Peony Season

Peony Season is now, sadly, behind us but I couldn't let it go without documenting some of the beauty that we were surrounded with.  This was the third year for our peonies after planting and they put on a spectacular show.

The color variations, the ruffles and the sheer romance of peonies truly blow me away.

Right as they were getting to marshmallow stage (when it's best to pick for cut flowers) we had two days of very warm weather and that caused them to seemingly blow open all once!  In reality though they didn't and we enjoyed them for weeks.

I love enjoying peonies inside as much as I do outside and we cut lots of them for our house.  Bryce even commented on how indulgent it felt to have such masses of flowers.  

Did you know that peonies are actually edible?  As much as I love edible flowers, peony petals seem a little big but they look beautiful on top of cakes!  I made this cake for our family reunion.  The buttercream was rose and it was so good!

This year, as part of our flower farm, we sold bunches of peonies!  In total we sold about 60 and already I've learned so much.  We will be planting more in the field this fall and I'm making my lists, including colors of our local high schools as I got requests for specific colors for graduations!

8th Grade Graduation

Phew.  The last couple of weeks have felt like a marathon with school and activities ending and culminating with Harris graduating from 8th grade!  Three years ago, he made the hard decision to attend The Waldorf School for middle school.  Grace had attended and had a wonderful experience.  While Harris' experience was vastly different than hers, he stuck with it and I'm hoping that in years to come, we will look back and realize the gifts that it gave us.  

The graduation ceremony was so lovely and reminded me of one of the reasons we went to Waldorf in the first place, they really get to know the children on many levels.  Harris' teacher spoke about each child and what he considered their essential element that makes them "them."  About Harris he said that he had a self awareness that was unique for someone his age and called him a "platoon leader."

photo by Photography by Cari Ellen

The children each painted a figure for the backdrop of the stage.  Harris' is the one on the far right.

We are so proud of Harris and his friends and truly can't wait to see what high school brings for them!  Onward!

Our Outdoor Sink

We recently finished installing our outdoor sink.  We had it at the old house and even though it's heavy as a horse, I insisted that we bring it along.  It's so awesome for all sorts of uses, including holding drinks, rinsing off vegetables, getting water, etc.

It's very simply plumbed in that we ran a hose from the outside spigot (so no hot water) to the sink and tapped the drain into our downspout that is right next to the sink.

 My Mom made a new skirt for it and I think it looks so cute!  I'm thinking of the pale pink as a neutral and it goes beautifully with our green doors!  The only downside is that every time we get a heavy rain the mulch splatters up on the skirt.  Perhaps we will need to put gravel around that area?