Our grass has been slowly coming back. The poor stuff really has to fight for it’s life out here. First off… we don’t live in an area that’s really hospitable to nice fluffy, easy on your feet, green grass. Think trying to grow grass in a sand box…. or on the beach, but not that wet. 🙂 But Stu has been working with this stuff all spring and summer. He has seeded it a couple of times, uh… the birds I like to feed might have something to do with some of the seed disappearing… and the ants too. 🙂 And he has faithfully watered it and mowed it all summer. Not to mention cutting back the tree “sprouts” that spring up all over the yard and are very tenacious!
His hard work really has payed off though, because the grass is much thicker than it was and it is even growing back in the bald patches. The kids now like to play on it, and I’ve let Ella crawl around out there from time to time now that it’s cooler and there aren’t as many bugs. The one drawback to this great grass is that these horrible wasps called (from what Google tells me) Tarantula Hawks like to crawl around IN the grass. They are HUGE and black and have rusty orange wings that make a terrible sound when they fly. And from what I’ve read, while they aren’t aggressive, they have one of the worst stings EVER. *sigh* So I have been reluctant to let Ella just crawl to her heart’s content on the grass for fear she’d crawl over one of these. Though why they like to hang out in the grass is beyond me.
But I check the grass patch thoroughly and then let her go. The boys know enough to stay well away from the wasps and they come running to tell us if they spot one. We spray them when we get a chance. Ick. Grass is so fun! And if it’s not grass, it’s dirt, so de Bella gets grass. 😉
Myles prefers dirt, however. And can be seen merrily tossing all over his head at any given time of day. 🙂
Qade likes to inform me of the particulars of the latest bug that he has discovered.
Seriously, he finds the weirdest things. The other day he came running in to tell me about a BIG green caterpillar that he found. So we all rushed out to see it and sure enough it was the biggest caterpillar I’ve ever seen. I looked it up on trusty ol’ Google and it told me that the name of it was Horned Tomato Worm. Strange…. we haven’t seen any tomato plants around here.
Myles’ only purpose when he gets on this swing is to reach out and grab the branches on the tree. 🙂 He gets a huge kick out of it when he does, and gets rather upset if for some reason “it’s not working” to get him high enough. 🙂
We have fun outside in our yard. I admit that the bugs that seemed more numerous than ever this summer, have kept me from spending as much time out there as I want. But the boys have enjoyed the space immensely! I’m looking forward to the death of the bugs with the cooler Fall weather and spending some of the golden afternoons out on our grass! 🙂