Garlic in the Garden and Wooden Play Food

The sun has come out! I was beginning to doubt Orphan Annie's promise of the Sun Coming Out Tomorrow, after days of gray very rainy wet weather. But I was happy to look out my window today and see beautiful sunshine pouring in! I figured I had better head out to the garden while I had the sun break to check on my garlic plants, as well as make note of the general state of the garden. I spent the morning placing one of my seed orders and I have big plans for the garden this year. :)

Here are some pictures of my sunny garden, the little Narcissus have bloomed, and the little gnomes are peaking out from behind some spring weeds that have popped up, the sky is a beautiful blue!

I planted a bunch of garlic last fall, most of it is doing well, some were hit a bit hard by our winter blast earlier in the month, but I have hope that they will pop back.  It is definitely time to schedule some weeding before it gets out of hand! The elephant garlic in the top left hand corner are doing great, very large bulbs, and much larger than the other garlic, I am very excited to try it this year. My leeks which I planted last spring are still growing away, but have a bit to go, it will be interesting to see how they do, I have a very wonderful classic leek soup recipe that I am eager to make.

I love getting back out into the garden every spring, not to long until I can get my early spring planting done.

In addition to my excitement about the upcoming gardening season, I had a very enjoyable time last week with a three day visit from my young niece and nephew. We always have a fun time, and it is a good excuse to bring out some of Sarah and Joe's old toys as well as some of my own toy collections to play with. It was also a fun reason to purchase the beautiful Haba and Melissa and Doug Wooden Play food I have always been so fond of, but had no reason to buy!  I thought I would share some pictures of these wonderful toys, they are so nicely made and will last for years.

This first set is from Haba and is made in Germany, this is such a cute set. All the food comes in little tins, and each tin is full of tiny wooden play food, with very nice detail. You can click on the picture to see a larger image. My niece especially enjoyed them. I will say though that these tins are very tiny, with very tiny pieces, definitely only for older children as the pieces are a choking hazard, the tin says ages 3 and up, but I would wait until school age or only with close supervision. Since I collect tin toys and have always enjoyed miniatures, these are right up my alley, they look charming, and would be a nice addition to a play room.

The second type of play food I bought were Melissa and Doug brand wooden foods, the fridge and pantry sets, and canned food set. These were also impressive, and very well made, the fridge and pantry sets are all made of wood, the canned food sets are made of sturdy cardboard with plastic removable lids. These toys were perfect for playing grocery store. I can tell these will last a long time, I love the detail, and am partial to wooden toys.

I think it's nice to have a few good quality toys on hand, even when you don't have young children, it is nice to have something to bring out for younger relatives, and for visitors who bring little ones. I keep the toys stored neatly in my garage and coat closet so I can bring them out quickly when company arrives, and then tidy just as quickly when they leave. When my children were little it was so nice to know that when we would visit my mom or grandma that they had a special box of toys for the kids to play with. The kids really looked forward to playing with toys that they only got to play with at grandma's house. My niece and nephew are the same way, every time they visit they look forward to getting out the storage totes of toys, and it makes the visit fun for them.

The bookcases are transformed into a grocery store.

And my baskets become shopping totes.

Definitely a fun time!

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!


Here are my Amazon links to a few of these wooden toys.