20/52: Clover Crowns and Light Saber Duels

 

I think it's safe to say I will not be succeeding at the 52 Project this year... Several weeks have gone by undocumented, and I think I'm just going to end up picking up where I left off once I actually start taking pictures of the kids again! Virginia heat + humidity and being in my third trimester are not a photo-friendly combination, particularly with keeping up with the CSA, keeping everyone fed, and dealing with some other life changes.

We're in the summer swing of things, and it's such a relief to have a break from schoolwork! Gives the kids extra time in the mornings to do things like unearth every dress-up item in the house to find "Star Wars" outfits for everyone, then take apart all my brooms so they can use the handles as light sabers. Needless to say, the broom handles were quickly reclaimed lest they get lost, and the kids were instructed to find sticks. We have so many sticks!! Apparently broom handles are much more fun, though.

Cecilia has continued making sweet little flower crowns for Lucy - honestly, I think she generally intends to make them for herself, then gets tired near the end and decides, "Well, good enough..." even though it's not long enough for her. So she gives it to Lucy, who is always suitably delighted! Truly, every 2-year-old needs a 10-year-old sister to supply her with an unending stream of flower crowns.

Edith saw me taking pictures and insisted I take pictures of her primroses. Thank goodness for low-maintenance perennials that will establish themselves happily amidst quite a lot of neglect! These spread and transplant easily, so I moved some into her little tiny garden last year and they came back this year. Since they're right by our most-trafficked door, Edith checks on them frequently and came inside breathless one day to tell me that the first one had bloomed!! They've been blooming for several weeks now, and she often counts exactly how many are in bloom, or alerts me to the fact that a bee is pollinating one of them. Meanwhile Peter's daylilies have multiplied and he's quite pleased every time a bud opens up. Hopefully his balloon flowers spread with as much vigor! Mary Claire, John Paul, and Cecilia have mostly abandoned their gardens, but I think they might just need a little space more set apart but easy to remember to care for. And Elizabeth's strawberries produced quite nicely this year, despite her unwillingness to weed them.

I took nice pictures of our very first CSA bag of the season (from nearly a month ago! You can see how behind I am on these posts...) and we've already been through five weeks of the season now! We've had strawberries, sugar snap peas, asparagus, herbs, kale, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, onions, garlic scapes, garlic, and lots of flowers. The strawberries really went all-out and I'm going to plant more in the spring, but in thinner rows under plastic so that they're easier to harvest and the weeds stay under control. Right now they're in a huge raised bed, which is convenient for weed management but really difficult when it comes to harvesting the ones in the middle of the bed!