My garden

I love to grow gardens! A few years ago I started a few small flowerbeds at the house where we were living at the time. I grew to love the time I would spend planting, caring, and watering these beds. I planted a few different types of flowers: lavender, Mexican heather, daffodils, hyacinth, English primrose, spiderwort, pulmonaria, bleeding heart, columbine, pansies, iris, and lily of the valley. It was wonderful to see things that you have planted grow and bloom.

A flowerbed in the backyard

Last year we moved and I had to find a new home for my plants. As we were moving temporarily to a smaller townhouse (and I was thinking that having to dig them back out in the wintertime was not going to be a good idea) I asked my parents if I could use a little area for them at their house. So that is what I did.

Iris in my garden at my mother's

I have a small flowerbed at my parents where I planted several of my plants as well as some others I had bought and rooted. My mother had been teaching me about rooting forsythia and I had been attempting to grow some for the past two years. I went by today and low and behold my forsythia plants, all four that survived, are growing! I went over last month to clean the weeds from the garden and they were only about 1 ½ to 2 inches high. Today they were about 6-8 inches tall! This year so far I have growing in this flowerbed: two spiderwort plants, a calla lily (called Naomi Campbell), red lilies, three lavender bushes, cannas, forsythia, iris, a roma tomato plant, strawberries, as well as several different herbs that I bought for my mother. In other areas around my mother’s house I also have my lily of the valley, pulmonaria, and bleeding heart.

Pulmonaria (one of my favorites)

I have also been so excited to see my little container garden here growing! Here I have some similar plants as at my mother’s as well as a few new ones. I have growing here:

Bleeding heart
Columbine (two different varieties)
Hyacinth
Balloon flower
Bee balm
Sedum (two different varieties)
Money plants
Mexican heather
Rosemary
Oregano
Lavender (two different varieties)
Roma tomatoes (3 plants)
Spinach
Sugar peas
Okra (finally broke out of the ground this week!)

A corner of my container garden

Blooms on the Porch

I was reading the Ardwyn Farm blog this morning, with his list of plants in his garden, and I decided to go and check on my plants. If you did not know I have a container garden on my back porch. I have several flowers, herbs and vegetables. The lovely, newest blooming flower greeted me. It is my balloon flower. So I thought I would post some pictures to show the stages.

May 22, 2006

May 28, 2006

May 30, 2006

Crossing Over

Last night we were able to share a very special evening with the Cub Scouts. We had a spaghetti dinner, then we had our very first Crossing Over ceremony for our pack. A Crossing Over is a ceremony where Webelos II (fifth graders) officially leave Cub Scouts and become Boy Scouts. There were seven of our boys that have earned this achievement. So our ceremony started with the raising of the American flag and the pledge.

Next the Webelos were presented with their Arrow of Light patches. Then the two Webelos leaders came forward for the removal of the colours and all patches from the Cub Scouts.

After the leaders were done changing colours it was the boys turn. Our Cub Master, T, removed all the colours and patches for the Cub Scouts. They then crossed the bridge and their new Boy Scout leaders gave them their new neckerchiefs and colours. It has been a honour to see these boys grow in the past three years. They are such wonderful guys and they make us all proud. So to these members of our new Troop, congratulations!

A New Hat

A friend of mine just had a baby, so I decided to make her little girl a crochet hat. I have made about four baby hats in the past using one particular pattern, but this time I wanted to try a different one. It seemed very similar to the other one, but a little girlier. So here I went Saturday evening. I got my Caron Simply Soft soft pink yarn and started to crochet. A few hours later I sat and stared at my completed hat and could only laugh. The hat is about 3 1/2 inches high and has a 10 inch circumference. Defiantly too small for a normal baby. I even tried to use a doll that I have so I could take a picture, but it would not even fit on its head. So one attempt failed. I guess I will see about sending this one to the hospital for use with the premature babies. Surely it would be able to fit a little girl somewhere!