A couple months ago I started my very own vegetable garden, thanks to my sister-in-law. She gave me lots of tips, let us borrow her tiller, and provided us with some very cool heirloom tomato and pepper plants.
I spent a lot of time hacking at the dirt, preparing it for the seeds. After spending so much time in the dirt, I began to think how amazing this brown/black stuff really is. I mean, we never give it much thought, after all, it's just dirt. But if you actually think about how you can plant a tiny dry seed in the soil and add water and watch it grow, it's amazing to me. I find dirt an odd yet wonderful substance. I don't know, maybe I'm just a little whacked. ;-)
After the seeds were planted, I would check on the garden almost daily. I didn't know what to expect, and I don't think I did everything exactly as the seed package had stated. However, I have to say, I'm quite happy with what I see so far! It has been fun for me (and the kids) to watch the changes each week. I spent some time today weeding it and trying to get some more of the grass out, which was left over after the tilling. It's not bad, for a first year garden. I planted a lot of lettuce, some broccoli, carrots, spinach, zucchini, squash, pumpkins, peppers, and tomatoes. I can't wait until the tomatoes are ready!
Carrots
Tomato
I love how this lettuce looks!
Hmm...too bad I didn't label everything. I'm not sure what this is, but it looks good to me!
Daisies. They just looked pretty so I had to include them in the photo line up.
Well I haven't posted in a while due to my addiction to Farm Town on Facebook and also because I've just been too busy. If I'm not reading, I'm studying (my chem. class started this past week). If I'm not studying, I'm playing Farm Town. I wonder how I can keep cramming stuff into my day. I suppose, if I quit playing games on the computer, that would free me up some, but it's my escape. I guess it's what I do when I feel stressed and about ready to shut down. I go and plant some crops and somehow the world seems like a better place when I'm done! :-)
There are so many things I wanted to get done around here before summer: painting Ava's room, staining the deck (again), deep cleaning and the list goes on. It seems that once again that will all have to wait.
I also was hoping to do some summer school with the kids. At least math, spelling, and reading, but I've been terrible about it. We finished up in mid May, but I dread adding more to my schedule right now. We usually start school in early July anyway, so I might just take this time to focus on me. Hmm...that sounds nice!
Over the past week I've become another one of those crazy, obsessed Twilight fans. My friend let me borrow all 4 of her Twilight books. I ended up reading the first one in 24 hours because it was just that good! The next book, New Moon, I finished in about 2 days. I had to watch the Twilight movie again, and I'm planning a night this week to watch it yet again. I spend my days and nights dreaming of Edward Cullen. Can you really fall in love with a fictional character? Yes, I know, it's pathetic; I need to get a grip on reality real soon here.
Last night at the MTV movie awards, Robert Pattinson (Edward), Kristen Stewart (Bella), and Taylor Lautner (Jacob) presented the first official trailer of New Moon, which is set to come out in theatres on November 20, 2009. I usually can't stand anything on MTV anymore as it is usually trash and not very classy, but I made myself watch it just so I could see the trailer. I have to say that the New Moon movie looks like it will be better than the Twilight movie. Though I would say Twilight was a good movie, there were some things from the book that were left out of the movie, which left me slightly disappointed. The books are usually always better than the movies. Stephenie Meyer is a great writer, and she provides tons of details that a movie could never capture. I hope the New Moon movie stays true to the book. From the trailer, it looks like it has.
Here's the trailer!!!! :-) You might want to scroll down to pause the music before you start.
-For those reading my blog from my "notes" on Facebook, you'll have to click on "view original post" above the comment box to see the video.
One of the best days of my life is how I would describe my experience at Starved Rock. It was our first time visiting this beautiful state park. We knew, from the Starved Rock website, that the Illinois River had recently flooded causing some problems; nonetheless, we were not going to let that stop us. We started the day off fairly early. I hoped to be to the park by no later than 9:00 am. The weather was supposed to be sunny, but as we sped closer to the park the sky was getting dark. Uncertainty crept in. I quickly pushed that aside, and tried to stay hopeful for a good day. As we pulled into the parking lot around 9:15, a little later than expected, we could see the evidence all around us. The ground was soggy and the parking lot looked as if it had recently been underwater, but that didn't stop us or any of the other hundreds of people from coming for a day of fun. I would have preferred to not have the park so full of people, but it really wasn't too bothersome. I assumed with it being Memorial Day weekend and all, crowds were to be expected anywhere we went.
After parking and gathering supplies, we headed straight to a trail—French Canyon. The ground was squishy in parts but compact. We found ways of avoiding mud holes (described later). It was very exciting. I could hear the sound of a waterfall and saw people in the canyon below. We figured out the way to get down there and it was so beautiful.
This is a collecting pool of water that overflowed and created a stream.
In order to get to the waterfall without getting soggy, we had to straddle this stream of water. Poor Ava wasn't able to do it correctly, so she spent the day with moist shoes. It didn't seem to bother her much.The waterfall!
This was heading back away from the waterfall.
Here, we were on top of Starved Rock. Looking across, you can see Lover's Leap Lookout. The history behind Starved Rockis quite interesting. A barge on the Illinois River.I can't quite remember which trail led us to this waterfall.We wanted to get down into the canyon to see it, but first we had an obstacle to overcome. Mud! This picture is of Steve and Ava on their way back from seeing the waterfall. This is what we did off and on throughout our hiking adventure. Thankfully, tree roots helped. We balanced along them in a great effort not to lose our balance and end up muddy, wet, and uncomfortable for the rest of the day. I did remember to pack extra clothes and shoes for the kids, but not for Steve and me.
Here is that glorious waterfall! The one we staggered about on tree roots just to stare at it's beauty. It was worth it!
Here is a little perspective on the groups of people on the trails. I might add that there were many different languages I heard throughout the day. I think I heard more of other languages than actual English. I suppose many tourists were visiting from around the world. After a while, we took a break from walking so Steve and Drake could fish in the river. Drake caught one! One man I saw had a large metal ring with tons of fish hooked around it. People were catching fish like crazy.
There were lots of sculptures carved out of trees by the lodge. The lodge looked very nice. We were almost tempted to stay for a night.
It was about 5:30 or so and we had been hiking the entire day. There was one more trail we wanted to go on called St. Louis Canyon. Instead of starting out from the visitor center, we chose to drive and park closer to the trail. I'm so glad we went on this one. I think it was my favorite. We were alone on the trail. As we were coming into the canyon area, there was a group of three people, but they were just leaving. Yes! We had it all to ourselves! It was like a scene from a movie. We were really in Illinois? I couldn't tell. The rock formations were beautiful. The sound of the water, our voices echoing, the sheer cliffs all around us, slightly leaning as if they would cave in, it was all so amazing. There were hills of light sand probably from the sandstone wearing away I guessed.
The kids climbed on this big boulder.Steve and I.
We found this caterpillar resting beside a rock.
By this time my camera battery was going dead, so I took a real quick video of the area.
After leaving this trail, we decided to check out another state park in the area, Matthiessen. We mostly just drove through to see what it was like, and then we drove back to Starved Rock so Steve and Drake could fish one more time. They fished for almost an hour while Ava and I rested in the van. It was now inching closer to 8:00 pm. We ate and then we headed home.
It was a long wonderful day! We were all exhausted. I was proud that the kids did so well on the trails. We did almost every trail except maybe 4 or 5. I didn't hear many complaints about legs hurting, which was so nice. The rain didn't hold off completely, but we never were drenched. It rained pretty good while we were eating our take along lunch, but as soon as we finished and went to tackle another trail, it let up. The canopy of trees protected us a lot.
The trails varied from rocky areas, to sandy paths, and compact mud. Of course, there was the not so compact mud too. I would love to visit this place again in the summer or even fall. I would like to see it on a sunny day and maybe even camp or stay in the lodge next time. ;-)
I took so many pictures that day. I didn't want to post to many here and bog down the speed, so if you would like to see some more you can view my album in picasa.
Carrots
Tomato
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