oh the rain it raineth every day

Oscar has an excellent new word, which we've been enjoying. There's so much more to talk about once you have a noun to get hold of! There's Dada's shoes, and Oscar's shoes, and my shoes, and putting shoes on and taking them off... it's like a real conversation now!

We had lots and lots of rain this weekend, and when it wasn't raining we got out the hose for Oscar. There's nothing like the pure joy of getting sprayed in the face with icy hose water. If you look at the pictures in the big versions you'll see most clearly, joy writ large.

We got more hot peppers and tomatoes to round out our collection. When we're at the garden store we like to tell Oscar that we're spending his inheritance. The peppers are indeed for hot sauce or salsas, the tomatoes for salsas and sauces. Oscar's favorite thing is to clamber up into the garden and step on the plants. His second-favorite is to pull out all the identifying tags - and it's crucial to keep the Scotch Bonnets separate from the Jalapenos!

Eric nobly dug a big hole, and we laid Oslo and Butters to rest together. That was a sad thing. But Oscar demanded to examine the hole himself, which we let him do partway through. Now we're planning on making a little nook back there, with the garden bench and a grape arbor and a fire pit. It's already a very cosy spot and I like hanging out back there above the buns.

We waged war together on the side yard, full of parsley and thistles and jointed goat grass - and also an enormous snake! There's still a tarp over there from when one of the solar hot water panels broke and we were collecting the glass shards, and the underside had a cute little eggshell. Eric thinks it belongs to this snake. Also, Eric forgot last week to share the most important event: I showed Oscar a slug, and Oscar put it in his mouth (duh). Then he took it out (duh). Then he put it back in his mouth and ate it! Then he said "More!" I told him to go hunt for himself.

Another good weekend, Another big yard post.

So this is going to be a big post with lots of pictures and little text.  We had a fairly nice weekend with lots of rain in the evenings.This was good because we could easily pull the thistles and plant the plants but bad because the grass was very wet and hard to mow.  Fortunately I had Oscar to help me with that part.

Oscars guide to mowing the lawn:

Step One: Get naked and get the mower

Step Two: Get dad to ask the neighbor for motor oil and make him go buy gasoline.

Step Three:  Help dad check oil and gas and top off the tank two tanks. (preferable also while naked)

Step Four: Push lawn mower around

All Done!!!

Mawg and I did a bunch of weeding and planting.  Admittedly Mawg did more but she also like gardening more and I still have strep throat.  Here is a short list (with pictures) of improvements:

1) Install and polish two gardens in front of the shed. Margaret can tell you about all her plants but there is a nice yellow trumpet vine for the trellis my parents got her for Christmas

1.5) Also Marigolds in the wall pot my parents got us like three years ago...

2 ) Weeded, tilled, watered and planted a psuedo-vegetable garden

"Playin' in da mud"

Irrigation!

Scotch Bonnett Pepper

Ghost Pepper

Habanero Peppers

Tomatos (Roma for Pasta Sauce!)

3) Weeded, disassembled and mowed an old raised bed garden.

4)Made a kitty Yin-Yang

 (A subsection of the cat swarm)

5) Lots of playing in the pillows!

Alright, here's the scoop.

First of all, Oscar was sitting in his tiny chair for a while, even though he has a tendency to get stuck in it.


But now he has a brand new chair, yeah. He can lounge in style in a size-appropriate device.

Oscar is also a champion at putting lids on things.

There was a nice rainbow in front of our house the other day.

And finally, happy mother's day!

 Colorado can just be heartbreaking sometimes! This is how it looks outside today!

These are tulips April gave me as a housewarming present when we moved in. They didn't bloom last year but this year they look great! I ran outside and rescued them from the snowstorm - yes, a snowstorm, everything is covered in ice and snow and we probably won't have any fruit this summer - and they perked right back up.