July 16th

Here's a few pictures looking back at July 16th in 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005. Amazingly only one of these pictures was taken on a different day, and that was the 17th. However, I decided not to go back any further. 2004 has the 18th as the closest day, and there was one picture from July in 2003 (23rd) and no pictures in July 2002.

2009- England
Bolton Abbey. We also went to Skipton Castle that day.

2008- Maine
Scottish Highland Games in Brunswick. We stopped on our way to Acadia.

2007- Belmont
I had just gotten a new camera lens and was testing it out on the plants in the garden.

2006- Cow Parade
This is the Trojan Cow. IT was located in South Station. I spent two Saturdays roaming around Boston trying to get pictures of all of the cows (approximately 100 of them, if I remember correctly).

2005- Philadelphia
Aunt Ethel's funeral. She had numerous scarves and Chris was displaying them and offering them to anyone who wanted any.

So what's been going on?

Apparently I haven't been into blogging much lately. So what's been going on the past month plus?

I'm continuing to grow a little alien. For updates on Baby B, check out my baby blog. I mentioned to someone else recently that it was an alien and she didn't seem to like that name for it, but Chris and I both think that Baby B looks like an alien. (There are actually some more recent pictures than this which are on the baby blog.)

I went to Orlando for work. We stayed at a gorgeous hotel and the weather was mostly nice. However, due to working all day and being exhausted at night I didn't get out to enjoy it much.

Gardening. All the veggies are in, as are all of the flowers. Cucumbers and beans are both growing well. As are peppers, chives, lettuce, and many others. I've even been able to pick a couple of strawberries, although an animal got one of them. Corn is doing ok, but I think the spot it's in just doesn't get enough sun. Some of the broccoli turned to flower. Ugh. Too early for that. The carrots just didn't make it at all. Peonies looked great, as do other flowers. Still want to get a couple more things for the front.

Sheep Shearing at Wayside Inn and Sturbridge Village. The one at Wayside was pretty low-key. It was the same shearer who did the one we went to last year in Waltham. Sturbridge was nice because they were much more interactive- answering questions, etc. And it's nice to use our membership a bit more.

Two Red Sox games. I volunteered with a group from work to sell raffle tickets which got me into the first game, and the tickets to the second game were a reward from selling the tickets.

New Patio Furniture. We're getting more and more grown up.

Chris' parents, Michael, Rebecca and Elizabeth came from Georgia for a week. Here's a run down of what we did.

Projects around the house- changing out two lights and installing two new ones over the sideboard, moving the thermostat, fixing a spot on the roof, hopefully fixing a leak at the door of my craft room, and got landscape lights to work again (who knew all they needed was new bulbs!).

Candlepin bowling. Isn't this supposed to be easier than 10 pin? I was horrible.

Old Sturbridge Village, again. We're really starting to put that membership to good use. When we were there for Sheep Shearing the week prior, I had really wanted to get a photo of the spark during the rifle demo. Instead all I got was smoke. This time, I had success!

Constitution. Too bad we couldn't go to about half the ship due to renovations.

Scooper Bowl. This is an annual event in Boston to raise money for Cancer reasearch. You buy a spoon and then go to all the vendors for as much ice cream as you would like. The portion sizes are small, but this is probably a good thing. I sampled 9 different ice creams. One was icky so I threw it away, but eating 8 1/2 scoops is a lot! Ben & Jerry's had a yummy Boston Cream Pie, and Edy's had a yummy Caramel Cone. I think those were my two favorites.

Children's Museum. Fun, but they got rid of a number of the exhibits that I remember liking.


Elizabeth made a Derby car. At first she was reluctant, but she really got into it in the end. In fact, on the 2nd and 3rd days of working on it, when we came home from other activities she even let Uncle Chris know that they had to go work on it. Here she is sanding and painting. As she was working on it, Uncle Chris and I were the only ones who were allowed to see it. I hope it's nice and fast!

Baby stuff! Lots from the Rummage Sale, some clothes from Wisconsin, TONS of clothes and other stuff from Georgia. Plus we just got a couple of things from one of Chris' co-workers. The house is starting to be overrun with baby stuff, and we've barely started.

Productive weekend!

Saturday wasn't all that productive. I went to a scrapbook convention, about an hour away. I spent an hour there and came home empty-handed. Ok, so it's good for my bank account that I came home empty handed, but it still cost me $7 to get in and $3 to park. Not to mention the 2 hours of driving. Blech. I just haven't been scrapping much, so nothing really jumped out at me as a "must buy".

When I came home I was feeling a bit tired so I took a nap for a bit. Then after dinner we watched Back to the Future II. Did you know that in 5 years we're supposed to have flying cars? Somehow I don't think the technology will be advancing that quickly.

Sunday was a bit more busy. We woke up kind of early and went for a bike ride. We live very close to a bike path, but this is the first time we've been out there (other than a short walk a month or so ago). The problem was that when we moved we had a washer and dryer in the shed blocking our bikes. We were planning to sell them, but I don't think either of us was really all that motivated to actually place an ad and deal with calls. Then in January I found a charity that would take them. But in January there was snow between the shed and the driveway. And then I got pregnant and could no longer lift heavy things. Finally last weekend my dad came over and helped load them into Chris' truck. The shed seems so much more spacious now!

So the nice thing is that at 9am on a Sunday there aren't too many people out on the bike path. And it also was pretty cool. Right now (at 2:20) it's about 83 degrees. The bad thing is that it was mostly downhill going away from the house which means you really have to work to get home. We went about 4 miles (turns out we almost were at the end) and then it started sprinkling so we headed back. Plus we didn't know how much further it went and I knew we had the hills on the return.

When we got home I did a bit of gardening. Watered my strawberries, rhubarb, and asparagus. 4 of the 5 rows of asparagus are looking good. Hopefully the other one is just taking a little longer. Something had dug up one of my strawberry plants, but I put it back in. And I guess I'm not too concerned. Strawberries send off runners with new plants, so if that one doesn't make it, I can always replace it with one of the runners.

When I planted the rhubarb one had looked much better than the other, but now the runty one is looking ok. Hopefully next year I'll be able to make a strawberry-rhubarb pie with fruit from my garden!

I also did a bit of transplanting and planting of other seeds. Not sure if they'll make it- may be too early, but this super nice weather gets me itching to plant. I transplanted some scallions and mesclun, and planted seeds for some carrots, more scallions, a row of corn, and a nasturtium. The corn is the only one I'm really thinking might be too early. The seed packed says "after all danger of frost" but I also had read something that said it was ok to plant when oak leaves are as big as a squirrel's ear. I have plenty of seeds though, so if it is too early I can always replant.

Now I'm off to my mom's to pay her bills. And then maybe a stop at the grocery store on the way home. And if it's cooled off at all when I get back, I may do a bit more gardening- need to prune the rose bushes and pick up some leaves and sticks from the front flower beds.

Floods, gardening, and what were they thinking?

Remember how I mentioned that we had a lot of rain in March? I think it was actually the wettest month on record. In fact, for a few days our commute was really screwy. The way we normally go to work was flooded and then our alternate route had flooded as well. One night it took us over 2 hours to get home after sitting in bumper to bumper detour traffic. Not fun at all. This photo was from our normal route the day the road finally reopened. As you can see, it's till pretty flooded. Not fun. This photo was taken April 5th. By now traffic is back to normal. Rivers and lakes are starting to return to normal levels. Unfortunately there was a library near this intersection that is still closed. They've already filled multiple dumpsters. And they may even still be pumping out water.

On the home front, to make the garden all nice and pretty we ordered 4 yards of mulch. In hindsight 3 yards probably would have been sufficient, but we found places to lay it down a little thicker, etc.

The largest bed that we put it on is in the front of the house. This first photo is what it looked like when we bought the house. A patch of grass completely surrounded by beds with perennials. How exactly are we supposed to get in there and mow it? Yeah, we thought it was pretty stupid. So we ripped it out. :) We planted more perennials. It looked horrible all fall and winter. Basically a big mud pit. I tried to put down some wood shavings to act as much and to keep the mud under control, but the wind ended up blowing a lot of the shavings away.

With the delivery of the mulch, we finally were able to make it look nice. Ah, so much better and no longer a huge eye sore. I'm sure the old owners thought we were crazy. Turns out they had just redone the landscaping before they put the house on the market, and then we tore it all out. And I'm sure they weren't pleased with how the mud pit looked. But finally it looks good. I'll probably add some more things- maybe some perennials, maybe some annuals. Who knows. The only annoying thing is that some of the stuff I planted hasn't come up yet and I'm starting to think it may not. I know I planted 2 more peonies, I transplanted a calla lilly, I think only 3 of 5 day lillies have sprouted, and I think there are even one or two other things that haven't come up yet. Hopefully they are just slow, but I may have to see what kind of guarantee the plants had. Or dig around a bit and hope that maybe I just planted them too deep. Either way, in a month or two it should look nice.

We stopped at the grocery store last night on the way home from work. My food desire of the day was hot dogs. We had the dogs but didn't have buns. We also needed charcoal. And then we agreed on spicy curly fries to go with the hot dogs.

I have to say, being pregnant is good for getting what I want for dinner. :) Chris has been good about going along with my desires, even when it included sloppy joes, which he dislikes.

Anyway, as I was sitting in the car while Chris went into the grocery store I looked over and saw this sign at the cart corral. Really? Have we gotten so addicted to text speak that we can't write out the word "for"? And it's not as if there wasn't space for it on the sign. Blech.

Back on the gardening front, remember my earlier post where I said we planted the asparagus? Well that was about a month ago now and every time I looked at the bed I saw nothing. Well not tonight! It's probably because I was looking at the bed from the deck or from across the lawn. But last night while we were grilling our hot dogs we went down and actually looked at the bed. Out of 20 crowns that I plants, about 5 or 6 of them have now sprouted. Yay!!!! I really don't understand why, but this makes me very excited. I've included a picture with my finger next to a stalk to show you how skinny they are. But that's ok. They'll get better. I can't wait until next year when we really can start harvesting.

Spring has sprung!

I'm probably jinxing myself by saying this, but it definitely feels like Spring has Sprung! After a few weeks of rain, we've had fabulous weather for the past 4 days or so, and it looks like it will hold for most of the week.

A few months ago I planned out my garden and ordered plants/seeds. The seeds were shipped at that point, but all of the plants are shipped out when the company thinks is the appropriate time for them to be planted in your region. Imagine my surprise when on March 13th I got an email saying that my asparagus has shipped. Eek. We weren't ready. We hadn't built the bed yet where they would be planted. With rain in the forecast for the coming weekend we took the 17th off to get the bed built. Of course these things have a way of taking longer than you imagine. Luckily the rain held off for the weekend and we were able to get it finished and get the asparagus planted. The photo shows the asparagus on rows of compost. It was then filled in with more dirt/compost/llama-poop-fertilizer.

It's a good thing we got the asparagus in when we did, because we were then met with another week of rain. This is making our commute interesting because many roads are flooded. But the rain ended last week and we had a weekend with temperatures in the 70s. Saturday I spent some time picking maple seedlings out of the front flower bed. Wow, there were a lot of them. I was putting them into a paper grocery bag as I pulled them out, and I probably got at least a half inch of the bag full. That's a lot of trees! Now I just need to get some mulch ordered and delivered so that we can get that spread in the flower beds.

We once again hosted Easter this year, with a mix of family and friends. There were 12 of us, and it's a good thing the weather was so nice. I wasn't really sure how we were going to fit 12 people in the dining room, so I decided that we should eat out on the porch instead. Perfect! Wish I'd gotten a picture of the table. It was a little tight, but not bad. Brunch consisted of French Toast (with strawberries or syrup topping), bacon, quiche, deviled eggs, cinnamon rolls, and ham.

And the house is starting to look like a florist shop! I had bought a couple of bouquets on Saturday and then other people brought flowers with them. Some of them were absolutely gorgeous!


Joining us for Easter were Mom and her caregiver Iko, Dad, Liz, and Hanna, Andrew and Gentry, and friends York, Desta, and Kristin. After eating we played some badminton, and then after the "adults" had left, we played Telestrations. It was interesting since we had some repeat words this time from when we've played before. Photos of everyone are below.

Spring, Hurry up and get here. Please.

Earlier this week we had a "warm" spell. It was in the 40s. Glorious! The warmer temperatures, combined with some rain, and the foot or so of snow on the ground mostly all melted away. I knew it was too good to last.

As I write this, snow is starting to fall outside my window. There are a number of things that I'd like to get done outside at home, but it's always dark, too cold, or everything is covered in snow. Blech. And I continue to have spring fever.

Even though I know it won't truly warm up for 3-4 more months I've started to plan my garden. I've run into issues in the past where I've put it off and things I've wanted to order have been sold out. So over the past couple of weeks (inspired by some emails I've received) I planned out my garden and placed a number of orders. We still have work to do prepping the ground (building beds, etc) but all of the plants and seeds have been ordered. And according to UPS tracking, the seeds should be coming to my house today.

I've ordered tomato, asparagus, rhubarb, and strawberry plants and lots of seeds-
Petunias
Nasturtium
Cosmos
Four o'clocks (never heard of these before, but they looked pretty)
Cilantro
Basil
Parsley
Mesclun mix
Broccoli
Sweet peppers
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Beans
Scallions
Carrots
Corn

Wow, that's a lot of stuff! And most of it will go into 4 4x4 foot beds. The asparagus, strawberries and rhubarb will be going into a larger bed along the porch. And the flowers- haven't really decided. A few here, a few there. And maybe some of the herbs will end up in pots as well. All I know if I've got my work cut out for me with seed starting. Hopefully I'll have better luck than I've had in the past.

Flowers and houses

So what's happened in the world of Chris since I last posted? And aren't you impressed that I've been updating more frequently? Three posts last week and another one now? That's 4 posts in 10 days! But who am I kidding, I'm sure this won't last.

When I thought we were going to get the other house, I went to the library and started looking through gardening magazines. One of them had an article on peonies. It suggested that instead of leaving them out on the bush where the stems are likely to break since the blooms are so heavy, as soon as they start to bloom, you should cut them and bring them inside so that you can fully enjoy them. So I did. And they're pink and wonderful!

And speaking of the peonies, I've been going back in forth in my mind (and a bit with Chris) about what I should do with the peonies and various other perennials in my garden when we move. I've spent a fair amount of money on them, and they've taken a few years to become established and actually look good. So do I leave them in a garden that may quickly become neglected, overgrown and unappreciated, or do I dig them up and move them to the new house? If I do decide to move them, that means that I'll need to know where they're going, and will need to prep the area in advance. This could be easier said than done. I think the ones I care the most about are the peonies, my lavender, and my chives. I've had those chives since I lived on Myrtle Street. They're at least 8 years old and have moved 4 times.

So how's the house hunt going? We've looked at a ridiculous number of houses! we started on May 1st. I think we've looked at 18 houses- maybe more. And that's just the ones we've gone into. We've looked at so many more online. They all start to blur together! We put an offer on the one I mentioned last week. We were ready to put an offer on another and then learned that they were under agreement.

Wednesday night our realtor sent us a listing. Chris and I both liked what we saw. It had been on the market for two days. We asked to go see it ASAP. Last night we went to check it out. Our realtor commented that he had gotten there a bit early and was able to walk around and look at it, and then he went out to his truck and started to fill out the papers. We loved it. We were ready to make an offer. We agreed on a price and he gave them until the end of today to respond. He wanted to get it finalized before their scheduled open house this weekend. When we left we stopped by to visit my dad, and after talking about it a bit we decided it wasn't worth haggling over what is a relatively small amount of money, so we called our realtor back and said we were going to offer the asking price. They accepted. So I'm still a bit wary and am trying not to get too excited, but I think it's ours. Here are the pictures.

Goodbye winter!

(Recited to me many times by my mother in an over-emphasized Brooklyn accent.)

Spring is sprung, the grass is ris.
I wonders where the birdies is.
They say the birds is on the wing.
Ain't that absurd?
I always thought the wing was on the bird.

A little of this, a little of that.

It's been way too long since I've last blogged, so here's a rundown of what's been going on for the past month.

It started off with my work's summer outing at Kimball Farm. Yum! Such a fun place, and in addition to the fabulous icecream, the food was above average for a corporate outing-type place. The weather was as bit hot, but we took advantage of the free mini-golf. The line for bumper boats was too long, so instead we just had our icecream and then headed to NH for a night of camping with Tami and her family.

Unfortunately we only camped for one night. We had doctor appointments the next day back near home and didn't want to have to drive back. Turns out it was probably for the best as that Sunday I ended up being struck by a rather horrible summer cold. It was interesting taking pictures. I forgot how much kids move around, so I had a number of blurry photos since my shutter was open for too long. There also was lots of rain which made for an interesting camping experience, but I think we all still had fun. Maybe we can find a time to do it again?

Once again the ART scene shop built the set for Shakespeare on the common. The show this year was As You Like It. It really is a popular event. We got there almost 2 hours before "curtain" and we were pretty far back. I took these photos afterwards and was only lucky to get so close since Chris knew the crew. In fact, because of that connection we were able to have them move the trees so that I could get a picture of the plane. Very interesting cartoony trees. And if you're confused about why there's a crashed plane in the Forest of Arden, join the club.

The garden is progressing well. I've been harvesting green beans, and my tomatoes should be ripening soon. Cukes- only 2 so far. They haven't really recovered from all of the rain. Zucchini- not really sure. That's what the yellow flowers are. There are lots of flowers, but they don't seem to be doing anything other than flowers and giant leaves. Lettuce is done. It started to turn bitter. If only I could somehoe time things right so that the lettuce was ready when everything else was. And the broccoli- huge leaves, but nothing else.

And my mystery plant? Yeah, still don't know what that is. It's behaving like a day lilly, although doesn't really look like one. It looks more like an amaryllis, but it didn't come from a bulb. No clue. But it is pretty and adds some color to the front of the house, although it doesn't really look so good with the marigolds. Maybe next year I'll have to try a different color of flower in my barrel.



Can I just say, sometimes I really love my 300mm lens! It doesn't do well in low light situations, but being outside for the "Futures at Fenway" event, it did a phenomenal job. We were no where near the field, but I still was able to get fantastic photos!


It was a double header, with the Lowell Spinners and the Pawtucket Red Sox. We arrived a little late to the first game, during the second inning, I think. But then we got free baseball, since they ended up going to 12 innings. The Spinners won, which continues the tradition of the home team never losing when Chris and I go to a game. We ended up leaving during the 5th inning of the second game since I was way too hot. Our seats were in the sun and I was feeling very crispy. My face got a little burned, but it's not too bad. I can see my nose starting to peel already, so I think moisturizer needs to become my friend.

And Jeremy, this comment is just for you. We had parked at the Common, and walking back from the game my shoes were on the verge of giving me a nasty blister. So I took them off and walked down Comm Ave barefoot. And I had only been drinking water. See- I don't need to be drunk to walk barefoot down city streets. Attempting to walk on my hands? Maybe I need to have some alcohol in me for that one.