Growing your own

There's nothing like growing your own food. I'm sitting here eating a bowl of lovely blackberries; a curious mixture of sweet, subtle-flavoured berries and sharp, tart berries with a vicious bite! And as you can't tell by looking at them which category they'll fall into, eating each one is like a sort of gastronomic Russian Roulette. Luckily I love both extremes of blackberry. My daughter, however, only likes the sweet ones, and so her reaction varies from big smiles to twisty-faced scowls and screams, and some spat-out red, juicy gunk.

These blackberries are from our back garden, and there's many more where they came from, and at various stages of ripening, so they should last us for much of the summer. I didn't have any part to play in growing them as they grow wild in our garden. In fact it was a lack of effort on our part that caused them to grow; if we would have spent more time keeping the prickly brambles in check then we wouldn't be blessed with nearly as much fruit. Even so, I feel a certain pride as I sit here devouring them, as they grew in our garden!

My deliberate attempts at food-growing haven't been quite as successful. I have lots of triffid-like tomato plants in the garden, which do have a rather impressive crop of tomatoes, but they're showing no signs of going red. Some of them have been out for months, but they seem determined not to give up their deep green colour. Ironically, I also have a couple of plants which are still on the kitchen window-ledge that I didn't get round to planting outside, and the (very few) tomatoes on these plants have turned a very deep red colour and are ready for picking. These plants are straggly, yellow-leafed and extremely unhealthy-looking in every other way, but it's nice to have a few tomatoes that we can eat now. They always taste much better than the ones you buy in the shops.

I haven't grown anything else this year, but our next-door neighbours have got a nice apple tree, which fortunately for us has some branches that over-hang our garden. They look like they'll be ready to eat pretty soon!

Outside time

Looking at the title of this post, I realise it could read like some science fiction concept of being outside of time... I didn't mean it like that; I haven't figured out how to escape the contraints of time, which is a shame as it's just sooo hard to get out of the house these days with B.'s "leaving the house" tantrums.

It's not so much that she doesn't want to leave the house, but what she objects to is all the things she needs to do before going out; like having her nappy changed, getting dressed, and putting on shoes. Shoes are the worst thing. She runs away, screams "NO, GO AWAY!!!" and throws herself forward onto the chair waving her legs in the air so that I can't catch her feet. It's very dramatic and annoying, and it's almost as if the tantrums have become part of a new routine. I feel as if she's got so used to protesting about these things that she thinks it's just 'what one does'. Maybe she can't remember what it's like to get shoes on without screaming, perhaps she's even forgotten that this is possible!?

Once we finally left the house today we headed for our Friday toddler group. It's not very far, and B. decided to run all the way there. She looked so angelic and girly in her pretty summer dress, which was billowing out behind her (so different from her normal tomboy look!), and anyone who we encountered on the way directed admiring isn't she sweet and angelic? looks towards her. And she is very sweet most of the time, but if they could experience the full force of her tantums, they would not assume she is quite as angelic as she looks.

Toddler group was fun. There weren't too many people there as the weather was so glorious, and I assume that most people were making the most of it in the park. B. has made firm friends with another little girl, which is a bit of a novelty for her as most of her friends so far have been boys. Her mum and I have been watching this friendship develop over the last few weeks, and it's been really sweet. Today they stuck firmly together for the whole time we were there, making eachother giggle, and chatting about things that only two-year olds can appreciate or understand. They found an annoyingly loud musical toy that blasted out Christmas tunes, and both danced wildly in their pretty dresses.

After the group finished B.and her friend spent the next hour running around together in the gardens outside. It seems like a deep friendship!

After B.'s nap and some lunch we spent some more time outside, (hence the title). It was lovely in the garden. Although we attempt to tame it from time to time, the garden is rapidly growing wild again. The brambles are once again taking hold, clematis twines are winding themselves around anything they touch, and all sorts of new plants (and not just weeds!) are mysteriously erupting from the ground. It must be all the rain we've had this year that's making everything so fertile and green. And I think that it's looking rather beautiful.