How does my garden grow?

Without a regular job to go to (thanks, economy), I've been making like Candide and working on the garden. It's still mainly a blank canvas, and to be honest I don't know where I'm going with it. If I had the time, energy, or upper body strength it would require to put in hard landscaping I would have sorted it out by now, but the fact is I just don't have any of those things, so I'm taking it piece by piece. Do you like the herb garden & lettuce patch I planted in some freebie wine boxes from the wine store? Cute, huh?

I know you're supposed to live in a garden for a year before you start doing anything to it, to get to know it and let it do its own thing, and while I've put in some things on my own I can say that's probably a good idea because we found all kinds of surprises. I already told you about all the things we found in the overgrown ivy (the baby swing, the garden umbrella, the rotary clothes line), but we also found a nice little bench in the shed that I put together (needs painting, I know). Next to the bench are some as-yet-barren pots of violets and cosmos, but while the cosmos are sprouting like crazy, the violets are still germinating. Next year in Jerusalem, I'm hoping.

Cute little mixed pot of goodies from Jules' granddad that responded to a dose of Miracle Gro.

My little Japanese maple is proudly growing away at the edge of the playhouse, with a new little skirt of lobelia to mask the yucky soil underneath. Yeah, I know they don't go together but I don't care. I love them.

I found this little avocado pit that had sprouted in our compost bin, so I planted it on the other corner of the playhouse and look how cute! If it bears any fruit I'll be amazed, but I like having resurrected it from certain death, and am happy to see it flourishing in our crappy soil.

Remember all those bulbs I accidentally unearthed last winter while I was planting my roses? And how they have been just greenery for most of the spring and I was considering pulling them out? Well guess what, they're about to flower. Crazy. They didn't flower last summer, and the patch I didn't dig up is still just leaves, but these little beauties are about to turn into something. Anybody with information about what species they might be, please write in.

So that's it. There's a little patch of sweet williams that are still germinating, and a couple of on-sale foxgloves I just put in at the back of the rose bed near the nerines which may or may not ever come into flower, but we're coming along. Any design advice or ideas about what we should do with the lawn furniture would be most welcome.

Some days I wear the pants, and other days, the pants wear me

Okay, first let me say that I never intended to leave that Fry vs. Laurie post up for so long. I'm a little embarrassed now. I hope that this photo of Isabelle and her friend Tilly at baby swimming last Thursday will make up for it. Tilly is the star student at baby swimming. Isabelle is the baby who hangs by the side of the pool weeping. Sad.

As you may have guessed, we've been very busy around these parts. Since returning from India I've turned my focus to our disgustingly overgrown backyard; in the past couple of days I've cut clean edges around the whole thing, planted some new stuff, took away some old stuff, made an herb garden out of some old wine crates, assembled a garden bench we found in the shed (score!) and tried (vainly) to deal with our aphid infestation. They managed to chomp their way through most of my lovely rosebushes and both our new hanging baskets, which are now dangling like sad reminders of the fleeting nature of summer. I hate aphids. They are bastards.

The big news around these parts is that in the last couple of weeks, Isabelle has gone from a rolling arfing baby seal to a fully crawling, all-standing, all-walking, all-dancing superstar. Since then we've suffered a tumble down the stairs, a bump on the chin, and countless other indignities that go along with wanting to do something so badly but not being able to make your 8-inch little legs cooperate. Also, she's refusing to eat anything she's not feeding herself. I blogged about that very subject in this week's post at Pregnancy and Newborn Magazine, if you're interested.

As soon as things are more under control, I'll try to post more in the coming days/weeks.

Rock on,
Sarah xo

The Ultimate Cage Match

Fry vs. Laurie. How can I possibly choose between them?

Isabelle's Cauliflower Face

Wonder where she gets that from?

Blooming Marvelous!

My Christmas-present roses from Mom and Dad are finally blooming! Yay! Yay!

Hubba Blubba

My blog over at Pregnancy and Newborn magazine this week is all about my traumatic experience shopping for my first post-baby swimsuit. Things are not looking good. Not good at all. I even jogged a couple of laps around the park today because of it. Got a long road to hoe, friends. A long road.

Sarah xo

The Red Hornet

Doesn't she look like a superhero in her little tights?

Isabelle has learned how to really crawl now. We are running around too much to update the blog properly.

Actually, I'm totally lying. She is crawling, but my work project is getting in the way too much to update the blog properly. Once I'm finished working (possibly permanently? Thanks, economy.) next Saturday, I promise more regular updates.

Sarah xo

Old Skool

My blog over at Pregnancy and Newborn Magazine this week is about Isabelle's surprise old-fashioned entry into the world. Read it with an aspirin and a cold compress, if you dare.

Isabelle Rides

Isabelle had her first bike ride today!

Jules attached the seat (made by a company called "Wee Ride") to his trusty old motor, tested it out on a round-the-block ride with a sack of potatoes strapped in, and then decided it was ready for more precious cargo.

We are parents now so we have to think of safety first. Look how cute she is in her super-safe helmet. It has a sticker on the back that says "Baby on Board"

Away they go!

How much fun is that?

Mommies Rule

Blogging over at Pregnancy and Newborn.com this week, I spent a few moments musing about my second Mother's Day this year. That's right, as well as celebrating English Mother's Day, we also celebrated American Mother's Day last Sunday, May 10th.

I included this picture of my mom with the post, because I thought she deserved a shout out. Doesn't Isabelle look so much more relaxed knowing she's in the hands of someone who actually knows their way around a baby?

This seemed to be the Mothers' Day of photo albums. I made one for my mom (using the superior services of KodakGallery.com); Susan did too, and Isabelle gave one to me. It's a good thing that mommies love photos!

I know it's a bit late, but for all of those US-based moms out there, happy M-Day!

Sarah xo.