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!