http://www.blether.org Life on an island with two small boys Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:45:57 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Umm, eight days since my last post. Yeah, the daily thing's not going so well, I guess. But I'm still posting more often than I used to, and that was sort of the ultimate goal, so I'm not going to get too upset. Dinner a few nights ago. Fresh fava beans ... http://www.blether.org/2008/07/24/favas/ Last weekend, at a local island festival. http://www.blether.org/2008/07/16/me/ Well, actually, two girls. Two female kiwi vines. We moved into this house last September, and the previous owner told us the two kiwi vines out back were supposed to be a male and a female, but since they'd never produced anything in the seven years they'd been there, she thought, ... http://www.blether.org/2008/07/15/its-a-girl/ Some chard from the garden. This pile is about equivalent to 3 or 4 bunches from the store and we ate it all at once. So fresh, right from the garden. So very very good. http://www.blether.org/2008/07/14/harvest/ We happened to be sitting outside a few days ago when there arose a great squawking and flapping and fluttering and lo, the babies left the nest. All at once, and amid great excitement. There were two adult robins zooming around making a lot of noise, and I'm not entirely ... http://www.blether.org/2008/07/13/empty-nest/ We have a lot of this plant. It appeared this spring, took a long time to flower, and then a while for us to figure out what on earth it was. (Centauria Montana. It spreads.) And then it all fell over, the flowers were fading, and I trimmed it back. ... http://www.blether.org/2008/07/08/centauria/ A little while ago, we noticed a bird's nest perched on top of the fence in the depths of our kiwi vine. It was impossible to look into it, since it is just about head height, so I did what any sane, digital-camera-equipped, curious (okay, nosy) person would -- I ... http://www.blether.org/2008/07/07/baby-birds/ I've been working on creating a sandbox for the boys for the last few weeks. Digging, by hand, an 8' x 8' pit, one foot deep. I worked on it a little bit at a time, a day here, a day there. With helpers, of course. Made a nice big ... http://www.blether.org/2008/07/06/sandbox/ New duvet cover, made from three old sheets found at the thrift store. Vintage yellow roses feel so happy and summery. Even if they're covering up a feather duvet, still in use most nights in July. http://www.blether.org/2008/07/06/duvet/ On the weekend of the solstice, we had our own sort of special celebration to mark the event. We burned the Christmas tree. We'd been saving it in our little half-acre woods since taking it out of the house in January. It was seriously dried up and caught fire quickly. This is ... http://www.blether.org/2008/07/05/christmas-tree/