Under the Tulip Tree

Things Are Happening in the Garden

Holy cow, you guys. It has been pouring here the past two days. I'm not going to complain (yet) because the garden is looking happy and saturated. Let's take a look…

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Lilacs, I love you. You are old and dependable. And pretty. And you smell good.

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English ivy, thank you for not coming around the rock wall lately. I'm sorry to have to tell you this but the other plants don't like you.

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Bleeding heart, I'm glad you're okay. Last spring, when you were only a few weeks old, a giant branch fell from the tulip tree and smashed you. That's what happened to you if you've been wondering.

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Euphorbia, you are crazy and kind of weird and I never know what your problem is. I'm trying to like you more. Please know I'm trying.

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Blueberry bushes, you're old like your friends the lilacs and you are very well-respected here. Whatever you're doing, just keep it up, okay?

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Sedum and coreopsis, you guys are pretty cool. I would never have thought to take you home from the nursery (no offense) but I unearthed you from various spots in the yard and you have paid me back tenfold with your showy leaves and flowers.

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Weeping cherry, okay, you kind of need to step up your game. I know I got you cheap at the end of the season two years ago but come on. I give you compost and Dr. Earth and I water you like you're still a baby and still you displease me. There is nothing more I can offer you, you've got to do it for you now.

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Pear tree, I don't normally pit siblings against each other because I love you all the same and blah blah blah but do you think you could give the cherry tree some pointers? I see you have a little bit of insect damage but you've only been here a few months and you're already a foot taller than your sister. Thanks in advance for your help.

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Lazy Sunday Afternoon…

Filled with crocheting on the floor. (It's been awhile since someone has crocheted on the floor. Nice to see it again.)

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A kids' match of Herd Your Horses on mom and dad's bed. (Totally spontaneous and no one yelled at the other one.)

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Warm zucchini bread and butter. (Such a big hit around these parts.)

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And a family game of Apples to Apples. (Also an enormous hit around here. My favorite mispronunciation of the game: "Puff Dada" for Puff Daddy.)

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A Rainy End to a Sunny Week

Time off is good. We like it. No homework to finish (or forget at home), no steady stream of lunch containers to wash, no need to get dressed in the morning if we don't want to. Of course, everyone starts getting restless around 3 pm so the bribing of people to play nice begins and then there are the constant requests for food that just about do me in but… it's a fair trade sometimes.

The beginning of the week was warm and sunny and filled with baseball and soccer and sitting on the porch. It's ending more like a typical rainy week in March—mostly with drawing and playing inside with paper airplanes. (If you're wondering, the above drawing is a self-portrait of Perry taking care of a baby that turned green because he ate too many leaves.)

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Busy Ceramic Work

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As expected, Spring Break is going by way too quickly. It's already half over! Yesterday, we went to the Paint-Your-Own-Pottery place with my mom. We love that place. The littlest one finishes his projects in three nanoseconds, though, and my feeble attempt to keep him occupied with snacks didn't work. The lucky boy was rescued by his dad and the girls stayed back to finish painting. I was having a hard time settling on the design for my bowl and washed the glaze off of it a million times. I'll have to go back and finish it on my own since people were getting antsy and less and less interested in my problems. Finished art to be showcased next week…

Model Horses Forever

Arden used to be one of those girls who loves horses. Her obsession started around age three and it began to wane a couple of years ago. In fact, I can't even believe I just summed that up in two sentences. Her every waking moment was consumed by drawing, reading about, playing with, dressing up, writing about, watching, and dreaming about horses for seven solid years. And now her moments are just not about that. This past fall, when I was ordering new lunchboxes for the kids, I knew we had reached a new dawn when instead of picking out the one with horses, she chose the one that said 'Girl Power.'

She still treasures her Breyer models, though. They have a very special place on a very special bookshelf and she wouldn't dream of giving any of them away. Some have names like Storm-Shy and Banjo and some have chipped ears and broken hooves but each one is artfully arranged and loved unconditionally. Now, if you have model horse lovers in your house, you've probably heard of the Breyer horse magazine, Just About Horses. It's all about how model horses are made and the stories (and artists) behind them but Arden's favorite part of the magazine is the bi-monthly photo competition. Participants must set up their models in a hyper-realistic manner (the more realistic the better) according to a specific theme. The winner is usually awarded a rare, collector model and has her winning photo printed in the magazine.

This month's theme was "Trail Ride." Arden picked out the characters and decided on what kind of scene she wanted and Michael helped her make the display board. They spray mounted dirt and twigs and dried spices onto a large piece of cardboard then added some moss from the yard. Arden braided a little bridle for the horse and made a fetching red collar for one of the dogs. They carried the whole thing over to the park and took this shot:

I love it. And I love that a tiny bit of horse obsession is alive and well around here. I, for one, am not ready to admit that it's finally over.

An Irish Evening at the Paulson's

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We welcomed spring with a belated St. Patrick's Day celebration at the Paulson's. 'Twas a night filled with games, jigs, corned beef & cabbage, Van Morrison, giant bottles of Guiness, and an inordinate amount of wasabi horseradish. Certainly an excellent start to the season.

The Backyard, In Progress

No longer than 10 minutes after publishing my garden planning post on Monday, we saw that someone was giving away dozens of little boxwoods on Craigslist. Free stuff moves quickly so I grabbed my shovel and bolted out the door. There was another woman already there waiting and we eyed each other skeptically. By the end of it, we were chatting and talking about our plans for our new, free boxwoods. She told me that she's building an English garden and planted over 200 boxwoods last year. I started to feel kind of bad about taking some without really having a plan yet…

But a concept for the garden started to come together. My two main objectives for this space are:   1) to give the garden structure and 2) to cover the fence. I decided to plant the boxwoods along the edge of the bed to help define the space. I plan on filling this in with more boxwoods but free gardens take patience. The next step will be to add more perennial shrubs to get as much height as possible.

Hey! He's eating the buds off of the raspberry bush!

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Well, that's all there is for now. I'll be here searching for free plants on Craigslist if you need me.