closing down the park

from seed

I got this idea from a magazine article to make Fern some of her very own flower boxes that will someday be veggies if I can muster up enough sunlight somehow. (How is it that I live on Guam and yet have a hard time finding the sun I need to grow some things?) Anyway, Fern loves flowers, so she picked out some zinnia and phlox seeds at the store (almost a disaster...she wanted to open them and then eat them) and she planted them with dad's help. We've been checking them out every day, waiting for buds to form. Okay, I've been anxiously waiting for the buds to form-Fern doesn't yet know what a bud is. The first zinnia bloom made it's appearance the other day. The phlox is still tiny and I wonder if it will ever flower.

first bloom

several blooms later

Before the flower box, Fern planted some boonie pepper seeds and they are just now forming peppers. She gets it, I think. She talks about how the seeds turned into plants, I think. I love growing things from seed, especially seeds I collected from the forest. how very resourceful. :)

I ran across this lovely poem several weeks ago. I'm usually not one for poetry, but really loved this one, so I thought I'd share:

All things by immortal power,

Near or far,
Hiddenly
To each other linked are,
That thou canst not stir a flower
Without troubling of a star.

-Francis Thompson

boonie pepper seeds

flowering boonie pepper

Oh, and let's not forget the okra. We manage to get enough okra from two plants to have it with a meal every week. barely. Fern usually eats half of my portion and some of dad's. She looooves okra...so much that she's named several of her human and animal babies 'Oka'. She is definitely her mother's girl!

okra guardian

my girl

You would not believe how many things she lugged to the park with us that day...funny girl makes me smile. :)