yard with kid

come with me, through the changing light of season passage and of different times of day, to celebrate our adventure of having a yard we don't really know what to do with :). and i guess a kid, ditto.
for the previous owners of our house, the yard was the main selling point. where else can you have such a big yard (for so little) in montreal, they rhetorically asked. when they bought, they thought of their own kid (who was 2 at the time). and then they proceeded to plant cedars all around the fence, and be very proud of themselves.
i could personally take or leave the cedars, but i liked the idea of a yard, even in winter, when you could barely walk through it. my mum would make such a nice garden here, i thought. operative word, would. i am SO not my mother.
but i liked getting something for nothing (i mean, if you don't consider the 25 year mortgage). paying money for a house is one thing, but every little extra detail feels like it just fell into our laps like bounty. case in point, here's violets, my favourite early spring flowers, popping up in MY yard, just like this, for my baby to eat.

so, end of april, everything was finally green and delightful. on the ground, i mean, cause the trees and bushes took their sweet time. we realized that when the baby gets restless putting her out might be a good idea. pictured here, she is just learning how to walk on grass - she felt much more confident on asphalt at first, cause she's used to walking in the street a bit when she comes from daycare.
also pictured, the side porch a.k.a. BBQ porch (previous owner built it specifically to do barbecue on it! lol)

same day as above: more violet-eating, on slightly bigger grass, by a slightly bigger kid, with sliiiiightly longer curls

this picture is meant to document the back side of the yard (that's the north, i think : at least on a montreal map it is). the neighbouring building (i.e. on the same street as us) has six apartments, and just the barest bit of yard in the back and a row of earth for planting on the side. whoever takes care of that row does a spectacular job with the veggie plants and the solar lamps! (also they have nice flowers in front).
also, to the side of the cedars is our one pear tree, just starting to bud at that time - the blooms lasted barely 1 week. 

more cedars, towards the south side (our neighbours with the big house and 4 cats). a nippy day in may, after daycare, and the kid has a tiny first attempt at a ponytail.
(parenthesis: later that month we went to a doctor's visit and the nurses were trying to entertain rada, they gave her a  purple-maned pink pony to play with. "here honey, here's a pony for you!" - me, slightly ashamed: "i don't think she's seen a pony before" - rada, grabbing it: "ponytail!")

how you know it's weekend: we have a photographer! and coffee outside, apparently.
yep, this table plus rocking chairs (we're not rocking them at the moment!) came with the yard. and obviously, as a person who dreams of picnics, i am always trying to lure everybody into eating/drinking outside. Rada just wants bubbles and dandelions. 

we've graduated to dandelion-eating. and of course she feels the most comfortable with both hands full.
at this point into spring/summer all neighbours started cutting their grass. i learned to use the excuse that we're leaving the dandelions for the bees (to myself; there is no one nosy enough to verbally challenge the state of our yard)
anyway, we do like the dandelions, all that yellow is very sunny and cheerful 

later: some of the dandelions have gone to seed. a good time to pick them and make necklaces, like i used to when i was a child. we wouldn't want this ancient art to get forgotten.
sun is strong enough to start worrying about hat-wearing...because Rada does not take kindly to hats. the only thing to do is distract her so she'll forget there's something on her head.

the kid destroyed the necklace within 2 seconds of laying hands on it. at least we got some good photos...and the hat is still on

later (evening, beginning of june): after a bunch of warm but rainy days, the neighbours' lilac is a bit past its prime and the cedars have grown monstrous.
the pile of stones in the corner is my personal yard project: i moved all the stones from the far side of our ramshackle carport, where they were just...lying there, littering the place, tangled in weeds and bark and twigs and remains of potted plants and one rotten tree stump. cleaning that took me about 2 weeks, when the weather was just starting to turn. not sure what else to do about the stones, they look pretty like that for now.
baby likes lilac (mostly because i'm excited about it, i think?). for example, she spots it on the window when we're on the bus and yells "lilac!" and everybody is in awe at her smartness. 

morning before daycare: out for some reason with a lotion bottle and a wipe. (she goes around the house like that, "cleaning" everything).
you can see that the grass situation is a bit beyond control, and some dandelions are taller than the kid. 

weekend morning, in front of the house. actually this is yesterday! over this past week, the bush at the gate has become absolutely spectacular. i never knew that a humble gathering of simple white flower blobs can get to look that good.
the kid is down to dress/shorts...i'm so clueless with layering - i'm supposed to be protecting her from the sun, right? so, long sleeve? whatever, in about 5 minutes both hat and cardigan will be off

more walking in the tall grass.
i am so happy to have figured out that the big city-planted tree next to our house is a maple after all! silver maple, i think, which has smaller/narrower leaves. i hope it turns spectacularly golden and/or red in the fall, as advertised!

seems like a happy kid, doesn't she?
and LOL at the flower rows that i haven't tended in about a month, since our tulips were blooming

so...the dramatic conclusion was that the dandelions had to go!
we went to the mall and bought a manual lawn mower (and clipping scissors for the cedars!).
b. wanted it to be manual (i had no idea or preference) - for the workout, i guess? we found out that it's really really hard to cut very tall grass. i think next time it will be a piece of cake - people do it about every 2 weeks just to maintain it.
so good bye, dandelion fluff! 

once he got used to it, the workout was too easy, so he got an extra weight to carry.
the kid can run in the yard again, yay! (and the fresh cut grass smell in the cool of the evening was absolutely divine.)
also, check out the new cedar height! not perfectly clipped, but "managed", i guess.

exciting day for the baby, she now has her own personal ball.
probably off to become a professional soccer player and validate all my anxiety :)