Browsing Category

Country Life

In Adventures/ Country Life

Just Bloom

If you need me to convince you to plan a road trip with your daughter/mother/best friend/sister/significant other/stranger off the street to go wander among rows of flowers, cutting fresh blooms and trying your hand at arranging bouquets, then this is the post for you!!

Just Bloom Flower Farm, run by Emma Cole and her family, { shout out to future flower farmer Pip } is in Middle Musquodoboit and well worth the drive from anywhere you are.  The rural setting, nestled among the hills, dales and meandering rivers of the Musquodoboit Valley is picturesque but if you level that up with a dairy farm, some stone walls, lush green lawns and adorable cows, well, it doesn’t get much prettier!! While we strolled flower rows with scissors in hand, Emma chatted with her guests, guiding us in the art of cutting fresh flowers, arranging bouquets and even taking the odd picture, all while keeping an eye on Pip and carry her littlest one, Tilly, tucked in close.  Her middle child, Lauchie, was too busy dairy farming with his dad to bother much with us ladies clipping our blooms.

Pip’s little cluster of blooms

 

Don’t ask me the names of any of these flowers, I couldn’t tell you.  Everyone gathered whatever struck their fancy, clipping blooms, stripping stems and tucking them into their various vessels.  I took my good old green enamelware coffee pot, it is still my favourite for bouquets.  I decided I wanted to do a colour scheme of a deep wines and purples paired with creamy blossoms.  Sure the bright pinks and yellows called to me but I was craving something a little softer, a little more subtle.  And yes, I had bouquet-envy as I watched everyone else’s colourful clusters start to come together but I stayed the course and I have to say, I’m glad I did.

 

When Hannah and I got home, we trimmed our blooms and made up our final bouquets, which was fun, too, playing floral designer.  Hannah did up a bouquet just to dry for her room, and I love how it looks tucked into a sweet little thrifted pottery vase.

I had fun digging out my camera for the first time in quite some time.  It made me realize how much I do enjoy taking pictures and writing and miss it.  Thus, you are getting a blog post after all this time!!  I love how the arrangements look gathered together on the front porch!

Just Bloom Flower Farms does lots of different events throughout the year.  They do cutting garden seedling classes, wreath making, flower subscriptions, the cutting days like what we attended and lots more so I highly recommend giving Just Bloom a follow on Instagram HERE so you don’t miss out!!

Warmly,

Lori

 

 

 

In Adventures/ Country Life

Beach Bonfire

There’s a FB Messenger conversation that is probably 3 summers old now. It started as an open invitation in our circle of friends to meet at our local beach on Wednesday evenings. Bring your bathing suits, supper, kayak, whatever, just come to say hey or come for a few hours, we’ll see you there kinda thing.

Over the years, it’s still the same basic idea, but not just for Wednesday nights anymore…and we’ve made it to some, missed most but that doesn’t really matter, the invitation remains to join anyone from the group who posts their trip to the beach.

A couple Sunday nights back, Christine posted a trip to the beach with the dangling carrot of a beach bonfire in the group chat. Now, I love a good bonfire, but with the fire ban that’s been barely lifted this spring and summer, I was especially craving a good ole bonfire. And an evening on the beach to boot with friends, I was in!!

We took our usual sidekick, Marley, packed up bonfire supplies and headed to our favourite local beach to meet up with Dave, Christine, Simon and Izzy – everyone else from the chat had other plans. I had a lovely fire going in no time and sat around enjoying the sound of the kids playing before the rest of the crew showed up.  

Get ready for lots of beach pictures….

We started with snacks!  A bonfire just wouldn’t be complete without s’mores!!  Is there anything cuter than a kid and a s’more? No, I didn’t think so!

Clearly Izzy takes cookie eating very seriously!

After bellies were full, it was time to play and explore.  The four biggest kids { I’m using the term loosely!! } decided they wanted to go around the point.  Izzy thought she should be allowed to tag along, too, but it’s tricky walking on those rocks!

I shadowed Izzy and we veered off to walk up along the edge of the rockier part of the beach.  We found a stick and she played with it in the sand for quite some time.  It was so fun to hear her chatter away in her play.  She may have fed me a spoonful of sand when I wasn’t paying  close enough attention to what she was actually doing as I tried to get some pictures of her!

The crew come back from around the point all safely intact.  They clearly had big plans as they took off across the sand bar…

We finished off the night with some sparklers, it wasn’t quite dark enough but the kids did not care!!

It was time to wrap it up and take the tired, sandy kids home to their beds.  Izzy was clearly done in and needed a snuggle with her momma!  That makes everything better!

Pack it all up!  Be sure not to leave anything behind!  Especially the cute little ones!! 

I hope your summer is filled with trips to the beach with friends!!  If you are in Nova Scotia, there are lots to explore…granted, I think the best beach is also the one closest to us!!

Warmly,

Lori

 

In Adventures/ Country Life/ Life

Gone Fishin’

A few weekends ago, I was asked to join the girls and Michael on a fishing trip.  I’ve never really been fishing before, although I do have vague memories of standing beside my Opa on the bridge in River John with a pole, and the occasional trip to the Black River with a bent nail tied with baler twine on an old stick.  So, we’ll just say fishing has never been a major pastime for me.

The first thing to do for any outdoor activities is make sure you apply sunscreen…

It’s fun to watch the girls learn new things…like casting!  I have zero advice to offer.  Zlitch.  Zip.  But it looked right?  The hook ended up in the water the majority of the times they cast so they must be doing it right….

Of course, I don’t have a fishing license so I spent my time with camera in hand.  There are only so many times you can take pictures of the girls, so I soon turned to the nature around us.

I don’t much care what we are doing, I enjoy hangin’ out with these girls.  Whether it’s riding, chalking the driveway, going on a road trip or standing on the banks of a river, I’m game for anything, really.

They are growing up before my eyes.  I really feel like time is flying by and I’m feeling like I’ve missed too much time already.  So, I’ll soak it up, snap pictures so I can look back and remember the good times.  And if someone wants to come and sit with their momma for a minute for a break, I might snap one last picture, put the camera down and wrap my arms around my girl.

Warmly,

Lori

1 In Country Life

Social Distancing Barnyard Style

We are living is some crazy times. Toilet paper stock piles, cheap gas, no school, so many people working from home, and our essential workers finally getting the recognition they deserve. It is a heavy time, to be sure. So, I thought I’d bring a little humour to it all, in hopes it makes you smile and maybe even chuckle a little.

To help you remember the key distance to keep between yourself and others, we’re going to the barn yard.

First off, how many chickens should you keep between yourself and the guy at the grocery store? 3 chickens!! { Unless they’re a banty, then you probably want about 6 chickens }

Now, what about cows? How many cows between you and the lady walking her dog on the street? One adult cow or two calves.

And we can’t forget pigs!! Apparently it’s two pigs but I’ve seen pigs big enough that one will do and pigs tiny enough that you’d need three…Angela, how many Lucys do we need to stay 6’ apart? { I highly recommend following Lucy on Instagram which you can do HERE, you may have seen her show up in my stories before!! }

Llamas seems to be the trendy animal at the moment, Dad had one as a livestock protection animal, Larry the Llama did not like Mom, he’d spit at her even though she brought him treats regularly. Anyway, one llama between you and your neighbour.

And this one is an ode to my Lena, who is hoping to do some jumping this summer…let’s hope River doesn’t try to keep you away…

And one last one that I couldn’t resist…being a farm kid and all…

I hope you’ve enjoyed this bit of foolishness, life feels very tough and serious and I’m by no means trying to diminish the seriousness of COVID-19. I miss what life used to be like, seeing my friends and family and hugging the people I love. I miss wandering the grocery store without a care. I miss sending my girls off to teachers and friends, I’m not nearly as much fun as they are!

I’m so thankful for the front lines. People who are our essential workers helping us to stay healthy, to stay feed, to stay up to date. We appreciate you more than you’ll ever know!

It is my prayer that you and yours are staying healthy and staying home as much as possible to do your part in stopping this pandemic. #flattenthecurve

Warmly,

Lori

PS No idea who to credit these to – they just came across my FB feed and I’ve been saving them over the last few weeks!

1 In Clear Day Farm/ Country Life

Meet the New Lambs!

Well, Lambing 2019 is behind us!  And boy oh boy, are those new babies cute!!  They’ve been filling my Insta feed, but I thought I’d share here, too, because new lambs are just too cute not to share EVERYWHERE!!!

First to lamb was Mocha, one of last year’s lambs from Sweet Willow, our matriarch.  Mocha had a single ram lamb, who arrived healthy and strong and unaided.  We all rolled home the Friday before last and there he was.  Hannah named him Spencer and he continues to grow like a bad weed!!  He’s a heavy little guy! It’s because he does this all the time and doens’t have to share all that great milk….

Next to lamb was Lily, she was a twin from Sweet Willow during her second year to lamb. { Lily and her twin, Sweetie, both lambed here last year but Sweetie got culled due to her aggresive behaviour towards any lambs but hers. }  When I went to do morning barn chores last week, there was one little lamb waiting for me, brand new and I saw tiny feet coming so I ran back to the house to wake up Hannah for the second delivery, but we were too slow, the other twin was already born when we got back to the barn.  Both ewe lambs did well off the hop, although the last one was a little smaller than her sister, so I did tube feed her to give her a little boost.  Hannah named the first-born Rosie and the little one Mia.

Then we waited for Sweet Willow.  Now, I feel like I need apologize to all those I told that I was sure Sweet Willow was going to lamb at any minute.  I kept you all waiting, unintentionally, I just can’t read sheep pregancies and labour signs very well.  In fact, I think I mention that same issue I had last year HERE and HERE { insert eye roll }

We watched and we waited, we looked for lamby-type signs from her and she gave ALL the signs.  And guys, she was as big as house!!!  In fact, she was so big, she had a hard time breathing, those babies took up so much room in her frame.  I was honestly worried about her.  And admittedly worried about how many babies were in that enormous belly.  Every day, multiple times a day someone would go out, check on her….and report back that there was nothing happening.

Until there was….last Friday morning, I went to the barn and sure enough, there was a lamb….but he was stuck.  I called Dad, because, well, I’m never too old not to need Dad in an emergency and he has years of practice with lambing.  I also woke up Michael but not Hannah, I didn’t want her to see this.  After some hard work, some tears on my part and lots of pep talks for Sweet Willow, we got the huge ram lamb out, but sadly he didn’t make it. Then Dad reached back in to see if the other twin he felt earlier was still alive.  Well, I lost it again when this tiny little lamb shook her little head and started breathing upon her arrival to the outside world.  She was just a little rig but boy, what a fighter.  Thankfully, oh so thankfully, she made it as did her poor momma.  Hannah named her Emma and named her big brother Domino, who we buried in the yard with Twiggy, BB and Cuddles. { These animals are so hard on the heart – we love, we lose and we cry and then we move forward and open up our hearts agian! }

The lambs are all doing very well this year, now that they are all here.  They are going out to pasture with their mommas everyday and it’s so fun to watch them run and hop and play together in the grass.  Once Emma gets a little bigger, they’ll stay out at night, too, but I’m a big sook and baby them too much, I’m sure.  I can just picture Dad reading reading this and thinking to himeself, ‘oh, just chuck them all out on pasture, they’ll be fine’.

It’s amazing how quickly they start doing ‘big’ sheep things like eat grain, or hay or graze like their mommas out on pasture.  I could took lamb pictures all day long….think there’s a job of that?? 😉

And just because lambing is such an amazing time of year, you can read some other posts about it HERE and HERE from previous years.

I love watching Hannah and hearing her talk to others about her lambs.  She has such a heart for these animals of hers and I’m just thrilled with how well she handles all the ups and downs of it all.  She’s a true farmer in her being and it gives her such a sense of place in this crazy world.  And even though having sheep means hard work for us, too, I wouldn’t trade these life lessons that are teaching her for anything.

Stay tuned to Instagram for more pictures, they are growing so fast and are just so stinkin’ cute!!!

Colourfully Yours,

Lori