Tim spent his five-day in Vermont! It was the annual Work With Mom In The Yard visit. We had excellent weather, perfect for outdoor stuff. Here's what we did.
Food:
had dinner at The Bare Mexican in Randolph, whose enchilada suiza is beyond wonderful
had supper at Village Pizza in Randolph
had dinner with Thelma and Betsy Kelley at Tosier's in Bethel
made piimäkakkua, most of which Tim ate (but he saved a piece for Danielle)
made Hot Chicken Salad, half of which Tim took with him for airport layover food
made excellent breakfasts with farm fresh eggs, fresh fruit, and one superb breakfast of Bare Mexican leftovers
enjoyed Long Trail beer and Magic Hat beer
Visited:
The Howards and Thelma
Tim visited his dad, and they noted the progress on the Howard's house up at the camp
George and Gail Africa, owners of the Vermont Flower Farm in Plainfield, VT. George got to explain all his ongoing and upcoming projects to a very appreciative listener. Gail fed us coffee and apple coffeecake.
Worked:
removed the mouse nest from the lawn mower
got the mower blade sharpened
mowed the lawn, because the mower worked again
stacked wood
used the David Estler plastering method on the living room ceiling
reorganized Thelma's storage shed by the riding ring.
Gardened:
planted a hedge of tall daisies behind the peony bed
planted the peonies that a friend gave me, and moved some others
gave extra plants to the woman who delivers the mail
dug a new rhubarb bed, in full sun
moved the rhubarb, not an easy task
put the rhubarb bed sod down, near the brook
Entertainment:
went to bed rather early on most nights, being fatigued from our labors
watched Last of the Mohicans
kept up with the Jets/Dolphins game during the movie, thanks to Iphone videos from Danielle
played Birds on Tim's Iphone
and finally – drove Tim to the airport on Tuesday morning. He was not looking forward to the 4-hour layover at JFK, which turned out to be much longer, thanks to the Florida weather.
Lovely visit. Absolutely lovely. I miss him already.
This has been a wonderful summer of visits – Alice, Tim, and Kate and Mike. I hope this starts a visit tradition
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Stream renovations
I think I mentioned the stream renovation project. Well, it’s done. Stan Wheatley, who graded the yard when I first bought the house and had the pool removed, did the work.
The island that has been building itself since 2007 is gone, the stream bed is lower, and the bank is steeper, to better contain high water on my side. Stan consulted with my neighbor Paul, who said he didn’t care if the water came up into his cow pasture.
Stan also found the drainpipe that leads from the basement floor drain, and hasn’t drained during the winter for years. Why not, you might ask. Because several high-water springs filled about a foot of the pipe with soil and mud, which froze in the winter and kept water from draining. We’ll see if a cleared-out pipe makes a difference next spring. I'll stick piece of rebar into the bank to show me where the pipe is, so I keep it clear.
Two buckthorns were excavated, hooray. They are trash trees, nothing but a cluster of suckers, they won't do for stovewood, and they have thorns. Sadly, the gorgeous swath of spring daffodils is buried under piles of rock, right about where the excavator is sitting. But new bulbs should arrive soon by mail, and in a couple of springs (with luck and bulb food) the swath will have returned.
In the last post I said the weather was mild in the daytime. Well, that was short lived. It never got higher than 58 today, and as I write this I've unearthed a warm nightgown and I've lit the woodstove. And it's not even October yet! But the house was so bone-chillingly clammy that I couldn't stand it. Ernie has buried himself in a foot-of-the-bed throw for over a week. Now he's back on his end of the sofa, by the stove, purring up a storm.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Summer into fall, and harvest time
It’s getting to be sweatshirt season. Nighttime temps are brisk, but daytime temps are still in the 70s, which makes for lovely weather. Rain keeps threatening, but has been holding off until after dark, a REALLY nice treat, although We Need Rain.
The blog entries have been sparse because my time has been spent working, riding my horse, dealing with home-grown produce, and working in the yard. Just as we clean house before company comes, I have to get most of the weeding done before Tim arrives. One good thing about spending a great deal of time working in a flower bed is that solutions to problems present themselves as if by magic. What I have not finished is stacking and covering the wood. That might be a Mom-and-Tim job. And, for the first time all season, this weekend I did not have to mow the lawn. By Wednesday I may regret that, but the weather has been so friendly to growing things that there was no August lawn slow-down and I have mowed every week since Memorial Day.
The green beans and tomatoes were painfully successful. Every other day since around August 15, I picked more green beans and more cherry tomatoes. I put 6 quart bags of green beans in the freezer, and am overjoyed that the beans finally finished up this past Thursday. You can see the winter supply of blueberries (3 bags) peeking out at the bottom of the green bean photo. They’re from a pick-your-own farm.
A person can only live on (Vermont) bacon, (homegrown) lettuce and (homegrown) tomatoes for so long. I know that, because for a solid week it was BLT sandwiches at lunch and BLT salads (with sunflower seeds) for dinner. I do not get easily tired of home-grown tomatoes, but that was an overdose and part of my digestive system rebelled in an uncomfortable way.
Sunday every inch of the kitchen counters were full of cherry and full-size tomatoes and I had to do something with them before they spoiled. I had four 1-pint jars of tomato sauce in the freezer from last year – my first attempt, and way too thin. So I thawed those jars, peeled and seeded about 4 more pounds of tomatoes, and put sauce and tomatoes in the giant blue pot along with basil and oregano from the garden, garlic (from the grocery), and home-made tomato paste from oven-dried cherry tomatoes, and cooked everything for about two hours. It thickened nicely, looks great, and there are now 6 jars of much better sauce in the freezer. (One is in the freezer itself, because it wouldn’t fit on the door shelf.)
There are still tomatoes on the counter, and more tomatoes on the plants, but now I know how to make sauce, and can easily make a much smaller quantity in less time and with less effort. I have to put up a couple of jars of sweet-and-sour beets (I only got a few beets, boo hoo, and had to buy some at the farm market). Then I will be done with “the harvest”. There’s still time to plant more lettuce and spinach, but all you have to do with lettuce and spinach is make salad. Or use the spinach in my Favorite Egg Breakfast. So easy. That’s a relief.
The blog entries have been sparse because my time has been spent working, riding my horse, dealing with home-grown produce, and working in the yard. Just as we clean house before company comes, I have to get most of the weeding done before Tim arrives. One good thing about spending a great deal of time working in a flower bed is that solutions to problems present themselves as if by magic. What I have not finished is stacking and covering the wood. That might be a Mom-and-Tim job. And, for the first time all season, this weekend I did not have to mow the lawn. By Wednesday I may regret that, but the weather has been so friendly to growing things that there was no August lawn slow-down and I have mowed every week since Memorial Day.
The green beans and tomatoes were painfully successful. Every other day since around August 15, I picked more green beans and more cherry tomatoes. I put 6 quart bags of green beans in the freezer, and am overjoyed that the beans finally finished up this past Thursday. You can see the winter supply of blueberries (3 bags) peeking out at the bottom of the green bean photo. They’re from a pick-your-own farm.
Sunday every inch of the kitchen counters were full of cherry and full-size tomatoes and I had to do something with them before they spoiled. I had four 1-pint jars of tomato sauce in the freezer from last year – my first attempt, and way too thin. So I thawed those jars, peeled and seeded about 4 more pounds of tomatoes, and put sauce and tomatoes in the giant blue pot along with basil and oregano from the garden, garlic (from the grocery), and home-made tomato paste from oven-dried cherry tomatoes, and cooked everything for about two hours. It thickened nicely, looks great, and there are now 6 jars of much better sauce in the freezer. (One is in the freezer itself, because it wouldn’t fit on the door shelf.)
There are still tomatoes on the counter, and more tomatoes on the plants, but now I know how to make sauce, and can easily make a much smaller quantity in less time and with less effort. I have to put up a couple of jars of sweet-and-sour beets (I only got a few beets, boo hoo, and had to buy some at the farm market). Then I will be done with “the harvest”. There’s still time to plant more lettuce and spinach, but all you have to do with lettuce and spinach is make salad. Or use the spinach in my Favorite Egg Breakfast. So easy. That’s a relief.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Echo Taps
The evening of September 11 I attended “Echo Taps” on the Norwich campus. All the cadets turn out at 9:45 pm in their dress uniforms, everyone gathers on the big green space called the Upper Parade Ground, and at 10pm a student piper plays Amazing Grace, and then two student buglers at each end of the Parade Ground play taps, one echoing the other. No one makes a sound, except the musicians. It was very solemn, very appropriate, and comforting.
Vermonters agree, of course, that the terrorist attacks were a horrible event and a horrible tragedy, but none of the Vermonters I know were there, or close to there, as so many New Yorkers and New Jerseyans were. For us, our feelings are a little different, and deeper, and as we remember the reality of that day and the ones that followed, we’re perhaps a little more reflective. This year I have two faculty members who were living in New York on that day. Both lost friends, and one is always distressed at not being in NYC when September 11 comes along. I told him I would go to Echo Taps on his behalf, and he said that would make him feel better.
I will always remember the way people left shopping carts in the aisles and raced out of the Shop-Rite when the manager announced that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.
I will always remember WFUV playing any song a listener requested, all day until well after midnight, as long as the song had some relevance for peace.
I will always remember my super’s wife sitting in my apartment because a woman who lived downstairs from me had not come home – she did, well after suppertime.
I will always be grateful that my former husband, the father of my beloved sons, survived, having had to run for his life as the second tower fell. I will always be grateful that good friends who worked near the towers were not hurt, although it took days to hear from them. I will always be grateful that a church friend, and the mother of a dear Norwich friend, both managed to get out of the towers in time.
I will always remember being confused, maybe even disoriented, because the weather was bright and sunny and sparkling. It had started out to be a “perfect day”. By 9am that sunshine seemed out of place, and completely wrong.
Vermonters agree, of course, that the terrorist attacks were a horrible event and a horrible tragedy, but none of the Vermonters I know were there, or close to there, as so many New Yorkers and New Jerseyans were. For us, our feelings are a little different, and deeper, and as we remember the reality of that day and the ones that followed, we’re perhaps a little more reflective. This year I have two faculty members who were living in New York on that day. Both lost friends, and one is always distressed at not being in NYC when September 11 comes along. I told him I would go to Echo Taps on his behalf, and he said that would make him feel better.
I will always remember the way people left shopping carts in the aisles and raced out of the Shop-Rite when the manager announced that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.
I will always remember WFUV playing any song a listener requested, all day until well after midnight, as long as the song had some relevance for peace.
I will always remember my super’s wife sitting in my apartment because a woman who lived downstairs from me had not come home – she did, well after suppertime.
I will always be grateful that my former husband, the father of my beloved sons, survived, having had to run for his life as the second tower fell. I will always be grateful that good friends who worked near the towers were not hurt, although it took days to hear from them. I will always be grateful that a church friend, and the mother of a dear Norwich friend, both managed to get out of the towers in time.
I will always remember being confused, maybe even disoriented, because the weather was bright and sunny and sparkling. It had started out to be a “perfect day”. By 9am that sunshine seemed out of place, and completely wrong.
This is not my photo. Someone sent it to me, from a website or a photo collection, sometime over the many nights that those lights reached upward. If someone emails me the source, I will gladly credit it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)