I can't seem to get enough of my garden this year. I keep taking pictures of all the flowers and food growing. I was thinking about it the other day when it dawned on me that my garden is something that I do for me. Most of what I do is for my kids. Not everything is about them, but a lot is. It's the season of life I'm in, and I'm really ok with it. But my garden is mine. It makes me happy to go water it and watch it change and thrive. I typically water by myself, without anyone asking me for anything. It gives me a peaceful hour to myself. I love that it provides food for us and beautiful flowers to look at. The kids and I have enjoyed watching a spider on one of the sunflowers over the last few days. Our raspberries and strawberries rarely make it inside the house because we eat them so quickly. I brought a chair into the garden the other night to just sit and relax while the sun set. It's pretty idyllic. So, I provide for you, some eye candy.
May: The Beginnings
baby plums
June: the First Fruits
Occasionally I get to preserve some berries. If I beat the kids to picking them!
We picked a radish that looked like a hummingbird. I gave Sean the task of taking it on a photographic adventure.
July: Plum Season
Almost ready. And then...
I processed a lot of plums. I dried some. I made fruit leather. I made plum bread. We gave loads and loads away. If I hadn't been leaving town I would have made jam. There's always next year. This tree doesn't quit!!
I love the way peas cling onto the frame
Who knew potato flowers are so cute?!
This zucchini flower just had its hair perfectly coiffed.
My neighbors grow grapes and they come over our fence. They aren't delicious, but they sure are fun to watch develop.
And, oh, the glorious flowers!
Poppies and zinnias:
This bud reminded me of Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors
Hydrangeas and Teddy Bear sunflowers:
Succulents:
I love the purple stems on this one. And it has tiny yellow flowers. And inside the leaves it seems like aloe vera. So cool!
Other assorted beauties
Even the dried out things look kind of cool:
My pretty pink dahlias. These are huge and bright for several days until the sun starts fading them.
Here's the sunset in the garden from the other night.
I have spent a lot of time outside contemplating how I can add more flowers and trees to the yard. I have some ideas and have started working on little projects. I bought a tree that I'm excited about (a curly willow) and slowly, slowly I'll transform my little slice of heaven into a more beautiful place to spend my evenings.
I wasn't super happy about Father's Day this year. I was in a weird mood and I kind of wanted to just skip it, but I also wanted to do something that Jon would have liked. I decided we needed to go on a hike somewhere and then have rootbeer floats. That seemed appropriate. The kids and I talked about a couple places we could go and decided on Guillemot Cove. I woke up pretty cranky and the kids weren't helping. They typically come into my room every morning and we snuggle for a while before starting the day. Well, this morning they came in and declared they didn't want to go for a hike. It put me in a worse mood so I told them I needed to sleep longer and they left. When I woke up the second time, I felt more able to face the day. I packed a lunch and water. With one child loudly protesting he didn't want to go, we were off.
To get to the trail, we drive through Seabeck and it was so beautiful that day. I thought about how Jon loved riding his motorcycle out there because of all the curvy roads. There is a particular spot, Big Beef Harbor, where there is an incredible view of the water and the Olympic Mountains. The water was a chalky pastel teal color (I had read in the news it was due to a plankton bloom) and there were several people there taking pictures.
We got to the trail and headed down. It's only a little over a mile trail through the woods. There were a lot of families out, which was nice to see, but it also stung seeing complete families together. At the bottom of the trail, it splits to the left and right. We first went left to find the Stump House. Along that little path, Matthew found a spot he wanted to explore.
After a bit of climbing and swinging from the branches, they were ready to continue.
Here's the Stump House in all its glory.
Just across the trail is another huge stump that the boys were way more interested in exploring than the House.
Now we were ready to head to my favorite part of this hike: The water and mountain views.
Freaking gorgeous!
I totally staged this. They wouldn't spontaneously hold each other like this!
There was an eagle and a heron at the water being all majestic and beautiful. We walked all over an oyster patch for a while. Sean sliced his leg a bit. We all sank in some mud. The boys each "rescued" a seastar.
Who cares about soggy shoes? Evidently not these fellas.
I tried asking each of the kids what they would like to do for Father's Day in the future to remember their dad. They didn't really have any ideas. I said I would like to be outside because he loved to be out in nature. Matthew actually expressed some deep feelings he had about Jon. It was interesting hearing him open up, and I'm so glad he did. We were able to have a good discussion and see ways that he and Jon are very similar. It's been very interesting (I need a different word, but I don't know what it would be) listening and observing my children in how they carry on after Jon's death. They are so resilient and I'm in awe of them often.
I mentioned that the hike isn't long, only 1.1 miles. However, there's a pretty good incline. We gain about 380 feet in that mile! We stopped to rest a couple times, but we made it!
I really wanted to stop at Big Beef Harbor if it wasn't crowded, and we lucked out! We saw why so many people were there taking pictures! Besides the beautiful color of the water, there were so many eagles feeding. We counted 15 bald eagles and we're pretty sure one golden eagle. We sat and watched them for about 10 minutes. The boys said "this is epic!" several times.
They are hard to see, but I promise the eagles were out there.
As promised, we cooled down with root beer floats.
The day started off with me saying to myself over and over, "Today can kiss my ass." I'm glad the day improved significantly. I'm still not happy about doing this parenting gig alone. However, I am glad I get to watch my boys grow into pretty amazing people. I'm grateful for them every day. Even the hard days.
