I [Heart] My Life

Weekending in July

Overheard between Nia and her Grandpa, "Baba":

"Where are you going today?"

Nia: "I don't know. But we can do whatever we like today!"

This is exactly what I told Nia Saturday morning: We can do whatever we like this weekend. Meaning: It's you and me. No play dates scheduled. No doctor appointments. No naps. Just you and me. (Joe, unfortunately, had to work.)

We actually did have some play dates scheduled just for Nia in case I needed to rest, but just as I'm getting an acute case of needle fatigue, I think Nia is getting some heightened separation anxiety. We needed a few days in a row of just us, doing whatever we like.

And what did we like?

• Baking yogurt biscuits
• Creek play with friends deep in Nicene Marks
• A little Olympics (though it turns out Nia doesn't see the hype)
• Fresh-squeezed lemonade (with vanilla!)
• Gardening in our No-More-Cancer Garden
• Chicken-ing (and banning the chickens from the above-mentioned garden!)
• Beach time with about a million other people
• Reading

So nice when this cancer year has moments that feel like a normal year...

PS. This is what those gorgeous chicken gals did to my pepper plants. *sigh* Live & learn.

Our No-More-Cancer Gardens

When it comes to cancer fighting, there's the chemo, the surgery, the radiation, the diet, the nap... And now, there's the "no-more cancer garden."

We got the idea from one of the wonderful childrens books we found to help Nia deal with all of this, called The Goodbye Cancer Garden (I wrote about it here a little while back). This book struck the strongest chord with Nia and she's been talking about planting our own garden for the last two months.

The idea has many benefits: We get to watch the garden grow and flourish as I get well (and flourish!), eating the good vegetables will help me get stronger, we have something to look forward to in watching the garden grow, etc. etc.

While I won't be completely cancer-free by the time the pumpkins are ripe, I'll be closer to the finish line!

To double our luck, we planted two gardens: One at home, and one at Granddaddy's. And had fun in the process!

And after all that dirt & sun, we relaxed with these:

And this:

Zip line! Granddaddy George set one up for Nia for her birthday. Between the zip line and the rings, this is gonna be one buff 4-year-old! But it's not the first time there's been a zip line on Skyline...

 

Once more, with feeling:

 

 

Bounty From the Skyline Garden Plot

George (aka Granddaddy) sent a picture today of the harvest from the little circular garden Nia planted up there earlier this summer: Corn, sunflower, pumpkins. There were peas, too, but those were consumed long ago. It was an Aztec companion garden. 

This was a pumpkin we harvested at the beginning of the month from the same garden. Sad to see it all go, but looking forward to more gardens to come. 

.... change is in the air

... just harvested the last of the green beens and peas... make way for tomatoes! When your whole garden is 4' x 4', sunlight is at a premium. Everything is reaching, reaching, reaching. So removing the tall, expiring pea vines makes way for the sun to reach the tomatoes. We've got lots of sunflowers, too.

It is hard not to be a little bummed when a plant passes on, but Nia and I will get ready to plant more lettuce and carrots in the space provided. Before we know it, the time for a Fall Garden will be upon us.

 

A Movie, An Aunt & An Uncle, and an Aztec Garden

Ah, summer weekends... We lived this last one to the fullest: We look Nia to see "Cars 2" -- her very first movie (movie wasn't so great, but watching Nia soak it up was priceless!). Afterward, we dinned outside with George, Dale & Angela, one of my very favorite summer things. The next day, after swimming lessons, we spent the afternoon on Skyline planting a garden, and later playing in the pool & hottub. On Sunday, we hit up the Live Oak Farmers' Market and then did even more swimming at Simpkins. Ah, now that's a summer weekend!

At the movie theater... in a tutu. 

Dinner at Kianti's downtown. Did you know they give the kid's pizza dough to play with? Brilliant.

Walking through the Rose Garden at City Hall after a scoop of Strawberry Sorbet at Penny Ice Creamery. Hmmm, tasted just like a strawberry daiquiri. 

On Skyline, we planted an Aztec-inspired companion garden: Corn, beans and squash. For fun, we planted it in a spiral, with a few sun flowers around the outside.

Best buds.

Goings on in the Garden

Pea blossoms, tomatoes blossoms and teeny, tiny baby tomatoes... And I'm loving the purple stripes on the big, broad corn leaves. So much green, so much life.

Garden Update: 6 Weeks

Our little (4 x 4') garden is bursting with life right now! We've almost finished off all the radishes, and now Nia is enjoying the baby carrots. I really should thin them, but she enjoys eating them so much that I'm letting her thin them slowly as she desires them. The corn is getting taller as are the sunflowers. The beans look big and leafy, but no sign of actual bean pods yet. Wonder if this is due to the cold beginning to our summer... 

As you can see, it doesn't take a large space to have a very happy garden. Nia and I have so much fun out here, weeding, watering, tasting, fussing over climbing polls and supports, finding bugs, etc. It is really abundant for how very tiny it is. And I enjoy that it is just off the kitchen so I see it often and sometimes just step out on the balcony to say hi. Kalli, the cat, seems to be enjoying the garden too, as she spends more time just sitting out here than she did before. 

What we are growing:

In the back, on the left, are my baby tomatoes, gathering heat off the wall. In front of them is the abundant carrot patch. All along the front are green beans. Behind the green beans, in the middle, are nasturtiums and sunflowers. In the back middle, is lettuce. The radishes were on the wall on the back right. Now there is a volunteer tomato and I'll soon plant some basil. And in front of that, along the right side, are our joyful peas. There are also some corn planted in with the green beens. My hope was that the beens would nourish the corn and the corn would provide climbing support, but I should have planted them at the same time. Since the beans are older, they are blocking the corn from getting enough sun to flourish (unlike our separate containers of corn above). 

First Harvest

Today, Nia harvested her first radish from our garden!! It was a long, thin French Breakfast Radish. The flavor was mild, which was perfect for Nia since she is really sensitive to spicy flavors lately. We were both so excited to eat something delicious that was a teeny, tiny seed less than a month ago! Pretty mind-blowing.

Gotta keep nurturing the rest of the garden now...

Day 21: Companion Gardening/Intercropping

Have you ever stumbled upon the most perfect book at the most perfect time? This just happened to me, and I can't get over the, well, perfectness of it all. I can almost hear the click! as the universe aligns with what I need right now. As you know, my little food garden is 4" x 4" plus a small container of sunflowers and two more containers of corn. Small, in other words.

So you'll understand my joy at finding this book: One Magic Square: The Easy, Organic Way to Grow Your Own Food on a 3-Foot Square. (I love when the title says it all!) Last night, I read the chapter on Companion Garden/Intercropping. This is a method of gardening that seeks to exploit the fact that some plants benefit each other when placed in close proximity. After reading it, Nia and I went out this morning and made some adjustments.

We added corn seeds to our bean patch, so the corn can act as a climbing support for the beans. We planted beans in the corn containers, and we planted a row of lettuce between the peas to eventually shade their roots and keep them cool. That was all the seeds I had available this morning. Next, though, I want to plant mustard near my tomatoes to help keep them happy with some extra nitrogen. And hopefully all this mixing will keep the predatory bugs confused and away from our babies!

Garden Adventure: Day 10

We planted our garden 10 days ago. Nearly everything has sprouted now: Beens, peas, radishes, carrots, nasturtiums, sunflowers, lettuce. I've planted the second succession of radishes, even. Only two seeds are still sleeping beneath the soil: Tomatoes & corn. The little beens are the tallest in the garden so far. They are growing before our eyes! As they stand up straight and unfurl their leaves, they remind me of sleepy children waking up and stretching in the morning sun. It makes me smile every time I look out the window and see them. Nia and I are having so much fun checking on the garden many times each day for progress. And the garden doesn't disappoint. In this warm weather, the seeds are growing rapidly. I especially love seeing a little lump of soil with a bit of green peaking out from below as a seedling pushes its way toward the light. Welcome, baby!