May 1 is Mary's Day

This morning there was a May Crowning at school, to celebrate the feast of Mary the Mother of God and the beginning of her month. There is a procession with Mary's statue, and hymns and chanting. Inside the church, there is a Rosary and Marian hymns and the ceremony of the crowning. Kindergarteners and eighth graders traditionally process in together, after the rest of the school. They are each given a rose to place at Mary's feet inside the church. Eighth graders wear their dressiest clothes and take a class portrait, and kindergarteners wear their Dress uniforms.

R was almost at the end of the line.

Look at the knees of her tights! There must have been an incident at morning recess.

The eyes on the far right belong to her best little friend Joe. It's funny to think how those big boys in suits will be the peewees next year when they start high school. It's all in the perspective.

The principal talked about the eighth graders who are just about to graduate, and remembered his own daughter walking down the center aisle of the church as a kindergartener with her own eighth grade escort, 23 years ago. He had to stop for a second. I think he was about to cry.

It was a beautiful ceremony on a cold, overcast day. I didn't take any pictures inside the church because I'm still shy about that, unless it's a wedding or a Baptism. But it was sweet to see the little heads and big heads alternating in the first pews.

Happy Friday

Seedling Update

It's been awhile since I updated the progress in the guest-bedroom seedling room.

The frost-hardy plants that were big enough have gone outside to the raised beds. There are containers on the porch with more cold-tolerant plants. The tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers are getting big. I hope I can manage to keep them happy inside until late May.

I think the pole beans are probably going to get too big before it's warm enough for them to go in the ground, so I will either have to rig up some kind of cold frame, or consider them a loss. R has had fun to watching how fast they get so big, so it's not a total loss.

In the foreground, lemon basil, purple basil, asters and Charentais melons. In the background, summer savory, lavender, Aunt Ruby German Green and Brandywine heirloom tomatoes, and Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes.

The tomatoes are beyond ready to go into bigger pots. I have to do that soon.

Lemon cucumbers, sugar baby watermelons, beans in the back and regular bush cucumbers on the right.

Even the windowsill has been annexed for cilantro.

I am embarrassed to admit, there is actually a corner of the basement with seedlings. Mammoth and Teddy bear sunflowers, salad greens and some flowers.

April 30

Garden in the old house

I came across a cache of photos from two years ago, when R was three. She used to like to put on her lion costume and travel around the garden picking things before they were ripe. No matter how many times I pinned her down for bug repellant, she always had a mosquito bite swelling up somewhere on her face.

We had a nice garden in that house. Small, because only the side of the house got unfiltered sun, but big enough for some tomatoes and peppers and zucchini. In this picture, she is brandishing a banana pepper.

I admit that this week's lunches have been very dull.

April 28

We have all been sick. R got it first and got over it quickly. I can't seem to shake it. So, not a very inspired lunch today, but a break from chicken soup and crackers. R watched me make it and said "peppers look prettier than they taste." I disagree, but I can see why a kid would think that.