Making a Child's Tepee for the Garden, Ideas from Sharon Lovejoy

I needed to find a book to read while I nursed baby Stella, so I grabbed a few off my shelf and sat down to have a look. I opened "Sunflower Houses" and bam!! It was amazing! How could I have never looked at this book before? And where has it been? Did it magically appear? Has it been incubating on my book shelf, waiting for the right time to show itself to me?

The book is written by Sharon Lovejoy, garden expert and naturalist and has all sorts of inspiring garden ideas to share with your children, or your inner child. Some of the magical ideas in Sunflower Houses are:

• Floral Clock: mark the hours by when the flowers open and close
• Kinder Garden: Tiny Garden filled with plants from A to Z
• "Fish in a Bottle": How to grow a zuke or cuke in a bottle
• Barnyard Garden: like with Colt's foot, bee balm, cowslip, gooseberry, etc.
• A Child's Own Rainbow: Flowers and plants planted in curving rows, one row red, one orange, one yellow, and on. . .
• Butterfly garden
• Sunflower House
• Bean Covered tepee
• Flower People
• Flower Chains
• Leaf Hats

You can see how intriguing these ideas are. I decided on making a bean tepee that very next day and with Stella on my back I chopped down six young alders and began to string them together. I am almost done, I just need to find more hay bale string. The girls loved it when I tied sheet around the tepee and made a little hideout. My plan is to move the tepee to the garden and plant beans all around it and wait for the beans to cover the tepee, all the while enjoying it. I think I will make a couple more tepees now that I see how easy and fun it is! If you are a gardener or want-to-be-gardener and you have kids this book is a MUST HAVE!

SOME LINKS:

Also checkout Sharon Lovejoy's book: "Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots: Activities to do in the garden"
Sharon Lovejoy's Blog and pictures of her bean tepee: http://sharonlovejoy.blogspot.com/2009/03/spring-is-in-soil-and-air.html

Buy her books directly from her, personally inscribed: http://www.sharonlovejoy.com/bookorder.html

Buy her books at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Sharon%20Lovejoy&page=1

Checkout her book: Sunflower Houses: Inspiration from the Garden (garden discoveries for all ages)

Here is my tepee process, in pictures:
Because the alders are so abundant on the farm, I chose to use them for the tepee. They also grow very straight. On the downside the wood doesn't last long in the elements.

Putting the sticks together: it turned out much bigger than I expected.

Using hay bale twine to tie the poles together. the twine lasts a long time, and is easy to find (usually). Almost done in the pic, a few more to go.The girls began placing flowers inside the tepee.

Trampoline in the Ground

Bury your trampoline and enjoy the benefits of watching the kids playing wildly, worry free. Especially when one of the kids is just over a year old. Plus, the kids can run right on and off the trampoline, no stairs of lifting required. Luc just dug a hole with his excavator in an afternoon and lifted the trampoline right into it. He made it look easy, but it is no small task if you don't own an excavator. It would probably cost you $300-$500 to bury the trampoline if you had to hire someone. And a net is cheaper, but I really do like the perks of having it buried.

The Best Beach on the Island is . . .

. . . Double Bluff! How can you beat this? Soft & abundant sandy beach, great hiking, off leash dog park, shallow water, tide pools, climbing bluff. Alright so maybe you have a better beach, if so, let me know. But this is my all-time favorite beach on Whidbey Island. For several reasons it is my favorite: close proximity to where I live, sugary-soft sand, lots of interesting dried out logs, and when the tide is out, long long expanses of sandy beach for exploring.

For parents and small kids the beach is great because the water doesn't get very deep, it just stays about the same depth for who-knows-how-far. I have tried walking for quite a long while though the water and still not gotten above my head, just tummy or chest level. Plus, the sand makes great sand castles and is easy to dig into. Older kids and adults will appreciate skim boarding, Frisbee, or hiking.

For people who love a good walk: try following the beach until you reach "the second point" where the land levels out with the beach. It is about a 45 minute walk from the double bluff parking area. As you walk you will turn the corner around the first point, where the bluff is quite high. You can see this first point from the parking area. To get to where I am talking about you have to keep walking past this point to the next one you can see, the second point. It is beautiful and well worth the walk

Have dogs? The beach is also an off leash park for dogs, provided you clean up after you dog and wait until you reach the flag (about 700 feet from the parking lot) to let them off leash. My kids and I love "dog watching."

4-Year Old Photographer Captures the Car Ride in Pictures

4 year old Marina borrowed the camera on the car ride home, I thought to watch some of the videos I took of her and her sister on the beach playing. I was alerted to her change of plans by:

"Mom, look at me and smile. Mom! MOM!"

"Marina, I'm driving. I have to look at the road,"

"Mooom, look really quick, look at me and smile,"

"Are you taking pictures? I didn't know you knew how to take pictures,"

"Mom, look at meee!"

"OK, really quick in the rear view mirror, ready?"

How did she know how to switch the camera mode from video to picture? And is that what I say to her, "look at me and smile,"? Nothing like observing your kids to find out more about yourself! Below are the pictures Marina took in the car on the drive home from the beach.

MARINA'S PICTURES

The resulting picture (from the above dialogue)

SELF PORTRAITS:

#1


#2


#3


sister Stella


sister Stella eating


sister Stella sleeping


snacks in the car, macro

more snacks

5 point harness buckle


sun hat, day at beach

OUT the WINDOW, the drive home:
















We're home


Then Marina had me pose with neighbor dog, Rose, so she could take my picture (above)

Old Fashioned Rhubarb Pie, Whole Foods Recipe

Old Fashioned Rhubarb Pie

If I want to find a good recipe I often go to the Whole foods Website as it features tons of great, natural, and organic recipes. Their recipes tend to be healthier and easier for me to make than many other websites' recipes. I also have a lot of the ingredients that they call for in my house. So when I wanted to make a Rhubarb Pie, I checked out their website to see if they had a a tasty looking recipe. I bought a ton of rhubarb at the Bayview Farmer's market yesterday and I swore to myself I would not watch it go up in mold like I did last time I bought it at the farmer's market. So here is the link to a great rhubarb pie, courtesy Whole Foods:

***Old Fashioned Rhubarb Pie Recipe: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/recipe.php?recipeId=890

• My changes to the recipe: I added about 2 pints of strawberries to the recipe and added a little less rhubarb to compensate (instead of 8 stalks I added 5-6). I highly recommend the strawberries!

Here is Whole Foods' Website:
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/index.php

Bayview Farmer's Market Opens for the Season, a Story in Pictures

Tulips for sale at Forget Me Not Farms

Bayview Farmer's Market started for the season today, April 25th, and it was packed with vendors and shoppers. There were farmers selling flowers and vegetables like lettuce, potatoes, kale, seedlings for you garden, spinach, rhubarb, honey, meat, and eggs. Bur Oak Acres had fresh juice for sale. Try one of their samples in vibrant pink, green and orange colors, with ingredients like kale, beets, carrots, apples, lime and lemon. And they all tasted amazing! Other vendors sold artwork, handmade bread, pastries, chocolates, pies, henna tattoos, shampoos and soap, BBQ, soup, wool, clothing, jewelry, spices and salts, and even dowsing lessons and stylish dog clothing.

We had a fun stroll through the booths listening to live Marimba music and enjoying some soup and rice from Mr. Mobley's stand. Luc had the coconut curry chicken (our fav) and I had the tomato bisque. I bought broccoli starts for my garden (24!) from Pam's Place (also get artichoke, onions, kale, herbs, tomatoes, and more) I also bought fresh lettuce from Bur Oak Acres. Forget Me Not Farms a good variety of tulips and as well as many tomato starts to choose from.

Stop the market at Bayview any Saturday, rain or shine, from 10 am to 2 pm. Get there early if you want a good selection of farm fresh vegetables, as they go quick.

Bur Oak Acre's fresh juices & samples (above)

First lettuce of the season, Bur Oak Acres

Above: Seedlings (Bur Oak Acres)

Forget Me Not Farms had the most amazing tulips in a wide variety of colors (Marina was a fan)

Forget Me Not Farms Tulips

Forget Me Not Farms Tomatoes

Above: Pam's Place, Pam on the right
Below: Pam's seedlings

Above & below: Seedlings, Pam's Place

Chocolates by George

Homemade Jam & Jelly

Above & Below, A New Farm : Garden Fairy Farm Selling plant starts, with a variety of geraniums

Treetop Bakery, by far the best bread and pastries!

Walden Lane Gourmet, a large selection of gourmet salts and salt mixes (see below), custom infused sugars, herbs and spices.

SWEET SISTERS: below

Above and below, my favorite "Sweet Sisters": get the best lotion, soap, shampoo, conditioner, and lots more! Great for gifts too.

Spinning & many colors of wool for sale

More art

Greenbank Farm's Whidbey Pies

Pick your henna design