Our Backyard in the Summer

It doesn't matter where you live, you can always have fun with a little space of grass, some paper and some twigs. Our backyard isn't that big and to tell you the truth, it's not that attractive. We've manicured a few of the stubby bushes that came with the house, planted a few leaf stalks of our own, and had the lawn replanted with mini gadja grass (small elephant grass). As I mentioned earlier, the kids worked for hours digging the hard clay and "planting" bricks in a line. If you look at the photo, we are slowly filling the dirt pit with white rocks. Why slowly? Because when we take our new car to the small roadside shops and try and buy bags of rocks, the prices skyrocket. When our driver buys bags of rocks when he's riding his 40 year old Vespa (really cool machine, really) he gets a hugely reduced rate. He is bringing them to work little by little. When the rainy season hits, we'll no longer have mud splashing us when we go outside.

When Dale O came for a visit she brought a huge bag of marshmallows and it's been sitting in our fridge, crying out for attention (ants would attack it in the cupboard). I've just recently cleared out our file folders and had some papers that needed to be burned. The kids got some sticks, made pointy ends and roasted some marshmallows over their little fire. They even got our driver, Haris, involved. He found some more sticks to burn and enjoyed a marshmallow or two with them. I loved the smell of the smoke because it reminded me of camping. I was going to get Tris to stick his head near the fire so I could smell the campsmoke in his hair later, but since he doesn't really have much hair I nixed that idea.

While the kids were in the backyard, Casper the friendly rabbit from across the street came for a visit. He's awesome, and even comes when you call him. When he heads our way we usually feed him a snack (but he doesn't like green beans) and then he heads home.

We are now thinking that it would be fun to have some chairs in the backyard even if only to enjoy on a Saturday morning. One thing at a time!

Thanks for reading.