Little Potato, You come from Underground.

Click here and open in a second window for a little musical accompaniment to these photos. A favorite song from the days of gazing at newborns (music player at bottom of page) http://www.starbittrune.com/Jack/littlepotato.html

May 23 we put the spuds you see in the right foreground in the front garden.

And Sept 17th we got them out, a nice potato harvest! We thought maybe they were goners, as the greens were dead. Amateurs! That is what potatoes do, apparently. You harvest them 2 to 3 weeks after the greens die.

We had to water them through the drought in July, but they did fine with nature alone through August which was rather wet.

We planted 4 kinds.

The letters on the sign weathered away, so we are no longer sure what they were...

We found little garden friends while we harvested.

Earthworms.

Ladybug...one of my favorite swedish words, nyckelpiga. Such a fun word to say, we choose to always speak of ladybugs in Swedish.

We got 4 kid sized wheel barrows full!

64.4 pounds of potatoes, 29.3 kilos of potatoes!

Given they are 6 kronors a kilo in the market, which would be 175 kronors, we nearly made back the 200 kronors in seed potatoes we started with, ;).

Plus a little satisfaction.

Of each kind :

19.1 pounds, 8.7 kilos

9.3pounds , 4.24 kilo

22 pounds, 10 kilos

14 pounds, 6.36 kilos

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy Jig....

After our long trip away we are back to home sweet home. In the heat of Italy I thought lots of Florida, and when I miss my people on long trips I still pine for the home I have in the hearts of those in Florida. I had little heart strings pulling me back to Florida sometimes on our trip. But that vanished as we came back to our sweet little home in Sweden. It is green and damp and mossy like a Swedish September. We turned on the heat, brought in some fire wood, made a pot of soup, and got out the sweaters and rain gear.

Even little people have rain gear in Sweden

I was anticipating what would be going on the garden the whole trip. It is only my second year gardening, and I could not wait to see what would come of it. We left the garden with no watering system, and were chancing it to the rain and sunshine.....

And boy did they come through for us!!

The onions are no bigger than when we left, the swiss chards is big and beautiful, and the cabbage moth larvae have been feasting on the Tuscan and green kale, leaving little green skeletons in the garden.

The Hungry Little Caterpillar, who pillaged the Kale

The spinach died out totally, but the iceberg seeds and romaine lettuce in the self watering containers are glorious!!!

Only two tiny pumpkin fruits, and long windy vines with big yellow flowers. And the most pitiful excuse for a watermelon vine ever is tucked away in there too.... If we select a few flowers we hope to still get pumpkins for Halloween, that is a good 6 weeks or more away, right?

The apples in the front on one tree are ripe, and there are a few scarce black currants holding on. I loved these the most last year (black currant sauce on morning oatmeal is so YUMMY!!) , but did not have time to pick them before we went, and sadly most have fallen away....

A few black berries still. Swedish blackberries are tasty. We ate tons of these in Germany, but the Italian ones had a special odd flavor, and were no good at all!!!

Out front, the potato greens have died, I thought we had lost them all to diseases. But we have been told this is normal to lose the greens, and that we should just check the potatoes and harvest when no longer green. Any potato farmers out there? This is my first try at this.... But the carrots are really growing!

The kids picked a few baby carrots for our lentil soup. It was nice to have veggies when we came home with out shopping!!!

A few tomatoes have ripened, but the bushy plants are growing and growing up making green leaves and more tiny fruits. We were advised to stop their growth by clipping them so the energy will go into the fruit. I think I will take this as a metaphor, and do the same for all my fall projects- let the energy I have go into ripen what has already fruited around here instead of sending too many new shoots out this fall.

Not sure if someone picked a few peas when we were gone, but Swedegirl's peas have grown but have just one flower and no pods.

Lots of wild mushrooms in the yard. A friend came by and told us a few we have are edible!

(Not this one, it has gills, ones with pipes underneath are the best bet)

Told these are edible but I am still a little reluctant and scared to eat my yard mushrooms!!

But it was the zukes that came through to impress us most!!! Last year it was the quantity that excited us, after a bit of neglect it was the size that was so exciting this year!

Left unpicked for 5 weeks, they were HUGE!!!!!

BIG!!!!

We left the biggest and picked this one, which was not the largest, but weighed 4 and a half pounds!

What to do?

I thought the big ones would be old and dry and hollow, no good to eat. It was actually sweet and good. People talk about the joy of baby zucchini, that they are young and tender, but big ones like this that can be sliced like lasagna noodles, or make crackers sized disks are pretty special and worth growing, I tell you!!! I baked some with fresh herbs from the garden and some Parmesan, and was starving and found little slices with left over olive pate from Italy was delicious.

The kids finger painting, making themselves at home, getting messy, and reacquainting themselves with the joys of home that they missed on the road.

When we arrived home at 10pm at night, both kids woke up and tried on all their shoes in the closet, with squeals of glee! Fun to see what makes a home a home. Home is where our rain boots are for now.

August and half of September abroad.....

We have driven and home exchanged through Germany, France and Italy for the last month.

This is us today. SwedeDaddy's new nap spot, at the pool of volcanically thermally heated water in the swimming pool in Ischia, Italy.

We are going to go snorkel and swim here, by the grottos and then enjoy the natural hot water pools by the shore.

We chased summer to Italy this year, and are loving every minute....back home next week, though. Did I mention how much we love home exchange?!

Home for July

Swededaddy's nap spot, the hammock

We are home in July. We worked on our chore lists and traveled in June, and plan to travel again come August. So this is our month at home, July. We are savoring the sweet summer at home, doing a bunch of nothing. SwedeDaddy is home on pappaledig, which means he is not working and we all are just together. We sleep in, eat pancakes, work in the garden, and swim. I think I left the house to do something other than pick something up at the store or go swimming for the first time in two weeks when we went out picking berries. It is enough for us that we can open the house and use the whole space around us with out having to suit people up in snow gear or keep things closed up as we must in winter. We have a nice big fenced yard, and so in summer, our house becomes a lot bigger. We mostly eat on the porch, and the kids run in and out all day.

Swededaddy takes stroller walks - bike rides to the grocery store with the girls

They feed the ducks

At home in the yard, SwedeGirl jumps on the trampoline

Eager to copy her sister, SwedeBaby gets a turn on her own trampoline. She has this until she is big enough for the large one

They play with the kids in the neighborhoodThe flowers are blooming all over the yard. I transplanted these from the abandoned garden we found....I had tried to grow some from seeds so I was happy to be gifted with this short cut!

I planted these from seed. I planted lots flower seeds, and it has been so dry precious few have bloomed.

The Roses. We are grateful to those who lived in this house before, the planted such pretty landscaping, and we have lots of roses.

The peonies were amazing this year

And this is a healthy big old stockrose, right next to the garden

It attracts bees

Pollination!

I have always loved these, so glad I have these pretty blue flowers in our yard. Hortensia, I think.

So we just hang out close to home......

We have had friends over for a BBQ, here is the dad playing in the back yard. This backyard set up has been good- the kiddie pool, slip n slide, and swing set next to the garden. There is a lot of hose time going on in the back yard wit hall the gardening, and when the kids are not swimming they fill the watering cans with pool water and go water the garden. Great fun for the baby, and she is doing something useful which makes her feel important.

Water spray

Splashy Swimming

Slip n sliding.....

Pool water in watering can on the way to the garden....

I found two matching elephant watering cans at various yard sales and thrift shops. This pink elephant is so cute, huh?

We have not gone many places, but when we do it is usually to swim in the local pool or lake, It usually ends in ice cream, too. We have had some sunny sandy swimmy days at our favorite nearby lake shore.

Sunny

Goofy

Sandy

Swimmy

Relaxing

Walking in the woods. We were on a mission to collect elder flower to make saft/ elder cordial, but we were late in the season and got very few flowers, then let them go to far before we did anything with them. Oh well, next year.

Our favorite big old tree. It looked like lovers this day, the female to the right and a male to the left.

This little grasshopper hopped onto Swedegirl and stayed with her all afternoon. Here I was grasshopper sitting while she climbed the tree....

Grasshoppers were our 'animal medicine' guide on our move to Sweden. Animal medicine is a native American idea that if you are open and receptive, animals will show up in your life as a messengers of spirit, and by noticing the nature of the creature, you are being an offered a lesson for your life journey. Grasshoppers are the symbol of an opportunity to take a big leap forward, and leave old karma behind. They are considered good luck. We had a huge 3 inch grasshopper hop on us one occasion as we planned what it took to leave Florida. It was so distinct we both thought, oh, this is an animal messenger moment! While this little guy was not making such a big statement with his size, the fact that he let himself be our 5 year olds pet for about 5 hours straight left an impression! This little guy was a fun reminder of our totem grasshopper from when we moved, as our two year anniversary of arriving in Sweden is tomorrow. When I told my incredulous best friend I hoped to move, we noticed we were standing under a poster that said leap of faith. We made the leap. And here we are.

And ready for the next leaps.

We can take it!

It is my mantra, my intention to increase my capacity for joy, love, adventure, and abundance....