Signs of spring, signs of change

we've had LOVELY weather for the past few days - almost all of the snow has melted and plants are sprouting everywhere. here are some signs that make me smile - our magnolia tree budding, the tulips shooting up, and our cherry trees budding:





unfortunately, we are going to be hit with lots of snow this weekend, but the warm sunshine has given me hope that summer is not too far away. :)

and as i see the signs of change, i'm anticipating the change coming to our family. the girls feel it too and have been showing it in different ways. we've had lots of meltdowns and difficulty handling transitions, but i also see signs of growth in the girls. Skye is definitely taking pride in becoming more independent, even in the kitchen - she often cooks eggs and makes pancakes on the weekends for breakfast. i'm so proud of her! and Claire is becoming more and more of a social butterfly. she would much rather go and play with her neighbourhood friends than tag along with me to Skye's ballet class or violin lesson. as i prepare for the arrival of this new baby, i see how quickly my girls are growing up. how will the addition of a third child change the dynamics of our family? that is the great mystery, something i'm curious to discover in the coming months, years.

Skye flipping pancakes

Mistress Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

being a novice gardener at best, i'm learning all kinds of things about my garden. i've found growing vegetables the easiest--all they seem to require is water, sunshine and weeding. we'll see how they do this year. in North Carolina, our vegetables seemed to grow abundantly without much help. last year, i couldn't get myself to even think about the garden, but this year, i've been trying to get a handle on our backyard that's looking more and more like a jungle. so, the vegetables are growing and we've already enjoyed arugula. however, growing flowers is a completely different story. they require something more than the basic necessities. we have three hydrangea bushes in our backyard and they haven't bloomed once since we moved in. at first, i had no idea they were hydrangeas - the bushes looked so scraggly i cut them back, thinking it would help them grow. well, grow, yes, but no blooms. i hacked them back again this year early spring and i have a single hydrangea blooming. i managed to not cut one bloom!! you see, until now, i had wondered if what we had were really hydrangeas! at least now i know they really are hydrangeas. so i read up online and to my horror, i realized i'm not supposed to prune certain types of hydrangeas! i'll know better now and hopefully next year we'll finally be able to enjoy some beautiful hydrangea blooms in our garden. :)

Cherry ripe

Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, Ripe I cry, Full and fair ones, Come and try!




Ow!
from slkim

so we have two cherry trees and one of them had a decent crop. nothing compared to what it should produce, but enough i thought to make a pie or some compote. we had some time this past weekend, so i decided we should pick all the cherries before they start to rot. [check out the new movie of the picking.] our neighbour, whose cherry trees have abundant crops, offered to loan me her cherry pitter. what's that? i discover it's one of those things like melon ballers - they don't come in handy every day, but once you've used it, it's indispensable.


we ended up having a bowl full of cherries and rather than making pie, i ended up making compote. pie would have consumed too much time and effort! we tried some of the compote tonight with chocolate cake and ice cream. yum!!






Cherry picking
from slkim