The pictures...

These are the photos that were to accompany that last post...

Radish

The first cucumber!

Green Pepper

Bush Beans

Garden Update

It's growing! I've harvested my first radishes. They were delicious. The lettuce is hard to keep up with. I had no idea how prolific it is! Lots of salad (with Amelia's fantastic dressing)
I've picked 3 raspberries. The plant has produced maybe 7 berries total but the birds find them before I do.
I'm really looking forward to the snow peas and bush beans and beets and, well....the whole lot.

Hot Potato

Looks like the potatoes are doing well. I've mounded them to the top of the garbage can, so now I have to wait for them to flower, let the flowers die, and then harvest. I'm looking forward to these blue spuds!

Cooling Off

So refreshing.

The Vermicomposter



I got this back in May from Peterborough Green Up. For a reasonable price I got the bin, the worms and a tutorial on how to keep the worms alive and well. It's been going well so far. The first few days, the worms try and venture out of the bin so you have to push them back down under the bedding but that is really the only time I've had to touch the worms. Gage of course was very eager to help until it came time to put the worms back in. He said he'd rather watch me do it but to his credit, he did put the very last worm back in for me. I feed them a couple of times a week, just food scraps from our meals, though no meat or sugary things. During the tutorial the instructor joked that one of her past pupils went through the trouble of pureeing the food scraps before giving it to the worms (they would be able to break the food down faster this way) and we both kinda laughed. But upon reflection, it's a genius idea! The worms produce soil (worm casings) much faster that way so that's what I've been doing.

I love my worms.

Here's whats in the bin. Newspaper as bedding (they eat this also), dirt (worm casings) and worms

The food. This is pureed banana (peel and fruit), plus some loose leaf tea. Mmm.

To add more bedding, you just rip up more newsprint, soak in water, wring it out and they add it to the bin

Here's the added bedding.

The bin. I keep it in a corner of our kitchen. It reminds me to feed them!

Healing

I've started and re-started this post numerous times, always ending at the same spot where I don't know if I've said too much or if I'm clearly getting across what I want to say. So, I'm going to keep it simple. Within the last nine months, I've miscarried three times. It has been the most trying time in my life and definitely the most trying time in our marriage. Luckily, I have a husband that will hug me for as long as I need it and a three year old who has no idea how powerful his hugs and kisses are. It took this third loss for me to realize just how grateful I should be for what I have and not focus on what I don't have. It sounds like a simple enough thing to do yet some of us need reminders...
Healing. That's what I'm focusing on. I'm not sure I can define what 'healing' really means to me. I don't think I'll wake up one day, sit up in bed, and yell "I'm healed"! (I'm picturing one of those religious tv healers placing their hand on my forehead...). What I do know is that I'll be focusing on what really matters to me and what makes me happy. Here are a few of my favorite things (said in a sing-song voice).

My men camping out in our backyard. There's nothing like a man with his son.

The ladies. Can you beat fresh eggs and chicken personalities? I think not.

Enjoying an afternoon at the zoo - this was on the train. That little man's smile is a powerful thing.

Fresh, local and delicious. How can strawberries not make you happy?