This Easter week most of the schools in this area are closed. The children are given a break as are the teachers. I enjoy this time as I can visit with my grandchildren and see how they are changing and just reconnect. One of my grandsons is no longer in this area as he is off in another state pursuing an advanced degree. The other two I was able to visit with up here at the lake. We did not go near the water but stayed indoors part of the day.
On Monday, Reed, my 17 year old grandson drove himself up here for the first time alone in his car inherited from his father. He wanted to help me with some of the work around here. He first set out bricks around a newly planted blackberry patch. These came from cuttings I took last year. I visited this road side berry patch with my neighbor Lisa. Parking near the site we picked for over an hour. Some little boys came along and told us where we could cross a fence and find the mother lode. Lisa gave me all she picked and they went into some fine blackberry jelly. I shared with her of course, but the other thing I did was to go back later in the cool of the evening with a bucket of water and take cuttings from the canes, about 20 or so.
I wanted to have some of this particular type as they had large fine tasting berries on them. The canes looked different to me as they were red. I had found some Navaho thornless berries at the nursery and planted them in a special bed, away from this new one. I think the new berries are from the same genetic line except the ones I cut have thorns. I was intrigued with the red canes as I had not seen them before.
Laying the bricks out around the berries was the first chore Reed did for me. We then went out with shovel and pick and he made two holes for two pink guara that had been wintering over in my sun room. They seemed so happy to be out of the pot where they could stretch their roots and lots of water made the move complete.
The next chore was to dig up some forsythia which was coming back up from a winter cutting. When a bush just has all of these dead branches there is nothing to do but whack it down. If it is forsythia it will surely come back up when the spring warmth comes along. This plant he put in a "skip" of these same bushes which he and his dad had planted two years ago. Along the side of the road leading up to my house I will soon have a line of fine yellow bushes each spring.
The next holes to be dug were for osteospermum, an annual which I picked up for $2 each at Walmart. They are the healthiest perkiest lavender daisy looking flowers I had seen in a while. Now I have two planted out back where I can see them from my kitchen window and two in pots at my front door.
Our next chore was to come to the computer and help me understand something that is second nature to him, facebook. Some members of my extended family invited me to come aboard on this social network so I am trying to figure it all out. I am way behind the much younger generations on this score.
I actually had about 30 daffodil bulbs which I had dug last year and for the first time in my life forgot to plant them. I found them in a box neatly labeled in my laundry room. I had planned to ask Reed to till a spot for them but thinking the tiller was out on loan I missed the opportunity. So, instead of more digging Reed sat down in a chair and I later saw him sound asleep. Teens are growing pretty fast and working pretty hard at school so they crash easily. After a good nap I suggested he work on his school project. It had to be done on the computer and involved comparing different analyses of John Milton's Paradise Lost.
While all of this was going on I was busy making one of his favorite meals, green beans with , potato salad, home made rolls and applesauce. I had prepared for his visit by making chocolate chip cookies earlier and also the rolls so he would have goodies to take back home with him.
The next morning around 11:00 my son Bruce and his other son Grant arrived.
After greeting and some conversation we had sandwiches and lentil soup (made the day before). I actually learned to like lentil soup by making it for them. I learned the secret is to add bay leaves and thyme then at the end of the cooking put in lemon juice. Of course I had to add tomatoes from my freezer (left over from last years garden. I simply must add tomatoes to soup !!
Grant had brought up some games so we got one memory game out. We used to call it concentration. Cards are laid out face down and you take turns trying to find two that match. He must have put out 60 cards. I knew I was beaten when I saw how many there were. What I did not know was how badly I was beaten. I ended up with four matches. It blew me away how he remembered each one that was turned over and would go back after several plays and get a match. I said to his father "Can't you figure out a way to make a Million out of this?"
Later while Reed crashed again his dad and I along with Grant got in the golf cart and drove around looking at what was blooming and what was just coming up. Bruce had his camera and took pictures of various things One joy was to see the peony on the third year with so many buds I could not count them all. Last year there were three huge red blooms. Lemon colored day lilies are up and looking so healthy, also stella d'oro, the ever blooming day lilies. Asiatic lilies that Reed planted for me about three years ago are pushing up through pine bark. Stone Mountain daisies are putting out leaves and gaining strength for the 6 to 8 foot stems with rich yellow blooms to come in the fall. The azaleas that Bruce planted at least 20 years ago are started to bloom, all eleven of them. They line the rail road tie walk that goes up the hill to the house the back way. Two huge pear trees are covered in blooms. The squirrels will be happy about that !
Up in the vineyard Grant was all excited to see if the praying mantises had come out of their egg case. On his last visit he first saw them tied to the vines. He also got to see them hatching thanks to google on my computer. I had transplanted a green grape called Niagra. It had not grown much in its old spot so now we are trying to see if it will flourish up in the vineyard. It has little green leaves so that is encouraging. Also a red raspberry all by itself near the kiwi has healthy leaves coming out. The kiwi is putting out leaves and at the beginning of May we will see its cream colored blooms.
The other thing we saw were how safely the blueberry bushes were growing inside the netting Jim put up. I had planted some sequoia strawberries in with them thinking they would like the acidic soil. What they needed most was more water so I made a mental note to do that in the evening. No asparagus was up in their raised bed. I was surprised as we had so much good rain this winter. If they fail to perform I can think of lots of other things to plant.
I am trying heirloom tomatoes like my niece Ann Lawson does out in Illinois. They are up and that is all I can expect for now. They are in the sun room and when they begin to look sturdy in May I will set them out in the raised beds.
It was a fun ride to share the growing things with my family. I get pleasure from being with my family and when my grandsons are here I would feel remiss if I did not do special things for them. Some call it spoiling, but to me it is just affirming them as part of our family and showing them how we live. Spoiling would be allowing misbehavior, and I never see that happening. Spring break is a fine time to take time to enjoy family.
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