The Talens' Tales

Some random photos of life lately.  Mataya's preschool had an end of the year party and she got a pretty rainbow on her face.  The rhubarb plant in the garden is doing quite well this year. Mataya used this leaf as an umbrella...  And she could also use it as a shirt.  Gideon and I went to a park one day while the others were in school. He was fond of the tunnel.  The older two had fun with clothespins at Oma's house the other day. Summer is here on the Island and we are loving it!

Do we dare say it? Is spring here? We have been having a few lovely days the last few days. Yesterday Mataya and I found the first crocus blooms  Gideon loved being outside! He got to take a walk around the yard in the stroller.  And later, after sitting on a blanket for a bit, he took off exploring the yard. I was impressed with how crawling on the dry, prickly grass bother him.  We are all looking forward to the warmer days of spring and summer to come.

When we returned from our vacation, we were quite surprised to see how much the garden had grown in one week. And now we are starting to enjoy the bounty of the harvest from the garden. We have eaten potatoes, snow peas, and had our first beans last night for supper. Here is a little tour for you. Potatoes, broccoli, carrots and green onion. The one random corn plant is a field corn that Wilbert wanted to plant in the garden for comparison. Joash showing off the snow peas that are doing quite well. Beans are in front, tomatoes behind and sweet corn behind that. "Look at the nice little green tomatoes growing in our garden!" Where is Joash hiding? Oh, the corn is taller than he is! And starting to tassel, so hopefully we will get to enjoy some sweet corn soon!

The truth is, not  a lot. We have been getting back into our fall routine with Coffee Break for the first time this week, so that was fun. We have also been harvesting stuff from the garden, including this whopper of a potato.  I am pretty sure this is enough potato to feed us all for one meal, so that is fun. Joash likes to dig  watch me dig potatoes. He has has yet to touch one straight from the ground yet, but he is good moral support. We have also been looking at a lot of tractor magazines. Wilbert went through a whole stack he had and found a few old ones for Joash to enjoy. I will admit, I am getting sick of looking at the same magazines all the time, so new for the stash where a welcomed break. It would be one thing if I could actually read the articles, but Joash insists on turning the pages so quickly, repeated pointing at the same ,"Tractor, tractor, tractor," that I don't even get a chance to get started. Oh, well. So far most of his phases like this h...

I was very excited about the amount of blackberries I picked from the bush in our tree line today. Mysteriously, half the my harvest had disappeared by the time I got to the house. We have a blackberry monster on our hands!

Well, with the busy summer, it has been a bit of a challenge to get into the garden, but it apparently doesn't need much help from me. It is looking great. We have hand beans, potatoes, green onion and today we had the first tomato from the garden. Everything is so yummy. I certainly have an abundance of beans, so I have frozen some already and will probably freeze more. The pumpkins are doing well in the back corner. I cut the vines back a bit today because I don't want them to take over where the sweet potatoes are. I am the most excited about the sweet potatoes. I can't wait to see how they are doing. Things are looking good above ground, so I hope there is lots of growing happening under the ground too. Joash is quite good in the garden once again (now that the plants are big enough that he can't step on them). He can name most of the plants in the garden, though he has tasted very little that has come from the garden. He likes to help pick beans. I pick a han...

When I first visited the Island while my husband and I were dating, he was pretty specific about when in the summer he wanted me to come. I think he was already trying to win my heart over to living on the Island, because he told me to come at the end of June because that is when the lupins bloom. Well, it is a beautiful time on the Island, and one that deserves to be shared. So here are some lupins for you. Joash admiring the lupins. Lupins come in several different shades of pink and purple. My attempt at capturing what the ditches look like. Sorry about the shadow. I couldn't quite figure out how to get the best angle this late in the day. Hopefully you get the idea.

We have several apple trees on our yard and they are all in bloom. Yesterday, Joash enjoyed his first interaction with apple blossoms. He touched them and tried to eat some of them. We were not out too long because we had to get back in before the mosquitoes ate us.  It was fun! This is Joash's new cheesy smile. He is pretty good at smiling whenever he sees the camera.

This past weekend had some great weather that assured me that spring is thinking about coming. We spent a bit of time outside, which was great. One thing one must do every spring is clean up the yard. We have a lot of trees around our house which meant a lot of sticks to be picked up. And since this is our first spring here, we were wonderfully surprised by these: There is a whole area that is just full of flowers coming up, which is so nice. And there are some tulips and daffodils in other places. I am looking forward to seeing what this place looks like in other seasons.

I just love the fresh tomatoes and peppers from our garden. We had BLTs last night and tonight is tacos with all of the fixings.

At least that is what I think this potato looks like that I dug up in our garden yesterday. He was very tasty!

The beauty of creation was so evident up north on our vacation. Here are a few examples of wildflowers we saw. I don't know what kind they are, but they are beautiful and they were profuse.

Another of my new favorite flowers is Morning Glory. I love the trailing vines and the fact that each flower lasts for a very short time. But there are so many of them on a vine, they seem to last much longer. They certainly make for a glorious morning.

My favorite flower of all time is peonies. I love the smell. I love the big white blooms. They are great cut flowers. They are wonderful. But my new favorite annual to plant is snap dragon. This year I got a mixed color set, and none of them were blooming when I bought them, so I really didn't know what I was going to get. Here are some of the beautiful colors of flowers that have bloomed so far.

It is the second year we have had a garden. Earlier I posted about the plants I started inside. Well, the tomatoes worked out so great. So great in fact, I think we are growing a tomato tree. Here I am standing behind the tomato tree. Yes, I know I am squinting, but notice that the tallest branches come up to my shoulders. It is tall! And, even better, there are lots of tomatoes and soon to be tomatoes on it. I can't wait until they ripen up. I will keep up updated on the garden and how tall the tomato tree gets.