Trees

The days...they fly!  So much happening this May I've barely been able to keep up with it all.

Within the space of a few days, our backyard has changed dramatically.  The city is updating the sewage line and upgrading the water flow path of the creek behind us, which means all kinds of drastic, tree-killing changes.

Here's a corner view the morning before it all started...

Here's a couple of hours later, after a frantic removal of honeysuckle, trellises, and rose bushes to the side of the deck. (One rose bush has already died. Wah!)

And then the next afternoon came the tree crews.  They sliced through our fence and gate in seconds, and within 10 minutes our back cottonwood was gone. Here's the final picture of our lost tree...

I watched him fall, and took video. My sunglasses hopefully hid the tears as I said goodbye.

I have to say, I am pretty impressed that they got our giant tree to fall exactly between those posts!  In order to "fence in" our yard, we now have orange construction fencing running across, effectively halving our backyard space for the summer. Sigh.

But in an effort to preserve some of nature's sweetness during this rocky time, Rowan and I created a Fairy Garden under the edge of the deck on Saturday.  She picked the flowers and arranged where she wanted them, and I helped get them in the ground. She placed all her little fairy accessories (toadstool, birdhouse, tiny creatures, etc.) around the area. We used a hunk of bark from our fallen cottonwood as a backdrop, as well as a slice of it's branch (which the saw-guy was nice enough to cut me upon request).  We also saved a bag full of wood chips that were left around the trunk, and Rowan created a pathway into her Fairy garden with them, then lined the path with all the stones in her rock collection. She used a large shell she found years ago as a "fairy bathtub" and filled it with fresh water. It's adorable, I must say, and she's so proud of it!  We can check on it from the kitchen windows whenever we want, and are glad our old tree lives on in the magic of our fairy garden!

Before all the yard carnage started, I spent a wonderful weekend with friends at a lovely house on the Lake of the Ozarks.  We sunned, knitted, ate, relaxed, and had a wonderful time!  I learned a new (highly addictive) art form called Zentangle, and spent several hours creating the following doodles...

I also cranked out 17 knitted roses to give my Girl Scouts at our final meeting! 

I created an envelope with photos from our zoo overnight for each girl, Zentangled her name, and attached a rose.

I made a couple extra for my Cadette helper and unofficial assistant leader, Jennifer too, but I turned theirs into bookmarks.

And now that our Girl Scout school year is over, I've jumped into planning our two badge workshops. In June, the girls will be earning their Gardener badge, which requires a 2 week plant experiment they need to do at home.  I created a pretty awesome (if I do say so myself) workbook we will use at the workshop, which included info and instructions on the experiment.  I created an experiment kit for each girl and got them delivered on Friday so they could get started.

Rowan chose to do the "Sunlight" experiment, and is growing her seeds on the kitchen windowsill. She kept saying, "This is so fun!!" while she prepared the experiment. Love that! (You can see her out on the deck adding her extra soil to the plant pot.)

I have more afghan squares to share (now that the roses are done) but will save that for another day.  Right now I have to begin my vigil of waiting for Brynn's bus, and the sun has at last decided to come out and keep me company!