garden 2009

just to keep a record of my adventures in gardening:

so this season i tried a couple of things from seed. i had very low expectations and was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. i have had little to no time to maintain our allotment but it has been pretty self sustaining and we had regular rain as well.

i did peppers, carrots, okra and spinach from seed and directly into the ground. i bought a eggplant plant that yielded one eggplant.

the biggest surprise of the season was the carrots and okra. the carrots i was sure i had not thinned enough- but i was wrong! we probably got five pounds of carrots. most of them were all misshaped. about half seem normal sized and the other half are smaller.



carrots

the other surprise was the okra. i waited to long to harvest it and generally they were mutant huge okra. but charles was happy to have it and i finally learned how to make okra soup! yay!




last harvest of the year... green pepps, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, &okra

i took a small bed that i had tried and failed to have a clematis climber vine and moved all my tomatoes there instead. the result was good and i think i'll keep them there again next y ear.

this coming season- if we remain in our home (there's a chance we would move to an apartment)- i hope to eliminate half of our back lawn and really plant quite a bit.

constance turns 2!

improv elmo/cookie monster plan b cake

well our baby is two years old. this is an attempt to record my emotion and the events of our day... no blogging comeback by a long shot. we celebrated today w/ family and had a wonderful time. we had dance party to open and conclude our time and at cake in between. it was a cookie monster/elmo hybrid cake. i had no choice but to make it a hybrid when i realized that i had only blue food coloring and no red! there are worse fates.

not only does our daughter provide endless amounts of joy and laughter to our sometimes too serious lives; she truly lights up any room she is in. the love her daddy and i feel for her is sweetly rivaled by how adored she is by my sister and mom and my sweet niece laurel. it is so great to see your kid get swallowed up in love and adoration in the presence of family.

it makes my heart so deeply grateful to have the profound privilege to raise you as my daughter. i may be your parent- but you- my sweet constance are my teacher. the day you arrived was a day i cherish and thank god for it daily (read about it here)! here’s to a third year of life of more laughing and crying, comfort and spunk, obedience and repentance, elmo and the omission of the wiggles, and prayerfully… potty training.