The Nature Table

The nature table is a seasonal display of objects found in nature, or made to reflect those found in nature.
The kids put up there objects they find outside while walking or playing, or seasonal crafts. Think of it as the extension to your nature notebook... it might display a caterpillar or ant farm, a shed snake skin, birds nest or some robin's eggshells. Maybe you'll be braver than me, and place the wasps nest on the table rather than on the ground outside ;)


Ours is the top of a bookshelf in the kitchen, and also houses some of our religious things-- sort of a family altar slash nature table. There used to be a cross there but it disappeared, and I need to replace it, and the Bible occasionally rests there for a while ;) The kids have placed a bunch of rocks on there, and the two baggies hold some European Hornets ready to mail to collector friends! There are some shells and an empty frame that occasionally holds a picture made by the kids. The flowers are silk, I liked the colours and hope to get some real leaves soon!

Be that as it may, our table is just starting. If you like, take a look at Katherine's table for a great idea!

Nature Tables and Wasps

Last weekend, Jacobite and I decided to clean the house. Not the inside, it's pretty clean already, but the outside. This necessitated a day of power washing, and a few run-ins with wasps and such, including a swarm of these fellows: the European Hornet.

This is not my photo... mine would just show a dead hornet, because we killed a bunch of them... but these things like to swarm our porch-light at night and bump into the doors and windows. I never really paid much attention to the sounds, until Jacobite discovered the culprit! Now we need to find their nest, because we really don't want these things around the kids!

But onto something a little bit more interesting.

The Nature Table.
I always wanted to have one. Indeed I have, several times attempted to start one up, but they always fell by the wayside. Then I decided to read some of the seasonal activity and craft books out there and it popped up again... so I have decided to dedicate a shelf for a nature table.
It still has not happened... the shelf is ready. I just don't have anything to put on it. We did have a wasp nest I considered, but the idea of the bugs in it were too creepy for Jacobite who stomped on it!

So here is Faerie Rebecca to the rescue with a picture of hers!!

Thanks to Alice, I just discovered MacBeth has a BLOG!! Yahy!! She is definitely worth the visit!

Harvest Waning

Indeed, the season of plenty in my garden is drawing to a close. The corn died an unhappy death as we had another year of 'not-quiet-enough-rain' to keep it going. Of course I could have watered it, but I prefer nature to take it's course.
I did enjoy a couple of peppers from my plants, but the tomatoes were just not happy campers this year!

In spite of that, we have been observing in the garden.
First there were the ants. Indeed, we did not have to go to the garden for this, as they were quite happy there in our house for a while, but we stopped that.
A day or two later, DH discovered these ant 'volcanoes' in the garden... a veritable city of them!

Then there are the baby birds which have been visiting the feeders. I managed to capture this mother and baby on top of our feeders... but excuse the blur, I had to do it through the window without disturbing her!
There were pawpaws ripening on our pawpaw trees this year.
See... I even have proof! But unfortunately, some bandit animal took them. Again. We never have yet managed to eat the pawpaws ourselves!
And the hummingbirds have been visiting, I swear. They often get close to us, they are very friendly... BUT they are SUPERFAST and I never have had my camera ready!
Soon the autumn season will be on us, and I have different plans this year... including the nature table. More about that another time... once I have started!

Some other Peoples Gardens

Some of the ladies on the 4 Real Forum had fun this year, following along with Susan Lovejoy's Book Sunflower Houses. This is a great inspiration for parents who want to garden with their kids!

Maria had great success growing HUGE sunflowers with her kids! I was definitely impressed with the size of them!

Joann managed to actually get a house out of her sunflowers... but they aren't done growing yet!

If you'd like to make your own sunflower house next year, check out this page for instructions and some fantastic pictures of sunflower houses in action!

Garden Fun

I have been gardening... sort of. Now the dog days of summer have come, I have formed opinions.
1. Store bough seeds suck. The varieties suck. The crop sucks. Next year I will have heirloom tomatoes... and the cherokee purples (the ones I had such luck with last year) and sungold (the ones I discovered I LOVE at the farmer's market) are top of my list!
2. Zucchini/Courgettes suck. Stupid bugs love them. However, their cousins the yellow squash are great. I will look at heirloom varieties of them too!
3. Cucumbers hide. While looking for the fruit you thought didn't come, you will suddenly notice the mother of all cucumbers. It will be huge. And for some reason the store where you bought them, had PRICKLES on the cucumbers. For a girl from England, used to LONG, SMOOTH cukes, that is just gross.
4. Why were my plants so late in fruiting? Not enough sun? Planted too late? They will go out earlier next year, even if I have to build special 'mini-greenhouses' for them.
5. Panicking over the neighbour putting up a fence BEFORE he does it, is premature. It will not actually shade your garden at all! PLUS you will discover you have more yard than you thought, because you forgot you over-estimated the amount of space on the other side ;)
6. Time to sign up for seed catalogues to buy REAL seeds.
7. Cats (specificallt neighbour cats) suck. They will go to the toilet in the square in which you planted your pumpkin seeds at the very last possible minute >:.

And that, dear friends is why I have not blogged about my garden for a while ;) Heat and humidity, are NOT friends to me... but I do wonder if the dog in the neighbours yard will scare away the bad cat (whom the kids and DH nicknamed 'GreySkull')

The Mysterious Garden

What a wonderful post I discovered online... a REAL homeschooling moment for a Mother, as they let the mystery plant grow!

Home-grown Food

I made up a recipe the other day, for breaded chicken. I wont hesitate to say it was delicious, so I will share it with you. It is definitely in the interests of a garden blog, because I picked all my herbs garden fresh, and the squash/courgettes were farmer's market. Of course there are many people out there that will have their own squash sooner or later ;)
I modified the squash recipe a few days later, adding peppers and tomatoes, and I use the Near East Whole Wheat Couscous brand, Garlic and Olive Oil flavour.

Breaded Chicken with Couscous and Squash medley.

Breaded Chicken

4 Chicken Breasts
1 C Whole-wheat Breadcrumbs (I used my homemade bread and crumbled it up, freezing it until needed)
2 T Fresh Thyme (1 T dried), chopped fine
2 T fresh Sage (1T dried), chopped fine
2 T Fresh Rosemary (1T dried), chopped fine (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste or Mrs. Dash to taste
1 egg, beaten.

Mix the seasonings with the breadcrumbs.
Dip the chicken breasts in the egg, then coat with the breadcrumbs.
Cook in a saute pan over medium high heat, until cooked through, turning halfway through.

While chicken is cooking, make the squash medley (recipe below) and couscous.

Squash Medley

1 T Olive oil or butter
2 Zucchini/Courgettes, washed and diced
2 Yellow Summer Squash, washed and diced
1 Poblano pepper, washed and diced
1 Onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloved, minced (optional)
1 tomato, diced (optional)

Saute the squash, onion, peppers and zucchini in the olive oil, over medium-high heat. Cook until tender, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and tomato if desired, and cook for 2 minutes, or until heated through.

The tomato is not entirely necessary, but does add a good deal of colour to the medley, as does the poblano pepper. I did not use garlic, but it would definitely give your meal a bit of 'zip'. The squash medley, mixed with some concentrated tomato puree (the kind in a tube) and a little sugar to sweeten it, makes a delicious pasta sauce. Serve it with whole-wheat pasta and some grated cheese on top... YUM!

And more to harvest

Yes, this weekend was a harvest weekend. My onions' tops had fallen over, so I pulled them. And some of my beets... and the rest of my turnips! I realise that most of these could have grown a little longer, but you can call me impatient. I ate them for the vegetable part of my lunch... beets and turnips roasted in a little olive oil and salt, with an onion (not mine, I am letting them dry out a little). Yes Mum, I ate the beets... fresh are definitely better ;) In fact, I ate the beets and the beet greens... after all, that's what Swiss Chard is. Only mine was the real deal!

Then there were these:

The neighbour found them underneath his porch, and we believe that they might be snake eggs. I kind of hope they are really turtle eggs! I can stand a box turtle!
Then there was the fox that ran across the road in front of us, less than a mile from our house! He was an American Grey Fox... and looked a whole lot like this picture... only running ;)

Cute isn't he? The kids were thrilled to see him, and M'Lady even drew a picture of him on the 'magnadoodle' thing we keep in the car for her.

Harvesting Again

I managed to get the broccoli harvested… it was quite delicious! But then the cabbage white butterflies came… and well, the last cabbage should show you the result of that! I don't have a good closeup though! They got ALL of my brassica veggies. Otherwise, yes, the garden is quite blooming and growing.

Our beans and corn are growing well… in fact I managed to pick a goodly number of beans the other day. I am hoping the squash will start to fruit soon, I HAVE spotted a few blooms ;)

The tomatoes have a few baby tomatoes and although all my peas are done, we did get to eat a number of them.

I would show you pictures, but in reformatting my computer, it looks like I forgot the most recent photos :(

Oh well... life goes on!

sorry for the delay posting

and I hope to be posting again soon... now my internet is up to speed!

The Loveliness of Gardens

I have been offline all week, or I would have mentioned that Jennifer has hosted the Loveliness of Gardens of which I am honoured to be a part :)

On another gardening note, I have noticed my limas, green beans and corn all sprouting…
Here are the beans:

And here is the corn:

I have also rescued several bean and corn seeds from the pooing cat, along with a pepper plant. My experiment with citrus peel to deter it was mildly successful… it kept the cat away for about 4 whole days before the rain obviously washed some of the citrusy smell away. I am thinking of that orange-cleaning stuff next!

I now also have baby peas...


And broccoli (does anyone know when to harvest this? I'm hungry! I think it might be ready NOW!


We don't just have vegetables blooming with health, but also some flowers. Take this peony for instance:

Or my beautiful Valerian:

Or one of the many wonderful (and scented) roses in the garden.

(This one is my new New Dawn rose :))

And now to answer some comments ;)

Yes, the peach-dressed girl grows in the garden… in fact it is a problem keeping her OUT of it! (She especially loves to go in there when we are about to go out shopping!!)

Thank you ALL for the compliments… I had my second harvest of the season the other day with tacos… we used the rocket/roquette/arugula in place of lettuce :)

And yes, the gate does make it look secret gardenish… perhaps that is why I love it so :)

People who live in the garden must also work there though! ;)

First Harvest

It has been almost two months since I started gardening this year, and quite a while since I updated you all on the garden!


I had my first harvest. A few radishes, a few taste testers...
and the general consensus of "They are O.K. but taste a little bit spicy!". Erm... Sorry kids, but that's a given... they are radishes!
My first seeds were sown at the beginning of March, inside in peat pellets. Those have all gone outside now, into my all new square foot garden. In the other SFG squares, I planted corn, green bean and Lima bean seeds. In a couple of months, God Willing (and if the cats steer clear) I should have some corn and beans to harvest!

The older square foot beds are doing exceptionally well...
I believe I will have peas soon (so long as it doesn't get too hot for them),

and the cabbages, broccoli and all are growing well!
Check out the gift the Easter bunny brought me!

Then there are our new gates and fence... they are there to serve two purposes... 1. To define the garden so certain explorer-minded children will not go beyond the invisible boundary previously there (I don't recommend invisible boundaries... children claim not to see them ;)), and 2. To deter the other neighbourhood children from entering the garden. Somehow we seem to have communal property here... just not communal work!!
The newly re-located patio looks great on the other side of the circle... and is much more pleasant to sit on. You feel much less like a goldfish there!

The tent caterpillars have been their usual pesky selves... only this year we have someone to give them too... unfortunately, she is not so fond of anyone *GASP* killing them!!


Finally, my herb garden. It looks great... and I can't wait to make chive blossom vinegar with those chive flowers (because I normally leave them and all the seeds make baby chives in the path, which I just pulled up and planted making into a chive hedge... and I think I have enough of those!!).

Nature Study Fridays

Some time ago I set aside Fridays to be our Nature Study day. There were a variety of reasons for that, but the biggest one had to do with the fact that Fridays are my most flexible day… I can actually go out on field trips on Fridays.

So I organized a small playdate with a friend and her children, and agreed to meet her at the park at 10:30 am. Actually, I jumped at the chance since I knew the weather would be nice today! Since I don’t drive, Jacobite was going to have to drop us off before work. We arrived at 8:30 am. Since the kids are usually not even up this early (they stay up late for Daddy) this was tough ;)

But worth it.

Here is the first thing we saw… a LAMB. GREAT homeschooling opportunity… we had been learning The Lamb by William Blake just this week. So we recited it to the lambs… who promptly escaped from the field.

The Lamb

by William Blake.

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed,
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee.
He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and He is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!

So we went off to tell one of the people who worked there. He seemed to think it was OK, and he invited us to come and see some newly hatched chicks. They were precious… the mother hen still sitting on the last three eggs, which we suspect were not going to hatch. I did not take a photo of them out of deference to the mother hen :)

After this, we visited the pigs and horses, which seemed a little bit of a let-down. We identified a couple of flowers, and then, we took a nature hike.

This was a great way to use up those hours and to use up a Nature Study Friday. We saw some wild flowers we could not identify… the very common tent caterpillars (which I practically had to drag M’Lady away from since she LOVES caterpillars) were quite in evidence too.

A few streams and a pond later… we spotted some rather attractive fungi. How appropriate, considering we were just looking at Beatrix Potter's pictures of fungi... and her lifelong fascination with them :)

And then, right before the end of our walk, we spotted it. A stunning native orchid… This one is a Cypripedium acaule, a Pink Ladyslipper or moccasin flower. It positively made my day!

After this, the nice chat with my friend, and the play of the kids was just icing on the cake. Thank goodness the weather turned!

Weather Station

Here is the weather station from one Nature Study Friday. It was up for the windy weekend last weekend… and we loved watching it twirl… but when it disappeared, Rebel was most upset. Although Jacobite and I laughed, we were forced to find it and replace it in the proper position. It is rather faded already… after less than a month!

We need to work on how the rain gauge is held since it toppled over and nearly knocked our pole flying!

April Showers?

Not here, no sirree. We had April SNOW FLURRIES... and it definitely did damage to the garden. Luckily for me, I learned my lesson a few years back with a last frost in May even though our last frost is ostensibly April 15th... and my peas, cabbages, cauliflowers, onions and broccoli seem to be doing just fine.
The sage, Woodruff, Lily of the Valley and baby chives I planted are also doing well... the baby chives were offspring of my own huge clump. I decided to try and make a herbal 'hedge' around one of my gardens using it!
I still have two beds to finish building... and hopefully this weekend will be warm enough to attempt it!!

On the first day of spring...

My children gave to me.... a sunburned upper arm!
OK, so today is really the 'First full day of Spring', but yesterday was the day spring began ;)
There we were, out in the garden enjoying the warmth0- and I go to make the bread into rolls, only the door is locked.
I am annoyed... Rebel has decided to lock the door to keep out his sister while he uses the bathroom. Unfortunately he forgets to unlock it before coming out... voila- we're stuck. Luckily I have the trusty cordless phone, and I use it to call Jacobite. I know there is a spare key hidden somewhere- but it is not in the old places I remember!
Jacobite does not answer. I leave a message, but he doesn't call back for two hours!!
By this point, we're all hot and thirsty, my arms are bright red and I know my bread is ruined.
When he does call, he tells me where the key is, and I go inside- manage to rescue the bread for dinner and check my arms.
Although they did not look too bad at this point, they certainly did later on!
this makes twice this year... the first time was definitely my fault... I misjudged the strength of the sun. The second time was fate- I just hadn't planned on being outside so long!!

Note to self: buy some decent sunblock.

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!

In the garden

Well... I have been out there.
I have a vegetable garden started... a couple of daffodils growing, a hyacinth in Rebel's garden, some speedwell... a few onions... the place is beginning to come alive. It makes me think of The Secret Garden when Mary, Dickon and Colin were finding all the plants still alive... it's WICK :)

Spring...

I am sure I saw my first sign of spring this morning... bright and early before the weather bested the freezing mark!
A GOLD goldfinch... yes, a finch that was somewhat yellow, rather than drab olive with a yellowish tint. This one was YELLOW.
OK I am not sure it was a goldfinch... I realized just today that 1/2 the 'goldfinches' at my feeder were in fact PINE SISKINS... stripey with a yellow dot near the wing and tail. Goldfinches in winter plumage are NOT stripey. But, they too were at the feeder! Plus the house finches, nuthatches, wrens, titmice, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers and chickadees.
Our feeder is becoming quite popular and DH and I enjoyed watching the birds from the couch :)

A Pretty Good Day at the Feeder

Oh the triumph associated with finally capturing those woodpeckers on film.

The pair of red-bellied woodpeckers are daily visitors to our house… the male with his read poll and the female with her red nape, are notoriously camera shy, disappearing as soon as I got my camera into position every time.

I finally captured them this morning… followed later by a visit from a male downy woodpecker. The downy pair come, but not quite so often as their cousin… and it was this visit that made it quite easy for me to determine that they were indeed DOWNY and not hairy woodpeckers :)

Here is a female red-bellied woodpecker. This is a good shot of her rusty coloured belly that gives her the name. Of course, you can't see it well because I had to shoot through a window as well as hold the venetian blinds out of the way... just so I wouldn't scare her away!!

Yes, she ought to be more a red headed woodpecker, but believe it or not, there is a variety with a totally red head. They live here too… along with the downy, the pileated, and the flicker (red shafted). The flicker is another regular garden bird at our house, providing much amusement to the family, by kicking up all the pine needles under our tree. Apparently it must be a good spot for bugs, because that is where the skunk dug into that time…

Here is a good picture of the back of the woodpecker’s head, so you can see the red nape.

This one is the downy… it and its cousin the hairy woodpecker, are apparently the only two with a white back and the black and white bars.

The only differences between it and the hairy are the beak and its size. The hairy woodpecker has a beak about twice the length, and it is about 2 or 3 inches longer.

It is a cute little woodpecker… and like many of the woodpeckers we see, is especially fond of our pine trees.

He is slightly more timid than the red-bellied woodpecker, but I expect that to change soon. He appeared at our feeder first on Saturday, and I have seen him back there (and his mate too) quite regularly.

Finally here is a photo of a mysterious bird. Mysterious because the shot was so bad I couldn’t see what it was. It is either a female house finch or a sparrow with a chickadee friend. The only reason I suspect house finch is because I have seen a pair at the feeder a few times, and the female is a dull brown. Maybe I might get to see the bird’s face soon…

Today is a great feeder day… the weather is VERY cold (about 28 degrees Fahrenheit which is about -1 or -2 degrees Celsius) and as such the birds would rather visit my feeder and get food that try to fly around searching for it. The birds can be seen quite happily eating together and all fluffed up to keep warm. Sometimes I wonder what else the birds do on a cold day like today…