I got to see the dress rehearsal for “Jack and the Beanstalk”. The kids were part of a test audience. They were completely thrilled and (incredibly) sat still for 45 minutes, thanks to a fast pace and lots of audience participation.
My good friend Nancy has put together this community theater and produced their first play. [...]
Posted in Austin, friends, garden
This is the gardening project I’m the most excited about right now. As you may recall, last year was the Sunflower House. It didn’t work out as well as I would’ve liked due to shade, drought, high winds, whirling child-sized dervishes and a vicious weed-wacker. But it was cheap and fun to try. Still, every [...]
Posted in family, garden
Okay, Iet’s change focus from the ongoing destruction of my flower garden. (SOB)
I’ve had a working herb garden for a few years now. But it needed help. There was a mysterious plant that may or may not have been an herb. I ripped it out. The kids kept trying to eat the lantana. So I [...]
Posted in garden
We need the rain. REALLY bad. So I was thrilled that we got a bit yesterday and today. Maybe 2 inches? Yay garden!
WRONG. Turns out the gutters were a little stopped up (strange, since there are no trees in the back). So a Niagra Falls dumped itself on my tiny seedlings. Behold the carnage:
Not only [...]
Posted in garden
It helps to have a good mama friend who also loves gardening. The spouses watch the kids while we dig in the dirt. My mom is also a gardening geek and digs while babysitting. So now I have a new bed on the southern wall of my house. This year I’m planting flowers. (Mostly perennials, [...]
Posted in garden
The old one was made of railroad ties. Pros: Cheap and easy to assemble. Cons: Treated with chemicals that were possibly leaching into the soil. The boards warped, causing earth and water to pour out of the cracks. The rebar holding it all together kept stabbing the kids.
So it was worth it to buy three [...]
Posted in garden
Yup, the Arizona Ash out front is budding. It’s much warmer and it actually rained. Real rain. Something that has not happened in about a year. (No, I’m not exaggerating.)
So my fingers are itching to dig in the dirt. The kids and I did this the other day. Violet made mud pies, wiggled her toes [...]
Posted in garden
This summer was not kind to any living thing in Texas. Despite my best efforts, I lost just about every plant in my raised bed. Even the tomatoes. We would dutifully check the color change each day (Graham insisting they were balls, not tomatoes) until I declared, “In the morning, it’s going to be ready [...]
Posted in garden
Enthusiasm is waning. Why? Maybe because it has been 100 degrees for weeks. Maybe because some bugs are using the garden as an all-you-can-eat buffet, while others are using us as an all-you-can-eat buffet. Maybe Violet is tired of trying to humor me. (“Yes Mom, I see the baby cucumber. [...]
Posted in garden
Things are going along pretty well for someone who can only garden in 30 second chunks.
We haven’t had to buy salad greens for weeks. Violet has eaten all 3 strawberries that have ripened on our one tiny plant. The green beans are climbing and the purple beans are growing. The squash [...]
Posted in garden
