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Given that it’s a clean slate and a whole new year, we should start out with a blog update and hopefully post a bit more regularly in 2009. We enjoyed our traditional vowel state road trip for the holidays, this time adding a visit to the Sheldons in Chicago to our itinerary of Toledo (Brian’s […]

It really is winter.  Even though we got our first snow on the ground just this week, and then it’s been 60 degrees and rainy the past two days.  And in fact, not only is it winter, but it is also the season of Advent.  Even though the limited holiday preparations I’ve conducted are: decorating […]

Evidently we are either not inspired these days, or nothing much is going on.  A little of both, I think.  We’re in autopilot for the most part, doing what we typically do, so it doesn’t seem noteworthy.  When writer’s block hits, it’s time to return to our favorite topics.  In our case, it’s the yard […]

Brian and I spent the week of June 27 – July 6 visiting our family in the midwest. To have had such a relaxing trip, it sure went fast! As has been our recent trend, we stopped partway through the drive each way, helping to maintain our sanity. Saturday: We left Saturday evening, drove as […]

The flowers enjoyed our vacation, which coincided with a warm week of sunny weather and showers most afternoons in Newburyport. Brian staked the tomatoes and mowed the lawn, and snitched a couple snap peas as a reward for his work this week. We enjoyed our first fresh salads of the year. In addition to the […]

In the garden, we have three roses growing. The big climber that has been most robust in the past seems to be taking the year off (note the dead looking rose at the right of the photo below). One small rose that we thought was dead, but replanted anyway, is growing! I think it’s reverting […]

Our amazing string of sunny weekends was forecasted to end today. And it did – it’s now pouring thundershowers outside. That meant we had to do some weekday and early morning work to get everything done before June 1. Tuesday the spruce tree disappeared! Brian said the tree guys cut off the lower branches, climbed […]

Last weekend we did a little work the yard to keep our momentum going, mostly defined the beds and moved the extra sod to the two bare areas. One area was where the bees built an underground hive a couple years ago, so there’s a valley in the lawn. The other area was under the […]

Another weekend of good weather meant more time in the yard. This weekend’s activities chipped away at the preparation of the backyard. The beds along the patio all had brick edging. I pulled that up and was ready to pull up more bricks around the garden when I realized it would be a good idea […]

Brian and I ran the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon, a 13.1 mile race, on May 3. It starts in downtown Indy, goes out to the Speedway, around the race track, and back to downtown. Shortly after the start, the race course goes past the zoo. A large and small elephant were looking down the hill at us, […]