Our neighbor Brian was out of town last week, during which the majority of figs on the tree in his front yard ripened. Not wanting to leave such goodness for those no-good squirrels, I helped myself. Then Brian came back earlier than expected and I felt bad I’d helped myself to his figs. To compensate, I thought I’d make him something with the figs. Because there is nothing more thoughtful than preparing baked treats for your neighbors with figs they grew and you helped yourself to. Continue reading
Category: the neighborhood
Random recent happy things.
Baby Praying Mantis on Leni’s Zinna.
Tales from the first day of school.
The big yellow angel is back and with it, Edie’s best get-her-to-school-on-time buddy.
11 Questions.
The thing about blogging is wondering exactly what people want to read- for instance, I almost didn’t publish that last post on cantaloupe jam because I had this second thought after writing it that no one really cared two cents about cantaloupe jam. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that indeed some of you actually like hearing about cantaloupe jam. I always get a little thrill when I hear how much someone likes this blog – this whole thing started on a lark trying to keep a lost then found creative spark that is so much a part of me that I don’t ever want to lose it again. In a little internet game of tag you’re it, Meridith over at Counting Chickens gave me a little shout-out along with a list of questions that were optional for me to answer. And if you know me, you know that I bounce from subject to subject, so why should my blog be any different? This one is for you Meridith.
Bookends.
At 7 am, the kids that live across the street came bounding into my house, ready for school, with close to an hour to kill before bus time. Heading back toward’s Edie’s room to play piano, Li paused to take in the pile of blue dresses thrown on top of the wing chair. When informed they were all possible costumes for Edie’s role in the school drama club’s version of “Beauty & The Beast”, Li’s eyes grew wide and she asked with awe, “Is she the princess?”. As I answered in the affirmative, she went running into Edie’s room, with congratulations and adulation that only the little girl who lives across the street who understands the importance of having your royalness acknowledged can give you. Continue reading
Last Minute Pinata.
We’ve been on the fence for the last few months about The Party. We’ve been getting inquiries about it since the Christmas party season. For real. We deliberately kept the first weekend in May open, but couldn’t bring ourselves to committing to hosting anything. We had conversations over the months about changes needed to be made to the party – we needed to cut the guest list or we needed to hire staff to help with the party or both. We weren’t quite sure how to politely cut the guest list and at the same time, we knew for every cut we made, we’d end up adding two. We talked about slashing the guest list to the absolute bone, inviting only what we termed our ‘everyday people’. That list got written up about two months ago. We dillied, we dallied. We couldn’t quite decide and everywhere we went, people inquired about what our Cinco de Mayo plans were.
About a week ago, we made the call. We weren’t having a party, just a few friends over. We verbally invited just about everyone, but waited until late Wednesday, 3 days before the actual party date, to issue any formal invitations. Which read:
We’re not having ‘the party’,
we’re just having a few select friends over for Watermelon Margs.
And Lemonade for the kids.
No pinata though. Continue reading
Candy Bar Cake.
Ben’s birthday was this weekend and I had grand plans for his cake this year, based on a pin of mine over on pinterest. But then somewhere around Tuesday, I sort of hit the wall for the week. Which is the equivalent of realizing you’re ready for bed at 10:30 am on a day where you just don’t have the time to go to bed until about 11 that night. You know those days? Well, that was my week. Two solid months of being booked solid caught up with me in a huge way. There wasn’t much I could really back out of, I just had to put on my big girl pants and get through it. And that’s when I was inspired to reconsider Ben’s cake. I knew I would be hard pressed to whip up a layer cake with fillings and frosting, but why couldn’t I take one of my fabulous flourless tortes and use that as a base for Ben’s requested ‘chocolate, chocolate, chocolate’ cake? Which is what I did.
An Accidental Career.
March madness has morphed into Assiduous April. I knew at the onset of March it was going to be busy. And then things happened…..all good things, but it seemed like all I was doing some days was adding to my to-do list instead of actually tackling any items on the list. I also found myself writing things down – I pride myself on not having to write things down. When I write things down, that means I’m overwhelmed, I have too many things going on and I need to slow down. I kept telling myself if I could just get through the month of March, I could get caught up. All of it. The house, other projects that got shoved to the back burners, time with friends, my garden…. Continue reading
Signs of spring.
Despite the fact that there is still little piles of snow tucked away here & there, spring is on it’s way. My allergies tell me so.
As does the tulip magnolia across the street in Jennifer’s back yard.
The tulip magnolia has exactly 2 buds that have cracked open at the top of the tree. If you look very closely, you can see it.
The cherry tree has the beginnings of blossoms.
As does the one next door.
And in Brian’s back yard, the maples are turning red.
And then there were nine.
We are down to nine chickens, from a dozen last fall.
Kramer, of the criss cross beak went first. We were surprised she lasted as long as she did. As she grew, her beak got progressively worse and there was really nothing to be done about it. She was half the size of the others, but definitely had the strongest personality. She often wandered away from the rest of the flock, just doing her own thing. She was quite fearless. Ultimately though, she just wasn’t getting enough food to sustain her.
Butters, the large Buff Cochin rooster, was sent to the farm to live after he started turning a little ornery and chasing people.
Cuddles, aka, Rosebud aka Ruby aka Diana, the little soft grey chick that struggled along, then turned into a big, beautiful, white fluffy White Cochin, passed away after taking sick during that bitter cold stretch we had in January.
She was everyone’s favorite, hence all her names. When Brian came over to tell us, he was a little upset. Edie was upset too when we finally broke the news to her. Not as upset as when she learned about Kramer, but still sad.
I suspect Ozzy misses her too. I got a whole set of shots of those two snuggled up just a few weeks ago, as they appeared to be chatting under the back porch.
Well, maybe not chatting as much as Ozzy walking over and resting her head on top of Cuddles, appearing to console her. Looking at these now, I wonder if Cuddles was ill back then and Ozzy knew.
Owlface appears to be our best layer, laying at least one green egg a day for us.
Although Ozzy isn’t too far behind. Ozzy continues to be our funky chicken, with her lopsided crest that hangs over one eye. I think she’s a Houdan breed, which is originally from France. She is hands down, Edie’s favorite chicken of them all and with the loss of Kramer & Butters, she’s now the first chicken to come running out to greet whatever human she sees.
Their house is down at Brian’s, two doors down and yet they wander over to our yard daily. It’s uncanny how they know who feeds them.
During a warm spell last week I tried to capture the sights of the front yard – Edie plopped in the front yard, talking on the phone while supposedly doing her homework, meanwhile the chickens wandering about.
Just another day in the neighborhood.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 