Compost Studios

I am a writer, nature lover, budding artist, photography enthusiast, and creative spirit reducing, reusing, and recycling midlife experiences through narrative, art, photos, and poetry. 

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Veronica McCabe Deschambault, V-Grrrl in the Middle, Compost StudiosTM

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« Maybe we should bind their feet too... | Main | Recap of the weekend in London »
Tuesday
Mar132007

The Greenies get spring fever

As soon as the daffodils opened two weeks ago, my children E-Grrrl and Mr. A could no longer suppress the dormant urge to cultivate life. My son rummaged through the kitchen cabinets and found some dry beans which he and his sister placed with wet paper towels into Ziploc bags attached to the window to sprout. He also rescued an onion and a bulb of garlic from becoming part of dinner, setting them in dirt to sprout as well.

img_2022.jpg

The two kids hijacked their dad’s spade and a pile of glass jars from the recycling pile in the basement and went outside seeking plants. They dug up moss, grass, and various and sundry other green and glorious things, transplanting them into the jars and spritzing them (and each other) with a spray bottle full of water.

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 For their finale, they raided the potting bench and shook unknown seeds into a planter just to see what would grow. The windowsill in the kitchen has now been transformed into a long and lovely cat salad bar--I mean NURSERY.

cat salad bar.jpg

When the warm sunny days hit earlier this week, Mr. A and E-Grrrl were eager to explore the wandeling by our home. We squished along the muddy path and admired the budding trees and pink, yellow, and white wildflowers growing on the forest floor. At the pond, my son was looking for tadpoles and was thrilled when E-Grrrl pointed out something even better—mountains of frog and fish eggs in the marshy areas. Mr. A carefully harvested some eggs and put them in the small pond in the terrarium and frog habitat he had created at home. With a little luck the eggs will soon hatch and develop into homegrown cat toys—I mean FROGS.

frog eggs i.jpg

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Reader Comments (18)

How wonderful! My Miss M would be envious of the frog/fish spawn! OUR pond just finally finished thawing yesterday! I have a few bulbs poking through the mulch but that's about it. We've been having nice spring-like days and with day light saving time starting early the added extra sunlight at the end of the day gives us added hope that winter is done with.
March 13, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterShirl Grrrl
Petey is so lucky to have so many Greenies in the house preparing toys -oops! I mean live things to grow- for him.
:-)
Happy Spring!

March 13, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterFlubberwinkle
Frogs are delicious this time of year, at least my cat tells me so.
March 13, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterfuriousBall
furiousBall,

You are so right. And they're a French delicacy! You can serve them with a side of slugs, I mean, escargot.
March 13, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterV-Grrrl
I love the frog-egg picture and the new design. It's very spring! Your kids' projects and activities are great - it's no wonder they did so well at that Mind Game Thingamathingy Contest.
March 13, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterMignon
What a wonderfully creative and inventive couple o' kidlets!
March 13, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterRick
I love this post..was thinking and writing about similair..but not as lush, signs of spring.

But the frogs eggs..yucck. I can handle lots of gross..but for some odd reason frog eggs make me so heeby jeeby. I said YIKES out loud..and shivered a bit. You are a brave and good mom.
March 13, 2007 | Unregistered Commenterwendy
Lovely spring caper, great photos, especially the last one. (Let us know if any cat toys develop!)
March 14, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterOrtizzle
Wendy,

I am so with you on the frog eggs. When my son was fishing for them with his net, I was totally grossed out by the gelatinous mass he was chasing in the pond water. Bleah!

He has raised frogs from tadpoles every summer, but never from eggs, so this is an adventure.
March 14, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterV-Grrrl
This post is so amazing. I often wish I was more of a nature girl, but I don't like to get my hands dirty too much (which really rules out gardening, LOL!!)
March 14, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterNancy
What a great post! Loved hearing how creative your kids are!
March 14, 2007 | Unregistered Commenterjavacurls
I love that the kids took such care!
March 14, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterJessica
You guys gave me a great idea for me and the girls dad daughter day this weekend. Thanks for the post V. Oh and the name that stuck is paycheck after he chewed up Mrs Inside Outs Afgan throw. the hole house ran for cover when we heard her car pull up in the driveway...I/O
March 14, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterInside Out
That was a lovely post - and it's so nice to see that the kids enjoy nature as well as the usual stuff like DVDs and Nintendo. However the plants or frogspawn works out, I know it will be good for them to have done that with the two of you as a family. :)
March 14, 2007 | Unregistered Commenterplatypus
Wow! Look at that. I love this about your kids. So cool how they get into science hands on! I want Wyatt to be like this...Maybe we need to take more nature walks.

You are so funny, too.

:)
March 14, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterAmber
Oh lordy ... you're a good mum :)

Once, a long time ago, before the wheel when I was a child, our cat had a frog fest ... be warned lol.
March 15, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterDi
You have cultivated two lovely, creative little gems here. Thanks for sharing the photos.
March 15, 2007 | Unregistered Commenterlittlepurplecow
I just love reading about the projects your kids take on, V. They seem like such creative, happy souls.
March 26, 2007 | Unregistered CommenterTB

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