Garden Journal - Monday, May 26

The lilies are blooming.  

The peppers are growing.  

Some of the tomatoes have flowers, but no baby tomatoes yet.

 

There are tiny grapes on the grapevines.

I need to pick the spinach again.  That was on my list for today but I never got around to it.

 Cabbage worms have found our cabbage.  Phillip has a plan of attack, though.

The cucumbers are peeking out.

Potatoes in full bloom

Some of the onions were ready to pick.  Phillip hung them up to dry in the shed.

The broccoli is past its prime but the onions are still growing well.

The green beans aren't looking so great.

The strawberries are thriving.  The birds were enjoying so many of them that we had to cover them with bird netting.

Phillip is building another strawberry bed - literally a strawberry "bed".  

Garden Journal - Mon., May 19

Our strawberries are doing much better this year.  We thinned the plants and that has helped a lot.  

 

Last year we picked maybe a dozen strawberries in all.  I picked these this morning.  We bought some to freeze and to make preserves, but we're adding our little harvest as they ripen.  It makes us feel sort of successful.

 The potatoes are growing well.  We may be able to dig some soon.

The sugar snap peas are ready to pick.  They're on the menu for tomorrow.

 

This is the first year we've planted spinach and it has thrived.  Phillip, who eats no kind of greens at all, likes it sauteed with garlic.  I use it in smoothies.  

 

The broccoli has done really well.  I've already picked and frozen most of it.  It's still making little heads which I pick and add to the freezer bag.  We need to plant more next year.  The onions are getting big.  They'll be ready to pick soon.

 

The tomatoes and peppers are taking off.  We need to can a lot of tomatoes this year so we're hoping they do well. Last year they got a wilt or blight or something and we had to buy tomatoes to can.  

 

The green beans aren't looking so great.  Phillip just replanted the sparse spots.  Last year we canned enough so we don't need a huge crop this year, but we're hoping they come around and start growing.

 

The milk jugs, juice bottles, buckets, etc. scattered among the plants are our drip watering system.  So far it's working well.  

In April

We bought a climbing dome for the grandkids.  Our children had one and they loved playing on it.  So far our grandchildren and Mark's grandchildren have enjoyed it. 

We celebrated Rachel's birthday.  (That's a pretty typical pose for Jimmy.)  Lilly and Lucy picked out the cake.  It was very good.

We celebrated Jonas's birthday.  It's hard to believe that our little man is 3 years old!  I wish I had a better picture of the cupcakes.  They were "Elmo" cupcakes.  Jennifer's mom made them.  They were not only really cute but really delicious.

 The dogwoods bloomed.  Whenever I see the flowers, I remember Mama telling me how they tell the story of the crucifixion.  The petals represent the cross, the dark spots on the ends of the petals represent the blood of Christ, and the center represents the crown of thorns.  

 Hannah dyed Easter eggs.  I accidentally bought a different type of egg dying kit, but the eggs turned out beautifully and it was much less of a mess.  There were no dye tablets to dissolve in cups of vinegar, just a plastic bag and squeezy color.  It was a great idea.

 We used one of Mama's tablecloths for Easter dinner. 

 Hannah, Lilly, and Lucy wore their Easter dresses.

Lilly and Lucy were the only seekers in our egg hunt this year.  We ended up with just one unaccounted-for egg.  Hannah and Devin finally found it last week.  It was the camo egg, so that's probably why it was hard to find.

 Mama's irises bloomed.  She loved them so much.  I try to take good care of them but I don't have her green thumb.

Jason had a birthday, but this is how I celebrated it.  I had some sort of cold/flu ailment and I felt so bad that I actually postponed his birthday dinner.  As far as I can remember, this is the first time I've ever done that.  We did celebrate his birthday, though, just a week or so late.

 

March

In March, things were a little slow, so .....

 

I made little socks for the dining room chairs.  They were making black marks on the floors.  I had falsely accused Phillip of doing it with his work boots, but he was not the guilty party.  This stylish chair legwear has solved the problem.  I'm thinking of doing a set of seasonal colors for each month.  

 

Jonas played with our Mr. Potato Head sets.  

He got a little grumpy.

 He got so grumpy that he had to go to his special grumpy place in the hall.  You'd never believe that seconds before this picture was taken, this precious child was screaming and kicking the walls.  Posing for pictures distracted him from his misery and helped him find his happy mood, which helped the rest of us find our happy moods.  What would we do without our sweet Jonas!  Even when he's grumpy Jonas, he makes us smile.

February

In February

We visited our daughters in Virginia.  Our grandsons are growing up before our eyes, especially Caleb.  Look how tall he's getting.

 

 We were delighted to meet Roger, Sam's alter ego.  He is quite a character!

 

We got to love on Jaclyn's sweet dog, Isla.  Isla is a beautiful dog, and she is very intelligent. 

We had quite a snow.  Phillip measured 9 inches at our house.  It was beautiful, and our power didn't go out so we stayed warm and cozy.

 

Phillip brought me flowers for Valentine's Day.

 

Lilly, Lucy, and Jonas came for a Valentine's Day sleepover.  Jonas came dressed as a lion, and we all had a roaring good time.