Here in Boston

We made it to Boston after a full day of airplanes and airports. Our first day was fun, with Tyler trying on Grandpa's hat.

The first highlight of the day was a walk in the beautiful weather with Spring all around us. (but no ducks) Ty & Grandpa got into it with sticks.

Grandpa was vanquished, and chased down the trail.
Tossing rocks in the pond was the next order of business; followed by trying to seed the trail with those cute little yellow flowers.

After a vigorous walk it was time to watch the "waste removal & recycling" man do his work.

The other fun we had (well, Grandpa got his naps, but there are no videos of that, thank heavens) was a trip to the Bugaboo Creek Steak House. The food was good, the company was great, and right by our table where Ty could see it well, was a huge buffalo head that about every 10-15 minutes would move and talk. Great times in Beantown.

M @ Work

So, if any of you have read M's post about her work situation, here is the rest of the story. Real live pictures of M at work. Actually, in these shots she had not seen me and was working hard on ignoring the wierd old guy with the camera.

And this is what she is looking at - Syriac. I don't know what it means, but it is being digitized nonetheless.

More of the technowhiz at work. She's good.

So while I was waiting for M to get off work, I wandered aimlessly through the halls and stacks of the HBLL, encountering many interesting encounters. This empty room for example. Do you wish you were in this class? I'll bet the university wishes you were, and lots of others too.

Easter Sunday

Although a bit late, we did want to express our gratitude to Sharon & Paul for putting up with us a few weeks back when we visited. Here is what we woke up to Sunday morning.
But although it was snowy outside, we had fun waffles on the inside, along with grits (yummm!) and other very nice breakfast foods. S&P were the best hosts. Thank you so much.

Heidi II

Yes -- she's back -- by popular demand! Heidi the Hydrangea! Or at least the sequel. We'll see if we can make it work this time. I can't say that we learned much from our last, disastrous, years-long experience with Heidi I. But we are the eternal optimists, believing as we do that we, too, can have at least a hand-full of green thumbs. Actually, one of us does - but I just have a handful of thumbs. Anyhow, we have been spending all our money on plants and all our time planting. We are never happier than when we are dirty. Here's our latest attempt at hydrangea growing. In case you were wondering where this picture was taken, it is where the very disappointing lilac bush was. You remember, the one that always had lots of leaves, but no flowers. It is now on the way to compost heaven.

We bought 3 miniature lilacs from Spring Hill Nursery, and they are doing well, but not as well as this little bush we bought at Raley's with the most fragrant flowers already on it. Notice how the little gnome guy just cozied right up to it. It is very short, but as I mentioned, beautiful and very fragrant.

And speaking of beautiful, what do you think of this beauty? Isn't that one of the most beautiful iris you have ever seen? My photographic skills do not do it justice by a long shot, but this is about the best I could come up with.

Moving on now from beauty to food . . . here is the 2010 corn patch with yellow flowers on the perimeter and two pepper plants in the background by the fence.

The corn is on the south end, and this is the north end. Onions on the left, and potatoes even further left and out of the picture. On the right are mostly peas, but about half way down is our incredible edible spinach and on the far end is our butter lettuce.

And the grapes are back this year too. In spite of our most fervent neglect, they hung in there and are making a great start on the new trellises I made for them. These are the Concord.

An another late addition is the Lemon Tree, very pretty, but you know the rest. I can't wait to have my own Vitamin C tree right here.

And not pictured are numerous berry plants. We kind of went overboard this year on the berry front, with blueberries, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Some flowers and bushes had to come out to make room, but it will be worth it. (oh yes, and we have a couple of tomato plants too, just to remind us of the telestial nature of our surroundings)

Projects Completed

We have so much fun around our house. We have a bottomless list of projects and have a lot of fun working on them together. Here are some photos of a couple that we actually completed.

Winter was not kind to our grape arbor. The lattice work we had up was too much and too flimsy to handle the winds. So here is my remedy. I just got some 1"x3"x8' inexpensive wood and ripped it and cut it to the proper dimensions and screwed them together and then to the frame of the arbor. Aside from the time it took to stain them the same color as the arbor, it was actually easier than my first attempt. Looks nicer too. Now we hope the grapes live long and prosper.

A shot of both the arbor and the other project - the pit! Yes, it is done. Finally. We now don't have to pitch and walk and walk and pitch. We can just pitch, walk, pitch walk, etc. Come on by and we'll play a game.
Although you can't see it in this photo, there are a couple of projects still uncompleted - the fence that needs replacing and the sprinkler system that we are in the middle of fixing - but ran out of sunshine yesterday.
Another, closer, shot of the pit. I also got some real plywood and stained it to be water resistent so that we have some long term cat protection.