Green Hour Assignment III

Spring has Sprung! And Barb from over at the Heart of Harmony, has another Green Hour Assignment for us! This time it is journalling the walk we took. Not something the kids had much trouble with... in fact I did not even need to prompt Rebel, who grabbed up the pencils and set too with a will! (click on pictures for a larger one to see ;))

Two days in a row of wonderful weather… yesterday we sat outside for a few hours. Well I sat. The kids played ;) They worked together on an Easter garden for this year.

The kids build an Easter garden

And the finished monument, without the decoration (that will come a little later!).

The Easter Tomb completed, but undecorated.

They examined the daffodils in our flower beds (not yet in bloom)…

Daffodils in the garden

And the lobelia (a cultivated speedwell, a lot darker than it’s wild cousin that grows abundantly in our yard!)…

Lobelia, a Veronica spp.

And generally just played!

Taking advantage of the fact that our weather is nice and warm today, we headed outside at the first opportunity, and repeated the walk we had done last week in the rain!

Getting the kids to be silent was hard… well impossible in fact, but they did learn that when you are quiet you hear things that you would not otherwise ;)

Daffodils on the walk

Spring has sprung in our neck of the woods, the happily chirping birds and the blooming flowers paid testament to that fact!

Blooming Forsythia

Once home, Rebel worked very hard on a wonderful page inspired by the daffodils we saw (and also partly inspired by the Wordsworth poem I recited for them ;)) ...

Rebel's "Golden Daffodils" (note one is REAL gold ;)) Notice also the hats rolling at the tops of the picture :)

...while M’Lady drew a plan of our trip!

A plan or map of the walk, including the "cutter cutting limbs on a tree", the kids running back to the house and a "colourful" M'Lady!

The trip ended in hilarity as the wind blew M’Lady’s hat off, then as we chased it rolling down the road, it blew mine off and Rebel caught it!

An, as yet, unidentified flowering tree.

Back at the house, I suggested we pick some Henbit, which we are now pressing between the pages of a rather large dictionary :) In a few weeks, we might use those for another nature themed treat ;)

A Square Foot Garden...

This year, I managed to get my act together and work on my square foot garden. OK... so the squares are older than the new book, and most do not have Mel's Mix in them (the one that does has been targeted by a cat and I have trouble keeping his potty bottom out of it *grrrrrrrrrr*)... but they are 4 foot square, and the do (now) have a grid...




First step was to de-weed the bed. This was done fairly quickly with the aid of a hoe, and then the fun started.


I started out planning the way it would look. I laid out the lath boards as a grid, messed with the plants to see where they should go, and admired the effect.


Then I changed my mind. I laid out the grid, only this time the lath boards went on their sides and I used garden stakes as the crossover boards. I tied them with cable ties although Jacobite later told me I could have used nails as he has some... so the second square will get those!


Then I planted the square. First were pea seeds on the first two squares on the Northern edge... and sweet peas on the other two squares. I made a pea trellis with two stakes and some garden twine. Spinach seeds, cabbage plants, broccoli plants and cauliflower plants, and onion setts were planted in the other squares. Inside the house, I have lettuce, tomato, eggplant/aubergine, pepper and chard growing from seeds in a seedling greenhouse (a tray with a roof ;)).

And the second square!


M'Lady and Rebel were also in the garden... making an Easter Garden again. They are both ready to get dirty in old clothes... and M'Lady looks a little 'Huck Finn'-ish!


Rebel on the other hand, looks ready for summer.

OK he wasn't the only one. His cold blooded Mama was out in a t-shirt too... only *I* was the one who ended up slightly sunburned on my arms. I was a little peeved because I hadn't thought the sun strong enough for that!
Photos of the Easter Garden later!