in February, Garden Design, Gardening, Homeschool, Parenting, Permaculture, School, Seasons, Spring, Winter, Youth/Kids
High 42 Low 39 Light sprinkling of rain in the early evening
I Can Hardly Wait!
A currant ready to burst!
Okay, I know it’s only February but I can hardly wait for Spring! There are tulips up on my front porch and the current buds are swelling so big, I swear I’ll hear them when they burst!
This time last year we still had at least a solid three feet of snow!
Earlier today the children, goats and dogs were all out on the land running, browsing and playing. It was fun to watch them together, all one herd–Human kids and goat kids all umping, bouncing and calling to their mamas.
The latter part of the day was spent measuring parts of our land with Sofie. As I measured, I explained to her what I was doing and why. I sometimes asked her to tell me why I would want to know the distance from this to that. Mapping and surveying were part of our homeschooling today. She is a bright girl who catches on to things quickly.
We plan to move a few things around (Isn’t that what gardeners do?) and finish some projects as soon as Spring blesses us with warmer weather.
I relocated a few currants and a young cherry tree. I drew plans for new plantings and perused plant catalogs to find a few hard-to-get items.
While in the garden, Sofie rolled a log over and we marveled at the many earthworms that were squirming around in the rich soil. Flipping things over in our garden is almost like looking for crabs under rocks at the beach. No matter how many times you see them, they are still always fascinating.
Tonight I will put my measurements to graph paper and create a more detailed design. I will tell myself to be patient as the sun begins to rise higher each day until Spring and I will dream of hyacinth and flowering currants.
High 49 Low 37 Slight afternoon clearing
This evening I found myself asking my almost teen daughter to turn down the stereo. It’s not an unusual request since she loves music, the louder the better. But tonight, was different. She wasn’t listening to music. You see, ever since our trip down to Oakville last week, she has been listening to Barbara Kingsolvers “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.” http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/
Sofie enjoys the story parallels to our own family life and I think she even feels comforted at times. She has commented on Camille’s recipes and commentary, Barbara’s witty way with words and sense of humor as well as her ability to take her thoughts and form them into beautiful and clever sentences. Sofie even chose Animal Vegetable Miracle as an offering for our Mother-Daughter Bookclub because she would like to discuss issues of local food and growing our own with other kids!
Sofie is an amazing artist and I suspect writing may be part of her future. In the eyes of my twelve year-old, Barbara Kingsolver rocks!
This is not to say that our eight-year-old son doesn’t also listen to Mrs. Kingsolver. He was only halfway listening until he heard her talk about the character who’s other name is “Malcolm You Get Your Backside Over Here or You Aint Getting No Dinner”! After that, he was sold and has been right there next to his sister, folding paper airplanes or rolling cars across the floor, listening to the book on tape.
For me, it is nice to have my kids hear that I am not the only mama who refuses to buy fruit out of season, who does her best to grow or raise most of our food and who might be heard yelling, “You all have 3 minutes to get that stuff off the table or it’s going to the landfill!” (I took secret pleasure in having them hear that!)
Although I normally prefer to read books with my kids rather than listen to them, listening to this one has been a family pleasure. We are on the eleventh disk out of twelve. I wonder what we will do when we’re done with the set?
Any good suggestions?
