a garden update for June

blog crazy! two posts in one week!

Here's a look at what's blooming away here right now. We're trying to make a new flower bed around these rocks. They are up against some heavy abuse as both julia and theo now adore playing on this rock, some of them wearing stilettos. 

A volunteer poppy. I've never seen such a fancy poppy. None like this grew last year. I don't know where it came from. its in with the strawberries that are starting to ripen. 

these peas are by far the best I've ever grown. they are about 12 feet tall and not stopping. The peas on the other half of the fence are about 3 feet tall. the potatoes in front grew huge then the vines laid over. i'm not too sure if they just do that or if i'm supposed to dig them already. 

lots of herbs and roses are starting to bloom.  

dave's garden is shaping up nicely. greens, kale, beans, cucumbers, dill, flowers, garlic

so are his tomatoes

the raspberries are starting to fruit. 

calendula and poppies are blooming. I'm drying the calendula for use in soap and creams, and I'll collect the poppy seeds for baking. 

our little cherry tree is producing right now. The apple and pear are setting fruit. 

more calendula

lupine 

a new bed I dug this spring, full of beans, kale, onions, peas. in the very back are some honeyberry, currants, a gogi berry, and a thorneless blackberry. 

Julia's fairy gardens are blooming away. she uses the blooms for flower "soup." Having her own flowers to pick anytime generally saves mine from constant picking, but she is pretty interested in claiming any new garden space being dug as "hers" 

I planted artichokes and cardoons. not sure which is which. they should perennialize here. 

hot tub and mini hot tub. 

still watching wyatt, the babies are buddies now, interacting all the time. mostly nicely. 

and one last photo. mini chef on the beach.  

Aaaand summer's here!

A big spring project was building a chicken tractor to hold our meat birds this summer. I collected scrap wood from a home building site and my friend Jainie helped me with the construction. I'm still in the process of covering it with hardware mesh but i'll have to finish soon as our 30 birds currently residing in the garage will soon have to move into it! More photos on that soon.  

A lopez holiday is the Procession of the Species, a parade in which all are invited to dress as a species of choice. Julia dressed as a momma bird with her babies in the nest.  Paradeing comes naturally to Julia. 

what does the fox say?

this April, Theo had his first birthday! 

we had a small party and he had his cake! 

life for him then was all about climbing into things.  

and playing in the sand 

and trying soo hard to reach things

and just being mr sunshine in general.

and then he learned to walk! 

Julia discovered she can wrangle goats just fine. which is really good since we got 2 meat goats. 

she also got a promise of a kitty! (an outdoor mouser-type kitty!) 

we've been spending hours and hours in the garden. maybe I'll do a garden post soon.  

everyone around here is in love with lawn mower.

and in love with daddy. 

Julia's kindergarten teacher took her out paddleboarding!

then she got to go ride the bus to the big school to see what that was like. 

she gave herself a haircut...

just the regular travel around here. 

Dad graduated from a year long leadership program hosted by a neighboring island.  

and i couldn't delete any of these...

we cooked our last turkey at "half thanksgiving", my new favorite holiday. 

we lost 9 baby chicks to turkey vultures, figured out that a raccoon has been after our big chickens, then we got 2 muscovy ducks. 

Julia had her last day of preschool! 

summer means breakfast on the porch!

theo is all business about his oatmeal. 

Julia "graduated" from preschool.

and performed in the tap show for 3 nights in a row! she loved every minute of it! 

We've kicked off swimming lessons, and Julia is soooo thrilled to go to them. She realllllllly wants to learn to swim.
In other goings on, I lightened my schedule a lot by finishing my term on the preschool board and I gave my job baking at the Bay back to the friend who gave it to me. That may just be for the summer, but I'm enjoying the break! baking late at night was getting to be too much. I'm still doing some childcare and my EMT work but with running the house and garden and kids, that's plenty! Dave has been home lots the last few days, as he had a minor surgery to fix an umbilical hernia. It's been pretty great to have him ignore work for a few days, but he's not supposed to lift more than 10 lbs for a month! We've been spending lots of mornings working around the house and afternoons at the beach. Theo has taken to walking beautifully and is constantly up to some sort of schenanagans. Most often it is emptying the house one object at a time, throwing it off the porch, and heading back for more. Soon we will head to Oregon to celebrate my grandma's 90th birthday followed by my family's arrival here for a few days. Our kitty is almost ready to come live with us, we might get a few more layer hen chicks, maybe another duck or two... and after that it will be late summer already!!