Apple Picking

A few days ago, one of my go friends told me that he had many more apples than he could use, and would we like to come pick them? He did had to apologize though, because they hadn't been sprayed this year, actually hadn't been sprayed at all for the last four years.



Wow! I jumped up and kissed him and started dancing around the room. I hope he got the message that I didn't mind at all that they hadn't been sprayed. Do you think the dancing might have been overdoing it?



He sure had more apples than we do on our trees. They were good too! A bit splotchy, but they taste so wonderful, we didn't care at all.



Now we have many apples to make apple goodies, yum!

Sun Set

Big Brother, Little Sister

Fall leaves are turning yellow
Brisk wind and bright sun
Big brother, little sister

All of Them

Walking with My Daughter

A few days ago, I wanted to go out for a walk, and Tara decided to go with me. It was a nice and crisp fall day, and we hiked to our local beaver pond.



We saw many beautiful fall sites and had fun checking out how low the beaver pond is now. The beavers have moved out a few years ago, and it has been a relatively dry summer, so the water level is lower than I have ever seen it. Will be interesting to see how it develops through the winter and in the spring, once the snow melts.



We checked out a nearby stream, which was not as low as I expected, given the state of the beaver pond. This means that much water much come into the beaver pond, although it is not always easy to see where that happens, I will have to check out more next time we visit.



We really need to learn how to identify mushrooms, we find so many of them during this time of the year.



We also found some blooming moss, which I have seen before, but I have no idea which kind of moss. Please leave a comment if you do know it.



It was nice to be out with just Tara, and to talk to her without anyone interrupting us, or annoying Tara. Not that she ever would be annoyed by her siblings of course, but theoretically.

Fruit Trees

Many years ago, we planted a few apple and pear trees. Over all the years (seven and counting) we have gotten exactly ONE apple from them. An apple we ritualistically divided in pieces, so that we all could have a tiny taste.



This year, things finally looked up. We started out with a bunch of baby apples, baby pears, and even baby plums. The plums never made it to adulthood. But! Some apples and pears actually did!

Watch our harvest!



Yes, I know it's not much, and they look ugly, but they are our organically grown (read: totally ignored) fruit from our very own fruit trees. I will be dividing up apples in tiny parts again.



Ob. kids reference: the apples are from Kate's placenta tree. It was about time this one started producing, since Kate celebrated her 8th birthday this year :p

Word of the Day

dag

1. A lock of matted or dung-coated wool.

Background: Tim played Quiddler (a card game with words) with a visitor, and this was one of the first words he came up with. She had never heard of it (neither had I for that matter) so we looked it up in the dictionary. And yes, there it was. It had to be my child who knew the proper name for poop-covered wool.

While this was going on, Erik had gotten out Scrabble Junior and was making words. Tim helpfully reached over and changed 'duck' into 'cock'. Kate didn't know this word yet, so she asked me 'Mom! What does cock mean?'
Me, cowardly 'It is a male chicken'
She looks at me and wonders 'Are you telling the truth????'
I reply 'Yes, it is the truth, just not the whole truth'.
She looked it up in the dictionary. 'Male fowl, male lobster. OH!!!!! It is slang for penis!!!!' gleefully closing the dictionary and repeating it over and over.

Now Tim had moved on to 'wang' on the scrabble board, but thankfully nobody noticed. Or if our visitor did, she was too polite to point it out.

Are you Right Brained or Left Brained?

Go here and tell me which way the dancer is spinning.

For me, it was very clear that she was spinning counter clockwise.
Cees was just as sure that she was going clockwise.
This made it more interesting, so I decided to ask the other kids.

Tim saw clockwise.
Tara saw clockwise.
Jane was very definite: she said that the dancer was going both ways.
Kate said clockwise.
Erik clockwise.
Sylvia is clockwise too.

We all (apart from Sylvia) were able to train ourselves to see the other direction. It took me ages the first time though. Now I can do it mostly at will, with some concentration.

Interesting how all the kids but Jane immediately saw clockwise, and how it was extremely clearly counterclockwise for me. Jane had no trouble seeing both directions at once, and didn't seem to have a dominant direction.

What about you? Clockwise or counter clockwise? Are you able to make her turn direction?

Welcome Home

Last night, I was greeted by this on our front door.



Which melted my heart, until I actually opened that door.



Let's just say that we spent A LOT of time cleaning today.



And we spent a lot of time listening to Kate scream :p My head is slowly exploding.

I Am Back!

Last night, I came home from a wonderful weekend of fun and relaxation.



I played go, spent time with friends, ate amazing food, hiked, and played more go. I learned a lot, enjoyed nature, and had an awesome time. I spent time using my new camera and getting to know more about how it behaves. I still have a lot of things to learn about it. About go too, for that matter.



This is the house we stayed at, it is an old boarding house and has lots of character. In the beginning, I always got lost in it, that is getting better now. I am happy I went away, but I am also glad to be home again.



I uploaded many pictures to my flickr account, although most of them are people playing go.