It's gardening time again!

First, a photo of our own style master: 

Hello, you can call me Cool Breeze

And now on to the recent garden related work we've been doing:

Robbie made a cold frame to protect our wee green shoots when we set them out. The fabric will remain in place until the plants either outgrow it or have begun flowering, so we can hopefully avoid some of the plague of parasitic vermin.

Peppers, broccoli and lettuces!

The seeds, all cozied up in our little insulated germination box downstairs. 

B-ham snaps

I was out and about the other day running some errands downtown and happened to have the point-and-shoot in my bag. I saw a lot of stuff I want to take pictures of with my good camera, but decided to go ahead and shoot some snapshots some of the things that caught my eye. 

Mmmm, maudlin.

Hey, it's the Go-Go Capital of the South! As you can clearly see! 

I believe this speaks for itself.

Our little cowpoke

Riley decided that he'd like to spend his Christmas money, so today we went to a little toy store in Homewood and he found his treasure: a cowboy set! As soon as he laid eyes on it he exclaimed "YES!". So, that it was. It has two guns with realistic sounds (oh, joy) and holsters, a kerchief for his neck, a badge and a canteen. He loves it. 

Galloping through the yard in full regalia.

Ohmygosh! The bad guys! They're just around the corner! 

Airplane and garden

We got a fabulous toy from my brother, a remote control airplane, and we had a lot of fun playing with it yesterday evening. 

Ready? Here goes! 

Wow, it really flies! 

Look at it go!

My turn! Zoom!

Zoom!

Zooom!

I'm gonna fly you, airplane!

Cutting the pvc pipe to make a cold frame for the raised bed. 

Ri has a good, steady hand.

Hm! Looks pretty even!

Reviewing the array of seed catalogs and making choices.

Related? Probably.

First, I actually slept last night. 10.5 hours! It's amazing what getting sufficient rest will do for my state of mind. Yesterday I was a total crab, just barely hanging on by the tiniest thread. Today I feel pretty good; I can hold a train of thought and I have a decent amount of energy. Whew. 

But about the sleep issue. I've been thinking about it a lot and Robbie and I have been talking about it off and on for the last couple of weeks. We've been wondering what kind of stress might be working under the radar and contributing to my sleeplessness. 

I told him that the only thing I can think of that's been kind of stressful recently is a growing awareness of getting older. Many (nearly all, actually) of my mom friends are adding second and third babies to their families, and recently I have felt moments of actual grief as I consider the fact that we very likely will never have a sibling for Riley. Our late start meant that I had my first child at age 39, and now, at age 43, I am seeing indications of perimenopause. I've seen clear signs that my body is changing, and we have not had any success in conceiving, so I'm thinking that moving out of the reproductive phase of my life has really been on my mind these days, given all the pregnancies around me. 

What will this mean for me to move into this next phase of my life? I think that's the thing that's been simmering on the back burner. I've been trying to draw it out so I can give it more conscious thought these last several days, and I think once I give it the attention that it deserves and go ahead and make some headway on processing these changes it'll be fine, but it kind of snuck up on me. I'd been looking back, towards Riley's babyhood, and mentally considering a second child, when what was happening was ahead of me. 

Today I'm boxing up all the things I'd held onto for a future baby. It's hard, but I think in the long run it'll help me move forward. 

The not-sleeping thing

I think I've mentioned this here before, but Robbie and I have both been diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse/dysautonomia, which is usually not that big a deal and requires nothing more than sensible lifestyle choices to manage. However, I've recently been dealing with an extended bout of insomnia, which I believe may be related to the condition, and it's been really bothering me. 

I'll be exhausted (exhausted!) during the day and wishing for nothing more in the world than a good night of rest, but at night, as I reach the point of nearly drifting off, I'll suddenly be hit by a burst of something akin to a jolt and BLAM! I'll be wide awake. Repeat ad nauseum. Finally, somewhere in the wee hours, I'll finally fall into a restless drowse, only to be woken pre-dawn by our little early riser. 

I have a check-up scheduled with our doctor, who is has is very familiar with the MVP condition, but it's not till March. I told the office that I want the next appointment available, should anyone cancel, but till then I'm essentially in a holding pattern. Not sleeping and never fully awake in the day. Really dreadful. 

Gardening season again!

Well, we've gone directly from winter coats to t-shirts. Typical Alabama weather for early spring, but it always takes me by surprise. 

Today I've been doing some clean-up and weeding in the garden and the yard and it's felt really great to be outside. Robbie's stained the raised-bed garden and it looks excellent! It always did look neat and tidy, but with the addition of the stain it even looks fancy. 

Last week I had to take some things down to my favorite bookstore downtown and stopped to take some pictures. 

Strolling along....

This picture doesn't begin to to this place justice. I need to go back at dusk or on a cloudy day so the inside will show more. It is from another time altogether. 

And how about that shoe?! I don't know when mens shoes stopped being ankle high, but apparently this sign dates from then. 

Caw! A detail from the old Protective Life building.

Stain! 

The stainer

Weekend Photos

We've had a really great weekend here! Given that Robbie was away for most of last week and has to go out of town again this coming week we knew that we'd need to get in some good family time this weekend. Saturday we went to the Mcwane Center  in the morning, went for lunch and then went to Homewood Park to let Buster do some 'scootering'. We were a little bit disappointed to learn that the park had dismantled their skateboard ramps, which Riley was very keen to try out, but the huge, smooth pad that remains is still really fun for the little folks and there were plenty of kids around his age there. In typical age four fashion, he was all bravado and sass, telling the other kids things like "you can't catch up with ME kid!". Hilarious. 

We watched some amazing youtube videos of kids doing tricks on scooters yesterday morning and were all blown away by how much you can do on them. The youngsters have elevated it to an art form, that's for sure. Check this little fella out. Eleven years old. 

Dang! That's amazing. 

Now on to the pictures. 

Geez, the ravages of time just sneak up on you overnight!

Having fun with the physics exhibits

Ooooh, fishies!

Robbie striking an Adonis pose. 

It's Stunt Boy! 

And Stunt Dad!

And Stunt Momma!

Our shadows and our little zipperfoot boy

Two dudes going for a ride in the truck.

Seems self evident, but...

Any 'sport' that relies on bashing your head over and over again can cause brain damage. Who'd have guessed?