Thursday, May 21, 2009

photo dump


i love getting rid of stuff. like, LOVE it. earlier this week we rounded up and took maybe 8 bags of stuff, over half of which were toys, to the thrift store down the street. my mother went to some saweeet garage sales and now we are back where we started toy wise however, they are now all age and interest appropriate. one of the things my mom bought was a large - LARGE - chest of dress up clothes for olive. dozens of outfits, multiple sets of shoes, crowns, and fairy wings, an entirely separate zip up case full of pretend necklaces, bracelets, earrings, head bands, wee white gloves, hair brushes, mirrors, pretend curlers, and faux make up. you've never seen my daughter so happy as riffling through these treasures. this must be david's side shining through because neither my mother or i had any interest in these kinds of things. i mean we both had girly tendencies but by and large there was little interest in such hyper-feminine role playing. the above picture was how she came downstairs, unprompted. oh boy... she also instantly remarked that she looked like glinda the good witch.



i went to the garden yesterday and things they are a' growing.


collards


broccoli interplanted with head lettuce. when the broccoli gets bigger it will shade the heads and prevent them from bolting in the heat of summer. really, i should have used the leaf lettuce for this as it is a continuously yielding green and needs more protection. oh well. live and learn


yellow onions and spinach interplanted


beans! i am so excited for these. they were one of the highlights of the garden last year.


we went to the zoo a few days ago. now that we have a zoo pass (christmas gift!) we can go all the time for free, well we naturally have to get dippin dots. otherwise it's a free day, which i love because even when we go to COSI (the best childrens museum in the country!) we still have to pay for parking, which is a pain in my tuckus.


the only thing augustine *had* to see, bats


guess which kid touched a snake and which one freaked at the idea. my kids are so different!!


this shirt is my favorite thrift store find for augustine.


every single time we go, the kids want their photo taken with the baby elephant

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are such great photos! It looks like you guys had a great time at the zoo. Your plants look nice and healthy!!! Tell Augustine the bats are my favorite too.

Abbye West Pates said...

Okay- garden questions!! First, we have weird soil in Memphis. So much clay you could make a bowl in some parts. However, there is a horse stable that shut down that has hills and hills of wonderful manure turned dirt that's free to taking. So we used that in most parts.

Our spinach hasn't done so hot... hasnt yielded much. Would you know why? The soil where we planted it was probably the best i the whole dang garden. Also, our lettuce is beautiful! But what does it mean that it will "bolt"? Because it gets very hot in Memphis (already in mid 80s at the heat of the day..) fill me in on that, at least for next year.

And do you have any corn advice? Our corn is growing fast and beautifully, but it needs thinning out, we just don't know WHEN.

your garden is an inspiration to our lil' one here in Memphis. :)

-abbye west pates

Olive said...

ohio has lots and lots of clay here too. manure, compost, peat moss, etc are good for any soil as an amendment - but in the case of intense clay try working in some sand even. that free manure sounds heavenly!!

bolting means that it turns bitter and disgusting. it does this when it receives too much sun exposure. you can try protecting it with some cloth or plant something taller near it to shade it.

ive never grown corn personally but as long as they seem well established i think you could go ahead and thin. i dont know what their root system is like to know whether to advise you to uproot them or simply cut off the tops so they die. carrots for example - you always want to just snip the thinning carrots because pulling them up will disturb the remaining ones.

nathansmart said...

Do they have Honey Huts here in Columbus? We used to go there all the time up in Cleveland.

Olive said...

they don't sadly

nathansmart said...

Have you been there?

Olive said...

no but i would patronize any establishment with such a logo