pictures

Alright, alright, alright, an update, some pictures.....

Brain Fog

I can totally feel myself turning inwards for the winter. Its a little disconcerting because I feel as if I have been disrupted. There are things I would like to get done still. Things that require my brain defrosted. I'm just not ready. I will trudge through it. In reality I love the cold weather, and I know a foggy brain is really a good excuse to just enjoy myself more often. Make snow angels.

Our pumpkins have retired to the backyard, where I will let them rot, and move on as fertilizer. I am going to spend winter dreaming our yard into a garden. Next year I hope to successfully grow more than swiss chard. I will be happy with swiss chard and maybe some not so accidental pumpkins to break up the annoying patch of gravel 'landscaped' in the middle of our yard.
With the season change I feel like its time for a little 'to do' list of things I'd like to work on/learn/accomplish this winter:

x Make a 'simple' garden plan for spring.
x Make more home cooked meals, and learn to make another staple from scratch.
x Running (3 times a week?)
x Organize our files
x Sew for Christmas

Carrots and Clothes

 Helping me with the laundry of course.
She crawls off the bed at the end so I put baskets of her (unfolded!) clothes there, and they work as perfect baby-catchers.

I've mentioned before that I had the worst luck this year with my sprouts. Here are my only 2 surviving carrots, and a habanero. I did end up with swiss chard all summer, and our grape vines are bountiful, with 2 different types of grapes, I think, one purple and sweet and seedless, the other blue and sour and seed-full.

In the City?

Our backyard is now a jungle. When you go outside its like green green green. Our amazing magnolia tree grows right out of our deck and towers over the yard, accompanied by 3 cedars, and what I think may be a ginko tree, plus everything and anything is joined with grapes vines; fruitful weeds, to form a literal jungle canopy. For a bit we had a mosquito problem but that easily solved itself by inviting spiders to build webs that grow from the ground to tree-limbs, so they gently sway back and forth in the wind, waiting for an unsuspecting bug to be trapped, but mostly getting caught in my hair.
This morning I thought maybe the yard needs a little taming.

Dont get me wrong, its beautiful, awesome, wonderful to have this.

Our Day in Pictures

This afternoon was spent in the yard. Trying to heal our very neglected compost bins, planning vegetable pot locations, raking, splintering, laundry hanging, and admiring last years christmas tree.

Olive's becoming quite good at entertaining herself while I work. She wriggles a lot. Slowly taking herself away from where ever I put her, but no crawling yet, or even rolling. She sways back and forth, and is figuring it out. I feel like she will roll, sit and crawl all in one week when she finally does, she's so close to everything. Plus! Teeth, and hunger, insatiable hunger. She watches us eat. With a little "o" mouth. Thinking so hard about what we are doing. Its a little early but I am very much thinking about preparing her some single grain mush to learn how to eat. I bought myself a little recipe book called " Easy Gourmet Baby Food" by Jordan Wagman, and I will be starting with basic Quinoa. Just want to get myself a food processor first, to make things a little easier on myself. I plan to make all her food. At least for the time being. There is no rush, and its really so so simple. She is still so young, but all these things are coming all at once, so fast. Its an adventure for sure!

Back to the yard. I kind of love compost. Its a home for our garden creatures, good for our plants, and yard, solves a large part of our waste problem, and is basically a backyard science experiment. I've had bins even when I lived on the 3rd floor (something my neighbour was not so happy about). Now we have a backyard and the compost has a purpose, but unfortunately its been really neglected. They were already installed in the yard last October when we moved in. We used them, but not during the winter. I was a little too pregnant for the maintenance, until now. And I didn't think it'd be as bad as it is. Apparently the tenants before us didn't know that plastic is very much not compostable. I've found at least 3 plastic bags in there. There's also a lot of large wood pieces, which are of course biodegradable, but not convenient in a small scale compost bin because they take a VERY long time to be broken down by the critters. I've given everything a good turning, and we'll just keep adding our kitchen waste, but I don't think we'll actually be harvesting any good compost this year for the garden. And the plastic makes me feel very icky about using any of it with my veggie gardening. The best thing about composting: no matter how hard you try, you cant screw it up. You'll always end up with compost eventually!

 That's one nap with Nathan, and another one on me. She's good at that. <3

Rhubarb-Strawberry Pie!

Making a dough for pie crust. Greg and I found A LOT of food in the dumpster a couple of days ago. Including some strawberries and since I am keen on improving my crust (which has been frustrating, getting increasingly crumblier with the years despite being the EXACT same recipe!), I'm going to make a rhubarb-strawberry-tapioca pie tomorrow. Hopefully the berries aren't all fuzzy by tomorrow. The rhubarb is frozen since its obviously not the season yet. (But soon!)
Our cat's been insane trying to get outside, and today toppled over a giant plant into my bed, aaaaaaaaand broke 2 out of 3 of my pumpkin seedlings. I am sad. And mad. And he's a cat. So there isn't much I can do right?
Wrong, he's going on a leash on our clothes-line!
Besides that Olive and I went for our first Mum and Babe Yoga class today. Much fun, minimal crying. 

Things I got done today.

- Tidied the house.
- Hung out with Morgan, Jakob, and Nate.
- Got half a haircut.
- Ate Doubles with my mum.
- Cleaned out my closet, and got rid of a bunch of unused clothing.
- Sewed all my shirts that didn't fit.
- Dye-bathed a vest, skirt, and tube-top.
- Watered my seeds (tomatoes and broccoli have sprouted!)
- Watched half and episode of The Biggest Loser.
- Dishes
- Put babe to bed.

Sometimes I need to remind myself that I get things done. I tend to like being busy. I get a little sad when I wake up late, the house is a mess, I dont shower, eat properly (at all), knock something off my "to do" list, or go outside. Really who doesn't? Sometimes all those things happen (or dont) in one whole day, and by the end I feel like mush. Today was good though, I feel contented, and super excited that my seeds have begun sprouting! Soon I will have a lovely deck garden to keep me busy. My computer isn't registering my memory card. So unfortunately I cant show some photos.

Kale

Tonight we left the baby with my mum for an hour so I could get out to a show with Greg. Our friends band Kale. All the usual people were there. It was nice for me to get out. Although I felt a little on edge the whole time, knowing Olive was wondering were I am. The band was awesome. I kind of noticed it was easier for me to ignore everyone around me and get into the music. I don't know if its motherhood or that I just can't take stuff like this for granted now. It was a nice feeling though. Kind of free.
Now I am back home waiting for my mum to bring me the little one. I am most excited about that. And going to bed tonight.

Also, I planted my tomatoes tonight.