cole and his green thumbs

for some reason i kept forgetting to download our recent photos. we've got a good few weeks of pictures that need showing for the various grandmas and other curious folk... starting with: cole's love of balcony gardening! stuff is really growing on around here - oh man, that's horrible but i can't make myself untype it:

three weeks ago, before everything was planted:
about two and a half weeks ago:yesterday:

he loves to touch the leaves and to help water them (which is good because i usually kill all my plants by forgetting to water them). he really enjoys swatting at the smallest japanese maple - it's a bitty little thing and i'm not sure how much of cole's love it can stand! ;-)

i didn't go too crazy for the gardening this year - although i of course bought more than i had planned on when overwhelmed by choices at the store. everything was so green! and fragrant! and full of potential! and of course i'd love to grow a tomato (i didn't get one) and i probably have room for an enormous blackcurrant bush (i didn't get that either because i don't)... i stuck to a passionflower, the tiny maple (named victoria) and a nice taller but still smallish maple (named winston). i always name my maples after british leaders - i'm not sure why, but started and we've managed to either leave planted elsewhere or dehydrate our way through charles, charles II, oliver cromwell and prince harry. also filled a few large pots with herbs - they're all smooshed together and smelling lovely. cole likes to rummage around the pots and he always comes out smelling like mint - got a few kinds of that too (english and kentucky) so i can make some mojitos with freshly plucked mint this summer.