Crimson and clover

Yes, that's a goat I'm walking.  Our guy Milton has turned into quite the troublemaker lately.  In addition to getting his head caught in the fence every single day, he has started ducking out of his pasture pen after just a few minutes of grazing to rampage through the strawberries.  I've decided it is all just a desperate cry for attention, so I've started to lavish him with pets while his head is caught in the fence and he can't dodge away.  I also leash him up and walk him up and down the road in front of the house.  Someday I hope he will show promise to be a cart goat and pull our child around in a tiny chariot.  We'll see..

It's time to mow down the crimson clover and till it in to help build the soil.  It's just that it's so pretty, we can hardly bear to.

Ole is already trying to fill his father's shoes.

Baby bee baby bee

We've been spending a lot more time outside now that the weather has warmed.  I have the daunting task of preventing sunburn on Ole's waxen skin, so I've paired the giant sun hat with SPF 45.  It's so practical and so darn cute!

Alex's folks and brother came out for a visit and brunch on Mother's Day.  They haven't seen Ole since he was a wee baby, and Ole was eager to show off his new crawling and standing skills.

Ole giggles as Patrick blows on his wispy hair

We moved the hives into a sunnier location this year.  They're doing great so far, buzzing happily and visiting our patch of blooming red clover.  Here I checked each hive for new eggs, a sign that it has a healthy queen.

And we're still prepping and planting the garden, very thankful for the dry warm days.

a year later

Every May I am drawn down the woodsy path near my house by the wonderful scent of lilacs.  A few large bushes grow on the southernmost edge of a neighbor's property, and she's kind enough to share them with us.
Here I am last year, glowing in my pregnancy:

And here I am this year, slightly more disheveled:

The weather was much nicer last year, but the blurry effect from the rain on the lens today does have a nice dreamy quality.  Hardly a ringing endorsement of my fashion sense, I'm wearing the same black hoodie in both.  Just add baby.
Alex clipped his way through thorny blackberry vines to reach the lilacs.  I snipped off a few branches of pink blossoms from the old apple tree.

Most of this land is scheduled to be scraped and flattened this summer in a ill-conceived highway straightening project, so we point out tiny saplings to each other.  They're plants we could transplant if we had the space to grow them.  We size up fallen trees.  They're firewood if we saw them up and haul the logs away, if only we had a surplus of time and energy this spring. 
The trillium caught Alex's eye.  They are a sure sign of spring in the woods here.  These are trillium ovatum, one of eight trillium species on the Pacific coast.  Despite the increasing rain, he dug up a few to transplant to our small grove. 

3/4 of a year

We celebrated nine months with Ole on the outside today.

He's had a busy week--he learned to wave and to pull himself to standing, and yesterday he crawled for the first time.  The crawling is still a pretty deliberate motion, but getting smoother all the time.

He is such a sweet and happy boy with a funny sense of humor.  I can't believe how quickly he's learning all about the world; it is truly a joy to watch.  And I know everyone says it, but I really can't imagine life without him now.