Jonah

Saturday, December 29, 2012

GarlicKing

Last year, GarlicBoy planted just over 400 bulbs of garlic. This year, I decided to make nearly 8 times the work for myself and so devoted a huge chunk of the lower garden to planting 3000 bulbs of garlic. I tried a completely new technique, thanks to a pious chap named Paul Gauchi who lives and gardens just west of me. He gardens with woodchips and amazingly, there is a movie all about him (www.backtoedenfilm.com) As usual, Jonah was a tremendous help, demonstrating to all who would watch (namely me, and Fela) how well he could wear a bucket on his head. He also ran the drill til the battery died and insisted on hosing me down with 50 degree water, claiming he was helping to grow the plants. Ahem. Shortly after and about 60 minutes before my evening yoga class, he locked my keys and phone in the car forcing me to cry and stamp my feet and search (successfully) for a spare key. Parenting and gardening don't always go hand in hand but they can. Sometimes.

December flew like an eagle

Time keeps on slippin' into the future. This is true-we are all witness to this fact. But I believe the existence of children in our lives hastens this or at least heightens our awareness of the passage of time. So much has happened in the last couple months that my head swims trying to capture it all in words and photos.

Oooh, ooh, my parents and brother moved to Port Townsend and sold all their shorts and tanktops!! They are well on their way to becoming locals, and they hardly even notice the weather, although they have upped their Vitamin D intake. Jonah has became an adept fisherboy, baker and flour eater, a strawbale plasterer, a mushroom hunter and identifier, a garlic planter, a skatepark cyclist, a butterfly catcher and a spanish speaker (he knows 3 words, including pantelones). Fela turned 5 the same day I turned 37. Gina is ageless.

I introduced Jonah to one of my chilhood favorites: cinnamon toast, incorporating toast, butter, cinnamon and sugar. It tastes, "honey-ish" as he calls it. The rains have begun in earnest and will continue for some months. The true sign of a native northwester, of which jonah is one, is the desire, the joyous desire to don several layers of cotton, wool, and plastic and trot out into the downpour. He also claims he wants to move to Hawaii and live in a red house and drive a red car. Time will only tell.

Looking back at my last few posts, I realize there is an inverse relationship between the amount of activity and change in my life and the number of blog posts I'm writing. I never mentioned the wondrous cob workshop that we hosted for the second year in a row in early September. The walls are nearly finished and the makings of a roof exist. We took a wall out of house to expand our living area. Hand Foot and Mouth Disease anyone? Sure, Jonah and I will devote a couple weeks to weeping itchy spots. Cool. Thanks. I'm going to keep this post relatively simple and let the pictures do (most of) the talking.