Garden Friend

Check out this awesome garden spider. He (she?) is living in the strawberry bed and keeping them safe! If only he could eat snails.... I thought the web structure was so smart with that extra reinforcement in the center. Clever spider!

Companion Planting

Tomatillo buds, garlic chive blossom, and climbing beans all in one shot! As soon as the cucumber vines get a little longer I'll be able to squeeze them in the shot too :) Also in this bed: Carrots and loose leaf lettuce.

The garden today... random images

Colven how are old you?

"five"

Colven is 2

Yesterday was Colven's birthday.
I decided to make a day of doing (almost) all of his favorite things. We woke up early and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium where Colven spent most of his time at the big outer bay tank. He was enthralled with the hammer-head sharks, he would point and say OH WOW SHARK!! SHARK! OOOOH LOOK! to everyone around him :)

We also visited the touch pools, where Colven learned a new appreciation for how cool starfish are. It has been a few months since we have been to a touch pool and I was completely amazed at what a different experience it was for him, just being a little bit older. He listened to the volunteer talk about them and show the undersides.
After the aquarium we went to the beach, but Colven fell asleep before we got there, so I parked and read a magazine (divine!) and reflected on the day two years ago when he was born.

We met Colven's grandparents Pops and Taia at the pool. Taia made a huge platter of cupcakes to share, and Colven thoroughly enjoyed his in the hot tub!

We went to an organic farm stand and had lunch inside the tipi in the children's garden

There are lots of places to run

and hide there!

Then we finished off the day with PIZZA and a driving video game!

Happy Birthday Party Sweet Boy!

Colven's 2nd birthday party was today. The weather was fabulous!
The smoke evaded us today, which honestly was a bit bittersweet.

A gift from Aunt Sakura

Opening a gift with Dad

Sharing toys (well.. baby crack) with 9 month old Malia.




Things get interesting when the water balloons come out! Here is Uncle Greg with a big load!!

Look at these men... LOBBING water balloons at the children! HAHA!! Do you see them in the sky? The kids are on the other side of the fence.

Making bubbles! A big hit.

Colven's favorite "present" ... a singing card from Taia and Pops (Cyrus' parents)

Colven and cousin Savannah on Colven's new SKATE BOARD!

We let him pick out what he wanted... and it was this.

The totally awesome cake that Nana made and decorated

Gorging

Hangin' with dad in the children's garden at the end of a very long, very good, very non-napping kind of day.

Where is mom you ask? Well she is cleaning up of course! :)

Preparing for a TWO year old's birthday party!

My baby is going to be 2 on Monday. His birthay party is tomorrow. I'm not sure if the time has passed really super quickly or excruciatingly slowly? A bit of both I think!

Nana volunteered to make the cake (YAY!) so we picked the carrots from the garden today

Colven sampled them... several of them! We just started harvesting from this bunch and they are fabulous!

Here is Nana in her kitchen baking with Colven

Good night!

Welcome to our garden

The view from the West Entrance of the Children's Garden

corn, marigold, cerinthe, tomato, climbing bean, sunflower, baby pumpkin, cinderella pumpkin

A view of my favorite windowless window inside the inner circle of the children's garden.

The "north entrance"


The "west entrance"



Joyfulness





An overview of our garden today

This is my current favorite bed, it is the most active right now with all the growth and positive proliferation. Mesclun loose leaf lettuce, cucumbers, beans, carrots.


Glorious cilantro, which bolted before I left on our travels. It now has some really awesome coriander balls formed, so it continues to flourish without my hand to pull it -- I'm looking forward to the fresh spice! Also some spent lettuce, about to be tilled in tomorrow because it has gone bitter.
It fed us all spring. Thank you lettuce bed!

This

beautiful
sage
always catches my attention
with it's graceful arches and flowers

Black grass
just for fun

Oh Montana

I miss you already!
I'll be back to upload some more images, but at the moment Colven is recovering from a bout of intestinal flu so my free time is ummmm limited :)

Montana, Idaho, Washington, Nevada, California

All in one day!!

We were greeted

upon our arrival

tonight by a

fire-tinted moon.

It has been a

long journey home.

This cactus flower is so amazing! I'm not sure which side I prefer, the front or the back.

First dahlia bloom of the season

Echinacea

The plant in forefront is a Chinese Lantern that I started from seed last year. I can't wait to see it bloom!



Colven flanked by tomatos, peppers, eggplant, and basil

One of Colven's chores in the garden is to hunt for snails.