Pea Please!

Spring is upon us and we've yet to plant our summer garden! I'm hoping to get to that this weekend. In the meantime, we've been working on taming the area around the garden bed.  Here is what our little garden looked like at about this time last year.  The area around the garden is just dirt and while looks o.k. in this picture, it is typically full of unruly weeds.  We’ve been looking for ground cover for this area that looks nice, is low maintenance, and that our cat won't use as her personal litter box.  One option was vegetative ground cover like elfin thyme.  But we have some in the front of our house and it still required quite a bit of weeding.  Since we don't spray any of our landscaping with weed killer, that option didn't work for us.  We have enough hand weeding to keep us busy and the idea is to make less work for ourselves, not more.  

Enter pea gravel!  I debated on whether or not I like the look of pea gravel.  But after hunting down some pictures on Pinterest and weighing our other options we gave it the thumbs up!

As usual the process has been much slower than I anticipated. I though it would be a weekend project, but it's been a little-bit-over-several-weeks project.  The first weekend I spent a day weeding out all around the bed. The next week husband laid down some weed cloth. We spent the last few weeks looking at various options for pea gravel. I like the look of light colored pea gravel, but it seems very difficult to come by in our area. We checked out the options at Home Depot, but they were pretty much non-existent. That was about three weeks ago.  Today we stopped by a fabulous local stone store. They had a large variety of options.  We really liked the coral pea gravel, which is light with orange tones and I think would look really nice against the spanish tile stepping stones.  However, the $200+ price was WAY outside our price range.  Instead we came home with a truck load this pea gravel, which cost a total of $35... for the whole truck load!! And to top it off, it is from a local quarry.  I'm all for supporting local businesses.  


The boys were hard at work unloading the gravel today and here's what our garden looks like now!  I love the results!! Thank you boys for my wonderful Mother's Day present!  Now I need to get started on planting the tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, peppers, and basil!

Getting Out Into Nature

One of my goals for 2012 is to get out into nature. I used to spend an inordinate amount of time outside. Most of my pre-graduate school jobs involved being outside.  And because I live where the weather is generally great year round, I spent my free time at the beach, swimming in the ocean, hiking, biking, etc. Once I started working in an office and became a mom, the amount of time I spend in the great outdoors has dwindled significantly,  which I've decided has had a negative impact on my overall health and happiness.  I'm much happier when I experience the natural world around me.

So to rectify this situation I decided that I need to schedule time each week to be in nature (and my garden doesn't count).  In February, I put on running shoes for the first time in THREE YEARS and went for a trail run.  To be honest, this wasn't entirely my idea.  My outdoor activity of choice typically has nothing to do with running.   I don't really enjoy running and I'm REALLY slow. Like your-grandma-could-beat-me slow and always-dead-last slow.  No joke.  But my little sister who is an ultra-marathon runner (I still wonder if we're actually related) decided that her bachelorette party would be based around a trail race.  Being the Matron-of-Honor I felt obligated to participate in the run. So off I went running into the woods on my first run in three years with the hope that my body has some muscle memory and that maybe this would be a good way to start working on this goal I'd set for myself. Amazingly enough I actually enjoyed the run. Maybe because I did more hiking than running and no doubt largely due to the breathtakingly gorgeous trail.  So this trail hiking/running thing has stuck. I'm not always excited about getting up at 8am on Saturday morning to run/hike, but I thank myself every week.

Also, I've also found that I'm not the only person who thinks that being in nature brings healing and happiness.  Since I created this goal for myself, I continue to come across books and articles discussing the subject.  One author recommended by my son's preschool teacher is Richard Louv.  I'm looking forward to reading a number of his books.

I've found this whole goal a fun adventure in many different ways and I'm loving where it's taking me.
Any goals that you are working on that have lead you on a fun adventure?

Happy Anniverary

Klimt Tree of Life

One year ago today I started my yoga teacher training program.  I posted about it here. It's been a wonderful experience. I've met wonderful people and learned so much from others and myself. I'm so glad I took the plunge and decided to follow my bliss even though I wasn't sure how I'd find the time.  I completed my class hours in December and this week I'll finish my observations hours.  Then it's up to me to start my own classes. I'm still not sure where this adventure is going to take me, but I'll post more about it once I have my program more firmed up. Stay tuned.