Clemmy Helps Dad in the Garden

On Boxing Day (Dec 26 - No idea what boxing has to do with anything) we did a little gardening.  Our garden came with many attractive ornamental plants but we've opted to remove most of them in favor of space for more vegetables.  The soil here is pretty crappy and filled with building rubble but we've planted a summer crop anyway so we'll hope for the best.  

We're doing the usual: beans, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, tomatillo, Anaheim chiles and snow peas.  The caterpillars are really bad this year and have cleared out most of the broccoli and peas.  I don't know what to do with them other than go pick them off every morning.  We've planted spinach twice but it kept going to seed before we could eat it.  I plant Anaheims and tomatillos every summer to try and keep my southwest heritage alive but I don't think our summer is long/hot enough to get a really great crop from either plant.  I started out with two tomatillos this year and Clem has removed one already.  She also picked one of two baby green tomatoes yesterday.   

Between Clementine's love of rooting and the pests, our garden is not off to the best start this summer.  We keep on anyway.  Getting fresh veggies is obviously the best payoff of the garden but we really do it because we have so much fun fussing over it together.  When we were out removing the last of the ornamentals yesterday she "helped" by copying everything we did: picking up and throwing bits of brick we dug up, helping Mom move the piles of weeds to the compost, digging with a hand shovel and sweeping.    

  

Here's the last of the day's chores, potting some basil and cilantro.  I've tried cilantro in every garden we've ever done and it either dies or goes to seed too quickly.  I'm trying it in a pot this summer in hopes that it will stick around a little longer.  

(No idea why there needs to be such a big space between this picture and the ones before it.  I hate autoformatting!!)

Practicing "soft" by touching the basil.

Helping Dad put the soil in the pot.

"I'm helping.  I'll smush my pot into this basil."

Clementine continues to help by picking up handfuls of soil and putting them on top of the plants.  Then she moved on to just throwing her handfuls on the ground.

"I'm bored Dad.  I want that thing over there!"

We have a ton of these plastic pots around and Clementine loves to play with them.

And a little cuddle for Mama.  She doesn't usually have the patience for much cuddling, she'd rather be rummaging or exploring something.

Look at that little tooth!

I'm so pleased Clem loves the garden as much as we do.  She could spend all day out there digging and putting things in her little seedling pots.  We're hoping for many days like this in the years to come.

Christmas Eve

Christmas is a strange time for us here in Australia.  I don't think any of us who were raised in the Northern Hemisphere will ever get used to a summery Christmas but we are doing our best to figure out new traditions.  I asked Anders about it and he agreed that it feels kind of like a joke, like the whole world thought up a silly plot in July to convince us that it's actually Christmas.

I can however confirm that I am mostly certain that it is actually Christmas, regardless of the sunshine and the mid-20s (77ish in F) weather.

Most of everything here shuts down for a few weeks around this time.  It takes a few days to slow down and remember.  All morning yesterday I felt like there was something pressing that I was forgetting; I confirmed a few times with Alec that no, we had no plans other than maybe going to the park later.

In an attempt to make sure we didn't spend the whole day on the couch in pajamas, we went to our favorite, Darebin Parklands.  

Clementine is walking 100% of the time when she isn't being carried.  She insisted on walking in the park even though she's still working out how to go over bumps.  (She doesn't usually make this zombie face but it was the only picture I had of her walking).  She's excelling at finding small bits of trash from the ground, even more fun if she can get them into her mouth before a grownup takes it away.

I think there is a close tie for Clementine's 4th and 5th favorite person (3rd is obviously taken up by her Grams) between Anders and Malia.  Clem gives Malia special arm rubs that not even I get.

We walked down to the creek and sat with our feet in the water.  You can't see in this picture but Clementine is already soaked and covered in mud on her butt.

Selfie!

Alec handed Clem rocks which she threw into the water.  Sometimes she crawled back into the water to pick out her favorites and throw them back in again.

Might as well just sit in the water.  After this happened we took all her clothes off and she splashed and played in the sand with only her shoes on.  Occasionally a dog swam past us or splashed on the shore, all of which Clementine found highly entertaining.  She loooooves animals almost as much as she loves playing in the dirt.

Nudit in the pack on the walk back to the car.

Today is Christmas and we have a full day ahead.  We'll have lunch at Alec's Uncle Alistair's house with other Slomans and depending on how Clem's nap does, we'll go to a barbecue at a friends house after that.  Alec has two and a half more weeks off and my next market isn't til Jan 11 so we have plenty of relaxing family time ahead.