Fall

We’ve had a busy start to the Fall. We had book reviews to complete, conference abstracts to submit, and grant applications to write. And classes started. On time. As usual. Oh, well. We knew summer couldn’t last.

Every Columbus Day, the Fenway Arts Alliance opens up all of the museums in the Fenway arts district. So we joined our good friends Ms D and Mr J for lunch and a day of Little E activities. It was probably the third or fourth time this year we went to the Museum of Fine Arts, although we didn’t stay very long since the boy wanted to go get a pumpkin, paint flags and fly a kite.

Can you find him?

In all of the pictures of Little E, he is nothing but a blur.

In mid-October we went to Montreal for the annual NESTVAL conference. One of the Good Mr. Dr.’s students presented the preliminary work on a project they just started. The Good Mrs. Dr. also presented on the kinds of projects she does in her classes.

Here's to all of you who complain you don't see enough pictures of me. Now, quit your complainin'.

At the end of the conference, we both went on the Radical Montreal walking tour. We learned about the history of civil rights activism in Montreal and even saw it in action as we passed by strikers in front of McGill University protesting really unfair changes in their pay and pensions. We ended the tour by joining the start of the Occupy Montreal march and protest.

We are the 99%! (Or however you would say it in French)

Later that evening, we went to Winnies, which is located in the Sir Winston Churchill Pub Complex. Here we had the best gin and tonics we’ve ever been served and heard Jam Avenue, the best live music since we left L.A. It was great fun.

The Geography Department at Salem chartered a bus to get us all (faculty, their spouses, students, their parents) to Montreal safely and together. It was smooth riding into Canada. There was a small hiccup because one of the international students did not have some form that he would need to get back into the US. But the Fearless Leaders of the Geography Department managed to get a copy over the weekend. The only thing we were worried about was whether the Border Patrol were going to hassle this kid.

It was smooth riding out of Canada right until we were pulling into the border patrol station. There were two busses in front of us. The way it works, everyone has to get out of the bus so that it can inspected. Everyone on the bus has to have their papers inspected. It took an hour to get to the front of the line. Just before we were supposed to go through the radiation detectors and pull into the station, an air valve under the bus just died. We were dead in the lane. It was three hours before a mechanic could get there. It would be another two hours before the bus was fixed.

The pipe never left his mouth.

We have no idea what he's doing.

Not yet suffering from bus fever.

We stayed in good spirits the entire time. Some of the students tried to do somersaults in the grassy area in front of the station but were told by a very stern Border Patrol officer that somersaults were not allowed. At first, we were feeling lucky that no other busses had come through while we were broken down. This border station has only one bus lane. But of course our little bit of luck did not last. About 45 minutes before the repair was complete, five busses pulled in right behind us. And they had to wait.

Oh no!

But, eventually the bus was fixed. We did not have stay in Canada, although I don’t think that some of us would have minded going back to Winnies. We were starving by the time we finally crossed the border and even I ended up eating McDonald’s french fries. Although this McDonald’s was right next to a supermarket, so I was able to get freshly fried chicken from the deli and some trail mix for the Good Mr. Dr.

Despite the 5 hour delay, we made it home in time to get some sleep before getting right back to work the next day. It was a memorable weekend to say the least.

That’s all for now. You can see the pictures, if you haven't already, by clicking on the gallery link above. The next update should include Halloween. And maybe Christmas.

Summer

This was one of those wonderful summers. The weather was good for almost the entire summer (Hurricane Irene being the one hiccup). The Good Mr. Dr. spent the early part of the summer tending to the vegetable beds. He planted a ton of veggie and it shows.

August 2011

The east bed

This is the first summer where we raised so much of our own fruits and veggies. Here’s what we learned:

• Lettuce of any kind (we planted mesclun) is the gift that does not stop giving. We were harvesting this well into July.
• Brussels sprouts are 1) huge and 2) picky. They did not like the cherries tomatoes and literally leaned over the middle part of the beds in order to get away from them.
• When it comes to cucumbers, eggplants, and pumpkins – you win some and you lose some.
• Both sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes need at least a 5 foot trellis.
• Blueberries do not come in every year.
• If the grapes survive, they can get very sweet.

At the beginning of fall, we filled the car with the perennial flowers. We need to plant these before we plant the bulbs.

Yep. The hatchback was a good choice.

The southern flower bed

The northern flower bed

The western border

As the summer plants in the front began to die back, we planted some red mums to brighten things up. The climbing rose didn’t produce after that first flowering, but it is definitely growing.

The end of summer brought Hurricane Irene. We were very lucky that it didn’t hit us head on. We got significant amounts of rain and wind, but for the most part, we were very lucky.



We were much luckier than our neighbors to the west and northwest. There are towns in Vermont that became cut off from the rest of the world because their roads were literally washed away. The poor folks in Western Massachusetts experienced the worst weather all year. Earlier in the year there were tornadoes that destroyed parts of small towns and entire farms in Central and Western Massachusetts. Even the City of Springfield was affected. We made our annual pilgrimage to the Brimfield Antiques Fair, where we bought some door knobs and other door parts. On the way we could see the damage the tornados wrought on the farms and woodlands around Brimfield. It definitely made us count our blessings.

We drove past this area on our way to the antiques fair. You can see the tornado's path really clearly.
Click here for more pictures.

As happens every year, summer came to an end. We were able to spend almost a month doing almost nothing but reading and gardening. We also worked, but the reading and gardening were what we remember the most. You can't really ask for a better summer.