The Kite, Violet Jelly and Our Plan to Seed Bomb the World, Or At Least a Few Corners of It.

Saturday we spent the day together flying his kite in the Spring zephyr.  Ok, it was not a real zephyr but it was good enough to hold up his little kite without him having to run to keep it moving.  

Not long after this one, the string winder slipped out of his hand and the kite flew off by its self all the way over to ball court.  We were laughing as we chased after the kite.  It was so funny!!  I love when we get to laugh at silly things that happen.  I hope he is learning to appreciate these moments. I know I do.  

We also picked about two cups of violet flowers in our yard and the fields behind us.  One good thing about being a semi-organic gardener is we can pick violets and not have to worry about any sprays being on them.  

They grow wild in our grass and gardens.  They will take over if I let them as they reseed freely.  But I am glad we have them or we would not have been able to work out this violet magic. 

Pick a good two cups of flowers and rinse them off.  

Add two cups of boiling water to steep the flowers for at least two hours. 

After as short as the time it took to take a few photos, the water was starting to turn violet/blue.  

After it has steeped, strain out the flowers and add 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice which changes the color of the brew to a brighter violet color. 

Add four cups of sugar and bring to a rolling boil.  Add pectin, boil for another minute and ladle into clean, hot jars.  

They turned out so pretty we ended up picking another two cups of flowers and made another batch.  It does not taste like flowers or grassy, just sweet and pretty on homemade bread.  

We also made flowers bombs for Mother's Day gifts.  We shredded some newspaper and soaked it in water.  

While it was soaking Baylor was playing outside with his knights. 

I bought a Ninja blender and its maiden blend was wet newspaper. Very undignified but it did a great job and I was very proud of her.  

After it was all blended up I strained the pulp until is was fairly dry but would still be moldable. 

Then we picked out a bunch of seed packets out of the collection.  

And dumped them in.

And we mushed them together until well mixed.  

And then we packed them into our ice molds that we used for everything but ice.  They have come in handy for bath bombs and now for flower bombs.  

I had by two projects planned and Baylor wanted to do one of his.  He wanted to make some art for Meme.  We made circles and them made spiders out them, We colored them rainbow colors and then made rainbow homes with eggs. And then we cut out babies.  

After a day I unmolded the bombs to get them to dry faster.  We gave them to our Mom's for Mother's day along with our jelly gifts.  We gave them to our cousins and neighbors to bomb our corners of the world.  

Before and After: Bunny Edition

Around Easter I saw on Pinterest a project that I had to try.  On my last shopping trip with Mom we stopped at the Good Will and I found a white rabbit that would be perfect for the first attempt at a chocolate rabbit.  The eyes were a bit scary and he did have a lavender bow stuck to his chin.  I washed him off and after he was good and dry, I sprayed him chocolate brown.  

And freaky bunny turned into friendly bunny. 

Pinterest find win in my opinion. 

Before and After: Garden Bed and Gas Grill

The gardens are over run with weeds and I have been working on them as much and as often as I can.  I cleaned out the bed in the morning before my parents came over.  

Before:

After:

 

And I started on this flower bed as well.  

Just a few feet in and the piles of weeds and dead plant material are building up in the grass.  

On Easter Gloria decided I needed a new grill so she thoughtfully brought home one in a box.  While I am up for the challenge, I knew I would need help.  

Before:

It took at least a hour but neither of us swore or stomped off and eventually we had ignition. 

After: 

Thank you Buddy for helping me with this project.

Ashcombes

Friday after work and picking Baylor up from pre-school, we headed to the local garden center.  No goal in mind other than spending time with Baylor.  His goal was ice cream of course!  But on the way he wanted to cuddle some garden art.  

We picked out some annuals such as petunias and geraniums for the large flower pots we have for the patio and the rest can go in the gardens.  

We checked out the bees who were buzzy busy in this little hive.  

Finally he picked out his ice cream.  Rainbow vanilla because they did not have cotton candy.  

The pond was stocked with fish and he still loves to check out all the fish he can.  But thankfully he has yet to fall in with any of them!  

The First Day of May

May started with more rain, almost three and a half inches on total with what we had yesterday.  It rained almost an inch just in the morning after I woke up.  

For Baylor's school treat I made cookie dough stuffed chocolate covered pretzels.  

While I worked on the treats, Baylor worked on the mud in his new Fireman boots Gloria picked up at Tractor Supply.

With all the rain I had to drain the pool cover.  Baylor put the extra water to good use in the swamp.  

We were playing with a ball in the yard and Baylor took a dive in the grass.  I laughingly asked if he landed in poop and when he stood up, he said yes.  It is all fun and games until someone lands in poop.  It was bath time and a quick end to the outside fun.