Sunday, December 24, 2017

Late Summer/Early Fall Catch-up

Continuing with the picture dump / catch-up posts...
[Josie's first day of first grade!]
[Audra came along for the walk to the bus stop too]
[Day one of many for packing Josie's lunches...]
[I somehow thought they were closer in height than this??]
[Audra was busy organizing one morning]
[My beloved lavender, pre-pruning...]
[...and post-pruning. Hopefully I did it right :-\ ]
[The maypops climbed rather more rapidly than expected]
[This? This is the infamous Jane, horsey love of my life, at age 25 now]
[I owned her from when she was 2 until she was 10, and she moved with me from MI to VA 
but I then ended up having to find her a new home when I graduated from college]
[I had last seen her in October 2002, when we met up with her and her "new" owner (who has now had her for the last 15 years, yet I still refer to him as her "new" owner) in OH at a horse show]
[I happened to be staying within an hour of her for my first-ever work trip, so it seemed serendipitous to go see her again. I was inexplicably nervous about this, but she didn't care at all about seeing me...]
[...because she just wanted to get back to the weanlings she was baby-sitting :) ]
[And here's Jane's own baby - this is her last one, by an AQHA Congress and World Champion]
[Josie was not a fan of my taro bubble tea]
[Audra was in awe at Disney on Ice]
[Pretty sunset at the stables where I ride]
[Audra drew an octopus!]
[I went to see Against Me! again... they were just as mesmerizing as I remembered from when I first saw them last year, but even better since I could now sing along with all their songs ;) ]
[We took the adventure van on its inaugural camping trip, meeting up with some friends in Gettysburg... the girls were observing our campsite here, and perhaps were impressed by how little effort it took to set up the van (i.e., we parked it. Done.) ;) ]
[Audra was decidedly less thrilled later when she managed to wriggle her way down into her sleeping bag and then fell into the wheel well, necessitating a slightly panicked middle-of-the-night extraction by me]
[All smiles after apple picking and getting some farm fresh ice cream... in a gazebo! Their favorite.]
[The lavender makes another appearance]
[This year's jack o' lanterns: Audra's owl on the left and Josie's cat on the right]

Friday, November 17, 2017

Spring/Summer Catch-up

I thought I had started another post a while ago, but I can't find it now so I figured I'll just do a photo dump to try to catch up to the present day :) So here's a whole bunch of pictures of the kids and other random stuff, with a little bit of commentary.
[Whenever my shoes go missing, it's usually a safe bet to start with Audra]
[Doesn't seem that comfortable, but what do I know...]
[One week's harvest from the garden... several different kinds of lettuces, arugula, etc. 
I learned the hard way this year that we can't eat enough salads to keep up]
[Our raspberry plants finally produced a single, perfect raspberry... and it was delicious]
[Our biggest grape vine so far... before it got savaged by Japanese beetles later in the season]
[Kiwis... before I got prune-happy with them and a deer destroyed one later in the season]
[The garden in full bloom - from the left, asparagus, lettuces, edamame, pole beans, kale, peas, kiwis]
[One of Josie's sunflowers]
[Trapped in my car again by the guineafowl at the stables... this doesn't show all of them, 
and they are surprisingly intimidating en masse]
[Excited to get the party started for Josie's birthday at the ice rink]
[My usual view at the lake]
[Managed to get both girls to take naps every day while at the lake, although I had 
to suffer a few minor indignities]
[Blueberry picking!]
[Cousins! And Audra's new clothes, since we forgot ALL OF HER SHIRTS]
[I don't know what is even happening here]
[Back home from the lake, this is our friendly neighborhood turkey]
[This is apparently what we do for dinner when Josie is at a sleepover at Nana's]
[Somehow a leopard appears to have come along for the ride on the Ferris wheel]
[The greenhouse got a bit overrun, between the amaranth, sweet potatoes, and fig trees]
[For someone who doesn't like tomatoes, I was quite pleased with our crop this year]
[Droopy sunflower head = sunflower seeds for snacking!]