It is a wonderland out in the garden with flowers blooming everywhere and baby spiders building webs on anything they can find. Dozens and dozens of little yellow spiders with black markings, the future generation of banded garden spiders. The irises came out this week and the first roses are in bloom. Last year some of the roses bloomed into November. It seems impossible but true. I took down the broccoli plants who bloomed and bloomed and nurtured the bees for weeks. The kale is blooming now and I will take that down soon as well. I am also watching as some carrots from last winter are getting ready to bloom. I am curious and wonder which bees the carrot flowers will attract. I am making room for warm weather plants like tomatoes and peppers and sunflowers and beans. Some of the mesclun mix that I planted a couple of months ago is now bolting and blooming as well, joining in the fun with the other cool weather plants. We had a burst of hot hot weather and everything changed. Today it is cooler and there was even rain, which I find to be a relief. The plants need water and I prefer it from the sky rather than from the garden hose. I also wonder at the timing of the baby spiders emerging and the hot weather. Once they were all settled in a web, safe behind a leaf here and there, it cooled off and rained. I wonder about the connection they have.

The kids and I are getting ready to go to the Life is Good Unschooling Conference on Thursday. We are staying three nights at the hotel and are really looking forward to the fun. A completely new experience for us- a conference like this and staying in a hotel. It is very close, just north of us in Vancouver.