this past week...

Designing and crocheting.

Napping.

Shopping. At Rich's favorite store.

Assembling. A cart for the dining room.

(Getting so close on the redecorating.)

Enjoying the beauty of nature.

Not pictured:

Lying outside watching the meteor showers with my sweetie.

Getting the hang of new projects.

Meeting "the big guy."

(Annie and Gray, that is, as they each had a class with the founder of the 

Kokikai style of Aikido. And Annie went to lunch with him.)

Strolling hand-in-hand in the local park.

Receiving good news.

(Annie found out she got the associate editor 

position on the college literary magazine.)

Imbibing good beer at The Old Toad 

and finally meeting Rich's friend Paul and his parrot Silas.

Loving life.

this morning's harvest...

this past week...

Gaming.

Reading. At the library. And at home.

Battling knotweed. One day we will win the war.

Playing. With our new camera.

Gazing lovingly. :)

 Walking. At Mendon Ponds. At Sherwood Fields.

At Abraham Lincoln Park.

Sleeping in.

Grading. Never a shortage of that.

Celebrating. 23 years of wedded bliss. And there honestly has been 

heaping loads of bliss. I am so. damn. lucky.

Hoping desperately. For pieces of dropped popcorn.

Fearing the giant zucchini.

Not pictured:

Chatting. Gray had an appointment with Dr. Bennett.

Cheering. Annie went to a Rhinos soccer game with Dan and Savannah.

Painting.

Creating.

Watching. Latest episodes of Under the Dome and Project Runway.

And watching/rewatching the first four episodes of Veronica Mars.

Weeding.

Freezing.

Dreaming. Of retirement. And traveling the Western hemisphere in a camper van.

a happiness project update...

This may be my favorite project of all time. :)  And I don't feel like I've been giving it enough of my time and attention. I'd really like to change that--but with no pressure. I'm going to try to have at least one item in my immediate sights at all times. I do actually have a small handful in the works, but I haven't been putting a lot of focus on them...need to change that.

Sooooo. This past week I was perusing my happiness project lists looking for inspiration to strike. And strike it did. When I was reading my sweet, sweet, sweet friend Heather's list of "fun/challenging/interesting things to do," I latched right onto #13: Finish one scrapbook album. As soon as I read that, I knew immediately what I wanted to do. Rich and I had taken a wonderful hike at one of our favorite places, Devil's Bathtub in Mendon Ponds on Tuesday afternoon, and I'd taken a ton of photos. I wanted to make a mini album just to document our wonderful afternoon.

One of the things I love, love, love about the album itself is that I made it largely from items I save from the recycle bin. I'm constantly saving things I think I can use eventually. This album has chipboard from the back of tablets, a piece of acetate from packaging, the little glossy inserts that come in packs of photo paper, the cardboard inserts that Amazon often uses, etc.

And yep, here's where I bombard you with way too many photos. (I apologize and sincerely encourage you to feel free to skip this post.) But I want to do it for me.

Heather dear, thank you so much. Rich and I love this album, and there's a very good chance I never would have made it without you. :D

gardening blues...

Oh my, but what an odd gardening year it is. Late spring and early summer were SO DARN RAINY, and while it's not quite as bad now, we're still getting more rain than is normal here. It's taken it's toll, that's for sure. All the heavy rain washed away or drowned so many seeds and seedlings. We're going to have pathetic harvests of some of the things we've never had the slightest trouble growing before. Like kohlrabi--we're usually inundated with it, but this year the rain inundated them. We're only looking at getting maybe half a dozen (if nothing else goes wrong). Same with carrots. The cucumbers didn't come up at all, but we've since replanted them and they seem to be growing strong now. Only about a quarter of the onion seedlings survived, and an even smaller fraction of the cauliflower and broccoli.

But the worst, worst, worst thing of all is the tomatoes. Last year, I canned about 60 quarts of tomatoes, not to mention about 30 pints of salsa. This year, I'm going to be surprised if I can any. :( At this point, we've got lots of green tomatoes, but the plants themselves look utterly pathetic. We're babying the hell out of them, hoping they'll hang on...but honestly, I don't think either of us is too hopeful.

On the bright side, as Chris mentioned last week, the abundance of rain seems to be making the peppers happy. We've got loads of jalapenos and cayennes growing, and loads more flowering. Hopefully some of which are sweet green peppers. (We got all my pepper seedlings mixed up when planting them, so we're not sure what is where. :P )

As I said, our second planting of cucumbers seems to be doing well. And I'm tickled to death about how the cabbage is doing, especially as it's something completely new for us. And the zucchini--well, you know zucchini, it's going gangbusters. I've been baking away, and freezing some as well.

The lettuce is still feeding us abundantly.

The celery (another new-to-us crop) seems to be doing well, looking a little more celery-like all the time. And though we got our green beans in the ground a little late this year, they seem to be doing well too.

So yeah, it seems to be a year of ups and downs in the garden. We're trying hard not to be too disappointed in the "downs." After all, every bite of fresh-grown deliciousness we get is an "up" worthy of celebration!

I'm not sure if Chris is going to have a chance to get up a Saturday Farmers Market post today, but be sure to check over there for more garden goodness!

good stuff...

*Songs that just I just can't get enough of. Currently those songs would include "Runaway" (The National), "New Slang" (The Shins), "Janglin" (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros), and "Cold October" (Escondido).

*Deliciously cool breezes coming through the window every night.

*A cuddly kitty in the lap while reading.

*Walks in the woods with my sweetie.

*Super successful thrifting trips.

*A night heron who calls in the dead of night. It always weirds me out a bit, as it's so loud and somewhat eerie, but it is so very, very cool.

*Rediscovering my love of scrapbooking.

*Listening to nature's songs as I sit working by the window...the tweets and chirps of birds...the clicks and hums of insects...the rustling of leaves in the wind...the croaks and splashes of frogs...

*Anticipating a fun, relaxing three-day weekend. A weekend that will include our 23rd anniversary. :)

*Mini book binges from Book Closeouts...and the way books make me think of people I love (this is so an Ana pile).

*The overwhelming feeling of being grateful for every new day.

*Getting to hear your good stuff in the comments. Pretty please...