Garden Update

The homestead is coming along nicely. Stace removed the large bush here, to replace it with three more fruit trees. 

We now have a plum, pluot and aprium tree; the latter two are crosses between plum and apricot trees. This is in addition to the new nectarine trees in the front, and the already fruitful orange and tangerine trees in the back corner. God willing, we'll be enjoying lots of fruit in the seasons to come!

Oh, and I can't leave out the pomegranate tree! We planted this a year ago, and it's recently burst out with beautiful red flowers. Hopefully we'll have plenty of pomegranates come winter.

Stace also planted these blueberry bushes - this is four small plants, all different varieties. This was actually a project - finding the barrel and the many soils and additives recommended in the gardening class he and Violet took. 

Stace and Violet also planted out the veggie garden, after we took last year off to try to kill off some awful weeds. We now have lettuce, cauliflower, sprouts, zucchini and tomatoes.

The lavender is doing great right now, too! And our citrus had been all abloom, making the yard smell like a perfumery.

I also picked out some pansies to add to the Gerbera daisies over on the other side of the yard. Hope they make it! 

Weekend Fun

St. Patrick's Day  was this week, so we had the traditional American Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage. Easiest crock pot meal there is!

On Friday, Violet and I took our little nature walk back at Quigley Canyon to check on the poppies, since it was a sunny, warm day and they were sure to be open.

Our state flower!

On Friday afternoon, I babysat Ellie, and again, we walked to the park. She loves the swings!

Everyone wanted to swing with her - Elmo, Bunny and Garfield.

While I was out with Ellie, the girls were busy baking chocolate chip cookies! Nice one!

Stace has built this metal and concrete contraption for Melanie to use, to create different heights of  flowery things at weddings.

Cora and I brought it to her and helped her at a wedding Saturday. This couple wanted an asymmetric look.

After we were finished helping, we went into a sweet downtown near the wedding, and happened up on a nerd store dedicated to the game War Hammer. Because Cora had an interest in the game, we stayed and got drinks at the cafe there, and then learned about the game. It was a fun way to pass an hour before we came home.

Week in Review

Oh happy day, Stace and I got to go to Cora's high school for an IN PERSON Open House on Thursday! Sad to think we missed out on Open House at her junior high both years because of the restrictions.

Here is her English classroom, where her teacher raved about Cora.

And her is her AP Environmental Science classroom/lab. It was fun and a little nuts to be back in a high school classroom for the first time after so many years.

Cora spent her evening in the theater, where she and a couple of other students participated in comedy acting exercises with the teacher.

Seb was in a fight with a neighbor cat (who was clearly trespassing ON OUR PROPERTY) the other night. We didn't think he was hurt, but a day or two later we noticed a wound on his head, that turned into an abscess. That then turned into a pricey vet visit. 

Good thing he's so beautiful! Poor guy needed a couple of types of meds and the cone and a drain, after he was worked on at the vets for a few hours.

Violet used her Silly Putty the good old-fashioned way, making a copy of a newspaper comic.
 

Violet's Favorites

Violet and I are enjoying her Friday half-days - we don't have an endless number of them left now. We went to Mentryville this week. Love our spring green!

Hard to see in the photo, but the blue lupine was beautiful on the hill. While on our walk, we enjoyed a cookie from Crumbl, the hot new bakery in town.

Liana spent the weekend with us when Colleen and Rigo were away. We love this girl! She fits in so well with our family. Even Seb considers her an honorary member of the family.

At Violet's mounted archery lesson at Gilchrist Farm, we checked out the chicks and ducklings in the warm light. So cute!