We had so much fun at last year's Backyard Habitat Fair at Islandwood, that I wanted to bring Grandma G there this year.
We took a short break...
...before touring the beautiful gardens (mainly vegetable):
I love Islandwood, and I think Grandma does too!
There's nothing like playing in a sandbox on a sunny summer afternoon. Our cat claimed our old sandbox (aka: hole-in-the-ground) for his own purposes, but thanks to Grandma G, Silas now has a new one...with an attachable digger and most importantly, a lid.
The wobbly swing, which Silas can only ride on if a big person is holding him:
And this last picture was taken last Thursday at the the Monica's Waterfront Bakery & Cafe in Silverdale (the town I work in). This is my favorite lunch place in the area and it was great to have the family stop by my office and then take me out to lunch. Silas likes the books they keep upstairs.
I'm still a bit behind in my posting... The weekend before last, my friend Beth and I took Silas to the Medieval Faire in Port Gamble, which is in north Kitsap and is a tiny but lovely little town. The Faire was small compared to the Bristol Renaissance Fair I often went to back in Wisconsin, but it was fun none-the less.
And he got to try out Japanese Kumihimo:
Silas also liked the wood and metal working and the fencing. One of my favorite moments came when we saw two people dressed in thier period costumes sitting on a bale of hay, facing away from us. They were wearing racoon tails (real, I think?) which were trailing down behind them. Silas, quite earnestly, pointed to the man and exclaimed "He's sitting on his puppy!" Priceless.
I took these pictures last week during our heat wave. Since then, the garden has continued to grow, so imagine everything just a bit bigger (especially the pole beans) and that's where we're at. I let Silas pick the pea he's holding and he promptly stuck it in his mouth and ate it whole. Tonight we harvested a few dozen peas and ate them as a side dish with our supper. The beans have attached themselves to their poles and are really taking off.
Our yard, in its early summer glory.
Papa gives Silas some watering tips:
Helping water the new starts:
We planted pumpkins, squash, potatoes, onions, cucumber, etc. in this patch. I still have some eggplant and cayenne pepper seedlings to plant, but they are awfully tiny, so I've held off a bit. Anyways, thanks to my parents, we got a lot accomplished in the garden the day these photos were taken. Since then, I've also put in some pole beans and everything is doing pretty well so far.
Featuring Planet Silas' June Book of the Month: Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert.I mentioned back in January when I featured Snowballs as the BOTM that you could expect to see more Lois Ehlert books in the future. Well, June's BOTM brings you another wonderful Ehlert title, Growing Vegetable Soup.
From planting seeds, tubers, and starts, to harvest time and preparing a meal made with said harvest, this book gives young readers their first look at the basic "how-to's" and joys of vegetable gardening.
I thought it appropriate to feature this book now, since our vegetable garden is in full swing. I have made sure that Silas was with me for every step of the veggie growing process. He helped me plant seeds, helps water, and helps pick the greens and peas that have been ready to harvest for several weeks already (He's also very good at helping to eat them :) I have gone over the importance of respecting the plants and being "nice" to them, from making sure not to dig in or tip over pots with newly sewn seeds, to not yanking out young seedlings, to only picking harvestable items under guidance. Aside from a few minor incidences early on, he caught on and has been very good. A book like Growing Vegetable Soup really helps make tangible the concept of a seed sprouting and eventually producing something that can be eaten. Without this visual representation of what the future holds, a patch of bare dirt is just a patch of bare dirt to a two year-old, even if it has dozens of seeds buried just under the surface. With this book as a guide, even a toddler can grasp the importance of caring for something that seems at first to be devoid of life, but that with care and time will soon be teaming with it. While aimed at young children, this book was inspiring to me as well. When we received it this winter (thanks LeClairs!), and I read it to Silas for the first time, I told him, "You know what, Silas? We can do this too!"
And so, we have.
