DIY play area stepping logs

Spring is here and the dirt digging sisters are back in action.  Shannon has completed a very early prep. of her vegetable bed, turning the soil and doing some planting.  She is 8 months pregnant.  I guess some people "nest" at this stage while others garden. 


On my side of town I started a new backyard project.  My parents recently had some trees taken down on their property and I spotted some nice sections of a log.  They looked like they would make perfect stepping logs for the kids in the backyard.  Dad dropped them off and I hauled them to the back yard.  I also had a stock pile of other logs from a friend who took down a large pine.  Below is me digging the last hole for the last log. 

 

Below: I am placing a log into one of the hole.  If you look closely you can see my fresh manicure.  I'm glad there is a picture of it for posterity as my purple nails did not last long.  The final step, not pictured, is me jumping up and down on the logs to make sure they were settled into place.  This took more balance and skill then I imagined.

 

 

 

Some people may view this structure as a bit risky for kids, it has  uneven and rough surfaces which could pose harm.  Even my Dad who seemed more than OK with his own kids playing in the creek, tree tops and a fire pit without supervision warned me that the surface of the logs could get slippery for the grandkids.  With reports of swings being removed from playgrounds for fear of injury (and liability)  the counter viewpoint is recognising that kids need to have opportunities for some degree of risk  in  play and exploring. Here is an interesting article that reports "emerging research suggests that imposing too many restrictions on children’s outdoor risky play hinders their development."

Interestingly my almost 3 year old son, enthusiastically, wobbly stepped from log to log.  He paused on the lowest log (about 3 inches off the ground) smiled at me and successfully landed a jump.  He beamed and I smiled back as he raced to do it all over again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

pumpkin harvest and garlic planting

This past weekend, my brother's family, my sister's gang and my motley crew all met up at our parents place to harvest the pumpkins, plant next years crop of garlic and chop fire wood.  The pumpkin vines had grown rambunctiously across the entire garden but only produced three giant pumpkins.

 

Once the photo shoot of the pumpkins and cute cousins was done, we pulled out the vines and weeds and added some compost.  Dad started to rototill the garden but was interrupted by running out of gas and instead of driving 10 minutes to the closest gas station decided to remedy this by siphoning gas out of the car.

Rototilling complete, we planted four types of garlic: red Russian, white porcelain, a Spanish variety, and a soft neck variety mom had picked up in Montreal. 

Here are  few other random shots of the day:

Autumn pile of leaves

We are lucky enough to have a tree in the neighbouring yard that dumps heaps of maple leafs into our backyard.  Right now the leaf piles are strictly for fun but eventually once completely dropped they will make their way into the veggie patch where they'll decompose to add lovely organic matter to the soil.  Here are some pics from this past Thanksgiving weekend.

Lauren's planting fall bulbs

Autumn is my favourite season to garden.  The garden is giving its last grand finale with Dahlias going strong, apples and pears to harvest and the trees of course turning colour.  It is also time to start tidying up, moving/dividing plants around and planting spring bulbs.  Planting spring bulbs is an annual event for my daughter and I.  It was one of the very first things she helped me plant when we first moved into our suburban home, she had just turned 2 at the time.  Bulbs are great for children as they are big hardy easy to manipulate objects that are simply placed in the ground.  The concept that they will turn into flowers in the spring is beyond a 2 or 3 year olds grasp but when spring arrives and the tulips emerge they are amazed and proud when reminded that THEY planted these flowers.  My 7 year old is now able to dig and place the bulbs with very little assistance.  We're trying out a few new bulbs this year instead of the usual dafs and tulips and I've got plans for the school garden and kindergarten's to "help" me with some more bulb planting this year.

Here's a selection of what hopped into my cart, kale and cabbage will be planted in the school garden as well.

 

Daughter hard at work once the sun came out in the afternoon.

 

A fun place to browse for some great bulbs is from this local online supplier:

http://www.botanus.com/products/The-Vancouver-Sun-Awesome-Allium-Collection.html

I'm tempted to buy this weeks Botanus special but am trying to reign in my garden spending.  I tried allium's last year and found they were the first to arrive in the spring making tall spikes topped with Dr. Seus pom poms that were rather cool!

 

diy modern playhouse

Our daughter turned 3 in the spring and we decided she needed her own playhouse.  I started out scouring craigslist looking for a used playhouse at a fair price but the cheap ones were gone before I got to them or people were asking way too much for a used playhouse.  We decided to build our own.  We thought it would be cheaper to build from scratch rather than buy a pre-fab kit, we were wrong.  The upside was I got to design it and our daughter ended up with unique playhouse just for her!  It is made out of cedar except for the four corner posts that are pressure treated. After adding the cedar shakes to the exterior we installed thin plywood to the interior walls to hide all the nails protruding through.  The roof is made out of corrugated metal.

Of course every playhouse should have its own mailbox.

View from the kitchen sink.

Sunshine curtain made out of outdoor fabric....hopefully it won't mold.

Curtain rod made out of plumbing materials.

A very full sandbox thanks to the extra sand Lauren dumped on my front yard when I wasn't home.

Munchkins playing in the sandbox.  I still need to make a sandbox cover to prevent neighbourhood cats from doing their business in the sandbox....so gross.

Lavendar Harvest

Yesterday we harvested lavender from the five bushes along our driveway.

Lavender Crème Brulee for dessert.  The recipe is originally from the "Girl in the Fig Cookbook" By Sondra Bernstein. "The Girl in the Fig" brings nostalgia from my California days of good food and great friends.

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/the-girl-the-fig-cookbook/9780743255219-item.html?ikwid=girl+in+the+fig+&ikwsec=Home&gcs_requestid=0COjamZyqwbgCFUlv5wodwn8AAA

2 1/4 cups heavy cream

3/4 cup milk

1 1/2 tablespoons dried lavender, plus more for garnish

8 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar, plus about 4 tablespoons sugar for sprinkling

2 tablespoons wildflower honey

Place the cream and milk in a saucepan and add the lavender. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat. Let the lavender steep for about 15 minutes or until the milk has a lavender flavor. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks, the 1/2 cup sugar, and the honey in a separate bowl until smooth. Whisk into the lavender-cream mixture. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and skim off any foam. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Preheat oven to 350F. Pour the mixture into 6 ramekins. Set the ramekins in a baking pan and add enough hot water to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the baking pan with foil and place in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes or until set. (Test for done-ness by jiggling the ramekins.) Remove the baking pan from the oven and allow the ramekins to cool in the water bath for 5 minutes. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.
Before serving, sprinkle the tops with a thin layer of sugar and caramelize with a small torch or under a broiler set on high. Garnish each crème brûlée with lavender blossoms

Rasberries Galore

After 2.5 seasons my 6 or so raspberry canes (4 originally given to me from Shannon) are really producing well this year.  My daughter is the constant forager.

Please share your favourite raspberry recipes! 

If you are local, I would be happy to pass on some free raspberry canes that seem to sprout up in abundance.