a new habit

i am very excited to be participating in this space for the month of april. it is one of my favourites in the big old internet. come visit.

habit

really counting.

our trip to the beach should have been reminder enough.

like we needed any more reasons.

and then i looked at the bounty on our table. between our garden and csa box, we are very lucky!




and parrots. i have yet to capture a photo. but they fly over our house every morning and every evening. i still smile every time.

::

i didn't mean to be away so long. a lot has been going on. we planted 200 more shrubs and trees at the girls school. we've added soccer and tennis to violin and all of a sudden our fairly unscheduled family finds itself running on a fairly tight schedule. life is full. but no complaints.

and now spring break. and a long deep breath. and the first real trip to the beach of the season.

i will add a trip to the beach with a group of people i love. my friends and neighbours and people who sometimes i forget how lucky i am to have. i complain a lot about living here*. too much. i forget the good and get bogged down in the bad. i have been thinking about it a lot lately. sometimes it takes the eyes of someone new to a place to remind you of what you have. this lady has me thinking about my first days here. how magical i found it. and how much time i spent at the beach. how lucky we are to live in such a glorious place. i'm thinking about my place here now. about the amazing group of people who look after me and my family on a daily basis. who live around me and with me. who really, i can't imagine life without. how lucky i am to live in such a glorious place.






happy spring!. good pesach! happy easter!
i am counting my many blessings.


*please forgive me next time i complain. i know i will. these halcyon days of 80 degree weather are turning me into a summer lover. i must remember it is only spring!

longer days.

while i miss dawn's arrival before the girls awake, i must admit i do like the lingering days and the long shadows they bring.


read this in the dark this morning: the femivore's dilemma
terrible term - but interesting read.

we ate pancakes.

oh this time change is kicking my ass.

feels like spring around here

it is cool. and breezy. but sunny. and all seem to be happy about it. (including me.)

all three hens are laying again. and my greens are happy and seemingly oblivious to the triple digit temps that will be their demise in another couple of months.

until then...

a problem in the house

our cookie jar. is empty.

and i keep eating my slice of banana bread before the tea is ready.



while our dietary changes slowed down our cookie consumption, the reintroduction of wheat - seemingly without consequence - has returned us to a favourite from this book. mmmmm.

as soon as the loaf is gone. (and that will likely be today.) we are back on the slow road to cookies.

our kitchen

veni

vedi

vici

we purchased our home from its original owner. they had completed a redo sometime in the early 80s - but the kitchen had remained fairly original. complete with slide-out stove-top - which we perhaps foolhardily kicked to the curb. (it no longer worked.) the narrow kitchen upper cabinets had sliding pegboard doors. cool. but filthy. we replaced them with plexi. the counter top was a fab green and pink boomerang. very cool, but again had aged poorly and was replaced with baltic birch and white laminate counter tops. d rebuilt all the wooden cabinet doors and upper cabinetry, replicating them in the dining room. the carpet (!) and original lino underneath were replaced with cork. the 80s light fixtures were replaced with simple globes. the only real footprint change was moving the washing machine out to a newly created laundry room and building a breakfast nook where the dryer, and another door once stood. (details to follow.)

here we grow again

half started in the house in origami pots - half directly sown.

direct
Kale Squire
Baby Mesclun Lettuces "Cut and Come Again"
Japanese Spinach "Oriental Giant"
Nasturtium "Fiesta Blend"
Dill "Bouquet"
Swiss Chard "Red and White Mix"

potted
Pea "Sugar Snap"
Flowering Vine "Purple Hyacinth Bean" (this is actually to cover a trellis by the shed)
Butterfly Snapdragons "Chantilly"
Climbing Nasturtiums "Spitfire"
Container Tomato "Super Bush"
Cantaloupe "Hearts of Gold"

Still looking for a pole bean - and some artichoke plants. (the chooks destroyed our huge one. so sad!) D has also build a larger bed that I plan on using as a cut-flower garden - as dictated by the girls who have a habit of picking every flower they can for the dinner table. I am also going to try more lettuces in an old wine crate as microgreens. (I have been sprouting in a jar but thought I'd try in dirt as I read it is safer.)

I am even more unsure what I am doing this time. I have had no luck with greens in our summer garden. This was to be our winter garden - but I got delayed building a fence to keep the chooks out. We will see what happens. The mesclun is coming in nicely - I just hope it lasts a while.

I am trying to stick to the notion of only growing what we will eat. I find it tricky. All those seed packets thrill me!

How does your garden grow?