Wise Thoughts From a Bear

"You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to
come to you. You have to go to them sometimes."

-- Winnie the Pooh

Beach fun

Aaron had a great time today at the beach - beautiful weather. He and Michael were 'chasing' the waves...and being chased.

Our garden is flourishing

This Memorial Day weekend we trekked out to the garden to lay down some more mulch on the paths and check on its progress. It's doing really well. We now have 4 cages Michael built to protect swaths of plants from squirrels and gophers, and they work great. We have some caterpillars on the broccoli, and the birds like the strawberries, but that's about it in terms of pests.

I finally got to meet Judy...the master gardener who has 3 plots next to ours and of whom I have heard so much about from the other gardeners (I had specially chosen the plot I did because I liked the looks of hers). She did not disappoint; she was very friendly and helpful. She answered a bunch of my questions yesterday and gave me one of her extra seed catalogs and some leeks from her garden. I made a soup with the leeks but the recipe I used was too watery. I will have to try again when my own leeks are ready.

We've been harvesting lettuce on a regular basis, so lots of salads at our house, and Aaron does eat them! We did spot a ripening red pear tomato yesterday, so hopefully we will be able to add tomatoes to the harvest soon. I am still hoping to do a "summer bounty" dinner later this summer with the bulk of the food coming from our garden.

We have decided to rent the plot next to us as well. We just don't have enough room to do all we want to do (pumpkins, vine tomatoes, etc.) It may take us a while to break ground - but we figure we better get the plot ASAP before someone else does, as we are otherwise surrounded...

Here are some recent pics from yesterday. First, the usual angle...(if you want to compare it to last month's picture from the same angle, click here: Garden Update - into the home stretch! )

Now from the opposite corner....you can see the plot we want to rent in the upper left corner with a tarp on it (and lots of weeds in the path)...

And a close-up on one of the flower beds...

Here is a close-up on one of the veggie beds; this one is actually a couple of weeks old, but it shows one of the wonderful cages Michael built:

Aaron will start kindergarten in the fall

Today we received a phone call from the Ventura Charter School of Arts & Global Education (SAGE). Via their lottery, Aaron got one of the 30 kindergarten slots. So we have decided he will start kindergarten in the fall.

Here is a link to their website.

Guy's Night Out

Cheers!

Aaron on the ParentDish Website

If you head on over to the ParentDish website you'll recognize the little boy on their front page. I always thought it was a cute photo but its nice to see that someone else thought so too. Their news items rotate but this link should take you to the photo even after it drifts off the site.

Mother's Day

For mother's day we went to the Huntington Botanical Gardens in Pasadena. Grandma and Grandpa Meraz met us there. After touring the gardens and some lunch (where Aaron entertained us with his favorite mealtime game...'I am thinking of an animal...") we split up. Michael and I took Aaron to play in the children's garden, while Grandma and Grandpa went into the library/museum. Here are some pics from the outing.




At the very end of the day we were excited when a hawk flew down right near us to grab a lizard...it was beautiful! (He is in the center, this pic is him just taking off)