1st Day of Summer

The peas are ready. But they're the weird kind of shucking peas. So won't save seeds.
Leeks have been pulled, roots trimmed and leaves and replanted 15cm deep with holes from a broomstick.
The blueberries are ripening and Indianna LOVES picking blueberries.
The first round of spinach and arugula went to seed. I've pulled some but will collect some seeds too.
Calendula flowers are blooming.
Daffodils bloom in Spring, Lilies bloom in Summer.
All the cauliflower I planted in march has been harvested lost 3 to caterpillar and worms.
Still have 5 HUGE cabbage in the ground.
Planted another row of beets and carrots with some swiss chard too.
The tomatillos are flowering, lost one plant cause it cracked, the other one still stands.
Planted artichokes and eggplant, lemongrass and bergamot. Tomatoes as usual with its friend basil.
Garlic are intensifying for harvest in August.
The beans are climbing, and the squash is all consuming. Soon to be growing on the whole roof.
Traded rhubarb for 12 farm eggs and a loaf of raisin bread. Mmmmmm with peanut butter.

Indianna loves it all. She hangs out in the garden with us and picks kale flowers off the stem and snorts and sniffs at flowers. She points and the sky and the birds. She understands every word we say. She's walking up a storm. Started walking on her 1st birthday pretty much or a week or so afterward.
She hates to go to sleep but once she's out sleeps the whole night.
She's cutting 2 molars and taking it like a champ. What a tough little lady.
She loves people and says hi to everyone she meets.
Today she had her first ride in the bike trailer. So much fun.
It's going to be a beautiful summer filled with adventures, and firsts and love and sunshine!

Indianna's 1st Birthday

We wished for sunshine and got it
We wanted a happy birthday baby and we got it.
We wanted beer, julian brewed a keg
We wanted toys and to bust open a piñata.
We had friends join us and Indi fell asleep in Grandpas arms.
We wanted love and it was all around us.
Happy 1st Birthday Indianna. We love you.

 

  

First day of Spring

Well it's 22 March and we've just arrived home from being in Panama for 2 months. And once again I regret not bringing my computer. It would have been useful to set up my iPhone, store my pictures and keep up with this blog. Alas, I went with the intention to disconnect and that I did.

Indianna had quite the experience traveling internationally at 8 months old. She was a spectacular traveler from the first flight, to the connections in Mexico City, through all the hundreds of bus rides right to the last flight landing into Vancouver at 10pm. She was the sweetest, quietest baby traveler and the whole plane recognized this upon landing.

I even wrote up a little note and attached a chocolate bar in case Indi decided to be a real pain in the bum, but she wasn't and alas, i had to eat those chocolate bars.

We rented a car at the airport and headed straight to the inlaws house the very day we landed arriving to our destination at a fabulous 9pm just in time for pizza.

We spent the first month laying around the house. Indianna went into the warm tropical ocean for the first time, cut 2 more teeth for a total now of 6 teeth and learned to crawl. All in the first month we were there.
She loved to point at the banana trees, and the spiders. She loved to sit in the little pool and eat sand and rocks.

Unfortunately, the bugs like soft little baby skin and especially soft little baby Indianna skin. But we organized our room with mosquito nets and we armed ourself with natural bug dope and the bites went away.

We spent one week traveling up to Costa Rica at the beginning of Feb which was a treat. We stayed in hostels, and an upgraded suite in Puerto Jimenez. Julian showed us his old stomping grounds where he learnt to surf. The swell was as small and flat as it could have been but I got an idea of how beautiful it was. And how long it took to get out there. We stayed in a party hostel in Dominical then up to the mountains to visit Brad and Nicki. Which was the reason for our trip and beyond spectacular.

Once we bussed back to Panama, Lindy and JP left for Colombia the next day. We had 2 weeks of bliss and barking dogs on the beach. It was a blast. I perfected pina coladas and iced coffee. We met a lady with her two kids who was having a mental breakdown and I befriended her. Ugh. Sometimes I'm too friendly.

Once the rents came home, we had a lovely visit with my cousins. We met them in Santiago and took off to Santa Catalina. Overall it was the most sleepless, relaxing, exhausting, hot and sweaty, entertaining and enlightening trip I've had in awhile. Tell ya traveling with an infant and my hubby sure beats traveling alone.