even have a scrap pile started thanks to Tyler's Aunt Ruth, and a book of patterns, and inspiration and motivation from Kelly, my newly quilting friend.

Card Making and Scrapbooking: this is an ongoing interest, I have been going to a Stampin'Up club and accumulating some stamps and papers, punches, etc. The scrapbooking project I want to finish is Lincoln's 1st year baby book. I have just four pages done...

Bread-making and Baking: again, an ongoing interest, one I hope will not contribute too much to my waistline.

Reading: I really didn't read a lot last winter, and I already have a stack of fiction and non-fiction accumulating that I would like to get through.

Knitting: a love-hate relationship for me. I have very few finished projects to my name, although I love the idea of being "a knitter," and it's such a cozy activity, but I sometimes lack the persevering spirit required for larger pieces. I currently have a cable-knit coffee sleeve on my needles, but I am not sure where I left off back in MAY. Ugh.

I suppose that is a bit of a laundry list of ideas, however, it will be interesting to look back and see what's happened come the mid-winter blahs.

So, it's been a while since I've blogged...it seems that the phenomenon known as Facebook has all but swallowed up blog popularity. My list of frequented blogs has filtered itself out to a few faithfuls who still write for their readers. I like Facebook, it's an easy way to keep in touch with folks, but I occasionaly get nostalgic and scroll through the annals of my blog, and think "I should really keep blogging." Tonight was one of those nights, and here I sit with a cup of tea, reminiscing about many a late night spent in front of my old desktop, basking in the ambient light of the monitor while updating friends and family on our lives, or just rambling about nothing of consequence (deja vu all over again).

Living "Up North" has some interesting qualities (Yes, that does sound a tad euphamistic. I'm too tired to think of another way to say it. ) One of the interesting qualities that I actually like quite a bit is the long summer days. Sunrise at 4am, sunset at 10:30pm. That's eighteen and half hours of daylight! For someone like me, who's a bit of a night owl, it's fantastic. It's also a little dangerous, since I can be puttering away thinking 8pm, when really it's 11pm, and mornings come early with a 10 month old setting the breakfast schedule! These long days almost make up for the ridiculously short winter days. Notice I said almost. You know you live up north when it's June, the last of the snow has finally melted, the mosquitos are just getting into psychotic feeding frenzy mode, and you are already dreading winter and thinking you won't bother taking the snow shovels off the deck. At least we took our Christmas lights down. (Although, given the thought of putting them up again when it's -35 and snowing, I am questioning the wisdom of that decision.)

Well, that's it from me tonight. I have a feeling I will be back sooner rather than later.