What boys make with beads...

will reflect their interests...
so I had to join in on the fun to make these...
and then marvel as they continued to put together these fantastic bead frogs.
The patterns for these boy friendly bead projects is from a Klutz book & kit on beading.

Miss Rumphius wannabe

Yes, I am a Miss Rumphius wannabe (hey, I already have the hair bun going on sometimes too).

Since someone asked me what colours my lupins were I feel perfectly justified in posting all these lupins pictures. ;-) This way if you got some lupins from me you will know some of the colours they may be.

Life with boys...

means you never know what they'll catch next ... and want to show you.
This cricket has been serenading us for the past couple of days. The rain slowed him down a bit, but he made up for his brief period of silence when the sun came out again. It's totally amazing how such a small insect can make such a penetrating sound. If only he'd kept quiet, he likely would've evaded his captors!

Victory Gardens

For some time we have had the link to the Path to Freedom website in our blogroll, this morning I came across this link to their 100 foot challenge.

If you have time to watch this I think you will find it quite inspiring. "Eat where you live" they say and I think that is a pretty sound idea. We don't all have year round growing weather or all the groundwork in place as they do now but I think their point is to just make a start where you can...and to make your road by walking.

Homemade waffles, anyone?

The waffle iron has been fully employed lately after a hiatus at the back of my cupboard. Pictured above is my latest waffle version. Whole spelt flour waffles with chopped almonds, topped with home canned peaches and some maple syrup.

Waffles were a favourite when I was a kid and bring back some great memories. We were always experimenting with toppings to put on our waffles. Homemade jams & jellies were tried or we spread on some peanut butter (it's a waffle sandwich!), but my all time favourite was to make an ice cream sandwich with piping hot, fresh waffles. Mmmmm... what a treat!

SPELT WAFFLES

2 cups whole spelt flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. ground allspice

2 large eggs beaten

2 cups soy milk

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup chopped almonds (optional)

Preheat waffle iron. You may lightly grease the waffle iron if needed ( I don't need to do this with mine).

In a large bowl stir together the first 3 listed ingredients. In another bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients and the nuts (if using).

Add the wet ingredients, all at once, to the dry ingredients in the first bowl and stir until just combined.

**I use 3/4 cup to 1 cup of the batter to make each set of waffles on my iron - you may have to increase this amount by another 1/4cup depending on your waffle iron. The important thing to remember is that you need to add the batter to the iron and then quickly close the lid and do not lift it during the baking time. Cooking time on my iron is approx. 4-5 minutes and then I remove the waffles using a fork.

First flowers of Spring

I love Spring! The brown turns to green and then colours start popping out everywhere. It's funny, I always forget what blooms when, so it's a joyful surprise when colour begins in the garden and where it will bloom next, I never know. (excuse my lack of knowledge on the names of the plants...)

On our hillside, these purple beauties are one of the first

and as soon as they come out, so do the fuzzy bumble bees.

These white flowers are spreading on our hill as well.

A couple of weeks ago, we planted another plum tree. It was barely a twig when we planted it but now it's sprouting leaves left and right (above is one of the first branches to form). It never fails to amaze me how something so lifeless looking can come alive so quickly.

My favourites of Spring:

The first of my columbine to flower. Most surprising to me was that since this was a transplant from another area, I didn't think it would flower this year. The hardiness of plants is amazing.

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And lastly, this special little guy.

It may look like an Iceland poppy to the average eye, but it's a special addition to our garden. L picked it out ever so carefully (he told me that it needed him - how could I say no to that?), brought it home and planted it where he felt it would have lots of company. It was closed, so he had no idea what the colour would be. About a week later, he woke up and looked out the window. Cheering and big hugs celebrated that his special flower opened, and that it was yellow (although any colour would have been greeted with the same happiness).

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So much joy and happiness from the presence of such small flowers... and this is just the beginning!

Alliums

I am so in love with this time of year. When we moved here there were about three of these allium.Every year I let them go to seed so that I can save seeds for friends. And every year they are so abundant that I don't get all the seeds off and they spread all over. I can't bear to rip them out and so we have loads. Dare I say too many?

These ones are in the back of the house and you can see all their heads about to burst into bloom.