Pea fence and planting

Chris loves to take credit for this "simple but elegant design" (as one neighbor put it), but we all know who the creative thinker behind the pea trellis is, don't we?

Hahaha. We talked about the trellis nonstop over a week. It took Krumm 20 minutes to construct it. Finally. :)

Tristen and I planted the garden: lettuce, arugula (our favorite!), tomatoes (thanks, Auntie Becca!), peppers, basil, cilantro, parsley, bok choy, celery, kale, chard, carrots, green onions, chives, cukes, delicata squash, and broccoli. We're already enjoying the fruits of our labor: arugula and lettuce coming out of our ears.

Bucket brigade

It has been about a month since Chris positioned and leveled the raised beds after he and Tristen put them together. Abigail dropped by to help us fill them.

Why the front yard?

1. Full sun.
2. Saves backyard for running around with balls and bubbles and three-year-olds.
3. What else were we going to do with all that grass -- besides cut it?

Updates coming soon!

The garden is in! We're back from Montana! Plus, we enjoyed another fabulous weekend at Auntie Becca's farm. Lots to report on as soon as we can catch a break from all this fun. Harp it easy, and check back soon.

Ice cream eater

First real hike

It was a perfect Memorial Day weekend: gardening, family (saw Lori, Abigail, and Pat at Folklife!), friends, and...a climactic hike in St. Edwards State Park!

It was probably about a mile down through the woods to Lake Washington. The trail was steep in some places, but Tristen had his trusty broom handle -- er, walking stick. Ruby opted for a real walking stick, but she called it "doggie" the whole time. Funny kids.

We couldn't believe that Tristen and Ruby both made it all the way down and all the way back up -- after a picnic and some teeth-chattering time in the lake, no less. There was virtually no whining, and they even ran the last several hundred yards. The kids were fascinated by slugs (most were brown, but we saw one banana slug!), dog poop (I wish I didn't have to report this -- but Tristen was so obsessed, it would practically be dishonest to leave it out), and plants. We showed them the "ouchy plant," stinging nettle -- there was quite a lot of it along the trail -- and hours later they were able to point it out among the salmonberry without even being prompted.

But the real star was Erin, carrying baby Luca the whole time -- well, and baby Luca, who pretty much just slept and ate like a good baby should. :)

We also had a gorgeous afternoon and evening up in Bellingham with Vicki, Ross, Jember, Jonas, and neighbor Elizabeth. Hey Vicki, send pix!

Raised beds!

At the new house, we're taking a more sane approach to our gardening projects: no backhoes, work crews, regrading, clean slates, or attempts to plant it all out all at once. Rather, we're working on a few square feet at a time. Last weekend, we tamed a corner of the border gardens in the backyard. Sometime soon, we'll do another little patch.


And in the front yard, we're putting in raised bed gardens. We purchased kits instead of making our own this time. We'll probably just leave the grass around them for this season and gradually transform the whole front yard to beds, mounds, and chipped walkways.

Oldies but goodies

Over the last month, we've been able to reconnect with two parts of our extended family from Helena and our good friend Phil, from Madison.

Early in the month, Frank, Beth, and Maddie stopped by during their spring breakation and quest for an industrial-strength sewing machine. Pasta dinner, visit to the aquarium, kite-flying, and fancy drinks with Chinese food made for some nice catching up. As usual, they inspired us with remodel stories. And check out Beth's latest quilted wall art: she's doing landscapes now!


This last weekend, the Jenkins dropped in. Brian is canvassing for Greenpeace in Seattle, and Margaret, Carol, and huge German shepherd Cooper brought the camper van over for a visit. One night wasn't enough!


We've also been able to hang out with Phil, in town for a week-long neurology conference. Last night, Gena babysat for us while we went out for dinner and darts (Phil officially won) and confirmed that Bowmore is, in fact, an Islay Scotch whiskey.

What is Islay all about? We didn't know either, though we knew that it was different from "highland" -- the other kind of Scotch. Turns out, Islay (pronounced "ai lay") is the fifth largest Scottish island (the Isle of Islay!). Bowmore is the capital. According to Wikipedia, there are eight distilleries on the island. Distilleries on the north side of the island produce Scotch with a very peaty flavor. The southern distilleries are "lighter." Bowmore is on the south side, which surprises me, because I consider it fairly peaty. Now I must try "Ardbeg, Lagavulin, and Laphroaig!"


Yay for old friends!