Moey's Heart & Hearth: garden

Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts

New Stuff! And End-of-Season Stuff.

This is a gratuitous photo of stuff from the garden. The two potatoes are 2/3 of my entire potato harvest. I know some of you like looking at garden-y stuff, so there you go.

Daddy did get the Christmas house set up in the spring. Later on, we moved it to a closer, more convenient location; and the new spot seemed to be a good place, so out the kids went to play.

After the wasps and spiders were evacuated, the little kids set up shop.
(Oh, also, we bought a camper, and that's it in the background. More on that in another post.)

Grandma was the first special customer. She was there to buy a little weed.

Plenty of grass for everyone. It is a neighborhood specialty. :-P

Cute little shopkeeper.

Bert was serving up baby-bottled juice. Not sure who purchased that, but I am sure they found out, as I did when I was little, that no matter how good the juice looks inside the baby bottle, it isn't coming out.

The mailbox at the front door encouraged the little kids to "mail" each other things. Usually small dolls and leaves.

Little Wanny was just hangs around nearby in the sun/play/schoolroom.

This Could Be My Backyard

One of our favorite places for family-fantasy-garden-style inspiration is the Highfield Discovery Garden at Glenwood Gardens in Hamilton County, Ohio. Last September we visited and had a great time.

The kids, of course, don't care that much for the garden inspiration; they just want to play with all the stuff.

It is a wonderful place for parents too -- so green and relaxing, with plenty of natural-style stone and wood seating.

But you do have to watch out for creepy crawlies, ha ha! Actually, there are hundreds of little (and big) details to look for. Gnomes and fairies, spiral pathways, interesting plants and all sorts of things.

The main attraction was then (and still is) the giant treehouse. The bottom entrance is a little bit scary for the little kids, with the big mouth, but after Joman showed them it was okay, they got very brave. Then, before we knew it, we could see little heads popping up at the very tippy-top levels.

Koi ponds and wetlands with stepping-stones!

Oh, and I almost forgot this -- the second main attraction for my crowd. The walk-through train trellis, with trains running constantly.

Bert and Gater camped out in the train station.

In the train station you can press the buttons to make the crossing lights flash and the whistle blow loudly. They are little control freaks so this pleased them very, very much.

Even the trees are interesting in this park.

Inside the houses are tables and chairs and little house-y things for the children to play with.

Nearby, is an old brick building which has lots of interactive activities. The kids pumped water, made a demonstration of the water cycle and water conservation, and looked at the edible raised gardens. All kinds of things are planted there, from strawberries to squash to herbs. Daily demonstrations and lessons are done in the building on different nature topics.

Wannie was 6 months old.

So cute!
But heavy, after a while!

The spray tunnel, perfect for a hot day! You can't tell from this picture, but the tunnel is actually a big dragon. Ooh scary!

Wouldn't it be ever so much more fun to do this with the dead trees in the yard, instead of chopping them all up to bits.

And these are my most favorite things -- the miniature fairy gardens. I want to go make one right now. Maybe I will. :-)

Wobots

This time last year, one of the little kids' favorite games was "Wobots." Anything square-ish that can fit over your head or face makes a great Wobot costume.

In metallic, monotone, loud voices, they stomp around and chant:

"I. M. E. WOBOT...I. M. E. WOBOT...I. M. E. WOBOT"

We did eventually discover that it is a good idea to hide the puke buckets from the little kids in the event of illness. Puke buckets do not make good Wobots.

Gater's fashionista tendencies were in evidence even before the age of two. They are in full fledge now, at nearly three years old. Oh yes, they most certainly are.
She still stuffs her feet into these little jeweled silver sandals, if she isn't wearing her black sequins, her pink cowboy boots or her red ruby slippers. She is very particular.

This is my favorite photo, and this is straight out of the camera.
Bert has the look.

Roks was then, and still is, the most moody and dramatic of all the little kids. He has the true artistic temperament. I hope it won't involve ear amputation or anything like that, in the future.

And these are carrots from last year's garden. Ta-Daaaa!

Before N After

I am sorry this post is not too exciting or anything. I just thought you might like to see how things are changing in the garden over time, around here.