born imaginative.: April 2023

Garden update #1 2023

Gardening season is gearing up as of late.

First up, winter sowing. I'm HOOKED, particularly for brassicas. I sowed seeds in milk jugs in January. They were covered with snow. I didn't fiddle with them or check them. Opened a few and this is what they look like! I transplanted into singleton containers and some directly in the garden. It was SO easy and germination was impressive.

I have tomatoes, peppers and basil inside going strong under the grow lights. Loving the 'hot box' I made for peppers (foiled the inside of a box and popped them in there so the heat is retained), but learned the tomatoes don't like the hot box.

I rooted some willows and pussywillows from friends (thank you!) and planted them in the wet spot way in the back field.

My husband scored these wooden packing boxes for me from his work. Raised beds are the plan for direct sow rooty veggies with tiny seeds that are harder to start in wood chips. In my Back to Eden garden the garlic is looking great. My first winter over of lavender was successful. Trees have all been pruned and I did a bunch of grafting. Eager to see if the grafts are successful. (Hoping so!)

The barn still has excavation to do, but I have my clothesline back. I dug up more burning bush and barberry, finally circled the house and have re-done all the gardens around the house edges. Only took me 10 years. Now to decide where to put the raised beds and to fill them. Leaning towards lining them up like a fence perpendicular to the house.

We're putting chives in everything we eat and trying to use up last year's stash (pumpkin bread from pumpkin I froze last year). I still have a gallon and a half of raspberries, this is the most we preserved ever. Someone eats raspberries just about everyday, all that we picked last year. I'm also almost half the way through selling raspberry sucker plants. This year I will likely sell out with just my facebook friends and not even post on marketplace. It's a busy time of year, but a good time to be a homesteader.

Birds!

In 48 hours, two libraries and two bird programs. Inland birds and then coastal birds.

And another bird saved by the Lipskys. Adrian rescued this one from our garage and it flew away after a rest.

Radio Theater

We were treated to a marvelously hilarious radio theater performance. It was so well done and a hoot. My kids loved every minute!

Anna-Kate Turns SIX!

Anna-Kate turns SIX!

18 months
She's One
9 months
6 months
(Here's 3 months, newborn.)

Anna-Kate, you are SIX!

What a six year old you are.

First and foremost, you talk, talk, talk and talk some more. And when you're done talking. You talk a little more. You also get into everything still. You cannot help but to touch everything, wherever we go.

You are amazing at regulating yourself, which is usually through books or play. You'll say, "I think I need to do some quiet independent reading" and you'll be off to read to yourself (aloud, always aloud). Or you'll decide you'll go play by yourself, talking to yourself the whole time. You are most imaginative and can entertain yourself beautifully.

You've become a bit of a fashionista as of late. Some of your combos are unique. You've been enjoying wearing belts over your dresses to cinch your waist. Sometimes there are lots of hair bows required. An 'underbrella'? Absolutely necessary. Scarves tied up on your head, you need a half dozen. You'd prefer being barefoot outside (snow, rain, cold...no big deal).

You're a pretty good eater and always tidy your place setting up on your own, without being asked. You do tidy up your toys in a way....in an inconspicuous corner for me to find later.

Birthday menu this year: Chicken on the bone, ants on the log, canned peaches and prinkles (pringles). Coconut cake for dessert. It's quite the combo.

Although your favorite exercise would be none, you have become an independent swimmer over the last couple of months. You really got to zipping around on ice skates and you've become Ms. Slow and Steady on cross country skis. We're hoping this is the year that you decide to do a little pedaling on the bike (you'd prefer to be pushed or pulled on wheels). You'd prefer to read, do math or label flowers.

You have lots of things planned. Like you're going to live with me and we're going to flower garden together and bubba (Adrian) will be your boyfriend. Your brother got a kick out of that.

Out of my three kids, you're the one who has had me around the most and you miss me if we're apart for a couple of hours. You're the grand finale I begged for and the cherry on top of the sundae. I love you more than ice cream, my sweet girl!

Love, Mama

Beach clean up

When I was growing up, our 4-H club did a program called 'Trash to trees' for Earth Day. We collected trash along the roadsides and were given trees to plant in public places. Many trees that we planted in public areas are still growing.

Coastal living gives us homemade doughnuts in trade for trash pickup. Not complaining! 1045 pounds of trash was cleared along our town's beaches today in total. We did our part!

Chewonki Tide Pool Program

Paint night

Paint night with my girl. Have I mentioned how much I love library programs?

A singleton of mine since I completely cut if off in the previous pic.

Author Talks

We were fortunate to attend a children's author event. Mary Cerullo has published 23 books thus far. She writes nonfiction for children, mostly ocean related. We were able to listen to her talk, chat with her and get a book signed.

We ended our time with soup at the beach.

Orchard Pruning

Hi ho! Off to work we go!

We've started a new project. We're volunteering to tend an apple orchard with apple trees earmarked for Harvest for Hunger. We spent a couple of hours pruning today, we plan to be back. We plan to glean come fall and deliver to food pantries.

I never started pruning trees until adulthood. My kids are practically pros already! We're also learning and growing our own, hoping someday we'll have our own orchard with apples to donate.

Libraries

I've always been and always will be a library junkie. I just love libraries. We have a really neat library system in Maine that our library card provides us borrowing privileges to oodles of libraries throughout the state. We can walk in and borrow from a whole list of libraries, returning whatever we borrow at our home library. We love to try out different libraries and borrow from different libraries. Did I mention that when we travel to our camp, I absolutely have a library card there, too? I also love library programming and we bounce around to those programs too.

One of my faves is the yarn and fabric swap. I try never to miss this event. I love this old library. The right two shelves have many vintage Maine authored books.