Zaumzeil Quilt

Can you imagine how much patience this required??

Applique quilt by Ernestine Eberhardt Zaumzeil, c. 1865
from The Quilt Engagement Calendar Treasury

Bastille Day

Today is our Bastille Day celebration at work.  Above, you will see the guillotine artist Eric Breeden built for the occasion (and local hero J Mascis lurking in the background).  I guess I am supposed to dress up as a French character, so I’m trying to pull together a last minute Francoise Hardy costume.  Should be easy enough with bangs, winged eyeliner, and a monochrome outfit, right?

Three Upcoming Trips to the Movies

I love a good sci-fi! 

What r u eating?

“Do we shape cities?  Or do cities shape us?” – Sounds like a writing prompt from Bard’s L&T (my class was assigned Calvino’s Invisible Cities)

June @ the Garden

At Community Garden, an entire plot plundered.
Hmm…sounds like it was personal.

Here are some recent photos of my unharmed garden:

I am working on bordering all the paths with rocks from Hadley.

Nasturtiums, Lettuces, and Sunflowers. Broccoli and thyme in the background.

Leeks, cucumber, bell peppers, and a cosmo that came back from last year

 

One of my beautiful peonies!

BBQue

For Father’s Day, Katie made Tim B. his two favorite foods: ribs and coleslaw. The BBQ sauce (from scratch) was phenomenal, so I’m including the recipe.

Bribe Candy

Another perk at Keith’s job:

Sweet sampler from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

2009 Garden Tour

Saturday, I attended the 16th Annual Friends of Forbes Library Northampton Garden Tour with Katie, Mom, and Grammie.  This year’s only tying theme appeared to be Goshen stone work.  We made it to 7/8 residential gardens before I had to report to work.  I learned some new vocabulary along the way:

potager – a French kitchen garden

espalier – to train a (usually fruit) tree to grow on one flat plane, often against a wall in a symmetrical pattern, with careful pruning

bosquet - a formal planting of trees in a gravel court

Happy Birthday, Hadley

This year is my hometown’s 350th anniversary, and today is the HUGE celebratory parade. It promises to be the hugest parade Hadley has ever had with 18 bands, 26 floats, and an $80,000 budget. I’m stuck at work, and feeling kind of grateful for an excuse to opt out. I kind of loathe militaristic parades from my days in the high school marching band. I satisfied my curiosity by altering my commute this morning. At T-minus 1.5 hrs, Route 9 was lined with lawn chairs, balloon and snack vendors, signs for residential parking fees (two bros were charging $10/car!), and stray band kids, presumably walking to Burger King for breakfast. I wish Hadley would have used $80,000 for something a little less lame…

Hey, I’m trying to stay positive, this community raised me. So here are some of my favorite things about Hadley:

- Hadley “Grass” (asparagus) and sweet corn – abundant in the summer
- The Montgomery Rose Greenhouses – lit to an orange-y glow at night, spectacular in the wintertime
- The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum – supposedly haunted; The sunken garden is where I want to get married if I decide to get married
- The Norwottuck Rail Trail – especially the lattice truss bridge over the Connecticut River where “EB U R THE 1 4 ME” is tagged
- The Hadley Salvation Army store – impressive size, selection, and organization
- Frequent hot air balloon sightings – once one landed in our backyard! I was at soccer practice
- Mt. Warner pond – I fell asleep to the sound of crickets and bullfrogs
- The Food Bank Farm – amazing cutting flower garden, great cause
- Flayvors of Cook Farm and The North Hadley Sugar Shack – local maple syrup (get Grade B! I learned my lesson) and maple syrup ice cream
- Moody Bridge Road – protected as conservation area under the leadership of Keith’s boss
- Hadley Garden Center – Indeed, “Everything You Need To Make Your Garden Grow”
- Lakeside PYO Strawberries – one of the fields borders on our property, and my sister still sneaks out for berries after dark

Neighborhood Raid

FBI agents, probing Connecticut bank robbery, raid Northampton home

Keith came home from a smoke/walk the other night and announced, “I think there’s a drug bust!” There was police tape blocking off the sidewalk, and an officer asked him to cross the street. But we picked the perp wrong: my neighbor’s a suspected bank robber and kidnapper!

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

I’m not proud of my poor sun protection regimen. Currently, my idiotic judgement has left me with this ridiculous “farmer” tan:

Oh, and I permanently have a sports bra scarred into my back from last summer.

Ugh, I’m convinced I’m going to have skin cancer.