Out with the old, in with the new

It's time to say goodbye to our winter garden. Our little patch did pretty well this year, but here you see it all going to seed. The vegetable garden is not large because we have a smallish backyard and lots of tall, mature trees. This area in the back corner of our yard is the only area that receives enough direct sun to support growing vegetables. But, despite the limited sunshine, the cilantro, mesclun (mixed greens), dill and carrots did well. The spinach didn't grow so well. I think our soil might be deficient in something that spinach needs. I'll need to research that and amend the soil before we plant again next fall.
We had one thing left to harvest: the carrots. I think they are actually kind of pretty.
Here's our little haul. Not very impressive, but the kids liked pulling and eating them.
And, here's our new summer vegetable garden. You can see that by the time we were done, the shade was already encroaching on it. We tried to squeeze a lot into our little space. You can't really see them, but on the left are 4 or 5 tomato plants, a red bell pepper plant, onions, and some marigolds. The scent of the marigolds is supposed to help deter harmful bugs. On the right hand side is basil, more onions, and radishes. We also planted a few pots that can be moved to capture the most sun with yellow squash, zucchini and some cherry tomatoes. I hope our garden does well this year. My mouth is already watering for the things I can make with this great fresh produce!
Here's our littlest helper who turns eleven months old today. Yes, I know, he's playing on the bags of compost and manure. But, hey, at least it's organic! :)

Some pictures from our Spring Break

For our Spring Break, we headed to Eric's small hometown to spend a few days with his parents. Jonathan got up early each day to be able to go to work with his Paw for a few hours. Paw is a building contractor and Jonathan loves to "help" him. After getting his crews started in the morning, Paw took us all fishing.

Here's Eric and our dog. I don't think that I have really mentioned our dog on this blog before. I seem to forget that we have one. I'm not a dog person. I gave in and agreed to getting a dog two years ago because I love my husband and I think pets are good experiences for kids. Our dog is a female rat terrier named Britches. I make sure that the kids feed her and that she gets to the vet when she needs to, but otherwise I basically just try to put up with her. Some days I do better than others. Elizabeth is a serious fisherwoman. At least she is for about fifteen minutes, then she spends the rest of her time climbing on top of rocks and jumping off. Her fishing pole is a purple and pink Dora pole that comes with a fake fish on the end of the fishing line. She cast her fake fish into the water over and over again.
Here's Gustin in the sandbox back at Granny and Paw's house. My kids spent about 90% of their time there outside since we had absolutely fabulous weather. I loved it!
Elizabeth did come down with a fever on our second day. Don't feel too sorry for her, though. As you can see, she was very well taken care of by her Granny and it only lasted for about 36 hours.
And, who is this little boy? That's not my baby, is it? No, it can't be. He looks way to big to be my baby.
Happy April everyone!

Ugh!!!!

Weather report this morning: high of 88 degrees with 100% humidity.

Are you kidding me? It's supposed to be early spring! I have to go turn on my air conditioner because it's already getting stifling in our house. This is nuts! I'm not ready for summer yet!!!

Spring has sprung!

I know it seems early, it does to me too, even for Texas. When I started noticing a few trees blooming a week or two ago I was in denial. Surely those trees were confused and they didn't really mean to be blooming. I mean, a tree across the street from our house just had its leaves turn yellow and fall about a month ago. Nature doesn't seem to know what season it is. But, the more I look, the more nature keeps telling me that spring is indeed here.

Bushes are blooming everywhere as are the red buds, magnolias (the ones with the lavender blooms, they're really pretty) and my azaleas.
The trees are also starting to leaf out and I'm sure our car will soon be covered in dusty, yellow pine pollen.

We're still enjoying the produce of our "winter" garden (I use that word in the loosest sense of the term). My fingers are itching to get our "real" garden put in, but its really too early for that. Eric bought a couple of tomato plants last weekend. We planted them in containers so we can bring them in if it gets cold. They even already have blooms on them!
We've got a rainy day ahead of us here today. I guess in this part of the world it's February showers bring spring flowers. But, that doesn't have quite the right ring to it, does it?