spring happenings

we have just finished up a wonderful long and relaxing weekend. it seemed that each day stretched on longer than the last and we not only got more things done, but amazingly felt more relaxed. it didn't hurt that our weekend included a child-free dinner which was heaven.

it is always our goal to have our vegetable garden planted by memorial day weekend. we have had quite successful gardens for maybe 7 years. dating back to the runned down apartment where the little garden was the nicest thing within a hundred yards. now we have three nice raised beds filled with all the essential salsa ingredients, plus tons of other favorites. this year we added a new little box, the "kid garden" (this name is to soften the blow when it comes time for the big sister to begin to share it with the little brother- brilliant!) bee chose what she wanted to plant. she has a very interesting variety including red cabbage, broccoli, onions, carrots, nasturtium, watermelon, cantaloupe and snapdragons (sunflower seeds were almost planted today but then we had a bit of a tantrum that stopped our planing session). it is going to be insane soon, it's so tightly planted. but it will look so beautiful.

in other growing news, the pea castle we built a while back is really booming. we built a teepee-like frame with some grapevines woven in and then planted peas at the bottom to grow up. the peas are supposed to grow 15' so the idea is that it will be a castle of peas by the end of june. so far, so good:

the other big spring news is our new neighbors. we had been watching some robin eggs in a nest, on our neighbors steps (yes, right on the steps, weird.). and last week they finally hatched. in the last week we have probably been to visit the babies about 15 times. it is so exciting and amazing, although i do have to admit that the babies are a little hard on the eyes.

the mom, keeping the freshly hatched babies warm

the babies.