Ready for First Grade first day of school pictures

 Nice and neat and ready for first grade!

She picked the butterfly dress I had made for her, and the fish pants - because she head dreamt of fishing in a boat with the whole family last night, and catching fish.

 

But, I knew that was not the 'real' Esme - and I asked her to show me how excited she was, because I knew it was there This is how we see her daily, animated, eyebrows up - ready and excited for everything! It's in the eyes - I just had to compare and contrast because to me this is the 'real' Esme. 

The hair also gave me some trouble - I settled for this, as it was not wanting to twist the way it should and I had to braid the little tails a bit before I put them together into the other one.  I had some experience last year trying - not always succeeding - to contain her hair for the school day so she didn't have it on her neck and elbows... she said that made it hard to read and write when it was moving on her skin while she did her work... but it is also so pretty it is hard to just bind it up every day and not let it hang down some.

Blue aleurone, red striped pericarp - crossing my Indian corn

Just one ear - but the idea seems to have taken hold!

I tried to cross up two distinct separations of my Indian corn this year, the red-striped variety that seemed so dominant last year with the blue/white kernel flour corn that produced a few stunning ears. I ended up with this, a blue aleurone layer with red striped pericarp. Not too bad - and definitely different than anything I have seen in my very short year or two looking at odd corns. I am proud of a tiny accomplishment, even one ear :) when it shows me the process is working.

I think there will be a total of about thirty kernels on this cob that show the cross - and the rest are regular white and red striped, perhaps holding some of the genes but not showing them. Since the blue aleurone is the trait passed by the father of the corn this collection of kernels and other blues will have to be planted as the 'tassellers' next year and plant either the red-striped or a selection of white kernels as the mother plants and detassel them. That is a lot of work, but it would produce interesting results.

I am hoping the 'test plot' of leftover seed will do something this year. I put out just about twenty seeds left from the parents of all of these corns - and they are up about two inches and looking like they are not having any mineral deficiencies. The drought took so much of the experiment in the first part of the year I could not help but plant another round just to see what happened.

The experiment in the west field - blue vs. black, is still going but with only half-hopes of producing anything. Some of those plants have already tasselled out at 3 feet tall - and others look like they could be healthy enough to maybe put on an ear. We've had a bit more rain now, so we'll see what happens there, too.

I have ordered Mandan Bride corn to grow next year - and Japonica Striped Maize as well. The Mandan has the food qualities I want in a corn for people and animals - and the Japonica was just too pretty, with pink, white, yellow and green striped leaves and deep purple ears lending on variegated. The Japonica is a 'popcorn' breed though, so it will need to be planted far away from the field corn.


separate your popcorn away from the field corn

You can see above what happens when popcorn genes interfere with the process. They are dominant for ear size, even over the mother plant. This mistake, and the drought - led to some sad things this year. But, it is a learning experience. That is why I'm doing this, to learn and create something new.

Note : today is the first day of vacation - go back to the work on the 30th.

First day of preschool

This is Esme's first day at the special preschool, it is one day a week. I think the hardest thing is going to be explaining to her she has to leave - and that she can't go back until next week (not tomorrow).




We just got back from dropping her off at her first day of preschool. We were slightly early - but they took her in and there were other full-day kids there. She went right to playing. In the car on the way over she said she was ready - and she would have a table (Desk) and a chair and play with the kids. She did not see us leave - but I think she will be okay. The only other time we ever have left her except with Grandma was at a daycare for one day when she was two - to see how she would do, and she was fine there. I was trying not to hover - although I know they expect it...

She was playing with her backpack last night - it arrived just in time. I chose it but knew she would like it. She has three DVD discs of Hello Kitty that she has nearly memorized but still needs to watch nearly daily. She picked out two books to put in and I put her name in them and on the backpack. If this backpack survives a few years she could take it to kindergarten - as it is a good size for that.

In other bits - she looks so tall in these pictures, like she has grown nearly a foot in the past year... She is 42 inches tall, and I could see it when she went in among the other kids. I don't know if half of them are younger than four - but she is showing her genetics from two 'tall' parents ;)