Seedling Sale | 2016

Shopping locally is awesome. Shopping locally from a 6 year old is even more awesome!

  The young students of the Boston Public school, Philbrick Elementary, are selling seedlings on May 15th to support their nature and garden based learning programs especially in light of harsh budget cuts recently. They're partnering up with the Boston Nature Center as well, to sell tomato, cucumber, basil, and various flower seedlings. 

   

Tomatoes include Jellybean grape, Juliet grape, Golden Pearl cherry, Supersweet cherry, Sun Gold cherry, Orange Pixie cherry, San Marzano plum, Speckled Roman plum, Garden Peach, Brandywine, Black Krim, Celebrity, Green Zebra and Beefsteak. They've got close to 400 seedlings!!

Buy a seedling to help another "seedling" grow.

 

  

Earth Day | 2016

Let's be aware of what we're growing. On this day, Earth Day, let's begin to choose our steps carefully. Let's be present. Whether it's with recycling, with waste, or with starting a garden.
   
Sow a seed—any seed. Just plant something. One teeny, tiny seed will change your life and in turn, will change the life of our planet. Don't think about the reasons why not. One tiny seed makes you feel like you are a part of something big—that you are a part of helping Mother Earth grow. Choose to strengthen this beautiful planet, not weaken her. 
   
Sow a seed like this six year old, like this thirteen year old. These two boys live very different lives, in two very different countries. One is a six year old boy living in a big city in the United States and the other is a 13 year old boy, living deep in the countryside of Haiti. They are both gardeners. And these are their seedlings.
   
We are all gardeners. And we get to decide what we grow. How incredible is that?! 
   
What will you grow today?
   
More from this six year old gardener on this blog and in the latest Family Fun magazine "A Boy and his Garden."

Happy 2016!

Hope you started your NEW YEAR off with love and laughter — if not, then let this video help! HAPPY 2016! 

[ Cats VS. Dogs ]

September Afternoon

This is absolutely, without a doubt, my favorite time of year to shoot. Especially in New England! Unfortunately, I'm staring into a computer screen editing most of this week but at least I'm staring into wonderful faces of happy kids and teenagers. Happy September everyone!
   

Camp Woodchuck

I can't resist sharing a few pics from a birthday party I put together for my seven year old son last weekend. We let him have 3 friends and his brother sleep over in a tent in our backyard (with my husband sleeping in a tent next to theirs and yes, I slept soundly in the air-conditioned house). 
   
We had a S'mores Hunt to begin the night (scavenger hunt for the ingredients) and a Catching Sparks game (catching cheese balls on your head, thank you Family Fun magazine for that idea!). There was Grub Mix (trail mix), Kindling (pretzel sticks), Doo-Doo bars (chocolate-covered granola bars), a campfire birthday cake and of course, Bug Juice, which my son begged me not to make and not to give to his friends. I had the little guy convinced I was going to squeeze bugs for the party. I'm a terrible mother! 
   
Now the name. We named it Camp Woodchuck because in the few days leading up to the party we had to catch and relocate an entire family of adorable yet seriously greedy and hungry woodchucks in our garden! My seven year old loved the name so it stuck.  
   
And I think I had as much fun organizing this party as the boys did experiencing it! The best part for the boys was probably the Doo-Doo bars! 
   
Happy Camping everyone! 

One little seed.

We live in Boston and my children go to a Boston public school. We truly love this city so we'd like to live here as long as we can. The schools have not always been great but we're very lucky — my children got into (via a lottery, yes a lottery) one of Boston's best schools.  
  
A couple months ago we learned that our little school would need to cut a significant amount of money off the already tight budget. Our amazing little school, undeterred and strong, stood up and began thinking of ways to fundraise and alter the budget to make the school successful still next year. And I decided to do a little fundraiser on the side, too, with my sons. I let them know that we needed to raise some money to pay for some really fun field trips next year. They were totally game after I said field trips!  
  
So we put together a small seedling sale — selling plants we started in our basement. My two sons, ages 4 and 6, helped with every step. Their favorite step was the dirt, of course. Even in their pajamas my two little guys would mix compost into the potting soil and then fill every pot for us to sow seeds in. We're talking about hundreds of pots — little ones to start the seeds and then larger ones to transplant those seedlings into. They didn't see it as a chore. They were accomplishing something — something bigger than themselves, so they were excited. 
  
They helped water and tend to the seedlings for two months. Two months! Then they helped advertise and sell our wonderful seedlings. They even decided, on their own, to have a lemonade stand. And we had a kids table where kids could make their own plant tags out of old recyclable blinds. 

In total — we raised $500 for our little school. Just the three of us. I didn't even realize what I was teaching them when we started this project a couple months ago, until my 6 year old started making plans for his next fundraiser. 
  
It's amazing what one little seed can do.
   

Whale Watchin'

I took my two sons on a whale watch a couple years ago, not knowing that Oliver (age 3 at the time) was legally blind. He could see a foot in front of him and that's about it. Poor little guy couldn't see all the beautiful whales and the feeding frenzy we witnessed that day. But he still pointed and smiled with the rest of us. Since he got his glasses I've been making an effort to show him all the beautiful things he didn't really "see" before -- things we thought he was seeing like the animals at the zoo, rainbows and whales. So Summer 2014 is kicking off with a whale watch! 

   

HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE! Hope you see and do everything you hope to. 

   

Welcome Spring!

My two sons and I are going to sell our very own vegetable and flower seedlings in a couple weeks to raise money for their Boston public school. The four year old helped me sow the seeds, throw dirt at the cat, and sing to the seeds and my six year old is in charge of advertising - here's his first poster. 

   

More than just a toy.

Just a little something to warm you on a cold day:

"We visited the Mystic Aquarium the day before school started and I bought a Beluga whale plush toy for my son, Ollie. We were standing near the whale exhibit, about to leave, and noticed the four beluga whales flocking to my son. They were taking turns coming right up to him, making noises and opening their mouths as if they were actually trying to talk to him.

A crowd even started gathering. All the grown ups couldn't figure out why the whales were acting this way until I had my son hold his new whale up to the glass and immediately the beluga whales began pressing their foreheads to the glass, staring at the toy, with what seemed like smiles on their faces. They seemed to want to get closer to the stuffed animal. It was incredible to witness, especially as a parent. Then all the kids around us started asking to hold the toy, too. The toy was magic to them.

Oliver sleeps with his beluga whale every night. Still."

One of my favorite magazines, FamilyFun, picked up my little Oliver story. Find it in the March issue.

Ch 7: HARVESTING

'Play with your harvest.' Just one more of Ollie's insightful gardening tips from the series "Gardening Tips from a Three Year Old." • The final chapter, CH 7: HARVESTING, is now up on vimeo and on kimlowe.com. 
    
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 
   

Winter Mornings

Some mornings I sneak away with one of my sons before school. Yesterday morning was one of those times. My three year old helped remind me how much I love Winters in New England. We ran down hills. Had a snowball fight. But mostly my son loved shaking snow off the branches onto mommy and her camera.
   

  

Eight shoots, one day!

The Two Birds 'Holiday Card' Fundraiser

The crew and the volunteers arrive. They don't know the families, the bidders. They don't know the children who'll receive warm clothes because they donated their time and talent. But yet, they walk through the door and leave their personal lives outside the studio. They volunteer for one reason: the kids. 

   

It's all about the kids—the children arriving with their parents to be photographed and the children who will receive coats and clothes, the ones who will be able to play in the snow this winter in winter clothes, not spring clothes.

   

So I thank you. I thank you if you shared a post about the fundraiser. I thank you if you bid and lost. I thank you if you bid and won. I thank you if you volunteered the first, second or third year. I thank you if you volunteered all three.    

   

It's not an easy day. It's eight professional shoots in less than six hours. The stylists lay clothes out for the kids with as much effort as they do for a big client. They make the kids feel like rockstars. The hair and make up artists give the children a glow and a sense of confidence—they make the kids feel special. The volunteers snatch the kids up in their arms and play with them like they've known them for years. That amazes me. Every year. No one spends time on their phone. No one is reading the newspaper. Every person in the studio is present — fully present. It's a unique day.  

   

I love that one little girl kicked her parents out of the shoot because she was having so much fun and wanted all the attention. I love that I got to meet Chickie. I love the emails from parents weeks later telling me their children are still talking about the photo shoot. I love that 7 families have been repeat customers. I love that the children sit on my lap and take pictures of their family with my camera. I love the little boy who tickled me to death. I love when I receive the families' holiday cards in the mail. I love the five adopted vietnamese children that made me stand up and dance my heart out. And I love that we raised $3050 this year. 

   

I am changed by this project. Unexpectedly, forever changed. I am full of joy and gratitude.

   

Home

Back in Boston. Back to my garden.
   

Love.

I'm cleaning out the drawers of my computer this week. I've come across some wonderful photos  today taking me back through life. This one stands out to me, maybe because it's Valentine's Day and I immediately feel love when I see this photograph. I clearly remember my dog Teddy. He was MY dog. But I bet my sister and brother would claim him as theirs too. That was Teddy. He made you feel like he loved you more than anyone and anything else in the world. 

   

I can't help but wonder what my two boys will remember from their early years. I hope it's love. (Hey, I get to be a big ol' mushball once a year. The real Kim Lowe will return later this week.)

   

Things I Love

I am not a food photographer, as you can clearly see—but sometimes I can't help but photograph things I love. These tomatoes are one of my favorite things. They're heirloom Garden Peach tomatoes. I grow them every year and every year I plant two more plants than the year before. I can't seem to get enough of them. If you've ever eaten one then you understand my love.  


Oh my gosh, I just realized something. My blog is becoming boring! Yes "becoming" - it hasn't always been boring.