Busy busy busy week

It's been a week of very good days.

Wednesday was the Good Mr. Dr.'s birthday. We cleared the calendar and went to go see Up, got new cell phones, spent the early evening at Border's drinking coffee and perusing gardening books, and then spent the evening drinking wine and reading good books.

Up is a very good film. I'm not sure how much the kids will get it. The storyline is really based adult themes of love, loss, and moving on. I wouldn't say to not take the kids to it, but go with an adult friend because there's a lot of non-kid conversation to have after the film.

In case you were wondering, we both got LG-enV3s. Great little phones with really good cameras. Best of all, my mom can finally see picture messages that I send.

(taken with new phone)

All of the rain we've gotten this week has not been good for our tans, but has been great for the garden. We had one really good and sunny day, which the Good Mr. Dr. took advantage of to get some clearing done and to set up the compost bin. This picture was taken on Thursday. Here's what it looks like in the garden right now.

A prize goes to the first person to find the top of the compost bin, the griffin, and the Good Mr. Dr.

Finally, we went to the annual end of season show for A Prairie Home Companion with our good friends from the western outpost of Ashland. It rained a bit (again) and we forgot to bring a big umbrella (again). But we had good wine, good food, and good company. In front of us were The Cutest Couple Ever, who also forgot to pack an umbrella. The family sitting next to them lent them an extra umbrella. These lovebirds were clearly enjoying the show and eachother's company.


It was quite a funny show this year, not the least of which was because Martin Sheen accidentally said "dick" on a live radio broadcast (NPR, no less!). We could not see the stage out where we were on the lawn, but it was clear from the pregnant pause and the reaction to those in the Music Shed that he was laughing with embarrasment. This year, Ms M of Ashland and I managed to sneak up closer than ever to the stage during the encores. Here's the best pic we managed to get of Garrison Keillor and one of the musical guests.

Well, that's all for this week. Apparently we're getting another spit of rain and clouds today. Perfect day to do some writing, I suppose.

PS. We uploaded some new pictures to gallery. They were taken by the H's during their visit in May.

Busier week than usual

So much has happened, it's a wonder I've had time to watch the Daily Show and Colbert Nation. :)

Our farm share deliveries started this week. I have no pictures, but we received a whole bunch of veggies that were promptly put to good use. First, there was bok choy sauteed with garlic in olive oil, served with broiled chicken. That was me. Nothing fancy but tasty nonetheless. Then there was the casserole medley cooked up (ha ha) by the Good Mr. Dr. including kale, arugula (I think) turnips, and chicken (we have a lot of chicken in the house). For Sunday Morning Breakfast, it was huevos torteados with spinach and green onions. Hmm hmm good.

We also went and bought a composter. As soon as it stops raining I'll take a picture of it. The Good Mr. Dr. has read so much about composting that his head is about to explode. All I know is that I am supposed to shred paper. I'm happy those credit card applications are going to go to something useful. We also learned that we do have good soil, as evidenced by the existence of worms. It's been raining pretty much all week, which has been very good for the garden.
The black barrel in the bottom left is the composter. It will be located behind the pussy willow, once the space is cleared out. Everything is getting a bit wild, so we went to Sears to complete the ensemble of tools necessary to maintian the garden. So now we have two kinds of shovels, a variety of cutting devices (loppers, shears, saws, etc), and a pitch fork. The pitch fork is really for when we decide to join a mob and kill the monster.

We also got the official news from Simba's vet that she is likely an immortal, as long as she continues to get her thyroid medication. Here is her reaction to the news:

She then took a 2 hour nap, after which she sought out her toy koala and proceeded to systematically knock him down the stairs, one floor at a time.

My neighbor had rescued a litter of kittens on Monday. She tried her best to pawn one of them off on us, arguing that Simba needed a companion. After watching what Simba does to anything smaller than her, we had to decline for the safety of the new kittens. For those of you wondering, we managed to find all of them a good home.

The H's from Whittier sent the CD of pictures taken while they were visiting for the graduation. Here's the happy couple enjoying a bit of TVland kitsch in Salem, MA.


There are two on the CD that I particularly liked. Actually, there are three but I think I might suffer the consequences of putting up the one of the Good Mr. Dr. cooking breakfast without his knowledge.

This one is me in the processional during the ceremony. Yes, I was caught by surprise and almost swallowed my gum.

"Hi Mom!"

And this is my sister's plate that she ordered during the graduation dinner. We ate the leftovers from this for at least a week.

(Click on the image to see how big that plate really is.)

That's all on this end. Cross your fingers that we get some sunshine this week.

It's all about the Garden

Since it is Spring, almost summer, our attention is mostly on the garden. Changes to the house will have to wait until next year.

This is a picture taken from the kitchen window on May 2 (that's my dad playing the guitar).


This is the Garden from the kitchen window, taken this morning.

Not only are the grapevines coming out, so is everything else. We have roses bushes that have bloomed. There are a variety of ground vines that we have no idea what they are. Today the Good Mr. Dr. is going to trim back the ground plants. Tomorrow we will go out to buy a composting bin. Our farm share starts this week, so we are going to have a lot of veggie scrap. We're trying to reduce the amount of trash we throw out as well as make some clean new soil to rehabilitate the Garden. We went to the bookstore and got three books, including the essential Dummies Guide to Gardening, to help with figuring our how to plan and maintain our Garden.

Not all of our attention is focused on the Garden. We are doing some small things to put a "sweater" around the house to save energy. We had an energy audit done this week. It is free and they go through your whole house (or apartment) to tell you what you can do to save money on energy. The auditor also comes prepared to replace lightbulbs (and we got a three way CFL too!), put weather stripping around doors and windows, put door sweeps in, and who knows what else. We had done a lot already, but it was good to know what other inexpensive things we could do to be more energy efficient. If you live in Massachusetts, you can call 866-527-7283 to schedule an appointment.

In local news, yesterday was the Chelsea River Revel. As I always do, I volunteered to work the kayaks. This year I decided to volunteer for only a couple of hours so that I could actually enjoy the festival. Our Good Friends D and J with Little E came to come out on the canoes and kayaks. This was also going to be the year that I got to go out on the kayaks. Alas, it was not to be. The organization that provides the kayaks and canoes, their van broke down. It was too bad, because it was perfect weather to be out on the river. Oh well, there is always next year. It was still a nice festival and Little E loved the Peruvian dancers. And I got to see many of my neighbors and meet some new ones. East Boston and Chelsea are great communities.

That's all for now. In our next episode, I hope to describe our efforts to set up the compost bin and the first meals with our first week's farm share.