I suppose a good place to start would to apologize to my dear mother for not posting a tribute to her on my blog for Mother’s Day like so many other dutiful daughters. I mean, she has done so much for me and I can’t bring myself to leave what I’m doing and take a moment to honor her with words? However, I think that a day late still qualifies in the range of acceptability. The day of I did make a card and surprise her with a gift (infrared thermometer). So…Happy Mother’s Day…Mother!

And, a few pictures would suffice for explaining what I’ve been up to lately…and perhaps the largest post I’ve ever had:

Blocking

Gardening….

The potatoes are to the left and the other two rows are going to be beans

And our square foot gardens are coming along nicely

Spring Recital…went well…these are my recital feet (see profile)

Some of the family

And for laughs…the dog is really annoyed at having her picture taken…as you can tell

For the past few weeks I have been either outside with our new square foot gardening, inside doing schoolwork, or going to piano lessons as the spring recital draws near. My pieces will be Somewhere in Time by John Barry and the Hungarian Dance #1 for 4-Hands by Brahms (a duet with my teacher).

An exciting new addition to our homestead is our square foot garden/raised beds. I can hardly remember a time when we didn’t have a garden or plants growing on the patio, and  each one  was full of weeding, watering, hours of harvesting, etc. With our new system, aka Raised Beds, it is much more relaxed and enjoyable, plus they look adorable. I tidy and organize most of my life into right angles, so with our uniform and clean garden…I am in the organized gardener’s bliss.

Step 1: Ye Plant

Step 2: Watch ‘em grow…do you see the organization?

And last but not least…my very own row of taters! For some reason, growing potatoes makes me happy. I’ve sat down and thought about it and I’ve come to no conclusion about why this happens

So, how’s your garden doing?

I had wanted a terrarium for a few years, and yet like many projects, I just “didn’t have time” but I most certainly did. So early this spring, I took a walk in the woods behind my house and collected some nice pebbles from the creek and some moss. Dirt came complimentary. I didn’t have the large bowl I wanted, yet a wide mouth pint jar worked out great, and the lid from a peanut butter jar fits perfectly. I really wanted to get a worm and put it in there to watch its underground trails, yet Mom wanted to make sure that I could keep it alive before I stuck something living in there…guess what? I kept it alive and even grew a mushroom! I am now moving onto the worm stage.

Before…

After…

I felt like a little interior decorator while I was positioning the rocks and sticking the little twig in there. Silly, I know.

We officially have our garden for the year 2009 in the ground! We planted our tomatoes, peas, green beans, peppers, pumpkins, and strawberries neatly arranged in our 40 X 40 foot garden. And our pears are growing all over pear tree just waiting to be sampled. Not to mention our thriving honeysuckle and daisies.

I just love gardening! It gives you a sense of accomplishment and it justifies itself in the first bite of a juicy tomato or strawberry. And the great thing is that it takes no talent to garden, it just takes knowledge about the plant and then a step by step process to keep it alive. Although some thing aren’t step by step, sadly. There are just some plants that will give you a horrible time.

Just a sneak picture of our pears:

I feel that this is going to be the first of many posts about our garden.