Here Comes the Sun

This morning the sun came out at last, after 2 days of cold rain and grey skies. Alex insisted on going to the backyard to play.

He got muddy and cold (stopping every few minutes to warm his hands on me) but had a ball and was upset when I insisted we go inside.

Preparing the Garden and other Happenings

There was much work to be done last weekend in the backyard.

First thing's first. Our poor, lone aspen tree is nearing the end of its life. We've been told that aspen trees just don't like it that much in these lush, low altitudes. What's more they really like having other aspens around to keep them company.

What remains of the aspen and its surrounding planter box

I'm not ready to completely chop down the aspen, but last fall I cut off all of its dead branches. This left little more than a glorified telephone pole. In preparation for its eventual demise, I'm downsizing the big planter box that it lives in, at the south-west corner of the yard. As part of this mission, we decided to move the huge rhubarb plant that was growing in that planter across the yard to the garden, where we already have several other rhubarbs growing.

Digging a new hole for the rhubarb

Moving the HUGE rhubarb and parts of its root ball, using our snow sled

The rhubarb, in its new home in the garden with all of its friends

Last weekend I also helped to prepare the garden for Spring. Our next-door neighbors Bob and Marion have a dandy little rototiller that I borrowed for a few hours. It rained just enough to get the soil moist, but not enough to make a huge muddy mess.



This photo captures Alex and Dana's bond perfectly


After the garden was tilled, it was time to play in it with Alex's huge dump truck

Now for some completely unrelated photos from the last 2 weeks...

Alex will make a terrific corporate executive

Earlier this month we caught a huge centipede. We kept it for a day, and fed it a big white spider. It devoured the spider, legs and all, in just a few minutes! Amazing critter.

California visit

Last weekend we traveled to the Bay Area. Dana participated in a moot court competition, and Alex and I tagged along.

Alex is a very good traveler.

Alex and Mr. Bear peruse the drink selection

Alex picked an orange juice + soda water mix

Mr. Bear chose a screwdriver

On Friday night, Dana and I had a night out with her Aunt Josie and Uncle Armand. It was a rare night out without Alex and we really enjoyed seeing Josie and Armand, and eating at Mario's Italian Restaurant We had a wonderful meal and spent the evening catching up. Naturally, I forgot to take pictures...

After the Moot Court competition, and our short stay in Palo Alto, were over, we drove out to Stockton to visit Ryan, Heather and Rowan. To our surprise and delight, Rowan is a big boy already! He's nearly as big as Alex, and already walking and talking at 15 months. Alex and Rowan had a good time playing with trains, trucks, cars, balls, etc..

Rowan is on the left, Alex on the right

On Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa hosted an outstanding brunch where we saw Jean, Grove, cousin Keith, Sam, Maryo, Kristin, and others. Again, no pictures. In fact I was distracted for about 45 minutes trying to convince Alex to take a nap. He finally did, and slept for a good 2 hours, which made our trip home much more enjoyable for everyone.