We have spent the better part of the last 48 hours outdoors. The little ones have been going and going, charged by sunlight and warmth. At day's end, they've cried, begging us to let them stay outside just a little bit longer. Last night, after dinner out with friends (outside!), we came home and the little's went back outside again, nearing 9pm, this time dressed in costumes for a nighttime parade, in which they fell to the ground, looked at the sky, and sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
My hubby ran a drip system through my new raised bed while I sat in the yard with seed packets sprawled out all around me, plotting what will go where. Yesterday I planted spring onions, cucumbers, echinacea, nasturtiums, pineapple tomatillo, broccoli. Roughly three weeks behind due to heavy snowfall and very cold freezes but now up and starting to thrive: spring peas, beets, carrots, radishes, arugula, pirat lettuce. My starts now on their second day of hardening off. And so it begins.
Unlike the little one's gaining momentum this weekend from endless hours of play outside with neighbor friends, I was downright exhausted, happily exhausted. Windows open, linen sheers billowing in the breeze, fresh laundered sheets, the entire downstairs cleaned, a simmering pot of red curry butternut squash soup, chocolate hazelnut brownies, honey brown beer, garden dirt-lemon parsley suds in the sink. At one point I stopped what I was doing and thought, not even a peep from the robins; nap.
That lovey lady sitting on the bench in the sunhat surrounded by kiddos, including my own - she's my neighbor and friend. I am so thrilled to finally have photos rolling off my camera, verdant and colorful. Stories of warmer, longer days.
Those beautiful new garden stones, the ones that say Theo and Sully, they were a gift sent over by the kind people at Personal Creations. We laid them right off of our front porch in a small strawberry patch that I put in last summer. I love them, and I adore that the little one's will step on them to pick sun-kissed, warm berries all summer long. The stepping stones are from their garden line. Thank you, Personal Creations. We love them!
And now I think it's time for a cup of mint tea. Time to put the little one's to bed. Time to rest.
