June 2009 Archives

New design -- IN PROGRESS (ignore weird stuff)

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At long last, I'm going to work on the design of this blog. I've only been saying that for some two years now! But I'm going to do it, and then I'm going to post belated pics of all the stuff that's been going on in our lives. Yes, I've been slacking on the Wildemere blog for sake of the garden blog. Shame on me! But I suppose I could argue that the gardening is part of what's going on in our lives, so it's all good. So next entry should hopefully mean that the new design is done.

If you build it, they will come

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School got out for the summer yesterday, and the boys look forward to a summer of relaxing and doing whatever. But I do want to encourage them to work on their writing skills -- with all this era's wonderful computer and Internet advantages, the good old-fashioned "sit with a pencil and write" seems to have been lost, at least with my kids. So this summer, with journals in hand, we are going to write a little each day. Stories, poems, books, thoughts -- whatever inspirations lead us to. Remarkably, the boys haven't groaned too much about it!

And after school let out yesterday, we welcomed new visitors to our yard. We've seen many a toad in the yard from time to time, but yesterday the male toads found the new pond. Three of them set up at strategic spots on the pond rocks and croaked. And croaked. And croaked. We saw two of them -- the third was clever enough to croak AND stay out of sight. We didn't witness any mass migration of female toads to them, but those males sure tried to entice them. I really like how all three toads croaked at different pitches. I fell asleep with the window open, just listening to them...

For our morning journals, we decided to all write garden poems. I'll admit we were all sort of groggy when we attempted this...

 

Call of the Summer Wild, zinnia06-04-09.jpg
by Meredith

Sun rising
Birds chirping
Good morning, summer, all

Kids running
Playing hard
Will their mom stay sane

Dogs wrestling
In the yard
Splashing in the dog pond

Butterflies
Flutter by
Flowers growing tall

Grasshoppers
bull-toad1.jpgGet off of
My zinnias RIGHT NOW

Sun is hot
Ack, more weeds
Compost, cactus happy

In the night
Bull-toads croak
Seeking their true love

And eating mosquitoes. YAY.

 

 

bull-toad2.jpg

 

 

Garden poem, by Nolan

Birds, birds flap their wings
Birds can do almost anything

Our pond is great
We found toads that might mate
We cannot wait

Butterflies, butterflies everywhere
But we care

 

 

 

 

 

My backyard, by Logan

Birds flitter past,2dogs.jpg
While my dogs run fast.
The garden's filled with plants,
The perfect home for the
   common ant.
When the dogs meet a skunk
    it really
Sprays them well,
And when the dogs do come in
I really hate the smell.
My backyard's a habitat
For animals thin and small
But watch out when it's dark,
For the dogs might startle you
With a sudden bark.

 

recent comments

  • Susan: What a wonderful collection of photos, memories and information about read more
  • lisa: You go, girl! I hope you will be feeling much read more
  • Meredith: Well, yes. But henna is considered safe, until proven otherwise! read more
  • nonplus.net: You need to post before (gray), during (carrot top / read more
  • Michael: I thought all the pumpkins turned out great, and it read more
  • Heather: Beautiful. I hope you are keeping your poems for future read more
  • Meredith: Ah well, traffic happens. Somehow we survived the day. It read more
  • Lisa: Uncanny; all these years and I never realized how much read more
  • Meredith: I understand -- it's an easy move from feeling fine read more
  • Heather: I had a crown done that same week! And yes, read more
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