Picture this: If you give a squirrel a grape

Today's question:

What do you feed wild critters at your place?

Gardening with grandkids

Over the weekend, I finally got around to starting some seeds for later filling a few patio containers. In Colorado, nothing should go in the ground before Mother's Day, so I'm hoping the timing will be just right. It's the first time I've tried starting seeds, and I'm crossing my fingers my zinnia, snapdragon and marigold seeds will have grown to a decent size by the time there's no longer a chance of snow, ice or frost.

As I poked the seeds down into the egg cartons filled with soil, I wished I had a local grandchild or two to help out. When my daughters were little, they helped me plant things now and then. Nothing major — meaning, no bountiful harvest — ever came of it, just a sunflower or marigolds here and there, as Colorado's not the greatest climate for growing things. Still, there’s something about getting one’s hands dirty and appreciating what comes (or might come) from the earth to counteract all the electronic and artificial stimulation kids get on a daily basis.

For grandmas who are more fortunate than I — those who can enjoy a little digging and growing with the grands — below are some tips to ensure your grandchild’s curiosity with the natural world grows right along with the goodies you plant together.

• Designate one part of your yard or garden — or even one special container garden, if you’re short on space — then together peruse gardening catalogs and websites for ideas of what they could include in the space.

• Keep in mind this one particular space is primarily for the grandchild, so guide the process but allow him or her to make plenty of the selections and decisions.

• Plant using a variety of methods. Seeds are always fun to plant and see sprout, while plantings already started provide some instant gratification while they wait.

• Include plenty of goodies to eat along with the pretty and colorful marigolds, sunflowers and such. Beans are one of the easier edibles to grow. Consider cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, too. And don’t forget herbs such as basil and oregano, which can be sprinkled on homemade (or frozen) pizza.

• Forego chemicals on a garden children will be digging into. Either on your own or together with older grandkids, research organic ways to ward off bugs and disease. Consider options for repelling wildlife, too, including squirrels, deer, even cats and dogs.

• Include your grandchild in the work (weeding, watering) involved in gardening as well as the reaping of the bounty. They’ll naturally tire of the toiling far sooner than you, far sooner than will be effective, but take that with a grain of salt and finish up the job yourself later, especially with the younger kiddos.

• Plan some fun things to do with what’s grown. Include edibles grown in the garden in snacks or meals. Allow flowers to be cut and shared with friends and family. Etch a child’s initials (or name, if short) into a small pumpkin to watch the scarred name stretch and grow right along with the gourd.

For additional ideas on gardening with grandchildren (or any children), read Susan's About.com—Grandparents article on Helping Kids Garden and Teaching Them to Love It.

Photo of child courtesy Pixabay.com

Today's question:

What are you planning to grow this year — with or without children?

One Baby Band kicks off the GRAND Social

Hello to a new week! Thank you for visiting once again for the GRAND Social link party.

Today I'd like to open the show in GRAND fashion, with this from the One Baby Band:

A star in the making, no doubt.

And now, the headliner: the GRAND Social link party. Enjoy!

How it works:

• All grandparent bloggers are invited to add a link. You don't have to blog specifically about grandparenting, but you must be a grandparent who blogs.

• To link up, copy the direct URL to the specific post — new or old — that you want to share, not the link to your blog's home page. Then click the blue "Click here to enter" text below and follow the directions to add your post and graphic to the list.

• You can add up to three posts, but no duplicates, please, and none you have promoted on a previous GRAND Social linky. And no contests, giveaways, or Etsy sites, please.

• Adding a mention at the bottom of your linked posts, such as This post has been linked to the GRAND Social linky, is appreciated. Or, you can post the GRAND Social button anywhere on your page using the following code:

<a href="/" target="_blank"><img src="http://grandmasbriefs.squarespace.com/storage/GRANDsocialbutton.jpg " alt="Grandma’sBriefs.com" width="125" height="125" /></a>

• The GRAND Social linky is open for new posts through Wednesday evening, so please come back to see those added after your first visit.

• If you're not a blogger, you have the pleasure of being a reader. Bloggers who link up would be honored to have one and all — bloggers and readers — visit, read and, if so moved, comment, even if just a "Hey, stopping by from the GRAND Social."

• Looking for another grandparent linky? Be sure to visit Connie's Grandparent's Say It Saturday Link Party each Saturday.

Thank you for participating in the GRAND Social!

Photo replay: Run, Bubby, run

Bubby participated in his first organized run yesterday — the half-mile kids' dash during an annual community run that benefits local families in need.

Bubby ran with Mommy (who placed first in her division in the adult run), and when the going got rough after about a quarter of the way, they held hands and pumped their arms together.

Megan reported that they sprinted at the end, and Bubby was quite proud of himself once he'd crossed the finish line.

Soon after, I received this text from Megan: "I just asked him if he would ever do a race again and he said 'No way! But you know what I got from my race?' Then showed me his guns! Ha!"

Seems for a nearly 5-year-old, the arm pumping is far more enjoyable — with better payoff — than the leg pumping.

Today's question:

Which do you work harder to keep fit — your guns (arms) or your legs?

What I learned this week: Gooey photos and more

One of my goals is to learn how to do really awesome things with Photoshop. Well, this week I did not learn how to do that. Nope, I did not learn how to do awesome things with Photoshop. I didn't even learn how to do crappy things with Photoshop.

I did, though, learn something kind of close — to the awesome, not the crappy.

What I learned this week was how to make "gooey" photos, not using Photoshop, but using Creative Kit. And it's super easy. And super silly. And, to be honest, super time-sucking fun.

Creative Kit, a Google product, was added to Picasa, the Google photo manager I — and many others — use to store and sometimes tweak photos. I recently found that the tweaking is even better when using Creative Kit (which replaced the former editing software, Piknik). In particular, I now no longer have to store in Picasa but upload to PicMonkey when I want to do something extra special.

Something extra special I don't typically do, like going gooey. For example, this photo of Andrea and her boyfriend, looking just a wee bit happier than they do in real life, after I used the "gooify" function in Creative Kit on their smiles:

As those two are all gooey about one another in real life, maybe the following would be a better example of what can be done with Creative Kit.

The first photo below is one of Jim and me, just being normal (well, as normal as Jim gets). The second is us looking far more interesting than we typically do, thanks to getting gooey and bearded and more:

Get this: You, too, can make friends and family far more interesting in Picasa, thanks to the Creative Kit option. (And, no, this is not a sponsored post.) It's located in Picasa as shown in the first photo; the second photo shows some of the fun things you'll find:

      

Using the goodies in Creative Kit works on animals, too. Here's proof — my now-evil cat, Isabel:

Actually, Isabel always has been kind of evil... in a loveable sort of way. But the red eyes? Creative Kit all the way.

That is what I learned this week!

Today's question:

What did you learn this week?