More signs of summer...stolen bases and Yankees losses!

In case the 90 degree weather isn't enough of a clue, summer is here (at least momentarily) and life is good for Red Sox fans (at least momentarily). Keeping us interested was Jacoby Ellsbury who managed to steal home and remind us that baseball isn't just a bunch of overpaid, steroid-addicted guys standing around a field doing nothing. Go Sox! You can see Ellsbury's fantastic play at MLB.com.

Signs of Spring

With all the trees leafing and budding out and the song birds serenading us each morning, signs of spring are everywhere. We're also delighted to see the first signs of life in our gardens (and no, they aren't weeds). Save for the pollen, this is one of my favorite times of the year--everything is coming into its own and vernal green has to be one of the most pleasing colors in the palette!


I decided to indulge my interest in spring blooms by dragging a few dudes and the dog around the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC for a look at the cherry blossoms. When I was in 6th grade, we were supposed to take a family vacation to DC to get the kids some civic education and see the cherry blossoms. As luck would have it, I inconveniently contracted chicken pox three days prior to our planned departure and that was the end of that vacation. My folks did dutifully get us to the Nation's Capital eventually, but not during cherry blossom season, so I guess I had to experience it to cross it off the life list (granted, I'm sure it was more my mom's addition than mine, at age 12). At any rate, we braved the apres work crowds and foreign tourists and dodged high-tide-induced puddles along the pathway on Friday evening to play tourist ourselves and see some spectacular blossoms.

It really was quite impressive to see so many cherry blooms at one time. And there was no shortage of cameras in the area as well. The corner of the lake by the FDR Memorial is always one of my favorites, being just a little bit more peaceful than the thoroughfare that is the Tidal Basin pathway, and the trees in that area did not disappoint--being slightly sheltered from the stormy breezes, I was able to duck off the path long enough to snap some close-up photos and to feel like I wasn't just on the tourist conveyor belt ("Look kids, Big Ben...").

Back on the home-front, the recent rains combined with this weekend's warm weather have the early garden plants pretty happy. The herbs especially have taken off, cilantro going from barely identifiable sprouts to seedlings in less than 36 hours and the mint looking like mojitos are only a few weeks off!

Our flats of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, and many more veggies and flowers are also doing well, with some of the cukes outgrowing the starter packs already! We decided to use tough love on a small batch of scarlet runner beans (a bit on the early side for beans), and they seem to be doing great in their porch-side planter. Upon reading that they would grow to 20', a towering trellis was rendered for them, now occupying a fairly substantial portion of the back deck.


The first peas (sweet peas for flowers and sugar snap peas for eating) have popped their little heads up and seem to be pretty happy.

We awoke this morning to find that the little birdie (purple finch) who built her nest in the shrub right by our front window now has a nest full of hatchlings to deal with. Gone are the baby-blue eggs and in their place are a bunch of fluffy little chicks. We can't really tell what they look like because there's so much fluff.

Signs of spring are popping up all over. With any luck, we'll have plenty of delicious veggies this summer, as long as we can keep the bunnies and voles at bay.