One Straw Revolution

 This is now an outdated picture of Will's garden, which changes every day. Will is getting super geeky (in a good way, dear) about soil composition, microbes, and the science of deep mulching. We just read a splendid book The One Straw Revolution by farmer-philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka. His philosophy and farming are beautiful, and perhaps the beginning of a one-garden revolution for this little Canadian family.

 Will's chicks sprouted pin feathers and grew monstrous: oh my goodness, guinea fowl! They're like a pack of roaming dinosaurs. Beware all insects, frogs, small mammals....they will hurt you.

And on grooveshark these days:

Dervish (Linking you up to our current favourite album, hope it works....) 

I forgot how much fun they are! We haven't listened to Irish music for years, but it's the backdrop to this summer. Lizzie and Angela check out "There Was a Maid in her Father's Garden" because we have to learn it.

World Cup Feva

Soccer in the rain...the English blood runs strong in this child.

Hugh is my first child to really care about clothes. Last time I went to St. Joe's, our local thrift shop, he asked me to pick up gold clip-on earrings.  "But not the girly kind"...My boys were never big gender stereotypers so it's anyone's guess what he meant by girly.

Apparently these are piratey, not girly

I don't often shop at Wal-mart, the superstore everyone loves to hate. In my circles shopping at Wal-mart is considered unenlightened. But when I do I always come home with something nifty, and I don't just mean budget toilet paper. This time it was international soccer jersey t-shirts for the boys. (Five bucks. You can't argue with cheap and awesome.) In doing so I accidentally created three new fans: England, Brazil, and Blue. Matthias wears a blue jersey so any team wearing blue gets his support. 

Actually we are pretty middling World Cup fans. We begin enthusiastically, taper out, and then return with a bang for the semi-finals. I keep pointing out the mohawks and cool hair and neon soccer shoes of 2014, but nobody finds it as fascinating as I do.

The boys are playing "real soccer" this summer, and Will plays for Madawaska United! (Barry's Bay has a soccer team!) Kicking the ball around after supper has become a family hobby. So soccer is gradually taking a bigger place in our life, and I'm quite thrilled about that.

(SHAWS STOP READING NOW)

Will and I cheer for Argentina.