Blogging on the Powwow

I'm back in Washington. Despite the frigid weather, I had a wonderful trip home, with many lessons learned. Never Underestimate When Being a Runner will Come in Handy Last Friday, I was on a flight that arrived at Logan Airport in Boston at 5:03pm. It was my goal to make the 5:10 C&J bus that would bring me to the Newburyport bus station, which is just five or so miles from my house. In theory, the bus arrives  at the airport at 5:10, but then starts making the rounds to each terminal, A, B1, B2, C, etc. As long as one does not fly into terminal A, one can count on a small cushion to catch the bus. I did some trotting inside the airport, because I knew it would be close. When I neared the exits I saw that it was 5:14...not likely that I would make the bus since I was in terminal B1. I got outside and hurried in the direction toward the C&J stop. Then I saw the coming toward me. I tried to flag it down, but failed. I felt defeated. Then a man who had witnessed my eff...

I thought that I might try a new series on my blog this summer, in which I document the excitement in our yard each week. Maybe this will not yield much excitement at all, but I thought that I would give it a try. Flower gardens at this time of year are a time of surprise, rediscovery, and work. Surprise from flowers that spring forth that one may have forgotten, rediscovering the wonders of previous years' labors, and working to clean out and plant new life. That pretty much wraps up this past week. If anyone follows my blogs, then they know that I often kill anything that we might consume . We'll see how these peas do. I'm hopeful. They are growing and climbing.  One of my colleagues gave me this lamb's ear . I finally got it into the ground this past week. We'll see how it does. Ah, the lupines are back! Very happy to see them! Moreover, they are doing what lupines are supposed to do, which is spread all over the perennial garden!  We hav...

Neil and I have been planning to have a nearly grass-less yard ever since we moved to our home in 2008 and fell in love with the yard, river, and neighborhood. We have done most of the work between May 2011 and now. In truth, it's a lot of work, but the rewards are endless -- especially when viewed through our wonderful windows. We'll never have a completely grass-less yard, because Drake needs somewhere to romp and roll around, without trampling all of our hard work. But, we are minimizing the grass. The picture below gives you an idea of the current state of our yard. I mapped two pictures onto each other; it's not perfect, but it gives my readers of sense of our progress. Neil's exact phrasing is that he wants a "cacophony" of flowers, trees, shrubs, and ground cover in our yard. It's difficult to be patient, waiting for plants to mature, but we're on our way. The current state of our yard, June 2012 So, here's a little "garden tour...