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".

One sunny Sunday afternoon in the garden

Inspiration from an empty dish of roasted veggies.
I made paint from things in my kitchen.
I resisted the urge to tell her to be careful not to spill it.
She painted paper, table, self. Using brush, spoon, hands.
Ivy is so happy when she has water to pour.
And no need for clothes on a day like this.
Some curly chilli's are growing.
She found a "bee" then remembered it's called an "ome". An empty snail home.
A sunny Sunday afternoon in the garden.

Fiesta

A couple of weeks ago Ivy came in from the garden to find me. She took me by the hand and led me outside saying "Boon! Boon!". I didn't know what she was saying until I saw it - a hot air balloon! It was so close we could hear the burner. We waved to it and Ivy said "Boon!" even after it had drifted out of sight.

She would then point out of the window or to the sky and say "Boon" hopefully for weeks after. Whenever she heard anything similar to the "Pshhh" of the burner she'd look for a balloon. We didn't see a balloon again.

On hearing her interest in hot air balloons, my Dad looked for pictures on his phone (because he looks up everything on his phone). This meant that whenever he would try to show her something else on his phone she'd point at the screen and demand "boons". Blackberry's are useful for one thing only, apparently.

We are lucky enough to live in Bristol, home to the Balloon Fiesta! So this is what our Friday evening looked like...

Close enough to hear the burner and the passengers shouting "hello" when we waved.

The evening was so still that the balloons were struggling to stay up and just about managed to get past road and houses to land in nearby fields.

My Dad got really excited and pursuaded us to go with him to the fields where they were landing, and I'm glad he did because the view was stunning.

One landed in the same fields as us, then decided to go back up and land in the next field.

When Ivy saw a Union Jack flag she recognised it from the balloon and said "boon".

Free stuff and sun

Yesterday I picked up some stuff that had been left outside various houses round here, free to a good home. Sage sprigs, a wooden shelf/rack that will be perfect for our out-of-hand tea collection, and a baby bath to use as a paddling pool (inspired by this blog post). It was not easy carrying all that while pushing a pram!




Ivy did not nap AT ALL yesterday. She usually naps for three hours! That is one tired little face.








When she concentrates she sticks her top lip out like a beak. We call this duck-face.



Adding soil. Hmmm.




Ivy's shirt got wet, and cold. So I took it off and she asked to put Kwojo's t-shirt on, and used it to hide from the sun. Although she loves being outside, all that sun can be a bit much. She signs 'hot' to let me know.





And the seeds we sowed on Mother's Day started to make an appearance yesterday! One day, these will be tomatoes.