Yorktown

 Yesterday we took Grandpa for his first visit to Yorktown.

When Grandma and her sisters came for a visit in September we took them to Yorktown as well.  That means that this little girl has been on two very long, very detailed, very excellent ranger tours of Yorktown battlefield.

 She knows all about how tall George Washington was, and has seen his actual tent.

And has explored lots and lots of cannons.

She has been very good natured and very patient.

And probably knows more about history than the majority of American grown ups.

Yesterday she got her Junior Ranger Patch.

New Years Walk

 I wanted to take a nice walk to start the new year, and a friend suggested the Capital Trail.  I had never heard of it (Virginia is not good at organized self-promotion...), but it is amazing!  A new, totally paved trail that runs from Virginia's first capital, Jamestown, past it's second, Williamsburg, all the way to Richmond, the current capitol.  We walked the first two-ish miles, and looped around for a four and a half mile trip.  The girls rode their bikes.  We all had a wonderful time!  Everyone we met on the trail was very friendly, wished us happy new year, and it was a very positive experience.  A few day later B rode his bike most of the 50 miles to Richmond.  That is definitely something I want to do too.

The trail goes past open fields with horses, then into the woods.

It was great getting into some open rural country again.

St. Patrick's Day...

We started St. Patrick's Day with a quiz.  In order to eat the very rare and special Lucky Charms cereal that I had purchased for breakfast, Miss A and Miss M had to find Ireland on the globe and tell me what continent it is part of.  Of course, they all were bedazzled in their greenest clothes, in varying degrees of fluffiness.  After school, while listening to some Irish folk music, we colored Celtic coloring pages, watched a great video about the real history of St. Patrick, (here), and watched some youtube videos of Irish step dancing.  We also tried making a pinterest find, these treats:


which were fairly unsuccessful, but still tasty!  (Next year remember to use parchment under...)  We had an event at the elementary school, so couldn't finish our celebrations until tonight.  Our close friend AN invited us over for corned beef and cabbage.  So good!  Why haven't I been eating this my whole life?  Same with the soda bread.  Delicious.  I made a rainbow fruit salad, and an all green vegetable plate with cilantro lime ranch.

I'm trying!  A month or two ago I would have contributed some sort of really good and really terrible for you baked good.  But cookies be gone!  I am embracing fruit!  And I'm happy about it.  Really.  Oh, except AN made some amazing double dark chocolate cookies that I ate about six of.  Seven?  I wasn't counting.  It's a work in progress...

I asked the girls what they would wish for if they caught a leprechaun.  (We are trying to focus more on our family "spiritual goals", meaning we read scripture stories, sing primary songs, and pray more.  So some wishes may reflect this, since we had just done all those things and the girls were probably still feeling glowey from it...)
Miss M:  1. That our family would stay together forever.  2.  A pot of gold, to sell it for people that are poor.  3.  That the flowers and plants would never die.
Miss A:  1.  A pet cheetah, that is trained.  2.  That Grandma and Grandpa could come for a month.  3.  That I would stay with my family forever.
Miss R:  Too tired from a whole week of late nights to answer.  She was a hot mess.  Maybe another time...

Unique...

You know those get-to-know-you games where you tell something about yourself that you think no one else has done?  I have a new one.  In addition to (1)I have milked a goat, (2)I have been kissed by a giraffe, (3)I have sat in a queen's throne, (4)I have hot tubbed with buffalo, I have now (5)been spat on by a sun panda!

(1)We had neighbors when I was a kid (no pun intended) who had goats, and I did milk them once.
(2)For my eighth birthday my brother took me to the zoo and a giraffe leaned over the fence and swiped me from chin to hair with his big black tongue.

(3)We lived in Spain when I was small and we toured many castles, one of which was in Segovia, where Queen Isabella and Kind Ferdinand (who sent Colombus off) lived.  I sat in her throne.
(4)When B and I were dating, we went for a visit to my friend and Boss BW, up at Flagg Ranch.  We cross country skiied to some hot springs, which were surrounded by a herd of buffalo (it being the only ground free of snow for who knows how far).  They fell asleep while we soaked.

(5)My new niece ST gave our family a zoo pass for Christmas!  We went to check it out.  The sun panda's exhibit includes a tree that crosses the path, and it was right above us.  He stuck out his little pink tongue, and some spit fell on my face!  It was cool...

Favorite Bulbs...

Get your carpal tunnels ready!  Autumn is around the corner, and that means, for those of us living, for once, in a place that has winter, bulb planting!  My sister and her wonderful yard were requested to take part in a botanical garden tour next spring, so I just sent her a list of my favorite bulbs.  Here it is:

Awesome!  Congratulations!!!  Better get serious about those bulbs... 

So for tulips, you can get amazing results by planning for three "seasons".  Pick a general color scheme (salmon, magenta, pink; or if you want to go classic, red, yellow; anything you want.)  We used to cut out pictures from a catalog and mix them around to find great combinations.  Then pick an early (March), a middle (April), and a late (May) of each color, and plant them all together, then as they get done, the later ones are blooming past them and it makes all sorts of lovely combinations.  As a general rule, smaller tulips bloom earlier, bigger later.  I will list my favorite tulips, which are almost all late.  Triumph tulips are a variety that has lots of color variation, but they are not known for being terribly perennial.  These pictures are all from vanengelen.com, which is a site that I ordered from in the past.  They have good info and descriptions.  Mix the tulips with daffodils and other bulbs.

Darwin tulips- my favorites:

Akebono

Apricot Impression

Daydream (my favorite tulip of all...)

Silverstream

Single Late Tulips:

Blushing beauty and Blushing Lady.  Actually hard to tell apart, though not in this picture...

Menton

Renown

Dordogne

Temple of Beauty

Oh, I love them!  These are all late (mid-April to mid-May), sturdy, tall, solidly perennial.

Next,

Species tulips:

bakeri Lilac Wonder (not lilac, pink)

Double Early Tulips:

Montreaux

Now for the daffodils.  These also have different "seasons", but they are all earlier than the late tulips.

Marieke

Little Gem

Topolino

Delibes

Segovia

Hawera- my favorite FAVORITE daff

Cragford- ok, I forgot about this one.  This one is great too.  Very fragrant.

Minnow- and this one.  These three are essential.

Other bulbs:

Hyacinthoides hispanica excelsior.  Go big on these.  Do not under any circumstances plant muscari.

Camssia- Idaho native, nice plant

Galanthus (snowdrops)

There.  My favorite bulbs.