page 16
it's been 1 YEAR since ben & erica moved in to 12
vacation lane!
found here will be details of ...?
written mostly by erica and photographed a lot by ben, however like most things in life there are exceptions....
for instance ben wrote that last useless sentence.
cliquez ici
pour le page 17
JAN 19, 2006
ben's new hockey jersey!
OCT 15
we drove up in the rain to visit Kay in NH. her neighborhood
was not flooding.
we hung out in kay's fab studio apt. in the rain and
watched some telly!
we had breakfast at the arty-hip-tatoo-ey "friendly
toast" and checked out the records at bull moose, all in
the rain. it was clear we were not going apple picking and so
we went to the kid's matinee instead and watched Wallace and Gromit
with all the wee ones! Ben checked out Kay's wireless possibilities
(lookin good!) and then we drove home again, in the rain.
OCT 1
These pictures are all about a weekend behind, and
I still need to finish painting some spots on the bulkhead. I
have been trying to finish lots of projects- The bulkhead arrived
primed but was never painted and had started to rust. I painted
the small trim piece around the stove vent on the outside of the
house. I cleaned most of the "Sickens" (SP, wood sealer)
off the glass panes of the double doors. They look much cleaner
now! The next major project is the inside trim painting. After
two summers of unsealed wood in Cape air, things are getting a
wee bit mildewy...
P.S. the poison ivy afflicted are making amazing recoveries
!
Sept 28
we planted three arbor vitae! (TX kim & geoff!)
and cleared undergrowth. The little rocks surround the arbor day
seedlings.
we got a rose of sharon seedling from stach! and a
little lilac tree from our neighbor's yard! (It's ok, he gave
it to us and even gave us some mulch to go along with all our
new plants.) We spread lots of the leaves and undergrowth down
the slope of our front yard that was still a pile of sand from
where the water line was dug. It looks much better now.
I also painted a bench we got from a co-worker who
was moving. TX Millie! Ben helped move some items and I painted
the bench! I also painted a coat rack the same new england red
!
Oops! Did I forget to mention something else we got!?
***Gross-Out advisory***
MMM! Poison Ivy! The dreaded PI that we sprayed a few
months ago, of course was still active in the brush somewhere....
Sept 10
We went to the recently re-named (TD Banknorth) Garden
on Saturday! We got tickets for a Bruins game! We skated on the
ice! In the left pic, Ben heads "backstage" where we
can put on our skates and get on the ice. Coming down the hall
in the left of that photo are Patrice Bergeron and Hannu Toivonen.
Where is RAYCROFT!??
I goofed with Blades the mascot.
Sept 3 Labor Day Weekend
we dogsat Tuck!
Ben continues his finger recovery with special therapeutic
exercises
Aug 20
CONGRATS! to ben & his team "Plan B"
for winning the latest season of games in their division at lakeville
street hockey! In the meantime, you can see ben's finger is merely
taped together now; no splint. it is still rather swollen and
has limited movement, to say the least. but it's discoloration
has greatly improved!
Aug 8
co-pay at the emergency room, $10
supplies at the pharmacy, $20
memories of the last Webbsoxx game of the season, priceless.
no black eye! But, ben did get a broken finger (in
two places!) yesterday! at least he wasn't like the poor guy on
the other team 2 weeks ago who ended up with a broken arm! Ben
goes to see the orthopedist on thursday-- will his finger stay
in a splint for 6 weeks? stay tuned...
in other news, did we mention hockey is back!!?! we
have the Bruins schedule posted on the fridge and anxiously count
down the days!
i did some more painting on the porch (small trim pieces
left over from last summer's trim painting bonanza), ben has painted
a bench of ours and kay and i went to the Newport Folk Festival
this past weekend!
JULY 22
the doggers check out our new plant! a beautiful gift!
a blue wave lace cap hydrangea!!!
in birding news, our fledglings flew away about two
weeks ago.
JULY 4
LB & Cygnus got luxurious outdoor showers curtsy
of ben, and we have seen fireworks and BBQ's galore!
we help out regularly still at the job site, although
we are not as dedicated as some! here ben does the magic "weaving"
of shingles, a new skill he has recently mastered.
we also had a second not-so-orange turtle visit us,
this one was more of a scaredy-turtley and hid a lot. it danced
a giant loop thru the yard so i hope it wasn't having a mixed-up
homing beacon.
their mama ursula still hovers over/next to them at
night, she is dropping her droppings all over the porch below.
and tho we have not seen them fly yet, i think they will be little
fledglings any moment now- 4 cannot fit into this nest much longer!
somehow in all the mystery that is life, the mama bird
brings insects and the little runts grow feathers; how do they
DO this? although i know energy and matter are only transferred,
it seems like they are growing out of thin air, created from
nothing... magic!
First day of SUMMER!
they are growing fast!
We have finally and accidentally identified our mama
bird, she is an eastern phoebe, Sayornis Phoebe! This week
her eggs hatched and she and the papa bird have been feeding them.
She continues to sit on her little ones, so I hope they aren't
getting suffocated! Apparently the phoebes have two broods a year
so she will have eggs again this summer. What a lot of work. The
phoebes also do a little renovating and use their nest year after
year, so I guess she will be around for along time; we decided
to name her; Ursula.
June 15, 2005
we cleaned up the porch tonight, which had acquired
an old fridge as well as some other items that were looking unsightly.
the fridge has sort of an oldtimey icebox look and is now in the
basement for storage. we also hung our hammock up! (say that 3timesfast!)
it was a great gift and has been on a hammock stand for a couple
summers. it seems to have found it's perfect home- that's me in
it, trying it out.
here's the view from our hammock!
we also recently had bike mechanics lessons. i got
new tires and tubes for my bike and master mechanic ben showed
me/put mine on. i have to say, just having seen the inside of
the tire is a relief. i often guessed i'd feel as good as being
lost in the wilderness if a tire of mine ever went flat while
i was out biking. plus one of my tires had troubles the last times
i tried to ride it. now, i can go biking again!
Terrapene carolina? aka Eastern box turtle,
spotted by ben wandering thru our yard. i took this shot while
he was temporarily held captive in our window well. (the turtle
was held captive, not ben!)
speaking of window wells, we think someone stepped
on the same one trying to break into our house on friday! i found
the screen (of one of the windows on the back side of the house)
pulled out and this hole cut in it! we surmise that someone came
in through a back window, was spooked by our ferocious (!) guard
dogs and split out the door. so far as we can tell, nothing is
missing. fortunately, LB was found in the driveway by ben who
came home at an odd time during the work day to some work on our
home computer! Cygnus was found, of course, sleeping under the
bar in the house... we spoke with neighbors who saw a strange
woman in our yard/walking around the house that day and the local
police logs tell of two other similar breakins that weekend very
nearby...
June 9 2005
our birdie nest has eggs in it! we have curtailed some
porch activities to allow the mama bird to sit on her eggs until
they hatch- we don't know how long off that is, but we speculate
there will be lil chicks soon enough!
ben keeps on watering and although our grass is spotty
at the moment, the stuff that is growing is going like gangbusters!
we plan on reseeding again but we are so pleased with the beginning
we have! ben's eye has healed. hopefully he will be able to clearly
see our new format, where we are now scrolling the right way on
our pages- new entries will be at the top of the page!
we have halted work on the side of the driveway (clearing
brush) because of THE DREADED IVY, poison, that is. this pic also
shows the PI killer we sprayed. it's dyed so you can see where
you are aiming and hopefully not use too much since it kills a
variety of plants. this is one organism i do not mind being totalitarian
with. we must annihilate!
our girls have been hiding low, avoiding the papparazzi
for a few entries here. now they would like to say hi to their
fans and thank them for all their appreciation-- from one of their
favorite vacation locales, the bogs.
June 1, 2005
we are growing grass!!! remember the dirt delivery
on page 15?
our kindly landscaping professional neighbor(s) arrived
on the scene with the bobcat and spread all the dirt around and
helped rake it smooth. ben spread seed and a week later- voila!
grass :)
half the arbor day foundation seedlings sprouted up
leaves...
nesting in the corner of our porch atop the light sensor
is a bird that escapes our identification abilities. we figure
she is gonna lay some eggs soon!
chicken wire meets a pair of snips - a compost marriage
made on soil! i am so happy to be composting kitchen scraps!
i spy the compost bins! contrary to the word on the
street, i didn't slug ben because he was two (or was it three?)
minutes late on his 6:30 p.m. curfew- he got elbowed during street
hockey! this shot's after the swelling had considerably subsided
but before it got really yellow...
this season, we have time to take care of the yard
a little. we have five lady slippers and don't want to decimate
the wildness in which they grow... but, we have been able to do
a little tidying. we like to use the materials we have and keep
it casual (that's what it's all about on the cape right?) so we
have done a little edging with rocks and leftover logs we collected
up from the property. we gave our woodstack away to someone who
can use it in their home. we have also been cleaning up the side
of the yard by the driveway. how many years worth of decomposting
leaves, brush, branches? at the bottom, almost dirt humus, perfect
for covering the swath of sand that still encircles our house
from construction!
bens first attempt at inserting a counter.....provided
by http://www.digits.com/