Sunshine Lavender Farm (very belated: 6/11/2011)

Every summer Sunshine Lavender Farm owner Ann opens up her farm (to those subscribed to her email listings) to celebrate the lavender harvest. Visitors can tour the farm, make lavender crafts, drink lavender lemonade (yummy!), and buy fun lavender gifts for home and body. We knew the children would see their grandmothers this summer and purchased them both some lovely lavender soap.

As Lil'S wasn't walking yet and wasn't very interested in hearing about lavender, he entertained himself during the tour of the lavender field by eating rocks . . . lots of them.

One of many varieties of lavender Ann grows on her farm.

We were honored by a visit from the Butterfly Lady who introduced us to the monarch butterfly. . .

and taught us about its various senses--

all of them!

Time to release the butterflies!

S had one land on his finger.

(I think S took this one.)

Hoping the butterfly would climb on a finger.

(Where's my rotation option? ;) )

Ann explained what it's like to raise honeybees, which pollinate her lavender and kitchen garden. She is joined by a good friend from Argentina (?), another honeybee expert.

buzz!

We enjoyed our family outing.

Days like this happen much too rarely for us!

11 Months!

Actually, 11.5 months now....only two more weeks to the big 1!

(Sorry picts are late as usual.....although this time I really did have 11mo ones taken on time. They were deleted while "uploading" to the computer. Sad!)

Poor kid was recovering from the high fevers of Roseola,

though, so he was SO TIRED!!!

(I'd take Roseola over about any other illness to be honest.)

See?

Whatta loopy kid!

I love my boys!

Promenade

Not bad a bad pict, esp considering I was holding a kiddo at the same time.

Really, I was holding Lil'S during every shot I took--excepting those in which it's obvious he was on his own or being held by daddy, of course!

(Confession: I cropped the above pict. Gasp! Just had to get that off my chest.)

Tasty!

Please ignore the major mullet in this picture

and just look at how absolutely gorgeous

this baby--nix that--little girl is!

(Her curls tighten up when her hair has actually been done,

so, no, I don't normally let her run around looking like this...

um, at least when we actually leave the house....) ;)

So, WHEN can I move back to Idaho???

Someday I'll have to write a post about why I love North Carolina, just to make up for this, but I need to embrace a weak moment. (Okay, so, really I want to embrace it.) Maybe I'll do both since I actually do have pros on NC in mind and I may never have another spare moment for this again. ;)

Why I miss Idaho

- I can walk out my front door and not get bitten by mosquitos

- the sun shines the majority of the year (this one is vs. Ann Arbor, MI)

- it snows when I want it to

- my husband doesn't have to cut thru clay in order for me to have a garden

- I don't have to worry about being eaten alive if I actually want garden

- I can actually go outside--period.

- it snows in the winter (in normal years)

Why I love NC

- my tomato plants really did grow six feet tall like the garden center guy said they would!

- it's beautiful--everything grows a plenty! (if only there weren't mosquitos, ticks, 90-100 degrees plus humidity, etc.)

- I don't have to scrape ice off my car (although I guess I do have to wipe "dew" off my car, not as bad, but rarely expected)

- it snowed lots last winter!

p.s. shhh! don't tell S about this post!

p.p.s. S was looking at real estate in ID a month ago during his weak moment. ;)

What is growing in my yard?

It's officially spring, and my yard shows it!

But what is everything?

H having a hard time putting down her apple so I could take a picture. Ironically, this pict turned out cuter than the others. Had to share!

Here's the "better posed" one.

Okay, so it's pretty cute too!

Here's what she was holding.

Is it mint? It's growing all over the place!

(Click any picture to see it larger. My camera doesn't do macro shots.

I need to pull out the camera A lent me.)

The yard is simply carpeted with different colored flowers. These dark purple blossoms (little hard to see in the pict) are growing in the shadiest areas of the yard. Sunny locations are filled with the blue flowers pictured very first in this post, and less lush areas have small, white blossoms.

These are also those blue ones. I don't know why my camera keeps turning them white.

Are these wild onions?

Are they edible?

Where's my Google Search box?

I love Google.

Ah, it could be wild onion (or garlic or leek), or it could be death camas. Hmmm . . . that's exciting. I'm glad an onion (or garlic or leek) smells like an onion (or garlic or leek)! These things grow all over the yard as well. S found larger ones on Friday. The one he picked for me was almost as big as the green onions you'd find in the store. I didn't smell it, though. We should probably do that, huh. . . .