Legomania and Buried Treasure

This is a departure from a typical Farm Girl Blog post. I am usually sharing my enthusiasm for tasty, healthy, fresh food creations and the images related to that. Any of my regular followers have noticed that I have slowed waaaaaay down on my posting schedule. When I began this blog over a year and a half ago I did so with unclear intentions but much enthusiasm. I posted two or sometimes three times a week. It felt like such a wonderful outlet for some of my creative energy. That is one thing that has come into sharp focus to me in recent years: I am at my best and happiest when I am CREATING; whatever form that might take. I don't expect a big upswing in activity on the blog any time soon. I have had a great time with it! I already find myself referring to it for my own recipes! I still do enjoy putting together posts and anticipate posting occasionally as the mood/inspiration strikes.

The absolute best, most amazing, wonderful creation of my life, is our son. He is seven years old now and all boy. For a couple of years there, he was our little pirate. He lived and breathed for anything related to pirates. He dressed like a pirate and spoke like a pirate. He memorized Treasure Island. He drew treasure maps and made our furniture into pirate ships. He even designed and built a real pirate boat and took it out onto the water of our local creek.

A couple of days ago I dug a hole in the ground in order to plant an English lavender start I got from the nursery. I was almost to the bottom of my hole when I caught a glimpse of something shiny in the dirt! Treasure!! What a surprise! I kept digging and more and more treasure revealed itself. Forgotten buried treasure from the precious days (years) we lived with a little pirate. The memories came flooding back. Here are a few photos:

We took him to see the tall ship that was used to film the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' when it visited Bodega Bay.

His own homebuilt pirate craft.

His treasure chest and best pirate scowl.

Those are peg-legs in case you were wondering.

Then one day without warning his pirate passion vanished, replaced by LEGOMANIA. Yes, my son is a legomaniac. If this word is not in the dictionary, it should be. I know there must be thousands and thousands of children that could be diagnosed with this particular condition. The two main drivers of this phenomenon, as I see it, are the ingenious marketing strategies by the Lego company and the fact that Legos are awesome.

Legos are taking over our house. The photos below really don't capture the extent of it. I have surrendered for the time being. Every available flat surface is used to create ever-changing and evolving Lego scenes. The boy dreams about new sets he may one day acquire. He is lost for hours at a time while implementing a new idea, adding homemade embellishments to round out his vision. We embraced and indulged our pirate when we had him. Now we are doing the same for the legomaniac. I wonder what will be next?

Clearly my son is also content when he is creating things.

Till next time......