The (first) BIG project

Like many families we have an ever-evolving, rarely-completed list of projects we want to do around the house. With a big party in the works for later this Autumn we feel a new urgency to actually check off some of the items on our list, and one of the "big" ones was figuring out what to do with the front walkway. It was an eyesore, but we honestly couldn't come up with any ideas we liked.

Finally, brilliantly, David came up with a lovely plan that was (reasonably) affordable and was something we could manage on our own. So after some exciting concrete demolition, and a few very expensive trips to the home improvement center and two garden centers, we tackled our project yesterday, and I think it came out very nicely.

After tearing out the old concrete "curbs" (ugh, that was hard), we dug up (and transplanted to a bare spot in yard) a patch of grass on each side of the front walk, and put in flower beds, after first building a little decorative retaining wall. It has totally transformed the space, and we feel almost a little foolish that we didn't do something like this a year ago. Oh well. It is very pretty now. I almost hate to park in front of it!

The abundance of friends

On a trip to the zoo with a good friend and her son this past Friday, our conversation turned, inevitably for me, to gardening. She told me all about her wonderful tomato crop, and I had to admit to her that our tomatoes have been a disaster. Between the squirrels and a horrible infestation of spider mites we have harvested exactly two grape tomatoes. Yes. Two. Grape. Tomatoes. Very sad.

Saturday afternoon, as I lay on the sofa with Lucy, recovering from our tree pruning fun earlier in the day (see below), someone knocked on our door. Standing there was the husband of my good friend and their daughter, with an enormous box of luscious, red, ripe tomatoes from their garden.

After admiring the tomatoes for a day, we cut a bunch of them up to make into a lovely tomato-basil-balsamic salad which we enjoyed as part of our Sunday supper. I think I will use the rest tonight in another salad - maybe something with tuna and capers? Thank you friends!

Be your own arborist

David & I figured out that if we took out a couple of tree limbs we might be able to get enough sunshine on our south-facing slope that we could grow grass. Of course, as with any project, this turned out to be a lot more work that we would have liked, but the children "helped" a lot, and the trees along the street look better. Now we can try one more time to get some grass to grow!

Green Beans

I know this all usually pictures of my adorable children, but for something a little different, here are some green beans. Not just any green beans, but green beans freshly picked from my garden. They were so good. They were crisp, they were sweet, they were flavorful. They took my taste buds on a nostalgic trip to my childhood of eating fresh green beans right off the bush in my parent's garden. But mostly these beans made me sad and angry that 99% of the green beans I eat these days taste like, well, nothing like a fresh green bean. I guess they have a green bean flavor, and they have green bean consistency, but really, they do not taste like a REAL green bean, and that's sad. I've become so accustomed to eating vegetables because I should, because they are nutritious, because they are low calorie and full of fiber. I can't even remember the last time I ate a green bean like these from my garden. They were so real and so delicious - they were a revelation, and not in a good way. Maybe next year is the year we dig up the front lawn and go crazy with our vegetable garden . . . for now, back to my little tiny veggie patch, with it's handful of green beans, some amazing cucumbers, and the promise a good pumpkin crop later this year.