Pictorial Update

This season is busy but not. I'm feeling more inclined to be outside, work in the garden or be spontaneous with the littles than to sit at the computer and tell you (all three of you) about my oh so exciting suburban little life.... and isn't that just how it should be in summer? 

Just to let you know all is well, a few updates in images. 

The babies have grown up. We gave away three older laying hens, and our cockerel (young rooster) to a nice person who is trying to hatch eggs and needed more hens ... it was a blessing to have found a place where Cuckoo could even attempt to live a life as a real rooster. We wish him well! May he wake other people every morning at 4:45 :-) 

The pullets are 11 weeks old now. 

First tomatoes (Sungold) and cucumbers (no idea what kind): 

The beautiful scarlett runner beans and some eggplant flowers

Just another gratuitous flower picture: My favorite sunset colored rose.

The promises of raspberries and even a handful of blackberries on a vine that seems to be recovering from The Evil Mildew (not pictured).

The red currents that are left are starting to look mighty promising. Sadly have not harvested a single red strawberry (except a lot of wild ones....). 

We have harvested a bunch of lettuce, garlic scapes, kale, snap peas and herbs thus far. 

And we close with yesterday's ghostly, ghastly visitor: An Eyed Click Beetle!

{this moment}

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{this moment}

A Friday SouleMama ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see 

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{this moment}

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{this moment}

A Friday SouleMama ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see 
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Garden Survey

This week is nuts between music recitals, gymnastic shows, preschool graduation and assorted other end-of-year activities. There. See? I said the word activity. It never means anything wholesome or fun. I'm planning to avoid the A-word all summer long.

Here's a long overdue garden update in pictures. The spring has been soooo slow for me, especially in the cucurbit section. We're only just getting the first strawberries to turn pink, at least 2 weeks later than last year. But hey, the garlic is going strong and the wait for scapes should be almost over now...

The snap peas are about 3-4 feet tall, and have no flowers. Spontaneous potatoes have cropped up, indicating that I did a poor job digging them up last season. I'll take it, though, potatoes sans the work.

Promises, promises, on the berry front:

Gooseberries looking good. 

Red currants looking - well - eaten. By whom, you wonder? They are so sour when green!

Lots of strawberries are setting in the back patch where I didn't get a single one last year. Maybe the new and improved fencing has helped... Blueberries are looking OK, but not as nice as last year. The later bush has sub-par pollination, must have rained at the wrong time :-(

These peonies are my favorite.

The first tomato flowers on a Sungold plant, gifted by a friend. Baby kale and dward marigolds, too.

The 'three sister' planting of corn, beans and squash. The beans are ahead of the game and needed stakes because the corn is not tall enough yet! 

Fraises de bois (wild strawberries) make an excellent groundcover. They also feed the chipmunks which feed the .... wait. Chipmunks are fairly useless to me and I wish I could still keep cats...

The pullets are growing rapidly and spend their days outside now. The enormous comb and wattle on 'Cuckoo' have us a little worried, but so far we haven't seen any struttin'..... or other boy-ish behavior. 

Built some trellis while I had a nail gun on loan from a friend (really meant to assemble bee hive frames but that is a separate update...). 

The preschool class planting pumpkin seeds so the incoming class in fall will have pumpkins. 

Dragonfly hunting is a lifelong pursuit, not an activity. A certain member of this family plans on doing it full-time this summer.

{this moment}

................

{this moment}

A Friday SouleMama ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see 
.......

Cloudy on a Sunny Day

The story starts last night, when I couldn't find our oldest laying hen, Cloudy. After a while of walking the yard, I found her snuggled in a little nest in the bushes near our stone wall. I picked her up and carried her home to sleep in the safe coop, noticing a questionable poop and her very calm state. She didn't seem in pain but I thought she might be egg-bound again, as she was last year.  

Well, sadly, this morning she was lying motionless on the floor of the coop. I called the two younger children to say good bye. 

We talked about how we don't know exactly how old she was, since we got her at an auction. She was molting when we bid on her, and looking bedraggled. We just needed a warm body to fill in space in our coop after a few losses. She has turned out to be such a reliable hen, friendly (but not overly affectionate), good at getting out of the way of predators (once it took me a whole night to locate her in her secret hide-out under the coop after a doggy scare), and pretty to look at in her snow white feathers, like a picture book hen. We will miss her!

The next generation of layers is providing solace to the middle, who was the most upset.

Channeling Monet at Walden

This morning, as the fog was lifting off Walden Pond just after sunrise, I really wished I could paint like Monet (and quickly, too!). It all is so transient. This early morning time spent outside, hard to find words to describe how much it means to me. Apparently I'm no poet either ... My favorite moments are when I just arrive and have a few minutes to sip my tea before changing to go swimming. Wishing everyone a wonderful Sunday filled with lots of time spent in the gorgeous sunshine!