Bits of Summer Days

Willie, Izzy, and Leif enjoy ice cream cones on the back stoop.

Aren't they sweet? (The kids, not the cones!)

(The following was started last week, and finished today. I'm slow.)

So, we are halfway through the year, it seems, give or take a few weeks. Today is the first official day of Summer for the kiddos in school, and of course, it was filled with thunder and lightning. Nevertheless, we saw young kids out walking downtown, tossing cast nets off the rocks on the beach into the water, and scooting around on bikes. Ah, summer.

Our days have been filled of late with a plethora of mini-projects: The other day, I ground my own beef (for the first time). Yesterday, Jason hauled my newly refinished armoire into the house (all by himself, mind you!) and I spent the evening giddily moving boxes of crafting items from Leif’s closet into the living room, where I sorted, organized, and stowed it all away neatly in the armoire. The other day, we stopped at a local botanical garden and picked up a dozen very tall, thick, sturdy bamboo poles on the cheap for our garden. In our new shoes, we walk around the neighborhood in the evening, admiring neighbors’ gardens, and ever on the watch for items of use we might find on the way (like prickly pear cactus for jellies, large sticks for staking tomatoes and other uses in the garden).

I spend a good deal of time discovering new ways (to me) of gardening. I’ve suddenly become entranced by any new tidbit of information that will help me – I glean tips from magazine articles on topics that have nothing really to do with gardening, and many that do. Or books, online, neighbors, pretty much anywhere I can. I’ve become a gardening fool! And a crafting fool as well.

I’ve refinished frames for my wall, made pinecone birdfeeders with the kids (Caryn’s and Leif), and have been hunting down projects to become my first sewing victims. I have a few projects in mind already, so now I need to get the materials I need, and voila, I’ll be on my sewing way. Jason discovered that there is a local(ish) place that will start offering classes in mid-September on quilting, and it is really inexpensive. You have to have basic knowledge of sewing, so I have the summer to practice with my little projects and then, hopefully, I will start the quilting class in the Fall. How exciting!

Our worms have produced a grand amount of castings, so I need to harvest that. I’m rather nervous to do it (because I don’t want to harvest the castings improperly). I’m hoping that soon, we’ll have to set up another bin for more worms. They multiply rather quickly, and I’ve noticed the soil moves a lot more than it did before – I’m guessing that means more worms. It would be great if there ARE more worms…currently, they can’t keep up with our output from the kitchen, so it will be wonderful when they can! I’m very excited to put the castings on my tomatoes – it is the best food they could get! I love the cycle of it – our food scraps and old checks/shreddable paperwork that would otherwise go to a landfill feed the worms, who in turn produce worm castings, which is food for the garden to help it grow. We pick the veggies in the garden, eat it, then the scraps from that go right back in to the worm bin and the cycle continues. Beauty, eh?

A quick story before I bid Adieu:

Willie is here today, and they are sitting next to me in a big chair, being silly together. Leif is pressing his head against Willie’s head, and telling me, “We have three heads.”
“Oh, do you?” I ask, laughing.
“Willie has two, “ he continues, pointing to Willie’s head (singular, mind you).
Leif taps his own noggin, “I have one.”
What Goobers.

Tomorrow we’re goin’ blueberry pickin’!
Have a good’un!

(More photos below - keep scrolling!)