geese and goslings

While we were in Washington visiting my grandparents, the boys and I had the opportunity to go to a nearby lake-side park where we had fun playing on the fabulous equipment, watching boats, and observing several families of geese and goslings (from a distance, of course).

What a fun, educational experience!

plants

All of the glorious springyness in the air has me itching be do something with the pretty plants I love so much. We won't be attempting to really garden this year since our ground still needs significant preparation involving more time and energy than we have this year. (Benjamin is going to be back in school plus working one full-time job and two part-time jobs plus being an amazing husband and father. Yes, I'm very proud of him. And I have all sorts of things in my summer schedule including taking part in three weddings, investing in the boys, and having a baby.)

Anyway, all that to say that we're sticking to container gardening on our porch this year. I'm a little sad, but overall I'm very relieved to not have the burden of larger-scale gardening right now. Although it won't be warm enough to place the plants in the ground for a couple of weeks still, we couldn't resist purchasing some plants. Until they can go outside, they looks wonderful on our counter.

Brother chose these striking marigolds.

He particularly loves the reddish one.

Little Man chose these cheerful pansies.

He also chose some pepper plants.

I told him that I love him a lot to get pepper plants for him

since I really don't like them. : )

I chose tomato plants

as well as fragrant basil and rosemary.

And I simply couldn't leave my dream geranium behind.

I love the deep, richly colored blooms

and ornate leaves.

I can't wait to see these small plants flourish with a little care over the summer!

signs of spring

i don't mind winter

but am so thankful to observe

ever-increasing signs of impending Spring

I revel in the freshness

the newness

the joy

days grow longer

the sun shines with yellow warmth

spring rains drench the thawing earth

temperatures rise, slow but sure

grass shoots up, thick and green

leaves are budding, tiny and hopeful

flowers unfurl bright banners of color

keen, plump robins hop and sing

honeybees labor, buzzing again

we ache to be outdoors

a time to plant...

Yesterday was one of our first truly nice days, and in the afternoon I finally planted my garden. I'm about three weeks behind schedule because of late frosts, travel, and sickness, but I'm hoping to get at least some produce from it before our early fall frosts.

It's a cute little garden--half the size that I have tried to cultivate the last couple of years. I think that's good, though, because smaller is easier to maintain.

We planted seven tomato plants.

And surrounded them with water walls.

We planted sugar peas. (One of our favorites!)

The peas were scattered before being poked into the dirt.

I have the feeling that I will be finding pea plants popping up

in unexpected places this year.

We planted four pepper seedlings and three potatoes (not pictured).

We also planted two each of broccoli and cabbage seedlings.

In addition to all this,

we have volunteer spinach and many self-seeded baby garlic plants.

After planting, discovering, and watering,

we came inside and cooled off with creamy and cool

strawberry-peach smoothies.

They were delicious.

This morning Little Man woke up and asked if he could eat his plants yet, and I explained that we need to wait a bit longer before they are ready to eat. I can certainly identify with his eagerness! I can hardly wait to eat juicy, fresh-off-the-vine tomatoes, bursting with flavor or to munch on crisp sugar peas while watering the garden or to make our own home-grown vegetable soup. But wait and water and watch we will, whether we think we can or not.

cement trucks rate up there with trains

We have a friend who is a contractor. The house that he's building now was scheduled to have the cement slab for the garage poured yesterday. We were invited to come along and watch with his wife and two boys.

It was an enjoyable expedition. The weather was perfect: sunny, warm, and not too windy. We had fun hanging out with our friends as well as learning about cement.

The driver pulled up in the big cement truck and got the slide ready for the cement to come rushing down.

The workers used shovels to help the truck spread the cement and smoothed the surface with a long board and some special cement tools.
The big boys watched, alternating between nervousness over the loud noises, excitement, fascination, confusion over not being able to help or walk on the wet cement, and distraction (because even a good attention span for a two-year-old is relatively short).
After a while we lined up the four boys in a doorway to watch the work are to refresh themselves with tasty snacks.

The little boys were more interested in discovering that they can interact with each other than in the cement truck, but at least they got some fresh air and sunshine.

When telling his Daddy about the fun experience later in the afternoon, Little Man enthusiastically summed it up with: "Cement trucks and trains are the best!"

Narnia

Do you ever feel like you live in Narnia? You know, during the time that it was always winter and never Christmas? Well, I'm starting to feel a little bit like that. Here is a screenshot of our current weather conditions as reported by weather for you:

Instead of dreaming of a white Christmas, I've began dreaming of a warm summer...

"Shall we plant seedlings?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes, we shall," I answered.

And so we did.

Grow, little seedlings, grow.

semi-random

Little Man has been enjoying rediscovering his art box. He sings as he paints, colors, cuts, and stickers while I cook and clean the kitchen. It brings back so many memories. I used to do the same thing when I was small and my mom was working in the kitchen. I feel like history is repeating itself in the best way.

This particular creation is a mixed media creation using glue, a calligraphy pen, and water colors. I'm quite proud of his experimentation and the cool effects he achieved.

I have been up to my own artsy stuff and will have several upcoming posts documenting some current calligraphy projects. (This photo is of my bottles of calligraphy ink.)

We have been enjoying warmish spring rainstorms this week. I love watching the clouds roll in and experiencing the power of the wind, lighting, and finally of the raindrops falling to the earth.

gardeny thoughts

A couple of weekends ago, Benjamin and Little Man took advantage of the beautiful weather (and of my need for a nap) and went outside and dug up about half of my garden area for me. I was delighted.

When the weather starts warming up after the long, long winter, I just can't wait to get my fingers and toes into some nice garden dirt and start planting. (Incidentally, Little Man is watching me write and is excitedly exclaiming about this photo of me "playing in the dirt.") I am eagerly watching for greenhouses to be erected outside of our little town stores and can't wait to start buying little plants.

As eager as I am to get started, I do have to wait. A couple of days after enjoying that day of beautiful, sunny gardening weather, we woke up to about six inches of snow. That's spring in Montana for you. I am hoping, though, to be able to start planing in the middle of May.

to the park we will go

The last few days have been sunny and beautiful. The weather has even been warm enough that most of the snow has melted, and we've been going around in sweatshirts instead of heavy coats! It's too nice to stay inside. Yesterday we made our second trip to the park this year.

Little Man spent most of his time running around carrying gravel and flinging it into the air with the stick he found. He was also fascinated by watching big boys practice stunts at the neighboring skate park.

Brother tried the park swing for the first time and loved it. He grinned and giggled the whole time and was generally adorable.

Benjamin kept us company, longed for a good pair of skates, and split chasing-small-boy duty with me. He also took us out for pizza afterward, which was a delightful way of satisfying the appetites we worked up at the park.

Spring Snow

Last night and this morning we had a delightful spring snowstorm. The air was warm (at least for having snow) and the large and fluffy flakes drifted slowly down. It was beautiful.

Little Man thoroughly enjoyed going out to "help" his grandma shovel snow and came in nearly covered from head-to-toe from toppling (his word). I did the proper mom thing and made hot chocolate to help him warm up when he came in.

In spite of the four or five inches we got, the sun is shining now, and the streets are already almost dry. It's beautiful too.

Men at Work

Last weekend was simply beautiful! We had sunshiny weather, warm temperatures, no snow, and very little wind. It was truly an amazing combination for early April in Montana.

On Saturday, Benjamin decided to tackle some outdoor projects. One of the projects was digging out some posts that were no longer necessary since we are planning on extending our garden and no longer need the division between the gravel and dirt.

Little Man, of course, wanted to help do man work and wasted no time getting in the middle of things. He helped dig holes with his own little shovel. And then he did some exploring around our car port.

After his busy morning, Little Man quickly fell asleep and enjoyed a peaceful nap.

Promise of Spring

The sun is shining, the Spring wind is blowing, it's around 40 degrees (Fahrenheit), and the snow is melting! Spring is coming after all! (I was beginning to feel rather hopeless after a few 10 degree nights and cloudy, snowy days.) I have painted my toe nails, and I finished two new springy maternity tops. It's still too chilly to wear my sandals and new shirts, but I know I will be enjoying them soon enough.

The first shirt is a combination of something I saw someone

wearing at our local farmer's market last summer, a couple of ideas of my own, and a shirt I saw on Motherhood Maternity's site. I made sketches, thought, thought, thought, and significantly adapted a maternity pattern I had on hand. After some trials and errors (late night designing and sewing isn't often a very good idea for me) this is what I came up with.

I found the fabric on the clearance table at our local quilt shop for only

$2 a yard and bought two yards. I barely had enough fabric and had to use my happy-accidenting skills several times as I made a few cutting mistakes. But it all worked out, and I'm so pleased with the result. I love the how springy looking the butterflies are. And being an autumn colors person, I love that they are in autumn colors.

This shirt is made of some stripy blue sear-sucker material I found on the Joann's clearance rack a few months after Little Man was born. I envisioned it becoming a maternity shirt from the start (my very obliging husband gave me a slightly odd look when I declared my intention in the store and bought it for me), and I tucked it away.

After my adventures in designing the previous shirt, I followed Simplicity pattern 5756 pretty closely. I thought it would suit the fabric perfectly. The only change I made was to add a little ruffle on the bottom, another idea gleaned from Motherhood Maternity's site. I like it. It's girly without being fru-fru, and the ruffle makes the shirt longer than the pattern originally was, which in this case is good.

My yard and planters look a little sad, don't they? I'm looking forward to being able to get out and do some yard/garden work, and I'm hoping my bulbs will be pop up and bloom soon!

[grrr...I just can't get my photos and text to format right. If my smart, html knowing husband was here he would help me, but since he's not I'll have to let you figure out which paragraphs the photos go with!)

Bright Spots

Flowers from Benjamin. There are none outside, but he brightened my day by giving me some for inside. They are South African Sun Stars and are perennial bulbs. I hope I can help them bloom again. They are orange and came in a purple basket. I love orange and purple together. He knows me well. I'm thankful for him!