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When I think of Irises I think of a day when there were three guys. And three flowers. But no one told them which flower was for which guy.

One white rose and two violet irises arrived that sunny June morning at the church on the hill with the tall white steeple. They had been boxed and delivered to the groom and his two groomsmen. For some reason, at least according to my husband’s memory, they just dealt out the flowers randomly, not giving much thought to who should wear the most unique flower.

All I know is that in my elated wedding stupor, standing in the outdoor courtyard, in front of the pastor, I never recognized the mix up. Holding hands with the man I’d been holding hands with for seven years, but this time doing so with rings and a lifetime commitment exchanging between us, I remember thinking how beautiful his boutonniere was in the morning sunlight. How glad I was that I picked the stunning periwinkle iris for him.  (Never mind that I had actually picked a single white rose, which was gracing one of the groomsman’s lapels.)

It was a fun memory to share with a daughter this week, who enjoyed musing about how clueless men can be over certain issues.

She and I, both with dirty knees and dirtier fingernails, were weeding the rows of beans and corn, with the promise of irises nearby, just beyond the garden fence. And the 23rd anniversary of that day of mixed-up flowers and a far-from-perfect-but-yet-so-blessed union was looming only days away.

I’m sure Siberian Irises have graced many other grooms over the 500+ years since they became a cultivated bloom.

Their name comes from the fact that they were first collected by monks in Siberia in the Middle Ages. They were grown in monasteries and distributed around Europe.

I’m thankful that someone once cultivated them in bucolic spots around our 200-year-old farmhouse.

They’re perfect expressions of a beautiful commitment I made to my high-school sweetheart who has humored my cravings for reading, writing, and chocolate for 23 years, as of tomorrow.

And they’re vibrant amethyst reminders of God’s provision…“Consider how the flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you!” (Luke 12:27)

You may enjoy my Open Letter to my Mother-in-Law as well.

Then there’s what I told my Father-in-Law too.

And I wrote about our marriage and how it survives the 3 Secrets Old-Farmhouse Owners Might Not Tell You here.

A Dozen Fun Facts About Irises

1- Irises have been cultivated for thousands of years.

2- They’re predominantly found in dry, semi-desert, or colder rocky mountainous areas–thus I now know why they survive on my New England homestead. (Although other habitats do include grassy slopes, meadowlands, bogs and riverbanks.)

3- There are almost 300 different species of iris.

4- The general name “iris” is from the Greek word for a rainbow, which is also the name for the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris.

5- Irises have long, erect flowering stems that may be simple or branched and solid or hollow.

6- Flowers consist of three upward turned petals (known as “standards”) and three downward turned sepals, which actually look like petals (known as “falls”).

7- The downward sepals (“falls”) are the “landing pads” for pollinators. Notice how the falls on an Iris have bright lines (called “guide lines” or “nectar guides”) leading an insect right to the flower’s nectar.

8- A single Iris flower only lasts about three days.

9- Once the flower has died, the ovary produces a seed capsule, which opens up in three parts to reveal the numerous tiny seeds within.

10- Indian and Egyptian ancient cultures used Iris rhizomes for medicinal purposes and for making perfume.

11- During the Middle Ages, Irises became linked to the French monarchy, and the Fleur-de-lis eventually became a national symbol of France.

12- Apparently, the iris is the flower of February birthdays.

I’d Love to Share my Resources With You

If you too have a flower in your backyard that’s blooming with a story, or simply one you would like to get to know a little better, please follow along here on SoulyRested. You will immediately gain access to my subscriber library, where I have a very helpful blank identification page you and a child can use to record all you want to learn about your backyard flowers.

In fact, I offer a wide assortment of nature ID pages in my subscriber library. Because I thoroughly believe that a child will be mesmerized by creation for a lifetime if they are immersed in nature investigations at a young age. 

My daughters and I have loved making the acquaintance of many flowers, trees, birds, mammals, and amphibians in our back yards over the years. In fact, one of our family’s most treasured projects ever–it’s become a family heirloom really–is now 13 years in the making and still going strong: Our Backyard Book. 

And Here are More Nature Study Resources for Your Family

If you’d like to read more about our family’s unique way of memorializing all we learn about in nature, you may like these posts:

One about heart-shaped lessons learned from white tailed deer that visited our gardens.

Another about the many reasons everyone should take time to play in the dirt.

One of my favorites, about spring peepers and 3 Simple Steps to get any kid excited about nature study.

There’s this one filled with neat Loon facts and details on how we document our findings.

And, of course, some all-natural bug spray comes in handy when you’re knee deep in nature studies.

I’m Immensely Thankful

But, as thankful as I am for our family’s love of nature study, I’m immensely more thankful for my husband who has taken on the project of humoring me as a lifetime project. He may not be a boutonniere connoisseur, but not unlike that iris I admired on his lapel in the church courtyard that warm June day, he’s colorful and truly perfectly placed by my side.

Happy Anniversary to my high school sweetheart.

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Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschool, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

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And please follow along!

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I thought it might be a little boring for her, since she already seems to incorporate the standard techniques into her photography, but I was shocked that these concepts were new to her. She had done many of them naturally, but didn’t know she was doing them. I’m expecting her photography to blossom, now that she knows what she’s doing right.

I picked a few techniques we’d start with. Once we each had a few shots we liked with the first technique, we discussed a new one.  Sometimes this was just a day later; other times we took a week or longer.

This round was so successful, we loved our next two rounds of new challenges as well, if you want more inspiration after this post, you may want to read about more Photography Tips to Try with Your Child and 5 Simple Photography Tips for Amazing Fall Photos. 

{{Rule of Thirds}}

This is my favorite photography technique. Once you hear it, you start to see it everywhere. The simple fact is, our eyes are drawn to the top, bottom, right, or left third of an image. Think of the Mona Lisa. Her eyes fall right along the top third of the painting. Mary Cassat’s Little Girl in a Blue Armchair highlights the bored lass by placing her along the right third of the painting. (Looks like she’d love a fun photo challenge to work on with mom!)

And have you ever noticed in documentaries when someone is being interviewed they are always off to one side of the screen?

A lot of photo editing programs have a 9-panel grid that you can place over your pictures when you’re cropping them, so it’s easy to see the picture divided into thirds and make sure your main subject falls along a thirds line. Ideally, you want to place the main focus where the lines cross. (Cassat placed her imp’s sweet expression at the top right intersection of the grid.)

My 12-year-old photographer loved hearing this explanation. She knew she liked placing her subjects off center, she just never knew why before.

So when her friend came to the farm to pick out a bunny, my photographer got this shot that captures the sweetness of the moment. I call it “SomeBUNNY’S in Love.”

She snapped this beautiful shot from our boat, showing just a sliver of moon, when we cuddled under blankets and watched the sunset.

But this is my all-time favorite from her rule of thirds challenge. It happens to be of her current favorite subject: our Black Star hens.

And a few that I took using the rule of thirds:

Wanna learn about special effects when you change your shutter speed? You’ll wanna check out this photography challenge too.

{{Fill the Frame}}

This technique is as simple as it sounds, it just doesn’t come naturally to most people, because it usually requires cutting some of the subject’s edges off, but it can be very dramatic. I like how she photographed the lily right after the rain, and the drops of water are still glistening on it:

Dandelions were my grandmother’s favorite flower (true story), so I love it that this image my young photographer captured makes me look at the winged achenes (seeds) anew:

While my daughter tends to gravitate towards plants and hens for her subjects, I’m a sucker for intriguing insects. I long to someday capture an image that shows the honey-comb nature of their amazing compound eyes, but I’ll settle for the detailed setae (bristled hairs) on this guy’s forelegs:

After we were happy with our rule of thirds pictures and those that filled the frame, we turned our lenses to a lighting technique.

Would you like to know how to use negative space and a layered look for amazing photos? This post tells you all about those techniques and more.

Or maybe you’d like to know how to tell a story with a photo? Read this post.

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera here and purchase your own here.

You should consider helping your child start a blog if they love learning photography and want to show off their amazing new pictures. Seriously. I explain all you need to know and why you might wanna consider it, in this post.

{{Backlighting}}

We love the lake almost as much as our farm that it borders, so we usher in many evenings by finishing  chores early then watching the sun tuck itself in beyond the glistening waters. A sunset is a perfect opportunity to frame a subject in backlighting:

When my in laws and daughters were sitting around chitchatting in front of the barn, I had to run inside for my camera:

On that same occasion, I zoomed in on my photographer then changed the settings to black and white:

Cupping your hand around your lens will help shield out some of the light and might make it easier for you to focus. If you don’t like the look in your viewfinder, move around to change the way the light falls on your subject. Moving one way will increase the hazy appearance; moving another way will make the image more crisp. You can even just crouch down in the same spot to achieve different results.

So far, our challenge has been a little more, well, challenging than I expected. But I’ve had fun trying these techniques with her, comparing our photography, and learning together. And, hey, if it wasn’t a little challenging, we wouldn’t be learning, now would we?

We have a few more framing techniques we’ll be learning and another lighting tactic we’ll tackle, then I’ll share again.

“Well done work has its own reward.” Proverbs 12:14

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Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera here and purchase your own here.

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Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from photography to gardening, to homeschool, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

If you already ARE a subscriber, just hop over to the Resource Library here and enter your personal password.

The post Encouraging a Passion for Photography first appeared on Souly Rested.

Lilacs: Their perfume is sweetness personified. And their purple blooms tumbling over each other on my window ledge? They’re beauty personified.

Lilacs even offer a wonderful history lesson to old-home owners. But my daughter who inspired my whole homesteading lifestyle (the one who was fascinated with the homestead mentality long before we moved to 14 rural NH acres) has taught me to assume everything has multiple uses, and I started wondering if savory smelling lilacs could be turned into a sweet dessert. So we delved into an ambrosial experiment. And I have to tell you making syrup with lilacs is so much easier than our extravagant maple syrup production.

To start, we clipped a vase-worth of blooms. Turned out this was about twice as much as we needed, so the rest are now gracing my mantle.

As we gathered, we found numerous others were enjoying the lilac delicacies as well.

We separated the purple blossoms from their green sepals and yellow pistils.

They slid off effortlessly; in only a few minutes we had a cup full.

We boiled water, added sugar and the blooms, and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

The syrup is delicious in our tea, and we plan on trying it on ice cream for tonight’s dessert and on pancakes one morning soon. I do wish the syrup was a thicker consistency, but I’m pleased with the subtly sweet taste.

I also learned that adding a small handful of blueberries will turn your syrup a beautiful deep purple color. Without the berries, our syrup was a grayish-purple hue.

This post contains affiliate links.

Would you like to plant some lilacs of your own? Or maybe you have one but would like more variety? (I recently planted Bloomerang lilacs that bloom multiple times throughout the summer!) If you click that image above, it’ll show you the huge variety of lilacs that you can order from my favorite nursery, NatureHills. I am impressed with everything I’ve ordered from them.

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll love these:

Or just PIN all these “sweet” posts for later:

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Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera and even purchase your own here.

And as soon as you subscribe below, you’ll have instant access to my free subscriber library where you’ll find recipes, printables, and more.

My subscriber library includes my favorite go-to recipe ever–Grandma’s Cheesy Egg Souffle–along with an easy-to-print copy of my Lilac Syrup recipe. Now that’d be a seriously good brunch: Grandma’s souffle and pancakes with lilac syrup!

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Signs of spring

A 12-inch yellow ball brings one daughter joy six days out of every week. . .

Bare, muddy feet make another feel elated every afternoon. . .

Delicacies in the mud are a routine breakfast for happy hens. . . .

And clothes once again snap in the breeze and warm in the sun most mornings. . .

Spring has most definitely danced her way into our rural neck of the New England woods. But my lilacs heralded her arrival back in February. With multiple feet of snow still on the ground, the green buds promised warm weather would again return to our homestead. Last week those buds were transformed into deep-purple promises.

And yesterday’s blooms opened and glistened under raindrops.

Of course our new bees LOVE lilacs, so it’s only fitting that I love making lilac-infused honey, no? If you’d like to try your hand at making some, trust me it’s oh-so easy! Check it out right here.

Also, be sure to read up on these 4 simple tips every lilac owner needs to know–tips from a professional horticulturalist.

How to Make Lilac Syrup

While the blooms are wonderful in their own right, they also make sweet, delicious Lilac Syrup.

For directions, click here:

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PIN the post about DIY Lilac Syrup, and

PIN this post about the history of the lilac bush.

The history of the lilac

They bathe four different areas of our farm with deeply perfumed color every May (by the front door, the horse stables, the front stone wall, and the back stone wall).

But the ones by the front door are my favorite.

I linger in their shade and wonder who else may have done the same over the past two centuries. Indeed, these lusciously blooming branches may be from the original lilacs planted in that very spot. We learned some fascinating facts about the lilac bush when a daughter and I completed a simple page about lilacs in our Backyard Book. (Our Backyard Book has become a treasured way my children learn about natural science and it’s also become a treasured family heirloom. If you’d like to know more, I wrote all about it in this post.)

You see, when our home was built (circa 1800), it was customary to have lilacs by the front door so one could enjoy their scent when entering.

They were a new, hardy shrub brought over from England at the time. They lost favor as time went on. Many preferred newer varieties of flowering bushes that offered longer bloom time.

When I came across this tidbit of history–that it was popular to plant fragrant lilacs by the front door–I immediately inspected the old photograph we inherited with our home, dated 1900. There is definitely a tall, leggy bush at the front, right corner of the cape, in the same spot where our branches of purple joy stand today.

Scroll down a little more to view a video explaining the history of the lilac on our old homestead and showing off one of our lilacs in bloom (not to mention the crazy adorable barn kitty).

And if you’re in the market for a lilac bush, I can’t recommend Nature Hills enough. I truly think they may have the best lilacs you’ll find anywhere. And they’ll ship them right to your door! Cause they’re the largest online nursery with the best customer service ever.

Wanna know the the bitter truths (and joys) of owning an old farmhouse? I wrote about those here.

Wanna know where you can unearth some rustic farmhouse treasures of your own? You will LOVE this site I just discovered–Antique Farmhouse.

Being thankful where God has planted me

When I cut a sprig and place it in a carmel-colored antique bottle that I uncovered on our property’s old midden, I wonder about all the hands that may have nurtured my lilacs through the years and the hands that emptied my bottle and tossed it aside.

And I am thankful.

I am thankful that today it is my hands that have the pleasure of working on this homestead, where God himself has planted me.

The story of our old farmhouse & Old English lilacs

We also learned that Lilac Syrup is super easy to make and extra yummy. Read more about Lilac Syrup in this post. And follow over on facebook for fb lives, like this one all about our lilacs:

I have planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock.  Jeremiah 2:21

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Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera on my Resources page and even purchase your own here. Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

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If you already ARE a subscriber, just hop over to the Resource Library here and enter your personal password. (If you don’t remember your password, no fear, we always include a personalized reminder in every Thursday email, “Hard Work, Simple Joys.”)

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As a flower I’d never know before awakens in our woods, another circle closes.

You see, one year ago today marks the end of an almost 6-year process that led our family from suburbia to our humble New England homestead.

Taking the dirt road

One year ago today we became NH residents. We’re still learning our way around the state. We’re even still learning our way around our rocky, forested 14 acres. And we’re still learning our way around the New England dialect. Just last week I couldn’t decipher where someone lived–“at the end of the t-ah road.” (A phrase that is extra confusing for this southerner who has always used the phrase “blacktop” to refer to roads that were made of tar.)

But I’m thankful for the simpler, quieter life… the life that, indeed, often takes a turn onto a dirt road.

Discovering new flowers

Last summer, down back roads and up winding trails, I met a joyful plethora of new wildflowers.

Having always been intrigued by botany, I felt like a giddy child introduced to new forms of sugar as I discovered unfamiliar wild flowers on every mountain hike.

Although I grew up in the same time zone where we now life, I was 2 plant zones away. (If you’re curious what plant zone you live in, check out this great interactive gardening zone map.) So we added entries to Our Backyard Book often.

Keeping a Backyard Book

As my daughters have grown over the past 15 years of homeschooling, with my youngest now being 12, we still have a few staples that we love having randomly pop up in our days–taking school to the sand for impromptu beach days, baking instead of math once in a while, and adding to Our Backyard Book when the occasion rises.

Go here if you’d like to know more about this treasured book and how easy it is to create an heirloom that will forever be one of the most valuable books in our home. (Shhhhh… Never mind that my daughters were learning tons as they excitedly assembled it over the years.)

Many new botany pages have been added about New England wild flowers, but one flower never made it in last summer or fall, because we hadn’t yet seen the bloom.

We had been intrigued by the plant’s 3 large blankets of leaves that seemed to be one with the stem, providing a green, growing canopy for leaves and ladybugs.

The canopy was topped with bright red berries.

But somehow we were too busy unpacking boxes, painting, turning over and planting a garden, and refinishing our wide-planked pine floorboards to notice this intriguing plant before its flower’s ovaries swelled into berries and tossed its vibrant petals aside. I had not seen its green sepals symmetrically surrounding its vibrant burgundy bloom.

Until today. The 365th day of living on this land and walking these woods.

I still almost missed it.

But once noticed, the sweet trillium–or “Wake-Robin”–can’t be ignored.

And it can’t help but have its own Backyard Page. We used this helpful site to help us identify the wildflower then did a search for additional information.

How it got it’s name

We learned that a few rare Wake-Robins do grow in our native state, but since there are less than 20 known populations of them, we had never seen one before.

Here in our woods, the beautiful flowers abound.

The plant earns its name “Wake-Robin” by analogy with the Robin, with its red breast, because both act as heralds of spring. Unlike the Robin, the flower requires a scent to attract pollinators.

Since the Wake-Robin is pollinated by flies, well, it’s safe to say it doesn’t smell like roses.

Why you might not want it in a bouquet

The trillium flower emits the smell of rotting meat. Thankfully, it’s not an odor one will notice, unless they have their nose to the ground.

Yet there’s even more reason to NOT forage this flower…

Why you might not want to pick trillium at all

Many varieties of trillium are considered endangered and are illegal to forage in many states.

To learn about some flowers in your backyard with your own children, feel free to print and use this blank ID page.

Now I’m going to spend the rest of today–the anniversary of the day this 215-year-old homestead became our own–reveling in God’s goodness, planting my family one year ago today where we are deeply rooted in signs of his love and discovering beautiful new ones every day.

“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you!” Luke 12:27

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of other supplies I use for maple syrup making (as well as gardening, homeschooling, homesteading topics, nature journaling, and more).

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera and even purchase your own here.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

And please follow along!

And have you tried my a-MAAHZ-ing Maple Sugar Cookie recipe that’s in my Resource Library? You won’t find this deliciousness anywhere else… until Sweet Maple is in print this fall.

The post What you want to know about trillium (before you forage it!) first appeared on Souly Rested.

She asked me to help her turn over some more of the garden bed. But I didn’t wanna.

She flashed a winsome smile and shook the Silver Queen seed packet in my direction. But I was tired. Errands would be eating up my precious afternoon. I had an office full of boxes to unpack. A floor half sanded, needing refinishing. A life in desperate need of order.

On top of that, the sky was a deep penetrating-kind-of blue, and the lake was dappled with mini firework flashes of sun kisses. I asked her if we should kayak out to the sandbar instead. If I couldn’t refinish another strip of flooring today, at least I could relax on a quiet beach.

But the soft rattling of seeds in the package was impossible to ignore.

So I put on dirty tennis shoes and our homemade bug spray and half-heartedly strolled down to our garden glade.

Only 10 minutes worth of rich soil under my nails, only 600 seconds worth of  “play in the dirt” time, and I knew she was right. This was exactly where I wanted to be. Elbow to elbow with my daughter, investing in our land, our relationship, our harvest.

Read here about the one thing every gardener should do (that many don’t!).

And check out my favorite plant, all year round!

So we discussed the top ten reasons we think everyone should make sure they play in the dirt this summer…

# 1. Gardens are venues of daily miracles, one tiny green sprout at a time. The “promise” of May blooms and bears fruit in August…

# 2. Gardening just feels good. Warm brown dirt on your palms is as rejuvenating to an adult as squishy play dough is irresistible to a toddler.

# 3. It offers a good return for your investment. For $1.35, we planted enough rows to produce 30-40 ears of corn. Today at the market, ears were 2 for $1. That’s about 28-38 ears for free.

# 4. Truly nothing tastes as delectable as fresh-picked, sun-warmed vegetables carried from your garden to your table. A cucumber that is stretching in the sun’s soothing rays one minute is in your kitchen the next, washed, peeled, and offering chunks of summertime goodness from a cool pottery bowl.

# 5. Surely the satisfaction of growing it yourself is part of why it tastes so good. Or, as Miranda Lambert croons, “what ever happened to… doing it all by hand, ’cause… it’s only worth as much as the time put in.”

# 6. Delayed gratification is sorely lacking in our lives today. Sometimes having to wait ninety days till harvest is good for our soul.

# 7. You never know what unexpected botany lessons may resonate with your child forever. You never know what life lesson may result from just minutes you give her to play in the dirt. How magical is the day when one realizes that the fruit is truly the swollen ovary, which is expanding to protect the seeds developing under the beautiful bloom, which attracted the insect, which pollinated the plant, which has the ultimate purpose of providing us with wholesome goodness.

# 8. You never know what you might notice when you take time to slow down and, well, smell the daisies.

I’d love to share with you a great resource for all gardeners—a free printable page to help you document all the important information you might like to know about each plant in your garden! My printable Garden Plant ID Page is just one of many awesome resources in my subscriber-only library. Share your email with me in the box at the end of this post, and I’ll send you the link and your password immediately!

#9. Your dog would love the chance to spend more time with you outside. If he’s like Bixby, our sweet, rescued Labradoodle, he’ll regally guard your garden plot with a watchful eye while you labor. Or… finally…

# 10. If nothing else, gardening will give some dogs a very good excuse for a nap in the early morning sunshine.

Meet Bixby & see him “perform” for his favorite treats–>

Regardless of the reason you may decide to play in the dirt this summer, if you’re elbow to elbow with a child basking in the summer’s morning glow, listen to them talk about what’s on their mind, and take advantage of those few fleeting moments to impress on their heart the depth of God’s grace and the beauty of His provisions.

My family enjoys adding ID pages about our garden plants to our  Backyard Book, our heirloom book of nature memories. If you’d like to access your own printable Garden Plant ID Page in my subscriber-only library, subscribe at the bottom of this page. 

This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them, for this is their reward.

Ecclesiastes 5:18

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Pin this for later!

Just hover over this image for the Pinterest logo.–>

Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of other supplies I use for maple syrup making (as well as gardening, homeschooling, homesteading topics, nature journaling, and more).

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera and even purchase your own here.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

And please follow along!

And have you tried my a-MAAHZ-ing Maple Sugar Cookie recipe that’s in my Resource Library? You won’t find this deliciousness anywhere else… until Sweet Maple is in print this fall.

The post 10 Reasons to Play in the Dirt first appeared on Souly Rested.

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We’ve discovered countless, fascinating insects since moving to our new farm.

Some familiar. Some brilliantly unfamiliar. Some that are common, but seen through new eyes.

We’ve also discovered mosquitos, and black flies, which we’d rather not come across more than we have to.

So we’ve concocted some homemade bug spray that is all-natural and works wonderfully.

Homemade Bug Spray

When you encounter some unwanted creepy crawlies, this simple recipe offers a pleasant smell, compared to the chemical-laden store-bought ones.

Combine the following in a small spray bottle:

2 oz. witch hazel

2 oz. water

30 drops of any combination you’d like of these essential oils: lavender, cedar, cinnamon, eucalyptus, lemon grass, peppermint, or cloves.

If you have fresh lavender, simply dry the flowers then steep a handful in a pint of boiling water for an hour or more. Sieve, allow to cool, combine with witch hazel and water, and store in fridge when not in use.

Of course, you can also cultivate fresh lavender (along with citronella grass, marigolds, and chrysanthemums) in the garden or yard to help keep the bugs at bay. Or group small bouquets of cut or dried lavender by your doors and windows to keep mosquitos out of your home. In closets and dresser drawers, dried lavender repels moths and keeps your clothes smelling fresh. A sachet of dried lavender under your pillow helps you relax and enjoy restful sleep.

If you give it a try, let me know your favorite combination of scents in the comments!

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man.
Psalm 104:14

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The post Homemade Bug Spray first appeared on Souly Rested.

Morning till dark, and long into the sleeping hours. I longed to gather armfuls of the luscious lilac blooms that were bending their beauty outside my windows, under the weight of the rain.

I did so during a brief break in the deluge. But I was awestruck with a different bloom as I traversed with soggy feet down to another lilac patch, by the weathered, cranberry-red stable. In truth, it wasn’t a bloom at all.

I’d never seen my grandmother’s favorite flower in such a light.

I realize most despise the flower to begin with (and yes, George Washington Carver would assure me I can call it a flower, because “a weed is just a flower growing in the wrong place”). Surely not many would find the aftermath of the spent blooms very appealing. This composite flower had graciously, for many days, provided precious juice for the bees, who could dip their thirsty tongues in the hundreds of tiny, complete blooms encased on its simple head.

But today the seeds were exhausted, and the usefulness of the dandelion was long since withered. Yet its beauty captivated me.

In its final stage, this flower that is often defined as a pest, not a blessing, brought beauty to my day and made me whisper a “thank you” to the creator.

I am thankful that God can cause my heart to whisper gratitude for simple things I would overlook on my own accord and that he would choose to display his glory in a humble, rejected weed, not unlike myself. “For all the promises of God find their ‘yes’ in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our ‘Amen’ to God for his glory.” 2 Cor. 1:20

_______________________

If you have more dandelions around than you can be thankful for, consider these 7 things you’ve probably never thought of doing with your dandelions.

The post The beauty of a rejected weed first appeared on Souly Rested.

But be warned, if you keep scrolling you indeed may learn to love this innocuous weed.

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Grandma’s favorite flower grew prolifically in her yard and gardens, despite her son-in-law’s insistence that it deserved nothing more than discarding.

Differing opinions

My father was a gardener. For more than 7 decades. He was taught by his father’s father to cultivate a garden. To care for what he was lovingly propagating, he was always on the defensive against any invasive enemy plant. So he continually fought a proactive war against anything he called a “weed.” When even the simplest enemy leaves would surface, they would be carefully and effectively pulled out by every last tiny hair root.

But Lula, my mom’s mom, genuinely enjoyed the poor-woman’s bouquets that the dandelions afforded her.

Defining luxury

Lula was one of six girls, raised in the hills of West Virginia’s eastern panhandle, in a log house built by her daddy’s hands, on prime farming property that bordered the deep, cool creek on two long sides. Lula taught in a one-room school house that she could walk to, around a bend in the dirt road that ambled by her farm.

I believe Lula may have defined “luxuries” differently than we do today.

I believe Lula may have defined a luxury as a simple, sun-warmed, gratuitous joy.

I believe dandelions were one of them.

Noticing a similarity

Turns out my grandmother’s insistence that the seemingly worthless mustard-colored blossoms be given full reign ensured the early spring food for the truly valuable bees on her farm. Her insistence on the reign of simple joys fed the bees and–ultimately–fed her family.

Hop over to this post if you’d like some valuable (free!) resources on bee keeping.

And glance at these 5 Simple Steps to Grow a Garden from Seeds. There I wrote about the joy I have working barefoot-to-barefoot beside my daughter, who has inherited and then compounded my father’s love for agriculture.

Lula and her young, head-strong, weed-hating son-in-law were more alike than they ever knew. They both fed their families, one through her insistence on simple, scattered joys. One through his diligent insistence on perfected rows of propagation.

Both are a part of me; while I feel his joy in my neat and ordered rows of garden, I also sense her elation whenever dandelion seeds take flight. I can’t witness a bee dining on a dandelion without thinking of grandmom. But my new farm has more lion’s teeth (read on for more about the flower’s name) than I personally would like, because I do long for my father’s perfect green, weedless garden rows, albeit it a fruitless wish.

I’m certain I will forever rejoice when parachuting dandelion seeds take flight and spread the promise of many more poor-woman’s bouquets.

I’m thankful for my precious grandmother who saw value even where others saw none. My grandmother had very little, but she knew she was wealthy. Although she spent most of her days on one track of land in an almost forgotten corner of West Virginia’s eastern panhandle, she was royalty. Not only in my mind, and not only because she was surrounded by the yellow jewels of the dandelions all summer long, but also because she redefined “luxury.” Because my grandmother defined a luxury as a simple, sun-warmed, gratuitous joy, she was royal indeed.

Read my thoughts here on finding joy in a simple life and how I didn’t know that what I was a part of as a kid, when I spent time at Grandmom’s, was a quickly dying, self-sustaining way of life. 

Snag your own free copy of of my book, Beautiful Gardening, in my Resource Library.

Bet you didn’t know all these fascinating facts about dandelions

1- The name “dandelion” is actually derived from an old French phrase, “dent de lion,” which means “tooth of a lion.” The plant was probably given this descriptive name because the sharp leaves of the plant resemble sharp, carnivorous teeth. In fact, those types of leaves are called “toothed leaves,” so why not?

2- Dandelion leaves make a yummy, and very nutritious, addition to any salad.

3- Dandelion green contain vitamins C and B6, thiamin, riboflavin, calcium, iron, potassium, and manganese. Other nutrients oozing out of dandelion greens include folate, magnesium, phosphorus, and copper.

4- Dandelion greens can be ground up and made into pestos.

5- An interesting thought I never had before (until I stumbled across it on Pinterest), but I now think of this whenever I think of dandelions… The yellow flower resembles the sun, the puff ball resembles the moon and the dispersing seeds resemble the stars.

6- Every part of the dandelion is useful. The root, leaves, and flowers can be used for food, medicine, and natural dye.

7- A fact that made my gardening father cringe but makes bees happy the world over? Dandelions have one of the longest flowering seasons of any plant.

8- These little yellow weeds simply cannot be contained… their winged seeds often travel as far as 5 miles from their origin!

9- The average American recognizes less than five plants; dandelions are almost always one of them.

10- My grandmother was far from alone in her love of the useful, beneficial dandelion… Up until the 1800s people would pull grass out of their lawns to make room for dandelions and other useful “weeds,” like chickweed and chamomile.

Want some interesting reasons why you could learn to love YOUR dent de lions? Believe it or not, Angela, over on Food Storage & Survival, has pulled together a list of  27 clever ways to use dandelions! The item on Angela’s list that intrigues me the most–of course, being a sugarmaker–is dandelion syrup. It is made in much the same way as my lilac syrup, albeit the harvesting of the flowers will take a lot longer with the dandelion.

If you like this post, you’ll love this one about the fascinating history of farmhouse lilacs.

And I’m betting you’ll love to try your hand at some easy, delicious syrup made from flowers–in this post I share a video tutorial on exactly how to make syrup from flowers.

Would you like to document fun facts about the dandelion, and any other fascinating flower you find in your neck of the woods? Make sure to follow along here, on SoulyRested (or in the box at the bottom of this post; it’s easy peasy, I promise).Then you’ll enjoy immediate access (seriously, like seconds away) to a long list of nature-related ID pages in my subscriber resource library.

So, yes, we could all stand to learn to love dandelions. Or, even if we don’t choose to define them as a luxury, we should learn to accept dandelions–and the many benefits they provide for us–a little more eagerly.

In this little video I share a little about Lula and show you my favorite picture in my home–Lula and Garland’s wedding photo, still in it’s original frame with the price on the back! –>

Ill-gotten treasures have no lasting value…[but] the blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it. Proverbs 10:2 & 22

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Find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018 and then one of the Top Homesteading Blogs of 2019 as well.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

The post A Poor Woman’s Bouquet first appeared on Souly Rested.