June

Some ducks from the nearby park/lake were using our part of the neighborhood for a honeymoon/date for a few days. They came to our yard for cracked corn and then walked across the street and sat down in the road on a man hole cover (near water?). They finally moved when too many cars drove by, but just up on the curb! And there they are in our neighbor's yard on the grass, cracked corn nearby. They stopped showing up after a couple of days and I suspect are over at the lake with ducklings by now. We haven't been to see the ducklings, but now that I think of it, we will go over today.



We were given one of those Magic Gardens you can find at finer toy stores near you...It was really amazing. Before and After scenes- after about 12 hours...If you get one, really believe them that moving it is nearly impossible, so place where cats cannot find before you start. The stuff that "grew" is very soft and feels chalk-like in your hands. One of Matt's friends who is a chemistry guy said it was probably an acid-base reaction, not unlike adding vinegar to baking soda, but time delayed and with dyes for pretty colors. This is what everyone will get for Christmas it was so much fun!



Fun fun fun! Little baby spiders everywhere! Chamomile in all of its gloriousness! Samuel outside with the plants and Star Wars guys (I think...).



Lace shawl I knit for Grandma Huber. Iris! Nothing more to add. I love Irises and we have them all over this time of year.



Our lovely apple tree in full bloom. The blooms left behind 100's of baby apples. And Eva caught this great photo of Magoo. Cats always find the coolest spots. Both kids wanted me to make a spot like this for them.



Samuel self portrait, close-up. Eva inquiring...



Star Wars guys invade knitting- check out Jango...Eva with Magoo...Hershey bar sculpture.



Eva in her new dress (thank you Mary and Addie!) with a baby on her head, as usual. More babies (that's the penguin family, although if I am not mistaken one of them is treated as a chicken, don't ask, and then of course Bunny Baby and Zippidy Doo Da Baby.)

Finding it increasingly challenging to get some time on the computer as other, younger members of the family branch out and require more and more screen time, and I don't mean Charlie.

Samuel got the new Lego Indiana Jones game and has really been enjoying it. It is very much like the Star Wars games and a lot of fun to play the little Lego Indiana and solve the puzzles. It is a little buggish with some of the loading and scene changes and we are waiting for a patch of some sort as this seems to be a common problem, from what I have read on the message boards.

I am actually looking for a new car. Imagine that our car is thinking of retiring? Yesterday I cleaned the car quite a bit and brought in many art projects and stuffed animals and such and then I learned how to get melted gummy worms out of small plastic spaces. Who knew? Samuel finally offered me his crow bar (what 8 year old is without his very own crow bar?) and that did the trick. Lucky for me, there were a few quarters mixed into the gummy worms! I think it was my mom who passed on the hidden mother lore of pocketing any and all loose change that is found in melted gummy worm goo.

The garden is flourishing with some sunshine and quite a bit of rain. We are now firmly in the season of strawberries and chamomile... and peas. Hooray. The chamomile is really thriving this year. The plants reseeded from last year and started growing very early and are consequently huge- about 2 feet high. The kale is blooming and I am feeling sad about taking it down because the bees love it so much. I do need some more space for the rest of the tomatoes and the eggplant plant that Eva picked out. Oh, and another cucumber plant. She loves cucumbers. So I will need to say goodbye to kale blossoms soon. They are just amazing and I highly recommend letting your kale blossom simply for the lovely yellow flowers. The plants are huge. Some are taller than me! When I took the broccoli flowers down and put them in the compost pile, some of the late bloomers actually continued to bloom in there. So we shall see what the kale decides to do. The bees don't seem to mind where they bloom, just as long as there are flowers.

All of the pruning that the kids and I did with the roses over the winter has really paid off. One of the roses is definitely a Floribunda and has so many buds it is hard to count. Maybe 40 or 50? I feel very excited about this because this rose did not bloom at all last year. It grew about 8 feet tall with narry a bud. In case I haven't mentioned before, we have roughly 26 rose bushes around our yard, with most of them being hybrid teas, I believe, and one or two Floribundas.

And the blueberries are coming! My goodness but there will be a lot of berries this summer! I can't wait to get to the upick for strawberries. We haven't made it yet because it has been raining a good bit.

Not unpredictably, the cause and effect between me being on the computer and my children being hungry has kicked in. I am off to make bagels and pour juice.