Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Of gardening and little boys

For those of you who didn't know, gardening is one of my great passions. There is something about watching a hard, dead looking seed become a beautiful plant, burst into flower, and then bear fruit, and then eating it. 

(Ok, so seriously? I just like playing in the dirt. ;-))

Not being able to wait until the garden was ready, I consoled myself with turning all my flower pots into veggie pots. 
 
May 14 - green onions, spinach, herbs, and one lonely squash that I didn't know what to do with. :-P 

Spinach, spinach, and more spinach! A friend of mine said she grows a plot of spinach really thick, and then 'trims' it whenever she needs spinach. So, that's what I'm doing. :-D 

This is what they look like today.... 





 Peter is much more of a help this year than he was last year. That being said, I am still needing to work on my patience and modulated tones with his exuberant running across my little plants. I have found a few methods that are helping me in this aim... 

1. Find something he CAN do and enjoy doing (like watering my raspberries - I'm gonna have the juiciest raspberries ever this year)
2. Practice "stop" other times when my plant lives aren't at stake. He now thinks it is fun to stop on command, and it works sooo much better than yelling "PETER DOUGLAS SHONWISE GET OUT OF MY GARDEN" and "DON'T STEP... on the plants..." (sigh, I know, I'm a bad mother) Once he's stopped, he's pretty good at looking at his feet and walking around the plants to get out of the garden. 
3. Remember that plants are actually pretty durable, and even if he does kill them all, my relationship with him and his long-term love of gardening are far more important... 

Still working on it, but I AM doing better this year (or, maybe he's just better...)

It was a lot of fun to have him involved in the planting - the best part of children is having someone to share my awe at the incredible design of our Creator. 


Covering them up for me... 

Planting out my broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cabbages

Now, fast-forward a couple weeks to today, and here's where we're at! 

Rhubarb, almost ready to be made into delicious things

Little romaine plants, needing to be thinned... 


Cabbage! 

This cat was chosen to replace our previous chicken eating cat. For the last few weeks it has been gun shy of us, but it suddenly decided we were ok, and is now a royal pest. It literally curls its way around my legs/shovel/camera anytime I'm out there... 

Peas!

Garlic & onions

Beets
 
I was so thrilled to see that most of my raspberries came back this year - hoping to get raspberries! :-D

 

Ok, ok, so I started my zucchini too early! :-D

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Peter & Mr. Frog

Peter has a very good friend, one he has enjoyed playing with for over a year. This friend doesn't talk much, but wrestles well, and is willing to do pretty much anything. 

I've taken a few pictures this past week of Peter and his friend, Mr. Frog, and thought you may enjoy them... 

Sharing a 'meal' 


All done up in Peter's chair by aforementioned child


And, of course, I couldn't resist getting pictures of Peter nursing Mr. Frog - such a hoot! :-D

Saturday, May 14, 2011

First Hiking Trip of the Year!!!

 We had the delight of taking our first hiking trip of the year today. Our final decisions as to where to go was Dry Island Buffalo Jump - as you might suspect, one of those places First Nations People used to kill buffalo. It was an incredible afternoon - so beautiful, and so much fun to explore through the eyes of our 2yr old. 
"Waher, Mommy! Waher!" 

"Dead, Mama, log dead" 
He's just started calling me "mama", and I have no idea where it has come from! 

We explored a washout in the bank that made a really cool fort

Inspecting coyote footprints together

Signs of spring from our afternoon





I LOVE little tiny flowers making their presence known in among rocks and grass and such like. All these flowers were such cheery reminders that Spring is HERE!

Peter heard Josh say something about "carrying" and decided that sounded like a really good idea. When Josh said he could walk some more, he wasn't really thrilled until Josh found him this 'walking stick' to use. =)

The view from partway up a hill

 My men - don't you love Timothy's face in the right picture? 



Peter loves birds of all kinds, and most of them (like this one actually was) are considered hawks, as we have a number of hawks around our place. 

Crossing a gully - it was pretty steep, but we made it! 


We stopped for a few minutes, and Peter decided to go down - and then up - the hill we were on. 



On the way up he crawled the last little ways and got some prickles in his hands, which daddy then proceeded to remove for him. He didn't make a peep about the process! 



Timothy and I decided to do a self-portrait while we waited. The wind was making my ponies look like Pippi Longstocking... 


I loved the way these flowers were set among the rocks... 


Lunch! We enjoyed apples, carrots, cucumbers, rice cakes, havarti cheese, and boiled eggs... 

And this was our lunch view...


"This rice cake is amazing!" 

"This egg is better!" 

This Moby wrap was incredible! I carried him the whole way - 3hrs, and am not at all sore tonight! 

We were delighted to discover a group of 3 deer during our walk. Peter especially enjoyed them, and was disappointed when they disappeared. Josh explained that they were hiding because they were timid animals, and it was a special treat to be able to see them, but he kept looking for them around every subsequent corner. And, when he didn't see them, he'd say "hiding". 
Josh whistled at the deer to make them stay put while I was getting some pictures, and Peter was trying to whistle for them for some time after - it was very cute. :-D 

Crocuses!

Timothy finally falling asleep... 

Peter tripped and skinned his knee up pretty good, and Josh was cleaning it up for him. He actually didn't protest too horribly, but on the way home kept both hands over the offending knee, and was very unimpressed when Josh tried to clean it before bed... 

My sleeping baby


Pursuing an antler discovery 




"Here, you can touch it - isn't it rough?" 







Yup, it was a great day! :-D