Even though it was pouring today...

With a week of sun, the garden got its jump start!  The sunflowers tower over the rest of the fledgling plant already, and the hodge-podge of herbs that seem to be growing are (I think) scaring some of the slugs away (dill, parsley, cilantro).  The boys and I did, however, harvest a whole swim team of slugs and snails from the front and back yard.  They are still swimming in beer by our back door.  Gavin fed them a radish.  Forever hopeful.  (They want pets so badly.)

We harvested salad greens tonight, which is the most exciting thing ever!  And yummy french breakfast radishes.  Everything else sprouts and grows with whatever sunlight it can glean from the clouds.  The tomatoes are doing marginally well; I always doubt their ability to produce soon enough and buy some plants anyway.  We'll see if I can restrain myself and have confidence in my green thumb.

Don't let it go to your head

We had a lovely weekend with an impromptu visit from my parents - perfect for Mother's Day!  We visited with family and enjoyed the sunshine.  After they left on Sunday, we trekked over to the McCollum Bike Park for the BMX race.  Gavin raced while Graeme and I explored a river trail nearby.  Though I missed all but one race, Gavin ended up doing pretty well.... he'll get the hang of racing eventually... and, of course, he got a trophy.  (They like to encourage kids to come back.)  Since I was with Graeme, these pictures are actually from a practice session, but you get the idea.

Gavin wears my helmet, which fits him pretty well.  You can see, however, from the picture below, if he reaches too far forward, he can get a little top heavy.  Oops!

This gave the audience a good chuckle.  Gavin included.

We all have moments like this, right?

A Note to Our Guests

This post is sort of about our garden, but more of an apology to those lovely guests who took away cucumber starts as their favor from Gavin's birthday party.  Please do not attribute the death of your plants to your black thumb (if they died... if they haven't then you surely have a bright green thumb).   All but one of my plants that I set out have died, and I now realize that 1) it is too cold for cucumbers to be out, and 2) they don't really like to be transplanted if you keep them indoors too long.

I didn't want you to feel like you killed your plants, because you were really just set up for failure.  My apologies.  Next year we'll give out seeds or another start that has a better chance of surviving.

There are plenty of things to be doing right now: dishes, laundry, putting sheets back on the bed.  Instead of doing things more "productive", I realized this was a quiet moment not to be wasted.  The boys are outside with Craig doing this: 

 

I'm not exactly sure what "this" is, but Craig assures me it will look good.  (I particularly like how Graeme is helping with the level.)  But, the only time I can write is when the boys are otherwise occupied and my brain is still fully functioning.  That gives me only a small window in which to operate.

We've had many mediocre, but fun adventures since I last wrote.  You can tell by my last post that things are pretty exciting around here.  Gavin's birthday came and went.  He is now FIVE!  And the weekend was lovely, made incredibly special because my sister, Peyton, and Morgan surprised us by showing up at our door on Saturday morning.  The weather was fantastic, and the bike track well-ridden.  

Craig organized a hockey weekend this last weekend, so many (10) of his Canadians friends invaded our house.  The boys and I ran off to Canada to hang out with the in-laws and the other mums and kids of the hockey dads.  Though not totally a weekend off for me, it was lovely and I was able to go to yoga at Parallel ( http://www.parallelyoga.ca/ ) on Saturday AND Sunday.  

(Thank you Karen!) 

But really, on to more important things.  

The garden.  How is the garden, you ask?  It is coming along slowly as it has been chilly here still.  (No surprise.)  The biggest development seems to be the ants, who are back and, this year, devouring my red cabbage and brussel sprout starts.  (See video below.  Little bastards.)  Many people have tried to convince me that the ants aren't actually eating the plants, but something on them... but I've never seen ANY other bugs on these plants. Only ants.  And lots of them.  If you have ideas about how to rid your life of ants (that won't also kill my children), please let me know.  I can live without the brussel sprouts, but I was actually kind of excited about the cabbage.  I've never grown it before and it would be kind of fun.  

The greenhouse is still going with tomatoes, peppers, basil, and zinnias.  The tomatoes are the only ones that seem to be getting unhappy.  I played the role of Crazy Lady last Thursday, where I re-potted as many tomato starts as I could.  In the cold, pouring rain at dinner time, since I knew I would be leaving for the weekend and HAD to get it done!  I put some outside in the ground, knowing full well that they probably won't survive.  It's an experiment, or rather a riveting drama: will the tomatoes survive without covering?  will they survive with covering?  will they survive in the green house? or will I be going to the store the end of May to buy bigger plants?  Stay tuned.  

The lettuce is happy, spinach I'm sure will be gifted to friends, and the mystery sprouts are still coming up.  We've got lots of poppies and cilantro (from the compost), as well as some kind of tomato and something that looks like cucumber, but might be squash.  I'm hoping for cucumber, because if it is squash, no one will eat it except for me.  In any case, I'll keep guessing until something definitive appears.  Again, you can't get drama like this anywhere else... 

I realized the other day (because I realize again and again), that my life is pretty good... if the problems weighing on me are how to get rid of ants and where the dryer ball disappeared to... there are other worries to be sure, but those are the ones really bugging me!