3.21.2011

this weekend~

We welcomed the arrival of Spring with a lovely weekend and a lot of time spent outside.  Hiking, long walks, playing at the park, planting peas...  The cherries and pear trees, forsythia and magnolias, violets and dandelions are all blooming and filling the air with the sweet smells of Spring.  (Well, the ones that are scented anyway)  On Saturday we visited the nature center and got to see the bears coming out for one of their first times this year, met a barred owl, watched the peacock trying to impress the peahens, and watched the otters play.  And last night, although we had our bonfire all set to welcome the new season, we opted for an indoor fire after we noticed how late it had gotten and the mouths that still needed to be fed.  Seems it's taking me a while to get the hang of this daylight savings time adjustment.  More so than usual this year.  That's alright, now we have a fire all ready to go for an upcoming evening.

There were also some good games of Bananagrams played, I enjoyed some reading (a surprising choice on my part: The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, a book that I thought I'd be disgusted with and that got my attachment parenting self all in a tizzy before actually reading it.... turns out it's quite amusing if read for entertainment and not as a "how-to", which I don't think it's meant as anyway) and I watched a film (in it's entirety) for the first time in many many months. (The Cove, a documentary about dolphins in Taiji, Japan).  All in all, a very lovely weekend that has me itching for warmer weather and excited about how much fun awaits us this year as we grow and explore together.

On the chicken front, the girls seem to be doing alright and going about their normal routine just fine with one little exception... since we lost Henrietta, we've only gotten one egg a day from Pearl, our Buff Orpington.  This leads me to believe that Mabel (our remaining Red Star) is either on a laying strike after witnessing last week's tragedy, or that she is and has always been a freeloader.  Hmm.  Guess we'll see.

Heading to Memphis to visit with family and celebrate my grandfather's 80th this coming weekend~  Lots of road trips coming up for this little family of ours.  If anyone has road trip tips for 14 month olds, I'd love to hear them!

here are some scenes from our weekend~









4 comments:

  1. Do use innoculant with your peas? I guess it's supposed to really help with yield and organic companies offer it, so I'm guessing it's kind of a natural thing and not a chemical, per se. Thoughts? Love the peacock photo!

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  2. I don't use it at home, but have in the past at farms I've worked at (and they were organic so yes the innoculants used were all OMRI listed) I'd use it if I had it lying around, I'm sure it'd help with our usual mediocre yields. LOVED your fairy garden post today- very cute! Again, I tried to comment but it's back to not letting me. Weird. Thanks, the nature center peacock is definitely used to folks, so that helped immensely!

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  3. Fun pictures Amanda. And loved reading your mama reflecting post! Just want to share with you my latest travel tip.. leave for the trip in the wee hours when she would normally be sleeping.. I'm talking 2 or 3am. If you are fully packed the night before, and just wake up, load up and be off..it might make the first leg of your journey easier, ideally she would go back to sleep quick and sleep long..
    Anyway, it worked out for us on our last trip with Mary. Happy Travels!! Good Luck!

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  4. Thanks, Windy! Ugh. 2 or 3am huh? That's the kind of tip I was worried about! ;-) Makes perfect sense though~ might just have to tough it out and give it a shot!

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thanks for taking the time to read and comment~