Little Hearth & Large Room: {pretty, happy, funny, real} The beach, the kite, the bear, and the bush!

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Brought to you by Like Mother, Like Daughter

It's been a while, but here we are - right in the middle of spring and all the busyness it brings. We've been experiencing lots of outdoor contentment, good for the soul after a long winter.

{pretty}

When Mom was visiting we took our first trip to the beach this spring! This is up near Dalvay-by-the-Sea (The White Sands Hotel, for those of you familiar with the Anne of Green Gables movies or Road to Avonlea.) How refreshing! We even found some beach glass.

She loves the water

Run, Mommy, run!

Arden wanted us to have a nap on the beach!

Getting the sand out of her boots

Jack was eager to join in the sandy fun

Up the dune

I can't wait for more beach days!

{happy}

In cleaning out one of the old sheds (more on that later), Micah found an old plastic kite. Arden was so excited - whenever we watch Mary Poppins she wants to fly a kite! It had a hole in it, but with a bit of tape it was made flightworthy again.

Arden is running out to meet Daddy, who is lying down on the kiteflying job!

A perfect spring evening

The camera card filled up just as I started taking the kite pictures. Oh well, I'm sure there will be more to come in days ahead!

{funny}

My sister, known to Arden as Auntie Jenny, sent us a giant Winnie-the-Pooh bear! He has been made part of the family, as you can see.

I made sure Pooh Bear had some toast as well, though I insisted he did not need jam!

Thanks Auntie Jenny! (You can check out her new blog home, Chickadee Manor!)

{real}

Lots of work being done on the properties these days! We rented a chipper on Wednesday, and between Micah and I working together in the morning, and Micah and our neighbour all afternoon (and well into the evening), we got rid of many brush piles. Hooray! They also cleared out a LOT of deadfall and other trees from the hill and did some major pruning of old apple trees.

I kind of forgot to take before pictures . . . but these aren't exactly after pictures either! Just a lot of in-between at the moment, but it's definitely progress!

First, the backyard:

Off to the right near that old "parts" tractor was our biggest pile of brush, gathered last year.

What's left is stuff too big for the chipper, some boards and other garbage.

Wood to be chopped for burning. You can kind of see the big brown patch where the pile used to be.

I moved the wood chips into a neat pile at the back - future compost!

Arden's apple tree is about to bloom!

Once we get the rest of the stuff cleaned up, I can actually start plotting my veggie garden!

Now for the other property:

Come on down the steps and have a look...

Another stone has been added to even out the spacing, and a board on top
of the pallet bridge so we don't fall through. :)

The rest of the wood chips. Piled here to keep them dry so we can use them for . . .

. . . the chickens!!

Oh yes, did I tell you we now have chickens?? Right now we are looking after the laying hens of some friends of ours. They've got an insulated part of that shed with a little outdoor run.

It looks a huge mess right now, which it is, but it's a good mess! Micah and our neighbour pulled ALL the rotting, wretched, raccoon-infested stuff (including a decomposing raccoon - maybe a source of the stench??) out of the shed and have been taking it away! They also dug up the sagging floor and now have plans and supplies to replace rotting boards, level it out and basically make a new foundation! And all of this because we are planning to go together on some meat chickens over the summer, and this will be their new home.

The view from another angle. The side of that hillside has been cleared out. Brush piles in progress.

And now some more hillside to show you. Not as effective without the before pictures, but for those of you who've seen it, hopefully you will notice the difference. :)