Cheerios

I've barely mentioned the youngest family member. Here he is, playing tiddly-winks with the last few Cheerios... What a cutie!



Note that the video was taken on daughter H's iPhone, emailed to me, then transferred by me from the email to Blogger. Isn't technology (when it works) amazing!

Van Vleck Tennis Court Garden

Still struggling with getting photos to post from the Mac.  These were done using Picasa as an intermediary.  There must be a simpler way!

The formal garden that occupies the site of the Van Vleck family tennis court must be one of the town's best kept secrets. 

Fine with me if it stays that way.

The little trees that anchor each quadrant seem to be rhododendron standards of some kind.  Fitting, since rhododendrons are the theme of the garden as a whole.

 Looking toward the wisteria-covered arbor.  I imagine that was for the tennis spectators once upon a time.   A lovely place.

Harvest

As part of the ongoing lawn reduction program, a large round strawberry bed was created last year  in the back yard, at the bottom of the steps to the deck. The broken bluestones from the sidewalk repair were used to create a path through the middle.

Today - my first harvest!   Delicious.

A cool saw

Both neighbors are having their houses painted. On the west I'm being subjected to the noise of an extremely loud radio. It's a one man operation and it's been going on for several months now. I'm used to it.

The job on the east just started this morning. There's a big crew and one of the first tasks was to clear away a lot of overgrown shrubbery. What got my attention was the battery-powered saw the guy was using, which made very fast work of it all.

The photo you see was snapped through the window above my desk. Later, when I was outside, I asked the guy about it. It's a Ryobi from Home Depot, and it has interchagable "bits" that allow it to do other things. He even showed me how to use it.

I think i need one of those!







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Gardening by mail

Feast or famine, right? No posts for months then two, back to back. Well I was on my way to check things out on the garden, which, by the way, is looking remarkably spiffy so far, when I spotted the Bluestone package by the door.





You know about them, I hope? They're somewhere in Ohio and they have an enormous inventory of perennials and shrubs - more every year. And right now they're having their famous 50% off sale.

The plants? Well the three-pack is the impossible to find verbena bonariensis that I've been lusting for. It's going to send little lavender flowers on almost invisible wiry four foot stems floating airily over the roses.

The other is clematis terniflora, or sweet autumn clematis. I had almost been WISHING for a nice dead tree for it to wander through when - ta da - the redbud at the base of the hill in back chose to oblige.






Won't that look cool?




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Running out of excuses

Well, maybe it is finally time for me to get back on the blogging bandwagon. Not only is it a cinch on the new iPhone, but an even newer shiny white MacBook has replaced the clunky old Dell. Plus there's another blogging daughter to keep up with now:

http://isabelbreeze.blogspot.com/

Take a look, especially if you want to know about what's hip in Austin and environs. I'll add her to the blogroll as soon as I remember how. If she can take photos like that with the iPhone just imagine what she'll do when she gets herself a "real" camera!

I mentioned the Boston party. Of course visiting the Newton gang in the new This Old House (speaking of blogging daughters!) was part of the agenda. There was a baseball game to watch, and a soccer game, and a most delightful afternoon spent at the De Cordova Museum in nearby Lincoln.

Uh oh! I was about to show you a photo or two. But uploading from iPhoto to Blogger seems to be a little tricky. How do I figure out what the file name is?? I'm sure it will be easy as pie once I work it out. Patience!!

Time freeze

It's been almost 5 years since I started this blog. Do the math. I'm not sixty-five any more. But I'm still here! This year all of my college classmates are "celebrating" a Big Birthday. It's not an official reunion year, but we decided to take action. There was a party in Boston, and another smaller one in New York. I went to both of them. Some observations:

If you are married to a gazillionaire, subtract fifteen years from your real age.

We are survivors, those of us who remain. It's as simple as that. Many of us who didn't know each other 50 years ago feel close simply because of having shared those four years in the same place. I mentioned to one person: we (my roommates and I) were a little afraid of you and your roommates. You wore black. You went out in the night to mysterious destinations. She laughed. I suspect we will become closer.

For me, the Boston party was more about reconnecting with old friends. The New York party was more about making new ones. Good things, both.