A bird's eye view.

My "office" is a corner of jumbled boxes (mid-sort and purge) and a beautiful armoire (given me by dear & generous friend Susan) with computer, paperwork, and so forth -- in a corner of the sunroom, which also serves as seedling breeding ground, family bird watching area, storage place of odds & ends of all sorts, AND dining room. (My intent is to fully purge, organize and prettify this area, which through the winter was just icky storage / office) so that it's an efficient and pleasant area for eating, communing, home learning and writing. I lack proper shelving and a futon, which I think would be a delightful place to read, nap, and watch the natural world unfurl itself before our eyes. Presently, the Mister and I enjoy morning coffee and meals with the boy here, and last night, the sunroom became the site of both an impromptu dance party to Daddy's "computer music" AND a dressing room for a pirate "who takes things."

The sunroom overlooks our backyard -- an oasis in our urban neighborhood, fenced and quite roomy by area standards. In it we have a swingset, a children's picnic table, a sand and water table (the latter two of which are recently acquired, thanks to Diggy's generosity) and room for a small garden without compromising run about playspace for the dog and the boy.

Said gardenspace has been enlarged from last year's plot, and I gave up two smaller plots along the back fence, adding both a small raised bed nearby, and a larger (20 X 20) space out front. Here in the back, as seen above, my fellas made me a little fence of sticks and recycled cording, a visual for the dog, mostly.

Ziggy and I spent the better balance of the day out of doors yesterday (and I completed much during his lengthy "sick nap.") Here in the back I have red potatoes in nearly half the main plot -- started with seed potatoes that originated with Heather in her garden, were passed to Angel who used what she could, and then passed them on to me. And yesterday I weeded the strawberry and lettuce patch, deciding to pull up the volunteer squash plants-- which upon closer observation seem to be (yes!) acorn and / or butternut squash -- which sprouted in my too hastily harvested compost. And I transplanted these squash plants to the garden to see what becomes of them. If they produce, great! And if they fail, so it goes. No big loss. Here, too, are planted beyond the borders along the fence, blackeyed peas and green onions, as well as parsley, cilantro, dill, and rosemary.

In the front plot, I've erected a bamboo tee-pee and Ziggy and I spent late afternoon surrounding it with seeds for butternut, lima beans, heat tolerant peas, and bush beans, some of which I got from Kathryn in a seed swap. (I enjoy knowing that bits and pieces of growth represent other people and families and gardens.... I also have two tomato plants from Rachael, four from my father's fishing buddy Smitty, romas from Kathryn, and Kelly will help me build trellises from her simple but fully effective design, as she was last year's unintentional unofficial tomato festival farmer having just done what came naturally.) Additionally in the larger garden, there is cantaloupe, okra, zucchini, red peppers (saved seed from our Delvin Farms CSA last year), watermelon (two kinds, both saved from our Bug Tussle Farm CSA last year) and a few other things. In late summer, I'll put in the fall garden of chard, spinach, collards, beets, lettuce, and so on.