Narleeville Gardens '08-4

The vines have taken off and are flowering! I'm very happy about the morning glories! The true blues are so refreshing to see in the mornings!I also planted a perennial morning glory that blooms this beautiful fuschia color. Here it is mingling with the Black Eyed Susan vine! And finally some Nasturtuim got the gist it was welcomed here and is blooming nicely too!I have to say the height and wild nature of the vines give me alot of joy. I will be faithfully planting them each year!

Narleeville Gardens '08-3

I can't resist another update... I love this pic of the Swiss Chard! The texture is so vivid and the color, not bland like the stuff in the grocery store! Fresh tomatoes on the vine, only an apple could possibly look more wholesome!Luke loves our green beans! They weren't big producers but what they did produce was great! We have a bag in the freezer we are keeping until Thanksgiving, appropriate for as grateful we are for our harvests!

I TOLD you we had a TON of tomatoes! Here is one afternoons harvest all lined up!

Here is the Praying Mantis! I finally caught a picture of him after an afternoon water that must have stirred him out of his seclusion! I LOVE bugs and he's a real asset in our garden!

Back to School

Well, last week the kids went back to school here in MD. They each started a different day and Kaleb led the pack this year. On Monday, he was up early and excited to go! He knew what teacher he had been assigned and also knew a few of his friends would be in his class, that always makes the first day easier! Luke stayed home 'till after the bus came and he waited at the stop with his boy. Such a sweet Daddy! Kaleb had a good first day and enjoyed his new teacher very much!

Izaak was off to school on Tuesday, and is pleased to learn that he has half days on Mon. and Fri. He's also pleased to already have a vocabulary list that he doesn't already know! I think we made the right decision in changing into the Charter school last year! I apologize for not having a pic of this handsome 8th grader, but he leaves so early! He's lucky to have Eema to bring him in the a.m. or he'd have to be out the door about an hour earlier for that bus! He has a good schedule and interesting classes and is enjoying the school much more than he did last year. It's good to see him liking school again!

Finally Thursday came! The day our baby girl has been waiting for since her Pre-K graduation in May...the first day of Kindergarten! The night before we talked about all the details for the last time and she was convinced it would be great! She let me know she wanted braids in her hair and picked out some snacks for her lunch box. In the morning she was so calm! She was escorted onto the bus by her wonderful big brother Kaleb and off they went!

After they were gone Luke and I just looked at each other for a minute...is this real? Is she already old enough to be gone all day and schooled by the public? Scary. We're still digesting.

At four o'clock she was home. She liked riding the bus with Kaleb very much and liked the coloring and playing in school. Her teacher is very impressed with all she already knows and Aliza was happy to see a few Pre-K companions were in her class! When asked if she got a minute to such her thumb she replied " I didn't even think about it! I was too busy playin' with my friends!". She was eager to show me her things and tell me all about the day. She added softly " I cried for you quiet in school, but nobody seed me." We talked a little and I told her she was tough to get through it and how proud I am of her, that I'm home when she gets home and she'll always see me again. It brought back so many feelings! I remember going to Kindergarten and the bus pulling up and I had to run back to the house to kiss my Mom one more time! The bus driver was peeved but I'm sure he lived through it. And now the cycle goes on...

I hope this year continues to go as smoothly as this week did! Have a great school year you three!

Sunflowers...

We have sunflowers planted in the front of the house and have enjoyed watching them grow upwards and bloom. They have been a big draw for bees and birds, as in our land of suburbia, there is a lack of flowers for the bees, an environmental problem everyone should research. The Golden Finches have been pecking away at the seed every morning and afternoon since they started to bloom. They are fun to watch from the sunroom window.

We recently had a heavy rain with some wind and the combination of the two took down some large sunflower stalks. We were fairly bewildered at the loss of our contribution to nature, we came up with the idea to take the heads from the flowers and string them together with fishing line. That way the birds and the bees can still eat the seed and take the remaining pollen. They look kind of nice to, if I do say so myself. In addition to the birds and bees, Matilda loves the stalks to play fetch with and we have a friend with a rabbit who will love to eat the leaves!

Yay for being green!~

Swallow Falls

While visiting in Pa. Jennifer Narlee and I decided that a camping trip together was a must do! So after a month of planning we finally met up at Swallow Falls State Park in Western Maryland. It was exactly the same distance between us both so it worked out great!

We had such fun hiking the falls trails! This place has some of the oldest trees in Maryland and with the moss, tree roots, caves and natural beauty; it truly resembles something out of The Hobbit. Perfect for the kids to climb and imagine!
Here Aliza, Kaleb and Zakeshia tried to catch a few minos that were left in the pool after the water receded. They spent alot of time examining the mushrooms and small trickles of water that were here and there. It's really bliss for the senses!
Here Zakeshia and Aliza check out some big fat snails! Kids, woods, and flashlights...there may not be a better combination in the whole world!
Izaak had a fun time listening to the sounds of the rushing water and was in awe of all the nooks and crannys of the wood. Kaleb and Aliza went straight into mountain goat mode and climbed everything they could find, with Zakeshia only a step behind them, a little more safety cautious!

All the kids helped at camp too! They washed dishes, helped to tend the fires and at this point Izaak is fully self sufficient in the way of the tent! I'm a very proud camp-momma! Matilda was raccoon patrol this trip, as we were visited in the night both nights there. She gave just enough "woof" to scare away the masked bandits without waking the whole camp! Good girl Tildy! Zakeshia was very pleased with her first Scavenger Hunt and was happy to have the responsibility of reading the goods to be collected! They came back with everything but a feather, seems the birds there keep there feathers to themselves! In the evenings the girls ad a really good time playing in the tent and Zakeshia helped Ali with some of her workbooks to prepare her for Kindergarten. I think these two have quite the bond!

As always Kaleb had a few encounters of the insect kind! He had something Jen called a Cadidid land right on his face while we were watching the fire! Instead of shrieking and running like the rest of us would have done, he calmly took it off his face and placed it in the dirt for inspection! So brave!

Jen and I had plenty of laughs around the campfire and at the beach! It was really a great place to camp, it is rated #1 in Maryland, and now we can see why! The woods are pristine and the area extremely well kept, even the bathrooms were virtually spider free (Aliza is very appreciative of this!). We are now looking into another trip, maybe this time just for the adults!

Get out and find some nature to explore!

Butterfly Harvest 8-08

Just wanted to share some more garden pictures...The butterfly garden has really taken off and we are getting more and more butterflies and visitors in the garden! I've even spotted a preying mantis in the veggies! Garden GOLD right there! I'm super happy about how the vines have enveloped the lattice and railings of the deck as it will be super beautiful as the morning glories start to bloom profusely! Here is a picture of one afternoons harvest. We are picking every day now. Any ideas of what to do with a million tomatoes - please share! I love this pic. you can see the veggie patch behind the flowers! Joy!

Elk Neck, North East, MD.

A last miute camping trip seemed like a great idea, so we found somewhere fairly close, packed up, grabbed a friend and rolled out! We headed to a State Park on the North East tip of Maryland, only about an hour away from us. The town is actually called North East, and is filled with cute shops and antique stores. We had a good time going from shop to shop and even found a store that catered to pets that invited Tilda inside!

It was great to have Tom with us! I even got to be in a few pictures! He was also the fire master, without him it would have been a smoky, dark camp! I'm not great at keeping a fire...I think I just need practice. It's great to have a good friend to camp with!

We went to the beach and the kids swam and played at the recycled tire park. We hiked to the lighthouse and we had fun playing in the trees and making s'mores, which is the highlight of every evening in Narlee Camp! We found some really cool bugs too! Within five minutes of being at the site Kaleb found a milipede...he let it crawl all over him! He's a brave boy! We also found a velvet ant, which is really a wingless wasp, but is bright red and really cool looking, Aliza found it by the fire pit! Good looking out Ali!

Elk Neck has a light house and Sunday we took the hike to see what we could see! It was a pretty hike and the kids had fun inspecting the army worm nests and tempting fate on the cliffs.This light house is tiny! Only about two stories tall...I don't have a ton of lighthouse experience but I really thought they were all much larger, I guess if the light shines it gets the job done!Tomorrow morning we are off to Swallow Falls! I'll keep you posted!