Hungry blackbirds
Yesterday, being a day free of things like school in our region, the children and I gardened. Which was a truly wonderful thing as for the last far too long, I have been unable to garden without my daughter murdering along behind me. At 29 months, it appears we can do a few gardening things together, though I did deliberately wait to transplant the rose until she was otherwise occupied in the sandpit.
We filled the wheelbarrow with compost and the children helped me scoop it on to the new strawberry patch. I realised why Brighid was so enthusiastically emptying the wheelbarrow - when she finished she climbed straight into the barrow ready for a ride around the section. There were lots of worms in the compost and I looked with satisfaction on my project. In Spring, I thought, I would need to cover it from the birds.
But blackbirds are around now and they are hungry. Now. Tonight I noticed that they had been playing in my strawberry patch and made a right mess already. I hope Favourite Handyman is up for some diy this weekend. I think that I want to use two of Raelene's old house windows (which have been round the side of our house awaiting a project for 17 months now) to make a two sided shelter for my strawberries. I will pin netting to the other two sides. I seem to recall that they were very heavy windows to move so it might also be timely to invite some strong friends and make sure we are stocked up on beer.
I've been weeding onion weed. It is already flowering down by the beach, so won't be far away at our place. It forms a big circle around our oldest compost heap and our big climbing tree. So once I have eliminated the weed, I need something to go in it's place. I consulted my chief tree climber for ideas and he suggested a dirt track and some other shrine to Lightning McQueen. L. McQueen might mean nothing to you, but to a short person round here he is a movie legend, a very fast car. I had ideas of a magic garden or a fairy garden, or something organic and beautiful (not fair to take it out of children-space when it is the best climbing tree). ha ha ha. I might win yet though.
We have lost the camera completely. Favourite Handyman assured me he was happy to teach me how to download from the camera (apparently he never heard me any of the other times I requested this tutorial) but as we have not seen the camera since we are not sure when, it's all on hold. Imagine when we do have a camera again, one which we can lay our hands on, and I know how to download photos myself. Oh the multipixel glory which I will bring to this screen, to this blog, to the plans to make storybooks for the children's cousins which I have had for a looooong time. Oh alright maybe I won't get it all done. But it will be joyous splashes of beautiful technicolour all the same.
You know the winterfunk, the down in the dumps too sick too much blues? But can you write about it like Journey Mama? I spent all day thinking I shouldn't even blog anymore because how to compare to the outstanding quality of writing like hers? But that won't help me get anything written for writers' group, and blogging is at least me writing (used to every day but is now) a few times per week. Even if it is only one step up from the shopping list too often.
If you were a kid in a winter funk, wouldn't you dream of having one of these? Our kids and friends played on one yesterday and indeed they are better than sliced bread. I'm going to have a go next time.
We filled the wheelbarrow with compost and the children helped me scoop it on to the new strawberry patch. I realised why Brighid was so enthusiastically emptying the wheelbarrow - when she finished she climbed straight into the barrow ready for a ride around the section. There were lots of worms in the compost and I looked with satisfaction on my project. In Spring, I thought, I would need to cover it from the birds.
But blackbirds are around now and they are hungry. Now. Tonight I noticed that they had been playing in my strawberry patch and made a right mess already. I hope Favourite Handyman is up for some diy this weekend. I think that I want to use two of Raelene's old house windows (which have been round the side of our house awaiting a project for 17 months now) to make a two sided shelter for my strawberries. I will pin netting to the other two sides. I seem to recall that they were very heavy windows to move so it might also be timely to invite some strong friends and make sure we are stocked up on beer.
I've been weeding onion weed. It is already flowering down by the beach, so won't be far away at our place. It forms a big circle around our oldest compost heap and our big climbing tree. So once I have eliminated the weed, I need something to go in it's place. I consulted my chief tree climber for ideas and he suggested a dirt track and some other shrine to Lightning McQueen. L. McQueen might mean nothing to you, but to a short person round here he is a movie legend, a very fast car. I had ideas of a magic garden or a fairy garden, or something organic and beautiful (not fair to take it out of children-space when it is the best climbing tree). ha ha ha. I might win yet though.
We have lost the camera completely. Favourite Handyman assured me he was happy to teach me how to download from the camera (apparently he never heard me any of the other times I requested this tutorial) but as we have not seen the camera since we are not sure when, it's all on hold. Imagine when we do have a camera again, one which we can lay our hands on, and I know how to download photos myself. Oh the multipixel glory which I will bring to this screen, to this blog, to the plans to make storybooks for the children's cousins which I have had for a looooong time. Oh alright maybe I won't get it all done. But it will be joyous splashes of beautiful technicolour all the same.
You know the winterfunk, the down in the dumps too sick too much blues? But can you write about it like Journey Mama? I spent all day thinking I shouldn't even blog anymore because how to compare to the outstanding quality of writing like hers? But that won't help me get anything written for writers' group, and blogging is at least me writing (used to every day but is now) a few times per week. Even if it is only one step up from the shopping list too often.
If you were a kid in a winter funk, wouldn't you dream of having one of these? Our kids and friends played on one yesterday and indeed they are better than sliced bread. I'm going to have a go next time.
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