Cicada Days

This is the girls' new fairy garden in the backyard. Had you heard of these? I had not. But-- the other day, I bought a compost bin from a member of one of our local garden groups. She was charming; she offered to bring it to our house, and sold it to me cheap. She had a british accent, and asked Mia if we had a fairy garden, and that if we did not, we really MUST have one, and to leave the fairies bits of cookies and ribbon from time to time because fairies *love* ribbon. Well. Mia pretty much asked me non-stop for 2 days when it was that we were going to make our fairy garden. And sure enough, if you Google 'fairy garden', you'll find lots of fairy garden enthusiasts. Sunday was the day; we scoured the dollar stores for cute garden decorations and Jeff tilled up a space next to the birch tree. We planted petunias, impatients, and lavender. Our neighbor let us transplant some of her ferns. We hung some chimes and a birdhouse in the tree, and bought a tiny but very heavy birdbath. It will be a work in progress for the girls, I'm planning to get them some fairy dolls and a house so they can play in it too.