Weekend Fun in the Sun - Part Two!

It was a little bit cooler on Sunday - though still warm for April.  I decided to buy some herbs from our local garden center & plant them before I needed to get the kids to Guard Up for their sword fighting classes.  While I was out, Phil started work on the RV - removing the anti-freeze from the water lines, cleaning up the fridge (he had a little accident with Dr. Pepper cans back in January/February - did you know that soda expands when it freezes?  Ka-Boom!), & cleaning out the "basement".  Some critter decided to use it as it's bathroom, which was quite disgusting...blech!

After I planted the basil & spearmint, I took the kids to class.  The warm weather inspired me & I went over to Whole Foods & bought a bunch of strawberries & a chocolate angel food cake.  I also got red peppers, summer squash & portobello mushrooms for grilling.  Add hamburger meat, hot dogs & the accompanying rolls & we were all set for a cook out!

After we were all back home, we started cleaning up the back yard, especially around the pool wall.  A ridiculous amount of leaves collected over autumn & winter & now buried the rose bushes & day lilies.  

Using rakes & a leaf blower, we pulled most of the debris out & brought it to the fire pit, where we decided to do this:

  

We ate dinner & dessert by the fire - as the sun set the temperatures dropped quickly.  It was lovely to drink hot coffee by the fire as the light faded in the sky.  Ahhhhh.....

Weekend Fun in the Sun - Part One!

Saturday we took a little trip down to Foster, RI, to join a bunch of other homeschoolers in a tie-dye park day.  Our friend Cris hosted, along with her family.  Kimi really wanted to find a white hoodie to dye, but we couldn't find any, so we settled on t-shirts instead.  

Then Erica arrived - with a white hoodie sweatshirt!  She happily traded it for Kimi's sleep-sized t-shirt & Kimi got to work on her new hoodie.

(Photos of the final product coming later!)

It was a hot sunny day & we appreciated the shade provided by the rec center.  Everyone brought food & drinks to share & it was fun getting to meet other families.

Patriots' Day

We went to the Minute Man National Park on Saturday.  It was overcast but mild - perfect for walking around.

The Concord Bridge - where the fighting between the colonists & the British Regulars began on April 19, 1775.  "The Shot Heard 'Round the World"
Also perfect for climbing our favorite giant bush.  This is Kimi at the top - I'm taking the picture from a terrace that is a whole level higher than where the walking path is that leads to the base of this shrub.  

We've been coming to this park with the kids for years & they have always loved climbing this thing.  Of course, they are a bit taller than when they were 3 or 4!

Shaun's up there - look very closely!

Family portrait - Kimi got in it by adding her fingers into the frame!

The park often has people dressed in period clothing available to talk to visitors.  They are not "reenactors" - they don't pretend they are living in that time.  They instead provide a nice visual as they talk about the history connected to this area.

This is the Old Manse:

"Between two tall gateposts of roughhewn stone . . . we behold the gray front of the old parsonage, terminating the vista of an avenue of black ash trees."  So beginsMosses from an Old Manse, the set of short stories Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote while living at The Old Manse.The landscape Hawthorne describes is still recognizable to a present-day visitor more than 160 years later.  A recreation of Henry David Thoreau's vegetable garden, planted in 1842 as a wedding gift to the Hawthornes, still flourishes in the same location.  The Concord River flows serenely past the Manse and under its neighbor, the North Bridge, site of the famous "shot heard 'round the world" that started the American Revolution on April 19, 1775.

Gotta sing!

I know this is a video that's going around fast, but as someone who simply loves to sing, seeing this woman stand in front of a disbelieving crowd & then completely blow them away, well, I just had to tip my hat to her.

Susan Boyle - the whole world now knows your voice!

Susan Boyle on Britain Got Talent
Uploaded by dwarthy

ER

Tonight is the last night of ER.  I've watched every single episode since its beginning.  And its beginning happens to coincide with an important beginning for me.

The very first episode of ER, the pilot called "24 Hours",  aired on Monday, September 19, 1994.  Later that week, on Thursday, the day of the week that would be the show's home for the rest of its first-run life, Episode 2, "Day One" aired.  That same night, September 22, 1994, was the night that I became a Mom.  Kimberly was born in Booth Memorial Hospital, NYC.

I missed that episode that night.

But I saw the 3rd, & the 4th, & the 5th - week by week my new favorite TV show broadcast the stories of Mark Greene, Susan Lewis, Carol Hathaway, Doug Ross, Peter Benton & John Carter at County General.  Over the years each of these "people" left, replaced by new characters who kept me coming back each year.  After 15 seasons, ER sometimes shows its age, but then again, so do I!  Even more obvious is Kimi's development from a newborn to a toddler to a young child to the amazing 14 year old person she is today.

Something interesting happened to us last spring.  Kimi found ER on TNT in the mornings.  It was Episode 2, the one that was "born" on her own birth day.  She decided that she would watch more of them to see what the old ERs were like.  She quickly became hooked & fell in love with the original cast.  Thanks to Tivo & Blockbuster, we were able to see them all, even if we were away on vacations.  

A few weeks ago we caught up.  She has seen the span of her life expressed through the life story of ER.  She knows all the old stories, saw the long-timers when they were just Baby Docs & shares with me a love of the show.

Tonight, their story concludes.  And we will watch it, live.  And we will laugh & cry & be grateful for all the joy this show has brought to us.

Goodbye, ER.  We will miss you.

Stolen ARGH photos!

I must confess - I stole these from my friends' blogs.  Enjoy!

Stone Walls

I was reading Yankee magazine & found an article by Jim Collins about New England's stone walls. It was an interview with Robert Thorson, a geologist at the University of Connecticut, who has written books about these ominipresent structures, such as Stone by Stone & Good Fences: A Pictorial History of New England's Stone Walls. He also coordinates an educational organization called the Stone Wall Initiative.

In the article, he describes how the New England landscape is so similar to the "Old England" landscape - those good ol' glaciers did their thing on both sides of the pond. Although stone walls can be found all over, he says, "only in New England are they a part of the landscape".

Our property is outlined by very old stone walls. Going up our street, most of the properties are. My grandparents owned about a hundred acres of land in north-central MA. Stone walls delineated each of the fields, followed along the roads & marked off the private way through the woods to the pond & wet lands on the property.

I've always known stone walls to be very visible part of the landscape. It never occurred to me that it wasn't that way in most of the country. Turns out, according to the article, people pay good money to have authentic NE fieldstones, all weathered & lichen-covered, brought to their homes to give their landscape an aged look.

I'm grateful I don't need to manufacture the history of my land. I know who owned it before us (they live just up the street!) & I know that the meadow was filled with old apple & black walnut trees, thorn bushes & poison ivy. I know this because we were out there clearing it, uncovering the walls that had been buried by time.

Stone by stone...