Fall is really happening

This is the view out our front door last week. Well, a ground view. We have so many leaves- to my pleasure (so colorful and festive), but to Chris' chagrin (raking and cleaning out gutters!). 

We spent last weekend moseying around town. We visited the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. It was very peaceful and made for a very pleasant, fall walk. Surprisingly, we ran into a 5 minute downpour on our way out.  I don't think I've walked that much since we've moved- honestly, I was  exhausted by the end of the day and I may still be feeling it in my legs!

resting in peace

a perfect, New England fall day

memorializing the family pup

We are looking forward to all the holidays coming up. Starting with Halloween! We are prepared this year for some potential trick-or-treaters. I've also started sizing up our Thanksgiving serveware and dinnerware to make sure we have enough of what we need. Since we have always had such limited space, we'd make do with all the everyday cookware and serving-ware that we had. Now that we have a tad more room, we can have things like say, a true roasting pan!  I think we lament the fact that we need a gravy boat each and every year and when space is tight, there is no room for extraneous items that see use once a year. You know my obsession with vintage china- specifically toile/transferware. The search is on and this year, we shall be prepared! 

Changing of seasons- Life according to our phones

Fall is definitely upon us! The photo above was taken on a early morning stroll to breakfast. It's amazing how quickly the leaves change colors almost without you noticing. I find that I have the toughest time keeping up with updates as the seasons change. Here's what we've been up to…at least according to our phones!

Spending time with neighbor friends

Napping- preferably in the sun.

Biking. With dog.

Making the most of Saturday

Our "weekends" have mostly been packed into one day, since C's been working six out of the seven days this past month. I really do feel we made the best out of our day, though. We did so much last Saturday that I'm a little bit glad I had Sunday to myself to relax.

On Saturday, we started the day off with chores. We made our weekly trip to the town refuse and recycling area. I had ventured to "the dump" (as it is lovingly called), alone a few weeks ago and told Chris about some free golf clubs I had seen in the "free to take" area. You can't imagine the amount of grief I got from him about not snagging a few golf clubs for him! Quite honestly, I don't know enough about golf or clubs to know which ones were any good. Well, I'm glad we went together this time. Not only were there more clubs to be had, he walked away with a caddy to keep them in, too! As for me, I found a lawn spreader that I needed (not as exciting as golf clubs, but certainly something we need!)

We had several visitors during the day, which was just so nice. Harry also enjoyed all the excitement. He had come along for the ride in the morning and then had played with our visitors. We joked that he needed a nap before we took him on a hike. That, or we might have needed a baby stroller to push him around.

We drove to a pond a few miles from our house. Our town has amazing trails and we had never walked  the Longfellow Pond trail before. I'm so glad we did, as Harry loved it too. The photo above is the beginning of the trail, called the Butterfly Meadow. 

We even saw a rabbit there before it quickly hopped away at the sight of Harry!

The trail circles a very peaceful pond and was cool and shady, and quiet the entire way. Harry loved being off leash. He didn't walk quickly, though. He mostly just moseyed his way along the path as he's keen to do. A few older ladies passed us along the way. We poked fun at him a little, but realized that he's probably older than they were, in human years. An eighth of a mile- not bad for an old guy!

taking in the sights of the pond

watching the water

Chris found a lady bug along the trail and gently placed her out of harms way after this photo. 

Near the end of the trail, we came across a large open grassy area with a picnic table. A pleasantly beautiful surprise.

a beautiful flame of a leaf, perfectly positioned along the trial

just the sweetest

Harry definitely needed a nap after that trip. Later that evening, we went a little nuts and let our hair down with some BBQ. Of course, nothing like Texas BBQ, but it still hit the spot. 

Our neighbors came by in the evening with their dog, Walter, for a little meet and greet. Chris thinks that he hadn't seen Harry that excited about another dog friend in a LONG time. It's a good thing Walter only lives over the fence.

This coming weekend, I'm hoping we can make a trip to a beach- our first of the summer and likely the last. 

Yard discoveries

I love perusing the internet. I have the daily blogs that I read and then others that I read from time to time depending on the mood. One popular food and lifestyle blog I adore is essentially notes from my dream life. I remember when I first discovered the blog a few years ago. I read, enthralled how the family made a day of walking through beautiful, enchanted woods in search of wild mushrooms. Maybe one day we can also enjoy such a seemingly idyllic life in the countryside in the south of France- enjoying delicious foods and living so close to nature. 

Until that time, that blog post was exactly the one I thought of when I made my own discovery this morning in our very own backyard! Wild mushrooms springing up where they were not, just yesterday.

I texted a photo to C immediately. Should we eat them, you think? He wrote back with a firm NO. And don't let the dog eat them either!

The enchanting mushrooms that I had such a pleasure discovering were viewed as no more than dangerous weeds! Not the French countryside attitude at all, it seems.

The little things

I was asked by a stranger at a party this weekend about what I like to do for fun. Well, the answer is a bit complex, I suppose. Chris thought it was inappropriate, or something to that affect, that I started out with…"well, I don't have too much time for fun." It's mostly true. But I also felt like listing off all the things I do in my spare time aren't most peoples' our age (or younger, in this case), idea of "fun." It's a little bit questionable whether I even consider them fun.

In my spare time I garden, do yard work, paint, run errands. Is it a bit sad to say that I like to hang out with Chris for fun? When we don't get too much free time together, it's the truth. We had a wonderful Saturday this weekend and let's see what we did for fun: we organized our trash to take to the town refuse and recycling center, we browsed for books at the public library, drove to a great farm stand to enjoy lunch and found a delicious berry pie, oohed and ahhed at other local farms along our drive, spent at least an hour at a gardening center (where I was ecstatic to find that they had the lawn fertilizer I've had my eye on), enjoyed ice cream cones from an outdoor summer shack, visited and chatted with a friend, and then gardened for two hours- planting our spoils from the gardening center. What a day! That was all definitely fun and I wouldn't have wanted to do anything else.

Today, in my spare time, I finally painted our front shutters. Ever since we laid eyes on our house, it bothered us slightly that the shutters were painted a forest green, but the front door a solid black. It's always been in our plan to paint the shutters black to match the door and the job is finally done! The photo above is the "before" picture- green shutters and all. 

Here is our house with sleek black shutters (and the gorgeous hydrangeas that we planted by the front door):

in limbo, awaiting the new black shutters

Now, before and after photos side by side to compare.

The difference may be very slight- at least in these photos, but it's the small things, isn't it? It makes a difference of night and day to me, and I think, very much rounds out the facade. It's the small things that are so fun and memorable, I suppose.

Was it fun? Maybe not as much as I had hoped and mostly a lot of hard work, but it will be so fun to come home every day to know what a big difference to us it's made.

Life lately: hikes, gardening, grilling, and visitors

Time is flying, as always. We've been busy, but here is a snippet of our last month.

The Fourth of July weekend was beautiful- it wasn't too hot at all and E and A spent the weekend as our first multiple-night visitors. We went on a nice hike along a portion the Crosstown Trail in town- the trail that we biked down last year. Except this year, we walked. It was great fun. Of course, Harry came along.

We saw a whole family of swans swimming gracefully, and Harry even got into the water (to chest level!). At some point he had had enough of the water and ran quickly- much more quickly than we could- up the steep hill towards the picnic table. 

picnic table vantage point

The trail was nice and shaded and Harry was able to enjoy being off-leash. He even walked the entire way back on his own! 

With our hiking and visitors, we've been grilling quite a bit. Well in actuality, we don't necessarily wait for visitors to grill- we had grilled hot dogs last night, just the two of us, for dinner. Here are a few of our culinary (grill-ernary) delights. 

grilled salmon on a cedar plank- Chris' specialty

throwing some shrimp (and zucchini) on the Barbie

And of course, our garden. Most of the time, I spend a lot of time looking at the plants in the garden and wondering if they will grow. Though this month we had two exciting developments: 1.) our first tomato and 2.) we harvested a petite salad that we enjoyed for dinner!

But I shouldn't really sell ourselves short. We've had a delicious mozzarella, basil and heirloom tomato salad with basil from the garden, and guacamole with fresh cilantro from the garden, as well. I remember when the herbs and vegetables were just seeds, growing in the windowsill in Boston where we had to fend off predators like Gregory!

just a baby

our salad pride and joy (2+ months of sweat and tears, really)

how does our garden grow

Lastly, Carl came to visit. Here he is, saying good-by to his dog cousin, Harry.

Summer Living

Yesterday was the official first day of summer. The summer solstice and longest daylight of the year. Each year, I'm surprised by how early the first day of summer occurs. Can it really be summer? The weather certainly doesn't feel like it yet. We've only had a few sweltering days here and there, but there was quite a nice, cool breeze in the air yesterday- breezy enough for intensive yard work to feel moderately pleasant!

Though it is just the beginning of the season of summer, I feel that we've long been taking advantage of the outdoors over the past several weeks. We've been doing our best to have our breakfast and dinner  outdoors on our days off. The grill has also been used plenty of times. We're making some progress here and there with our grilling techniques. Chris wants to eventually grill mussels, though I this might be a tad beyond our expertise at this point in time.

Certainly rain doesn't even stop us from grilling…or gardening, for that matter

Beyond grilling, we've engaged in quite a bit of gardening. Nothing edible has been produced yet, but it gives me so much pleasure to see our little sproutlings growing stronger and taller by the day. We might be able to eat one single salad from the garden by the end of the season. Here's to hoping!

We had a great time in Maine last weekend at a wedding. Summer is all about small country towns, lawn games, lobster dinners, and dockside sitting. 

Maine wedding. Party time in a barn!

Goodbye city

This is a lovely, lovely photo I took on one of our last days living in the city. It was after eight o'clock in the evening and I was heading home by bike, over and across to the Esplanade. I just had to stop and save this moment on camera: just my phone camera, with no filter, of course. It was one of the first mild evenings  of the year where the sun had not fully set yet, and water was perfectly still, and the city seemed quiet and so pleasant- one of those nights that I knew I would miss about living in the city. 

What a difference a few weeks makes and how one's life changes over so seamlessly! We have fully moved to "the county" now and enjoying every bit of it. Of course we haven't gotten on our bikes in over two weeks, but we still hope for upcoming opportunities!

DYI project: Painting

I have been up to my ears in reading and online video watching of how-to's in and around the house.  Remember the long list of "things to dos"? One of the first projects I tackled today was painting the living room of the house. I've really learned so much from other bloggers! I also scoured the internet top to bottom for paint color ideas. I compared rooms of different sizes and lighting scenarios, rooms that were a perfect match for ours in color of the floors. I've always adored gray as a neutral base color. We have gray in our current apartment and I remember exactly the name of the color. Cement block. Is is  exactly that color and I love it. 

Since our living room in the house is a bit on the darker side, I decided to go with a shade of gray that was a bit lighter. I chose "Stonington Gray" by Benjamin Moore. Chris asked me last night after we lugged home gallons of paint from our local hardware store, why I thought BM paint was better than other paint companies (I suspect this question stemmed from the price per gallon!). I truly had no idea…until I finished painting today. I used no tape and no drop cloths. The paint was a perfect consistency where it was thicken enough to cover quickly, but not thick enough to drip. The coverage was very nice and not once did I drip on the hardwood floors. 

It looks a little baby blue-like in the "after" photo, but I suspect it will be more dark when the pain dries.

I think the living room will look even better once I paint the trims in "White Dove." Harry approves. 

House beginnings

Yesterday marked a new beginning for us. We now have our house in the "country" and yesterday was the first time we had been in there solely, on our own. Chris took this photo of it when we stopped by on Wednesday during a major spring shower. The slate roof was glistening. We brought food over to the the house yesterday and set up our lawn chairs (or rather, our roof deck chairs) to enjoy our first meal at the house. Even Harry enjoyed some hamburger! He was very intrigued by where we were and even explored on his own.

Of course, during and after our visit, we had so many plans to do this and that, in and around the house. The list is endless and I can't seem to keep it all straight or even begin to figure out what to do first. It seems like so much to do and all very exciting, daunting, but rewarding at the same time. 

One of the plans is to set up an outdoor garden space. Right now, our garden space is limited to a few sproutlings in out window sills. This week was a major turn for my green thumb, as they started to grow quite nicely! It's amazing just how much the sprouts grow in one day (Chris doesn't believe me, but I watch them closely so I am sure of it).

kale and mesclun salad greens

heirloom tomato sprouts!

makeshift backyard/driveway picnic at the new house

Living In Squalor

We sometimes joke that our friends would be surprised that we occasionally (occasionally or more frequently than not) "live in squalor." Living in squalor happens when we haven't picked up around the house in a while, or when we have cat fur that have become tumbleweeds, accumulating in corners and under the couch. Well, if we ever did live in squalor, we are certainly living in squalor now. We are in the middle of packing and sorting. You know, the part where all your belongings are sitting in limbo and out in the open, not tucked away in the back of a deep closet. Boxes on boxes of books shoved into a corner, and bags or things to be recycled or given away.

I used to think that the reason squalor occasionally exists in our house is because we just have so little room. Of course, that was just me fooling myself. We went to someone's apartment yesterday evening (in the neighborhood) to look at a bed frame we are thinking of buying second hand. His space was small, but so neat (and stylish!). I'm not sure where all his "stuff" was, but I told Chris that I wished I was him- where moving would consist of just the furniture and three (maybe four) small measly boxes of belongings. 

I don't think we have a problem with getting rid of things, we just have a problem with how often we go through and get rid of items we don't need. But perhaps we need to look at how we come to accumulate things that we don't truly need.

I've always heard the saying that moving is a great time to clean. You should only take with you items that you love and/or find useful. (This gets tough with items like the paper shredder. I hate the paper shredder, but it is useful. And it is sentimental- Chris carried this paper shredder that weighs probably over 40 lbs in a backpack through Manhattan...twice! He'll be sad if we ever have to get rid of it).

So, my goal for the new place (and I'll have to be Chris on board) is to keep it minimal. 

*First photo: making progress with packing. Oh, that bin of dirt houses our wriggler worms- an item that I love (granted it's an eyesore) AND find useful!

The "Original" Blog

We have not moved in six years. It's safe to say that we are, we have been pretty settled. Before we lived in our little apartment at the bottom of the Hill, we lived in an even little-er apartment at the top of the Hill for a year. Before that, we lived in an even smaller apartment in the heart of New York City for two years. And before that, we were in a moderate sized, one-room apartment in Boston for a year. So, you can see that we are no strangers to moving, but it's been quite some time since we've had to even think about it. 

I started packing yesterday and I found what I call, the original form of blogging…an old scrapbook that I started in college (of course, this is why packing can be so time consuming- finding and looking through old treasures!). These were the days when online blogs were certainly more rare, and memories were physically cut, pasted, and hand-written into an album. I loved reading out loud the blurbs I wrote. We laughed and commented about how "teenager-y" it all sounded. Truth be told, it did, but then again, a teenager did write it.

I also concluded that we might have liked each other more back then…perhaps not really, but we liked each other differently. It was evident that we grew old (older) together and had we not, it wouldn't really have worked all these years later. 

It's funny what your mind remembers and what it forgets over time. So, I'm glad to have documented some fun times. I hope that this blog serves a similar purpose for me in the future (only, when I pore over it then, there will be less laughing at the writing style!). 

Oh, and we seemed to have also found some original "selfies," too!

Spring beginnings

The weather has finally started to thaw out and warm up this week. This is truly the first week this year, where I am starting to think that spring has finally arrived and here haven't been days below 32 degrees! 

We spent some time in New York two weekends ago. Though one of the days was just purely miserable with constant downpour of rain, we had a good time. Of course, Harry came along, which I documented a little here. We indulged in some pretty great food- one of my favorites being a chicken and waffles brunch. As you can see from the photo above, we made it to Ippudo, a ramen restaurant in the East Village. Chris enjoyed it a lot, and though it was pretty great (and he gives me completely grief for saying this), I have said that I wasn't necessarily blown away, per se. I look forward to having some amazing ramen in Tokyo for comparison (maybe some day!).

Interestingly, we spent a lot of time in Brooklyn- more time than we have ever spent before. And though I appreciate the quirkiness of it, I also appreciate that it is not a town for me (or us) to live in. Several evenings ago, after our trip, we just happened to stumble upon an interesting documentary about the gentrification of Brooklyn and the controversial downtown Brooklyn re-zoning project. There was a sadness conveyed in this film, and it places a different perspective about all the "citifying" and "hipsterizing" of Brooklyn. It was nice to have spent some time in the neighborhoods that were being discussed.

On a very happy note, during our trip, we were able to stop by the Lower Eastside Ecology Center's booth at the Union Square Farmers' market to pick up our wriggler worms!  We are starting our indoor composting project again and I could not be happier. As you may know, we had one for years…YEARS (more on their story in a later post). 

We have the big move coming up next month and it will be a whirlwind of packing, traveling, and organizing. Until then, we've been trying to make it to our neighborhood eateries (nothing fancy) and last night, we took a nice stroll across the Boston Commons to Uburger. I will definitely miss it! 

Afternoons together

Chris has had a lighter schedule the past couple of weeks and we've sometimes had afternoons where we're able to spend more time together.  

Last Friday, he met me at work and we biked home together. It was just a few days after the last big snow storm. I snapped the picture above, while we were biking over the ramp from the Esplanade.  It all looks like snow, which it is, but sits over the frozen Charles River. A dock leading to…snow, it appears. The sun was in my eyes, so I couldn't see a thing on my phone. I'm glad it turned out well.

We had another such afternoon yesterday, which was a nice surprise. We grabbed lunch at Sam LaGrassa's. We've only been twice, but it's pretty great. We each order a sandwich and it is so much food that we're not even hungry for dinner that evening! If you can believe it, the shop is only open from 11am - 3:30pm on Mondays through Fridays. We're pretty convinced it's a front. But regardless, it's delicious. I'm always so pleased to see small businesses who march to the drum of their own hours. These are people who understand that there needs to be a work-life balance and that if you do good work, others will seek you out. I recently read an interesting article about a similar scenario in the South of France. It was about a young chef and owner at a burgeoning, hot restaurant who made the big decision to be closed on Sundays. This was a major decision because Sundays are the day in France where families get together for meals. However, this chef decided that it was much worth the effort to spend time with his own family. And business is still booming. 

We enjoy Chronicle, a local television news segment on restaurants (where we were re-introduced to Sam LaGrassa's). We already have a list going of places we'd like to try! Interestingly, some of these delicious suggestions are outside of the city in the suburbs. Perhaps this makes the decision of moving out of the city a little less of a blow. 

Champions' Breakfast

We always look forward to big Sunday morning breakfasts at home and this past Sunday was no disappointment. We've had a pretty hectic week already, so no major updates until things have settled a bit. 

Between taking care of a puppy and house-perusing (I don't want to call it house-hunting because it sounds so much more major when "hunting" is used), I feel up to the eyeballs in business/stress. Hopefully more to share soon...

Freshly Baked

We forced ourselves outdoors yesterday, even though it rained and rained- just like last Saturday! We couldn't quite think of any place we'd like to go on foot, but decided that we hadn't been to Iggy's in Cambridge, in a long while. We are always in search of freshly baked, high quality, delicious bread. Though we do have a specialty grocer around the corner, a true bakery is something our neighborhood could really use! Our other favorite bakery is Clear Flour. We adore the challah bread there, which is only baked on certain days, so a bit difficult to come by! Our quest for the perfect bakery started quite a few years ago with the desire to find the perfect French croissant. That, we're still searching for…

I read a blog post about the French and their willingness to drive the extra mile to the next town for a better boulangerie. This sentiment is quite apt to how we feel about good bread. We managed to use everything we brought home from the bakery this weekend. We had some croissant bites with eggs for breakfast today, in addition to french bread pizza for lunch. We supplemented our split-pea soup dinner this evening with garlic bread.

We felt badly that Harry would be cooped up all weekend again, due to the rain, so he joined us on the little drive to Cambridge. He stayed in his bag the entire trip- his feet didn't even get dirty!

On the way home from the bakery

Town & Country

Last weekend was a weekend where we had a taste of suburban life. Saturday was gray and drizzled rain all day long. It feels wonderful on those days when we have nothing pressing to do, nowhere to be, and no one to see, where we just curl up on the couch in the morning with our furry ones and quietly peruse the internet, or "study" (Chris may be the only one to study on the iPhone. Is he studying the entire time? I don't know.) Though it's just down-time, it never feels like wasted time. We did venture out in the middle of the day for lunch in the neighborhood (our favorite burrito place, Viva Burrito). We got caught up in the worst of the storm on our way home and had to jog the rest of the way- we didn't bring our umbrellas! In the evening we headed out to Newton to meet some friends for dinner. It's always a fun time, but driving in the pitch dark rain, felt a tad too…solitary to me. 

The weather was much better on Sunday (though the picture above wouldn't suggest it!) and we spent the morning looking at a home in a town in the suburbs. Yes, this somewhat out of character, but as you may know, I have had, for many years, the pull of finding a "country house." It's well documented. 

Truly, we are city people. I like the bustle, the noise, the lights, the almost impersonality of it all. I LIKE to walk or ride my bike and zip around when I need to. It's also amazing to have other transportation options at your fingertips. I enjoy the many dining out options and all the small businesses and shops. But living in a city has its tolls as well: the lack of space, the parking, the neighbors for goodness sakes. As of late, I find myself asking if we're too old to be living in the city. Are we just becoming more intolerant of these tolls? I always imagined us to be city people with a country house, for times when we need an escape. Maybe someday, I suppose. But lately, I read old posts like the one above and think: could that be us... everyday? Grilling, smiling, playing with dog (who is just. so. happy. in a huge yard), and having friends over for card games? Ok, maybe that won't happen every day, but you can see…there are benefits that seem so attractive. It's easy to romanticize about a suburban life. Especially when it comes in a package like: a home across the street from a fruit and vegetable farm, horse stalls/barns down the road, all together with a quaint little town center near-by…

We took Harry and Chelsea with us on our country jaunt. They mostly slept in the back seat while we drove around. We got out on the campus of Wellesley College so they could stretch their legs and romp around. It was just too cold, though! We walked a bit, but the fields were too muddied from the rain from the previous day. I think they enjoyed the outing, but they quickly looked at us, shivering, anticipating getting back into the car. Perhaps an indoor dog park is what the city needs. I'd count that as a reason to stay. 

Above photo: winter walk at Wellesley College.