A Saturday in Spring.

Welcome,

My new blog is intended to be a record of the simple life pleasures and interesting thoughts and events around our home and in our family.

The players:
Tadhg 3 years old
Sophia 6 years old
Mom (Lila)
Dad (Shane)

What? How do you pronounce Tadhg, did you say? Well, we suggest trying TIGER without the Errr or Tie-G.
Yes, Irish. Yes, a great name. Yes, he will let us know how much he appreciates our love for him that was evident even before he emerged from his mothers womb. Well, we did not call him "Bad Guy" which was his sisters suggestion when she was three and he was 3 months away.

Other characters will surely join in the fun.
Let me not forget one now, Rose the Cat. AKA Inandout. A nocturnal creature who could not obey his owners and pet shops advice to remain an indoor docile creature.

A Saturday in Spring
Today, we have the first garden seeds in the ground. Corn, carrots and beets in the garden bed and peas below their twine vines.

Dad and Tadhg put nails in the wood fence and hung the string for the peas. Then they planted 6 indoor start snap peas and an addition 6-10 snap pea seeds.

After Lila and Sophia returned from Ballet, Tadhg and Lila turned the soil in the garden bed, prepared raised mounds and planted corn seeds and 3 indoor start corn plants. Tadhg struggled with the word mound. Sophia watched from behind a twirling jump rope. Dad also planted a couple of indoor start Lupine plants in the front flower beds, and carrots and beets in the garden. The garden bed was covered with a thin cloth to keep birds and critters away from the seeds.

The slugs are the biggest enemy for the new starts. The pumpkin plant that we put in the front last week is a withered shadow of a plant with a big slug bite in one of the remaining two leaves. Organic slug killer was placed around all of the new plants and garden bed today. I predict the slugs to be a theme in later blog entries if the garden is to thrive.

The sun is out. Mowers are buzzing (more than the bees). The petals are dropping "like snow", says Tadhg of the cherry tree flowers. The grass is water-logged from a wet week. The green of the garden is bright, vibrant, fresh. Many colors emerge with new petals. The weeds have been flourishing. The work is endless but the returns are satisfying.

Photo: Last year's garden prep.