7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Summer pursuits

~~1~~

Noah's here, and in his honor, I thought I'd share this picture with you all. Psalm put legos on his eye and ear so that, when he woke up, he would "see the glory of the legos," as Psalm put it. I took them off, but not without snapping a quick picture.

~~2~~

This one's for you, Arika. Isn't this remarkable? This is how Alex cuts food. Look how precise he is! Please ask him next time to slice the cheese at the next barbecue so there will be resultant slices of cheese rather than jagged chunks of varying thickness. :)

~3~

My birthday campfire blessed me with an abundance of surplus s'more ingredients. I felt able to justify this microwavable snack as partially healthy by using organic pretzel sticks from Costco.

~4~

We don't have a good place to put a bird feeder so we decided to scatter some seeds on our grass on a regular basis to attract birds (our homeowners' association loves us). Practically everyone who has heard this says, "Aren't you afraid of bears?!" Due to our very urban (by Alaskan standards) location, our home is practically bear proof so I'm not worried about it. (Is it wrong to hope that we would actually get a bear to visit our home in plain view behind the safety of our glass doors?)

We've had many different types of birds show up but our favorite visitor is this adorable squirrel who visits several times a day. Today, he (or she) spent about five full minutes barking and carrying on at a stray bike which had found its way behind our back fence. Look carefully to see the little guy up on the wall.

~5~

Another project I had promised myself we'd get to this year is to cultivate a humble garden. I rather love working in the dirt, but it's a pursuit I seldom explore because of space issues in our backyard.

Funny story~~once, when I was younger, my parents let me plant a packet of morning glory seeds in the backyard. My parents have always grown beautiful roses and probably doubted that their child, with a thoroughly small and untested thumb, could hamper their efforts in any way. Within weeks, my morning glories exploded, growing into what I remember as enormous bushes! Once they started choking the roses, it became clear that I had no authority in the matter. Out went the morning glories. Gosh darnit, I'm determined to redeem those efforts.

Here is the space we had to work with this summer, right there behind the children. This also served as our post-breakup soggy springtime cleanup session. (Spring is not beautiful here in Alaska. It's the ugliest point on the calendar because everything is brown and the layer of fallen leaves forms a mulch on the ground.)




And here's what we managed to do with it:

I gave the kids free reign with some individual seed packets. With little to no order at all, we tossed those puppies into the ground and waited. And waited. And waited! We watered and watched, eyeing our neighbors' pre-grown flower purchases with envy. I fretted that we didn't start seedlings in little cups~~obviously the years have worn away my confidence, in spite of my enormous success with that one batch of morning glories.

Then, wonder of wonders, tiny little seedlings began to sprout! This is what we have today.


Notice those impressive dandelion leaves which will hopefully end up in my salad. We love weeds!

~6~

How adorable is this?! Psalm and Zoya unconsciously exhibited their twinhood today. Check out their color coordination (and missing teeth coordination) in this picture.

~7~

My favorite indulgent summer dessert: blueberries drenched in chocolate sauce!