10/25: Roots and Shoots, Sunny Days, and Holes

Well, it's still not quite spring, but we're seeing lots of growth all over the place! The beds of garlic and cut flowers that we got ready in the fall are sprouting nicely, and if we can get enough customers to break even on our cut flower CSA, I'll consider it a success! (If you're local and have stimulus money to spend, please consider putting a little bit towards fresh flowers! We're going to have sooooo many...) I've started a million flower seeds, plus our usual cold crops and summer veggies for the regular CSA (which filled up quickly this year, I wish we had the time and space to feed everybody who wants to sign up!). The cold crops are just about ready to transplant, daffodils are close to blooming, and peach and nectarine trees are pruned in the hopes that we'll have a decent crop from them this year. We were too scared to prune much the past couple years, but their growth had really outstripped their ability to produce fruit, so we had to take some pretty big cuts so that a decent crop didn't break the branches. I'm hoping it works!

We had several warm days in a row, enough that I was able to get outside for a good amount of time every day, and it was wonderful! The children generally trailed after me, which is always fun - Cecilia grabbed her sunhat and sat in the sun reading Anne of Green Gables, sometimes with a cat in her lap. Ah, to be 10 years old with all the time in the world and zero inhibitions...

Mary Claire and Elizabeth showed me the very fun game they invented involving peach pits and seashells. Apparently they spent a long time digging holes by one of the pine trees, and found quite a few peach pits that had fallen from the trees in years past. These became the "people" in various families, and the seashells were their beds, their toys, etc. Then they filled bucket after bucket with water in order to fill the holes so that the peach pits had somewhere to swim and take baths. It is amazing how creative they are with random things they find outdoors!