A Visitor

We planted some pepper plants. While watering them one morning, this was what we found ... a caterpillar! The kids loved holding the stick and letting the caterpillar crawled on it. No, we didn't kill the caterpillar. We left it on a big tree that was a distance from our apartment. 

These pepper plants look like they are growing well. Hope they fruit. 

I am looking forward to eating peppers growing on these plants. Oh yes, tomatoes too, since we planted some. Picked some coriander for dinner last night, from the "bushy" bunch of coriander we planted. It was good! 

Will post photograph of the coriander plant next time =)

The Community Garden

There is a community garden near the apartment where we stay. 

Anyone interested in getting a plot in the garden can apply in February each year. The planting season starts sometime in April/May, after the frost is gone. 

Some people, like our Russian neighbour, starts his planting in Winter. 

He keeps his "baby" plants inside his house, as it was too cold to leave them outside. The warmth in the house (the heater is still on in February) helps the seeds to germinate, and the plants to grow. He moves these "baby" plants to his garden plot in April/May. 

We do not have a garden plot. 

Instead, we have pots of plants (peppers, tomatoes, coriander) outside our apartment. Since the planting season has already started, it is interesting and educational for us and the kids, to check out the garden on this sunny Sunday afternoon. 

We saw some plots with lovely green vegetables. 

We saw some with pretty flowers : violet, red, orange and white flowers. 

We saw milk containers stuck into the ground : to keep the warmth in and help the seeds to germinate. 

We saw black plastic sheets covering some plots : to keep the rain from "drowning" the seeds.

We saw wire mesh in the plot, all ready for the creeper plants, like cucumber, to crawl up. 

In all, it was an interesting tour for us. The kids were restless after a while, and they ran off to the playground nearby to play instead. 

From the Garden

It's almost summer, and some vegetables in the garden are ready for picking. These radish are given to us by our Russian neighbour ... fresh from his garden. 

Looking through the lens ... a little boy's view.

How do you like the photographs?

What will you take if you are the photographer?

Kids can be very observant. 

They look at things from a different angle. 

The above photographs are taken by darling son KW. 

The camera which he uses is a birthday gift from us, for his 5th birthday. 

I like the photographs ... I think he has an eye for details =)

Note : The above photographs were taken on a weekend when we went walking, from our apartment through the woods, and to the boathouse. Darling son went there for a field trip and was eager to bring us there. 

 

Wanted!

It was another sunny afternoon. Birds were chirping happily on the tree branches. It was time to go and pick darling son up from school. It was just another school day for him, or so I thought ....

The dismissal bell came.

An announcement came shortly ... 

"All students, please go home immediately after school. Do not stay in school. Go home immediately"

Why? Hmmm  .... It definitely didn't sound good to me. 

Maybe the police was looking for some criminal?

Maybe someone hurt some kids in the neighbourhood, and so the kids were asked to go home?

There were so many possibilities .... I did let the kids play outside our apartment, since our neighbours' kids were out too. I informed their parents about the announcement made by the school even though I did not know the reason for it. I warned the kids not to be out of sight and to keep a lookout for strangers. 

So what exactly happened?

In today's news .... from the website Channel 3000 WISCTV.com .... 

The man was armed. He shot his ex-wife and fled the murder scene. No wonder the school asked the kids to go home immediately. Although the park which the man was found was a 15-minute drive to the school area, it was a safety precaution well taken. I was so relieved after reading the article this morning, knowing that the man was found.

One mom from the school told me that there was a case where another wanted man hid in the community garden next to the lake. Yet another case of a man hiding in the basement where the laundry room is located. Cases of strange man exposing themselves to kids at the playground, strange man standing and laughing hysterically on the swing where the kids play .... 

It was all to much for me to stomach. I had no appetite for lunch today. 

I stood outside the whole time while the kids were playing .. under the hot sun, dealing with not only my two boys, but another two boys and a girl from two other neighbours ... no wonder my body ached so badly now .... 

If wishes come true ....

Quack, Quack!

Each season in the woods, we see something special ...

Summer ... Fireflies! 

Tiny little flashlight in the dark =)

Fall ... Chipmunks and squirrels. 

These little fellows were busy collecting food and getting ready for winter.

Winter ... A family of three turkeys.

They went walking around the neighbourhood when the sun was out, leaving their "claw-prints" in the snow.

Spring ... Two ducks!

They were "sun-bathing" in the warm morning sun.

Like the family of turkeys, these two ducks didn't move an inch when I tried moving nearer to them to take a photograph of them. The brown one just gave me a lazy stare.