My neighbour came over last week and told me a "little secret" that her Italian tomato-growing friend had shared with her. When his tomatoes have their second set of leaves, he replants them up to their "shoulders". He told her it makes for a stronger, hardier plant. I often plant a large portion of the tomato stem horizontally when I put it out in the garden but I had never heard of re-potting them when they are so young. I was looking through another gardening book yesterday and the author mentioned transplanting tomatoes twice; then he still plants the stem horizontally in the garden.
So, since mine were looking pretty spindly anyway, I am giving it a try. I re-potted some yesterday and will see how they do. E planted some watermelon seeds indoors and also some ornamental milkweed. The crocus are blooming in the backyard now and the whole front yard smells of violets. 
Some Spring in the garden quotes:
Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer. ~Geoffrey B. Charlesworth
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. ~Margaret Atwood
And since I have been collecting mulch to do more Ruth Stout-ing in my garden.
I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. ~Ruth Stout
And this last one, my sentiments exactly.
I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become, I will always plant a large garden in the spring. Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from participating in nature's rebirth? ~Edward Giobbi
Last Summer we picked and froze a lot of corn. I have always cut it off the cob to freeze it but last year I thought I would try freezing a dozen right on the cob, just to see if they would taste good. (I love corn on the cob - my mom likes to tell a story of me at two sneaking off behind the camper to eat the cold leftover corn out of the cooler.) Well, we decided to try some the other day. They looked lovely, the taste was actually very good...but the texture was disappointing to me. It seemed somehow watery, not crisp. 
So, even though E quite liked it (he has my corn loving genes), I don't think I would use the freezer space to do this again. I will stick with cutting it off the cob because the texture is much better that way.
I intentionally doubled all the other ingredients but added a little less sugar than the single recipe called for. I have this thing about muffins being muffins, not cupcakes and so I don't like them to be super sweet. I tried one as soon as they were done and thought that the boys might not like them because they were definitely not very sweet, so I was pleasantly surprised when W declared them the best muffins ever and E agreed that he really liked them too. I think the secret to success was that instead of using sugar and butter in the crumble topping I used a bit of maple syrup and coconut oil. 
On the front is a picture of E with tears because he is missing W. Inside are pictures of both of them going out to bounce on the trampoline together. 
See the happy faces? 
When you ask people what is the most important thing in life, most people will say their family, their health, their friends/sense of community. If someone were to ask me what my kids are learning by "homeschooling", I think that I could say that they are learning one of the most important things life has to offer.
Both boys got in on the action and quickly marked off their squares in my flower gardens (Hey, watch my tulips!!! The whole huge yard and you guys have to choose to put your squares in my flower beds?)
The idea is that you mark off a square and then observe all the action going on throughout the year. They can record anything of interest in their notebooks. E quickly found some critters in his square and made a list in his book. See his baby millipede there.
W decided that he would gather all our identification guides so that we could put them all in a basket with our notebooks, binoculars, magnifying glass and pencils. 
While we were out there reading some other interesting nature books he noticed a bird in our hazelnut tree. We had noticed the same kind in our garden a few times last year but hadn't identified it. The bird book was right there in the basket and so we took it out and realized that it was a yellow-rumped warbler. 
We spent some time sketching and then got back to some more reading.
We're coming into the time of year where we spend a lot of time on the go - at parks, on hikes, biking, 
And since the boys helped me shell a box of walnuts (grown on our backyard trees), I thought I would make a triple batch of these bars to see us through the next few weeks. They also freeze well.
And who doesn't love a buttercup? (Oh, that's right, I don't! Not now that I was silly and sentimental enough to think that I should transplant some from my childhood home into my current garden. Silly woman, what was I thinking?) We used to always put these under our chins to see if we liked butter, not a very precise science, I'm afraid. :-)
BTW for a hilarious read, it is hard to beat Bill Bryson's
she says "fast food take-out".
I love gardening and it really doesn't seem like work to me. Still...my boys prefer that I don't spend all my time puttering in the garden in Summer, so I like to look for methods to prevent weeds. Over the last couple of years I have become a big fan of mulching with grass clippings; this helps keep water in and weeds down. That seems like a win/win to me.
I watered this to soak it, then put some leaves and grass clippings on and watered again. In a few weeks I will put some zucchini seeds in each hill and I should have a work-free, weed-free bed. When I first started doing this I thought that it was not very visually pleasing, but actually the grass starts to break down quite quickly and the plants grow out to hide the rest of it so it ends up looking nice too.
I ran out of newspaper so only got the two hills done so far. (you didn't want to read yesterday's paper anyway, did ya honey?)
My point is that, for my boys, being thrifty is not a chore; it is not about deprivation, it is about making good choices. For us, being thrifty means that we are able to do things, and get things, that we otherwise might not be able to. For my boys, frugal = fun!!!
So how come I came home with this? 
It was calling my name, I tell you. No...really, even W heard it. We didn't even get into the store before we heard it calling from the lower lot. W and I looked at it, looked at each other and then he convinced me that I had to have it. I actually left the store, went to the car, and then went back. He has told me that he will fix it all up for me.
On Tuesday I got to pick some nettle with a friend. I normally have to buy nettle and so this was quite a treat to just be able to go out and pick it; it's even better to pick while chatting with good company. Yesterday I set it up in the 
Looks pretty and tastes great too. Next time I would add even more filling
I don't know how it happens, really. It seems as though one day the plants are all in nice tidy rows, and then, suddenly one day, I notice that there is just a big mat of strawberry plants. Where do they all come from?? ;-)
So, I decided to try the hill system instead, and this time, I really will keep up with it. Ahem. In the meantime, doesn't it look nice? And it is much easier to mulch too.