Quotable Sunday: a mother is born

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.

She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never.

A mother is something absolutely new.” ― Osho Rajneesh

Today I am feeling a million happy, nervous bubbles for some dear friends who are in the process of welcoming their first daughter earth-side (any day now!). They were amongst the very first people to help us meet each of our daughters. I am entirely too many miles away today, but we have a candle glowing to remind our family to keep you in our thoughts.
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Today also marks one month of Quotable Sundays. Many thanks to those who have joined us. Kerry will be hosting for December, but for this last Sunday in November, please leave your comment here so we know where to visit.

Join us for Quotable Sunday. In a tradition started by Kyrie of Are So Happy and carried on with Kerry of Young Ones and Linnea of PeppermintAlley, we invite you to post a quote on your site. Quotations can be old favorites or new inspiration…funny or sentimental…famous or personal…just give credit (where credit is due) and have fun. Thank you for joining our Sunday rhythm.

How do you join us?

After you have made a post, link it via comments to this post. Be sure to link back to this post so your friends can also contribute. You can also join our flickr group and add your weekly contribution there. Linnea will host for November, Kerry will host in December, and Kyrie will host in January. (Don’t worry, we’ll link it all up so you know where to go and add your contribution!)
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Thank you and welcome to the friends who joined Quotable Sunday during November:
Suzin, May, Susan, Ginny, Angela, Emily, and Melanie.

Quotable Sunday : with Mary Oliver

Happy Sunday. I’m hoping to be back with consistent weekly Quotable Sunday by November. I hope you’ll consider joining me. :)

summer goal :: in progress

 

One of my summer goals (left over from last year) is to learn more about wild edibles.

I will admit, foraging kind of intimidates me.  First, there is the obvious risk of mis-identifying plants.  Secondly, we live in a city so I worry about the soil…

I don’t quite know how to address the latter, so we’ll start with the former.  Two little books that have helped me are these handy dichotomous keys.

I also have a third: the Tree Finder (which has been in my possession since I went to school at a nature center in sixth grade).

Admittedly, the flower one is difficult to follow- there are so many unclear terms for the novice hunter, and many are missing from the glossary.

Madam Berry Finder on the other hand had proven quite helpful. We found elderflower (which are now in the form of a cordial), black-capped raspberries (hello jam) and mulberries (I already knew those so I used it as practice). While I don’t yet feel that I can take on the world, it’s fun.

I am also learning the names of the wild plants growing around my yard. (Shhhh, we’ll not call them weeds when they have such lovely names: plantain, lamb’s quarters…) Any suggestions for good books? I have a few from the library, but I’ll always look at more.

Learning About Grass

There is now an aquarium of grass seeds that has moved in with us.

Blame it on spending the summer in the suburbs…with lawns the size of football fields…blame it on parents who cared more for planters and a deck than for the grassy part of our postage-stamp sized yard in Philly…but Riana has spent the summer somewhat fascinated by grass.  She has been amazed that people cut their grass…and water their grass…and cut it again…then, a few weeks ago, she put all of this wonder about grass into the form of an amazingly succinct (and answerable!) question. She said “What I really want to know is how grass grows.” I still don’t know just how she managed to form a question like that.  Believe me, I have tried to help elementary school students form essential questions, and it can be painful.  I will admit, I initially let the ball drop on this one.  Here she is with a great question and I did not take immediate action.  All summer, I’ve been thinking about Vintage Chica’s Summer Unschool project and still I managed to let other things crowd the days and we did not get to the question. I thought that the question was long gone into the abyss of three-year-old-why-why-why-questions.  Luckily, I was wrong. A few days later, Riana made good friends with the librarian who politely asked if we needed help finding any books.  I was saying “no thank you” as Riana interjects: “I need to know how grass grows.” And thus, we were whisked away to the books about plants. I’m pretty sure that Riana and the librarian exchanged phone numbers or something. Friends for life, I tell you.

So we read books…watched a movie…inspected grass seeds with a magnifying glass…and then Granddad dug up this old aquarium to plant grass seeds. The books were actually quite informative and useful. The Gail Gibbons “From Seed to Plant” was more in depth than we were ready for, but both that and Weekly Reader’s “How Grass Grows” gave us plenty of information. Now we are just waiting for those seeds to sprout…

I know that learning is not always this easy to come by, but this is a great age. There are a lot of questions every day and so many of these wonderings  allow for exploration. I feel so very fortunate to have this time with the girls; to be present when some of the answers are found in fish tanks and with friendly librarians.