Peter is the dedicated photographer in our little family. That doesn’t mean that I don’t wield the camera every once and a while. And occasionally, I get a great shot or two!
During a snack break on our hike through Bradley Palmer State Park, 9/6/07
I love the look on Peter’s face!
Wingaersheek- 9/13/07
I
Almost autumn
The sand is cool, the air is crisp.
I walk along the beach alone–almost alone.
Peeking out of a backpack
a baggie! a snack!
Woman, do not chase me, I claim this snack as mine!
I try to fly, I try to run
In the end, the prize is lost.
II
Almost autumn
We frolic in the icy waves
Wet clothes and cool breezes do not mix.
Dry diaper on–wet diaper tossed in a bag.
Carry in, Carry Out!
Seagull, That is not a snack!
We chase him down, we scare him off
One dropped bag, one diaper won.
After a week full of family fun you might think we’d like a quiet weekend to ourselves… No Way, No How! Auntie Kirsten and Uncle Mark flew in from Ohio on Friday evening and thus began a weekend full of family.
Peter and I recently took Catherine to Brooksby Farm in Peabody. While we visited the animals and bought some corn we noticed that they were planning a Peach Festival for Saturday. We thought it would be a perfect pre-party activity.
We visited the animals again, had some grilled peaches and squash, did a little shopping, and took a hay ride! We didn’t take them up on the offer to ‘pick your own’ peaches. On the hayride we saw a sign near the peach orchard that made me glad we didn’t pick- it said “caution, beware of the poison ivy”. I like peaches, and picking them, but not that much!
After lunch we made final preparations at our house for a long overdue Wood/Ethier/Carter family reunion…er…Human Fun Day. With family in from Ohio, and the rest living here in MA (save a couple) we thought it would be the perfect time to get together.
We all had a wonderful afternoon and evening visiting, playing bocce, eating, roasting marshmallows and getting to know each other better. Some of the clan hadn’t seen each other in eleven years and a couple had never even met! Peter set up his tripod and got a ton of great family photos including this one:
Hopefully it won’t be as long before we all get together again!
We were excited to show Peter’s parents a good time on Martha’s Vineyard during the Grand Illumination.
After we got a good night’s sleep and had wound down from the night’s excitement we made plans to visit Mytoi Garden on Chappaquiddick Island.
Despite all the time I’ve spent on MV I had never been to Mytoi before. The gardens were lovely and it was a very peaceful place to stroll around in. We even saw a few turtle, goldfish and bullfrogs.
While we were on Chappy (currently an honest to goodness island) we headed over to Dike’s bridge to look around and then back to the On Time Ferry for the three minute ride back to MV.
All told, we spent just under 48 hours on the Island with Catherine’s four Grandparents. It was a great little escape and a fun time. You can see all the pictures in our MV Album.
We have had a very (very!) busy week.
On Monday Catherine and I made a second trip to the Portsmouth Children’s Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We decided it would be more fun if we took Dad along this time! The three of us had lots of fun exploring the museum. Especially exciting was the Music Matrix. I’m not sure who had more fun with it- Catherine or her parents!
The museum is still a bit above Catherine- which is great because we still have many trips ahead of us before she outgrows it. Even so, there is tons of stuff for her to do. She played around with the exhibits meant for older kids and had a great time watching everyone else. The museum even has a special room on the top floor specially designed for the under 4 crowd. It has a train table, playstands, puppets, books and a great collections of random ‘things’ for the little ones to touch, turn, toss, and explore.
After a good time at the museum we headed into town for some lunch. Our destination was an old haunt of mine during my Strawbery Banke days; Dos Amigos Burritos. Yum, yum. Peter and I both had (and loved!) the sweet potato burrito while Catherine devoured her own kid sized order of rice and beans.
All the pictures from the day are here. Stay tuned for more news from the week!
Our living room has a nice big picture window. Having moved from a basement level apartment I enjoy all the sunlight that streams in every day. I’m not so keen on people looking in.
When we moved in we hung some roman shades that we found at Ikea. They are light, so they only block the view from outside, not all of the light. I like that. But the windows still looked unfinished. I didn’t want to hang heavy drapes or curtains; the room is small enough without drapery making it feel even smaller. The window is so wide that I would need to buy special rods to hang even a valance.
Before:
The solution was to build a cornice. It took some wood, ‘L’ brackets, screws, fabric and batting and some good old elbow grease to get the job done. The cornice is upholstered with a dark blue fabric that has flowers and vines embroidered on it in a similar blue. The effect is a nice linear window treatment with a little more design to it if you look closely. I like it.
After:
This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned diapers on this blog…and probably won’t be the last! I’ve said before that I wanted to use cloth diapers when Catherine was born. What I didn’t want was schlepping all the dirty ones over to the laundromat and pay to wash them! So for a year we used disposables. Sometimes we used gDiapers.
Now that we have our own laundry facilities, and we are working so hard to be green, we are making the switch to cloth diapers. The benefits are pretty obvious- they are less expensive in the long run, softer, make less waste, and are pretty cute! Cloth diapers have come a long way since my Mom diapered me! You won’t find a single diaper pin or pair of vinyl pants at our house! For some good information about today’s cloth diapers see here and then surf around and look at all the cute diapers for sale!
Making the switch is not cheap in the short run, however. A good set of cute diapers can run a person $80-$100! Never mind any accessories that go with it! We decided to ease ourselves into it. We already owned two ‘little gs’ that we have been using the flushable diapers in. I found them on craigslist- a starter pack (2 pants and 10 diapers)- for $10 [normally $25]. I went to Wal*Mart and got a dozen prefold diapers to get us started. I just fold the diapers and stuff them in the covers. The covers get velcroed on around her waist. Easy as pie!
We are still working out the kinks in our system. We’ve figured out washing and drying- we dry on a rack outside…the sun bleaches out the stains! It is a little more work than disposables, but worth it. There are a few things I’d like to add to the mix. I would love to get a couple more gDiaper covers and another dozen diapers. That would set us up with a healthy stash. We need some sort of ‘wet bag’ for the dirty diapers when we’re on the go.
We still use disposables here and there for some occasions, but I think as we grow more and more comfortable with the routine of cloth diapering there will be less and less need for them.
In other cloth news, we have abandoned paper napkins for cloth. We have a few napkins that came with a wedding present (the khaki ones) but I wanted more. I dug through my fabric bin and found some lavender linen fabric from an abandoned project. I whipped them up into little napkins with my trusty Singer and immediately pressed them into service.
These two changes require me to spend a little more time dealing with laundry-type chores, but I feel good knowing that I am reducing both the amount of material things I need to buy and the amount of trash I’m sending to the landfill.
And it’s not just the color of the grass!
One of the things I was most looking forward to when we moved here was having a back yard. Apartment living had turned a normally outdoorsy gal into much more of a homebody and I was excited to have space to live in-outdoors.
Over the past few months I’ve been adding different things to the back yard that are helping us enjoy the space we have while minimizing the impact we have on the planet. Let me take you on a short tour of the yard:
Rain Barrel
We purchased this little beauty from the New England Rain Barrel Company. It only has one job, but boy does it do it well. Water runs off the roof, through the gutters, down the spout right into the barrel. There are two nozzles. The one at the top allows water to run out when the barrel gets full. The second is at the bottom and has a short hose attached. We use the second nozzle to fill the watering can for watering the gardens.
The benefits are numerous: by collecting water we keep it from running off and eroding the area under our deck, it also prevents water from pooling or seeping into the basement, we’re saving money (and water) by not using town water to water plants and by using a recycled barrel we’re cutting down on the waste byproducts of manufacturing. The company had a partnership with the town of Danvers so we were able to get our barrel at a discount, even!
Vegetable Garden
Just because we have a yard doesn’t mean that we have all the tools necessary to maintain a yard or a garden. I had originally wanted to put in a medium to large size veggie garden. Then I realized that I didn’t have any way to till the ground…I didn’t even own a hoe! Through the mamas (and dads) at Motheringdotcommune I was introduced to Square Foot Gardening.
The basic idea behind the method is that in each1’x1′ section of a raised bed garden you plant one crop. Because of the size of the garden (only 4’x4′) you can reach each section easily for weeding and harvesting. The footprint is small, and no tilling is necessary.
I built my own bed with lumber from Home Depot and some nails we already had. Add in some soil and seeds and the cost is still minimal. I put in beans, peas, carrots, peppers, squash, spinach and pumpkins. The plants are growing up nicely and I’m happy to say that there are very few weeds! The squash and beans have a few blossoms and I’m hoping for a nice harvest come the end of summer. We’ll probably have enough for some meals or snacks but not enough to freeze or can for the winter. I figure this year is my test run and if the garden does well I can expand it next year.
Compost
Worst come to worst I was planning on having a compost heap out back. Really just a place to toss yard clippings and kitchen scraps where they could decompose in peace. As luck would have it, though, I found a stack composter on Freecycle (like this one). It sits just beyond the edge of the yard and I take our food scraps out there every couple of days. The stack hasn’t decomposed into usable mulch yet, but it is definitely working. I think that I’ll have some nutrient rich mulch to mix in with the veggie garden’s soil when I prep the bed for winter. Then by spring there should be plenty to kick start the beds for the growing season.
As a bonus the composter helps keep our trash output lower and by not using the garbage disposal we are conserving more water and reducing the energy needed to treat the gray water. And it gives me a great place to toss the occasional worm I find crawling around!
Clothesline
I love that crisp, crunchy feeling of clothes dried on a line. I love seeing beach towels and bathing suits hung side by side. I love knowing that every time I hang out instead of machine dry the pennies are adding up in my bank account. Plus, this time of year who wants the dryer heating up the inside of the house? Not me! (though, I’m a bit to bashful to hang my underwear out to dry…)
This clothesline cost us one dollar. The rope I found amongst our things (who knows when [or if] it was purchased). The fence and the tree were preexisting. I just had to buy pins. I found a package at the dollar store. They’re pretty low quality, but I’m willing to put up with that for now. As long as my laundry doesn’t end up on the ground.
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Overall, it is a pretty good setup for us who don’t want to spend tons of money working on the lawn. I’d like to get some flowers in for next spring but I wouldn’t change much else!
I recently mixed up a tasty little summer salad…and, as it turns out, Catherine LOVES it!
Click the photo for more cute shots!
Here’s the recipe:
1 can of Black Beans, rinsed and drained
1 can of Sweet Corn, rinsed and drained
1/2 jar of Salsa
Mix all ingredients and refrigerate a while- until it gets cold and the flavors have a chance to mix together.
Enjoy!
I’ve been doing a bit more sewing. Peter and I have been decluttering our ‘master bedroom’ to make it more livable and cozy. We decided that it was finally time to put some curtains up.
We went to Joann’s Fabrics with no idea what kind of pattern or colors we’d want in the room. I figured it would take us a while to find something we liked or to agree…but it didn’t. We both knew right off the bat and it was only the second bolt I had pulled off the shelf! I guess it was meant to be.
The actual sewing was pretty easy, and thanks to Peter spending some quality Dad time with Catherine I was able to work from start to finish. The curtains were done quickly; completed in less time than it takes to listen to The Best of James Taylor. (How’s that for a measurement of time?)
