Day at the zoo!

Old timer mountain goat on his rock.

Surprising a red lemur makes its eyes bug out.

"Hey, I wanted that piece of grass!" (Gorilla conversational thoughts)

"People? What people? I don't see no smelly people."

We finally spotted the elusive Duiker (a very small deer).

Today's blog entry is brought to you by Alex. We went to the zoo for a field trip yesterday. Anni has been learning about different habitats. Check out National Geographic's website for more info on habitats.

Plants on Parade

Basil sisters growing on the kitchen window.

Seeded pots: marigolds, peas, beans, nasturtium, pumpkins, & more basil

The repotted shamrock. (Note the beautiful brown egg in the blue bowl beside.)

The blood orange tree we are experimenting with this year as an indoor/outdoor plant. We've named her Sanguine.

The strawberries are blooming.

The pansies from last year self seeded and are back without any real work!

We couldn't resist one critter shot. Here are the chickens three enjoying a bug hunt in the rhubarb bed. Henrietta likes worms. Waltzing Matilda enjoys ants, and Claudette prefers dandelion greens.

Here I am in my Juneau Sneakers French trenching the first (and largest) of the veggie beds. French trenching is laborious, but it really breaks up the clods, loosens up the soil and mixes in the soil additions. Then we planted this bed with cauliflower, collard, and onion starts.

The chives came back in force. We've been enjoying them in all kinds of dishes, especially omelets.

All the berry bushes are back. This is the raspberry. We also have 4 blueberry, a marionberry, and blackberries.

And finally, here is the variegated ficus (or weeping fig) that we went on such a search for over the weekend. It seems very happy in its huge pot on the landing. His name is Fickle.

Critters on Parade!

A proud peacock on the prowl.

Foiled by the fencing!

This one decides to hop the fence.

The gosling and ducklings are happy within their fences.

The roosters have escaped!

The goat is out by a nose.

The lambs don't care as long as maaaam is close by.

And the bunnies are happy doing what bunnies do.

My friend Lisa and I went on a most excellent adventure on Saturday. It involved shopping for shelves, partaking of a few fashion finds, veggie sushi, coffee, heavy rain, more coffee, and a search for the elusive variegated ficus tree.

Along the way, we stopped at the mini farm across from Flower World in Maltby. Flower World is an incredible nursery with just about everything except my ficus. The little farm shop across the way has a fruit and veggie stand, lots of veggie starter plants (We both bought basil starts and organic seeds), and lots of critters.

Did we ever find the elusive ficus? Check the blog tomorrow!

Spring, Sprang, Sprung!

Ah! Spring in the great Northwest!

Over the past two weeks, we've had heavy rain, light rain, showers, light snow, hail, a wind storm, and lots of grey, grey clouds, but interspersed here and there has been peeks of a shining orb in the sky. I think it might be called the SUN!

On its appearance last week, we went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. The animals were in full spring season. We saw some very amorous ducks. We also saw both of the Arctic foxes, the brown coastal and the white inland - very cool. We've never seen them both at the same time before. We also saw several members of the zoo's wolf pack and the big brown bears were very active in their outdoor enclosure. (I forgot the camera - BAD moma.)

Today was absolutely gorgeous. It hit the 60's. We broke out the shorts. The blinding light of all those white legs equaled that of the sun! We did some much needed gardening. (I swear those weeds sprung up overnight.) Our garden is showing signs of spring. The rhubarb is back. The herbs are still going strong. We'll start our indoor seeds this week!

This afternoon, we gathered up the future farmers for fun at a local park. Alex beat us all handily at a game of dandelion hole golf, and Anni is getting really skilled at dribbling a soccer ball! Then we took a long hike along the river trail. We spied a bald eagle in a tree, two otters in the river, and six garter snakes in the grass. After all that it was time for an afternoon nap!

Here's hoping for more sunny spring days!

Congratulations!

We've been celebrating lots of achievements over the past week. So, here are our shout outs:

Congratulations to Ariana for pulling A's in both of her college classes this past quarter!

Congratulations to Alex for making the pet parade with WAVA for his chicken coop and egg tending duties!

Congratulations to Anni for meeting many of her achievement goals this quarter!

Congratulations to writing pals, Lisa and Judith, for sending out their stories!

And finally Congratulations to hubby, David. We made to the 30 year mark! (And had a wonderful anniversary celebration)

Luck of the Irish, Avila style.

Here are the shamrocks, all green and bright,

Here's the new door, all shiny, too white.

Here are the windows with green galore.

And here are mom and Anni, inside the door.

The bulletin board was decorated with care.

Walk beneath this doorway only if you dare.

Even the mantal was sporting the green,

And so was the farm box that came in between.

Baker Alex is making green cookies to munch.

And we're back to the shamrocks, here by the bunch!

Happy Paddy's Day everyone. We had Irish lattes and green eggs for breakfast. Tea was Irish with shamrock cookies (thanks baker Alex!). Dinner was a variation on corned beef and cabbage with carrots and new potatoes (crockpotted, then briefly roasted) with good Irish ale and whole wheat raisin soda bread (thanks assistant baker Anni). Delish!

Julie Ann's Most Excellent Writing Adventures! Part 1

Fishing boat in Lincoln City, post tsunami alert.

Lincoln City Beach

US Coast Guard conducting a search the day after the tsunami.

Another beach view

More coast guard, ship and helo.

Boat on a big wave.

Boat over the wave!

I attended a writing workshop in Lincoln City with writing pals, Lisa and Judith. The weather featured big storms and a tsunami alert! We had fun, wrote lots, and got very, very little sleep. We also bought way too many books back with us from North-by-Northwest and Powell's bookshops.

Still Alive in Lincoln City

To everyone who's called,

the tsunami (from the big Chilian earthquake) did not wipe out the Oregon Coast where I'm attending a writing workshop in Lincoln City. The waves were big. The police were kicking folks off the beach, and warnings went out. The deadline came and went, and we never really saw the classic storm surge.

Thanks for all your concern,

Turtle, Ducks, & Veggies, Oh my!

We took a walk to the Juanita Bay Wildlife Preserve yesterday. The turtles were out in force, enjoying the sun.

The CSA farm box came today. This one had an enormous green leaf lettuce, broccoli, baby spinach, cauliflower, green onions, carrots, apples, tomatoes, tangerines, pea pods, mineolas, lemons, avocados, shitake mushrooms, cara oranges, grapefruit, and oranges. Can you say yummy?

Our favorite tree at the park.

"I think I can. I think I can. I can. I can. I can do it. I did it!" One determined turtle makes it up on the log and into the sunshine.

Hello duckie.

The Blog is Back!

The blog is back! I took some time off while I was reading and writing lots of stories. I read 32 books, redrafted 4 novels, and tried my hand at 5 short stories. It's been a blast.

In other news, the farm boxes kept coming.

We went out to dinner at Salty's. Here are Alex and Ari really excited about the menu. They ordered the calamari!

We dug up the last of our baby carrots.

We celebrated the Saints Superbowl victory with a Jambalaya dinner.

We made awesome pizza for dinner last night.

And Alex refrained from blowing up the dining room during his science experiment. Way to go!

And here he is not setting fire to the deck. Note the attractive and very practical safety goggles.