Chickens and the garden.

Just back from five weeks away and looking at the chickens and the garden. 

It's hard to remember exactly what I planted. I know I had a few small onion shoots but I can't find them in the weeds. It's highly likely they are not there anymore. 

I found a cucumber out there!

Muralling May

There is a project in the city to have artists team up with youth and create murals together. 

E applied for this opportunity several months ago and got to be one of the lucky youth painters. 

Her group is three girls plus the artist, Christine. They designed the plan for the mural together and have been working on it now for three or four sessions. 

It's really coming along. It is on the container that lives on Kings Rd at the south end of the park there. 

E spent five hours today painting. Fun for me to see it progress. 

L

Skiing January 2016

L

Elementary school art January 2016

I love boards full of elementary school art. 

Every kids take on the same subject is a little different. 

L

September 2015

T made a cake by himself. 

Nice!

We went to the Cowichan Exhibition. 

The kids got to do some remote control car racing. 

Lice April 2016

So at 10:00 at night I discovered I had lice. I was reading to my son in his bed and I sctatched my head and found a small insect. I thought it might be a flea or something off a tree in our yard, because I had just come in from the garden right before reading to him. My husband took it from me to check if it was flea and he took a picture of it and discovered it was a louse. Seeing as it was so late and really not wanting to just go to bed now that I knew I had lice, I decided to just shave my head. I left a little tuft of hair at the front to make it seem more like a style. 

The next day I went to the grocery store in my friends neighbourhood and I feel like maybe I was getting some different reactions from people because of my kind of aggressive butch hair. One old woman was curt when I cheerfully said I could take her grocery cart instead of her puting it back in the line. She said something like "fine" in a pretty grumpy way. And then in the checkout line I had a conversation with a man that was smiley and really friendly bordering on flirty. He was around my age, probably somewhat younger than me and had a totally bald head. 

It will be interesting to notice if strangers treat me differently than I think they would have. I'm still the same me, I just have different hair. 

L

Post Long Beach, Editing, Nana's

This how the deck looks when you get back from camping where it rained like stink for two to three days straight. 

Everything has to dry out before you can put it away. 

Last bits of editing Whotrek. 

So exciting to get it finished. 

E went out in the back yard. Hanging laundry I believe. There is, of course, a uniform for that. 

T got a hamster because we said he could sometime after he was seven. 

The hamster, Chewbacca, did not like this tunnel. So overnight he jammed it full of shavings!

We hung out on Nana's patio and got a little music going. That was fun. 

Video drumming at Nana's

http://youtu.be/tw76eE1sZrU

L

Summer 2016 Mount Work and Christmas Hill

We went for a hike up Mt. Work with friends and somehow lost track of my friend. We continued on right to the summit but she must have turned around and went back down again without us seeing her. 

We kept expecting to catch up with her and then never did. Eventually got a text saying she was back at the parking lot!

Funny. 

We also took a family hike up Christmas Hill. You can take loop trail right around it which was really pretty. 

Someone had made faces on a bunch of the trees using plasticine and sticks and acorns and stuff. 

L

August Stuff 2015

When you go to the Root Cellar and discover great deals on case lots then you sometimes end up with a heck of a lot of produce all at once. So it's time to pull out the dehydrator. 

Making granola is not a seasonal activity but requires a certain amount of clear counter space to deal with the toasting stage  it's always an achievement for us to get the kitchen that clear. We like granola!

The garden last summer was fun and rewarding. I really like these Dragons tongue beans although the purple goes away once they are steamed. But tasty and not stringy. 

The crookneck squashes have a flavour that is nutty and quite different from zucchini. J really like them. We are going to plant more this year. 

And this is what I turned the big box of organic romas into. Custom salsa. All the taste with none of the hot peppers! Not everybody's cup of tea I know. 

This one is our own tomato freak. We didn't get very many over all. 

Still tasted good. I think it was a Roma. 

L

August 23/15 Pender and disc golf

We headed over to Pender Island for the day to visit friends at their cabin and play disc golf. 

This was a puzzling picture on the side of a Thrifty's truck. It's weird because it seems like this is what the girl is saying. It takes a while to realize the words are what someone else is telling her. But maybe it works because it gets you to stare at the truck for a long time until you get the "Oh!"  

The ferry. 

A birds nest with babies in it at the cabin. I think they were almost grown because it looked really squished in that nest.  

Disc golf. The post is up that hill somewhere. Can't see it yet we just know the direction. 

The last post/basket is a humdinger. So surrounded by arbutus you have to get right up to it to get your disc in there. 

Using the 8 passenger van almost to capacity. 

L