Growing our own

Last week we picked (or rather cut, as I've been told they'll grow back) the first of the food from our garden. These spring onions went straight into a potato salad, after Ivy had tasted them, pulled a face, and told me that they are "bicey" (spicy). Chives from the garden also went into the salad, which Ivy picked herself.

Growing our own started off as being functional, why buy something you can produce yourself, for free? Last year was a huge learning curve, including learning that it's not actually free! There's potentially a lot of stuff to buy: seeds, compost, pots, saucers, canes, cane toppers, tomato feed. Then you can't just sew seeds and let them get on with it, you have to actually do stuff to them. Which is where I fell short last year and despite planting all of my tomato seeds and ending up with about 80 seedling, I only got three tomatoes from three tomato plants. And then there are all the potential pests. Lots of lessons learnt.

This year it hasn't felt like a chore or work, and I actually seem to "get it". It's hard to explain what it is that is so satisfying, and it's a bit of a cliche to say that it's about feeling close to nature. But to observe the process from seed to plant to food is incredibly grounding, and has deepened my respect for life.

Ivy is enjoying it too. I was surprised recently when someone asked her what was growing and she correctly named the tomato plants and lavender. She got stuck naming the others, but could point them out when I asked where the spring onions and carrots were. I like that she knows what things look like before they are ready to eat. We recently spotted the little orange tops of carrots sticking out from the soil, even I found it exciting (and reassuring!) that there really are carrots growing under there. Ivy will often point our plants out to visitors "Lookat our PLANTS!", which is pretty much what I want to say too.

And as for all that stuff you need to buy, I have found ways around some of those. Plant pots borrowed from my Dad, or improvised out of containers that would otherwise be recycled. My workplace collects large tins for me, and I use a nail and hammer to punch holes in the bottom for drainage. The little tins are a good size for herbs or seedlings, and plastic containers like those that hummus comes in work well as saucers for small pots and tins.

As well as all of the lessons I have learnt about gardening, I've also learnt something pretty usefull about myself; that I can figure stuff out myself.

Garden

Found photos that show all the bits of our garden, all taken this month.

The things I dislike:

- Scaffolding at the end of the garden which has been there since before we moved in. Other people kept commenting on it being still there, and are they even working on that house, etc, and it didn't really bother me until they started taking the scaffolding down and for the first time ever I imagined it not being there and got really excited. Then they stopped taking it down, and it's still there, but at least there is no longer a pole in our garden! Looking forward to that not dominating our view, one day, maybe...

- The mismatch walls and fences. The bare breeze-block walls are just so ugly and so very grey.

- The unpainted pebble-dash finish on the house. It's just so grey!

The things I like:

- The deck! It's so much nicer to walk, sit, play on wood rather than the concrete that was there before. It's so much softer to touch and to look at.

- The grass! It's pretty unusual in our area to have grass, as the gardens are so small that the grass doesn't get enough light to thrive.

And my plans to change:

- We're getting some raised beds put in the sides, and climbers planted to try to cover up some of the breeze-block and fencing.

- I want to have the trees at the end taken out as the grass towards the back of the garden is dying because they block too much light. And instead...

- A living willow or bamboo pole (with climbers, maybe beans?) teepee at the end of the garden to play in.

- To cover up some of the pebble-dash with boards for painting and boards with blackboard paint on.

First "boon" of the year!

While playing in the garden I spotted this in the sky. When I pointed it out to Ivy she gasped. In Bristol I think seeing a hot air balloon is to summer what crocuses are to Spring. So if summer is coming then it MUST be spring !





She watched and pointed and waved. And she no longer says "boon", the L is making it's way in there, but she's a bit funny with L's and kind of overuses her tongue to say them so it sounds a bit like "bleh-oon".

Three Things

I have found a few things that Ivy loves doing, and is often happy to do on her own for quite a while.

1. Gardening, in the loosest sense of the word. She has a little trowel set and will spend ages just moving soil between pots/dumping it on the deck. And watering, she needs me to fill her watering can every now and then. So, the combination of these two things makes it look like a few bags of compost exploded all over our deck. But who cares?! She's happy, and I get to cook dinner in peace (I am finally realising that losing my cooking mojo is because I never get to do it undisturbed). (this picture from two weekends ago when we planted seeds)




2. Rice play. Some rice, a few containers, a spoon or measuring cup all on a tray, and she spends a long, long time transferring it from one to the other in all the different ways possible. She concentrates so hard and must be learning a lot and loves it. Plenty ends up on the floor too, but if it's not intentional it doesn't count as mess ;)



3. Playdoh and a play knife. Forget rolling pin and all those exciting shaped plastic cutters. Ivy just needs a blunt knife and she cannot be torn away from it (not even for cake, seriously). Also, a great moment earlier when she brought us a piece of playdoh and announced "A playdoh chickpea!" and yes, this piece of playdoh really did look like a chickpea! Do I have the most hippy toddler ever?! (This picture from today, after cutting and squashing the chickpea before we could get a decent photo)

I have been hardly taking photos at all recently. February was an all time low, I only took 134! Probably no coincidence that February was the month my Grandma died. The few photos I have taken are mostly not pretty, mostly blurry, often on my phone, but mostly taken so I'll remember something. I'm going to start posting these along with the thing I wanted to remember. Probably in a random order.

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We got new toy shelves (YAY! ORGANISATION!) and Ivy found a bit of polystyrene from the packaging and found a few uses for it.

As food, for cooking. And cargo for the trains. Reminded me of her using pine needles at Christmas time for play food.



She also used it as tea in her tea pot, but then pretended to drink some and unintentionally inhaled some and so that was time for the polystyrene to go in the bin.

Recent Ivy-ism's

I got a text from Anna asking if I'd ask Ivy if she'd like to help Anna make biscuits when we go round for a playdate on Sunday. Ivy smiled and said "Ooooh! Anna help a biscuits!". Throughout the day Ivy kept asking me "Anna Josh out?", and at one point when I was looking at my phone she asked "Texting baby Eve?".

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I was about to put my mug of tea down on the table when Ivy said urgently "Mummy! Mummy!" and handed me a coaster!

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When asked "What makes you happy?" Ivy says "Mummy makes Ivy happy". And I didn't even teach her to say that!

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When I was getting Ivy to bed, and she was chattering sleepily, she said "Everyone haff a nose. Danny [Granny] haff a nose, like Ivy". Deep realisations about the world :P

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When eating fish pie that I'd made. "Ivy like it a fish pie." And commenting on cows milk "Cow from a milk".

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While watching Olympic diving "Man uhoh... man uhoh... man uhoh. Man wet!"

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She is in love with her Kipper DVD that she got for her birthday, and is often quoting that, or telling me what Kipper said, or asking me to sing the song. She has said "Kipper better than Daddy and Mummy."

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Hello 2013

16th & 17th

Still awake at 23:17! Kwojo is at his work Christmas party and I fail at bedtime!

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We went to the last ever of our favourite playgroup, a crafty, sensory, messy play one. Sad it's ending but got all inspired to make Christmas cards and decorate (finally!). Also the first day of not feeling ridiculously exhausted since being ill the previous week.

12th &13th &14th

12.12.12 meant the third year of filming for the day for One Day On Earth. It was also my first day of being back to reality with Kwojo going to work, me no longer ill, and feeling the need for coffee again. We went to playgroup, walked a long way to visit a friend, and pretty much did loads of stuff in a celebration of being able to do stuff again.

I totally burnt myself out by mid afternoon when I decided to unpack the Christmas decorations and then got utterly overwhelmed by it and lost all desire for Christmas to even happen. This was the extent of my decorating capabilities.



I then rewarded myself for this immense effort with a DIY pain au chocolat/croisant with chocolate in the middle. Mmmm warm chocolate melty buttery pastry-ness.

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On the 13th we ate dinner by candlelight as per the instruction in our advent calender pocket.

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The 14th was another day of feeling totally burnt out by early afternoon. It seems the illness is gone but the exhaustion is harder to get over. And then Ivy didn't nap. So we watched the Gruffalo's Child DVD that she got in the advent calender that day. She is obssesswed with all things Gruffalo so she loved it and was transfixed (and very, very sleepy).

10th & 11th

Today I'm more ill, and so Kwojo stayed home to take care of Ivy so I could spend even more time in bed. It has been just what I need and I hope that all this rest means I'll be able to get through tomorrow without him. Another thing to note is that I have had no caffeine today. None. Because I didn't have to "get through the day" or stay awake. I've noticed lately that my caffeine intake has been creeping up as the days get shorter and colder, so it is quite refreshing to be without it for a day.

Kwojo and Ivy are out now, Ivy on his back. They have gone to buy me tissues, and veggie sausages for our comfort food dinner.

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Somehow more ill. The only picture I took on the 11th, I didn't even leave the house (pretty much unheard of for me).

When Ivy is sleeping, and I gaze at her little face, she looks like she could be a tiny baby again. And I remember when she was a tiny baby, and I'd gaze at her face, she looked like she could be about four years old. There is something so ageless about her sleeping, he face is so wise and yet tiny and helpless at the same time. And oh, those little chubby wrists.

6th

This morning was my morning off parenting and on Getting Stuff Done, this morning sewing Christmas presents. So here is what I am working on and have finished recently...

All that sewing is hungry work. I finally ate one of the three tomatoes I harvested from my plants. All that work and love and nurture and only three tomatoes! Well ok, I was actually pretty slack and was a bit of a rubbish tomato parent if I'm honest, so I'm lucky I got as many as three... I had to pick them in September when there were still green because it was getting frosty. They took a while to ripen on the kitchen windowsill but have been red for a couple of weeks now. I kept looking at them and thinking I need to eat them before they rot, but that it needs to be special. I finally just got on with it, grilled one and had it with my eggs. It was good.

Today was a no-nap day, so Ivy and I spent the afternoon at Bubbahub, playing and reading and having our photos taken by Alice. It was really lovely, at one point Alice was showing Ivy which button to press to set the flash off, which was fun. I'm looking forward to seeing this years photos! Here are some she took this time last year...