Out damned bushes, out I say!

About seven years ago, we started coming to our house for summer visits, which lasted for two summers, before we moved in permanently. I hated the bushes for two reasons. First, I thought that if someone were hiding in the bushes to rob the house, no one could see them. Second, they were so overgrown that they blocked sunlight and made the inside of the house very dark. So we started chopping. And chopping. And chopping.

Till we got this. I like it so much better! The house is a Federal style house which was originally built in the 1860's. It has been remodeled since then, with rooms added and such, so we don't really know what's original and what's not, except for the log beams with their bark still on that hold up the house!

You can see that the clapboard goes right to the ground. Modern homes are usually up a few feet, so foundation plantings are installed to hide the foundations. We have no foundation to hide. I've tried to find some information about authentic Federal style landscaping, but I've not had much luck.

I would like to hide the electric meter and the oil intakes, but other than that, I'm thinking that all it needs is a good kitchen garden outside the back door.

When we first moved in, I had romantic notions of the first occupants. It was right after the Civil War. What did they think about? What were their dreams? How did they survive economically? What did they sit in the yard and do? I used to bring this up with Mark all the time, but he didn't share my romantic wanderings.

One day he was in the basement trying to repoint the stone foundation. He came up the stairs covered in cement and said, "I know what your first owner was thinking. 'Why does the house have to be so damn big?'"

Impatiens

I knew they looked good, but I didn't realize how good until I saw the old picture! My impatiens had been doing real well. We'd had lots of wet weather, but then it dried up a bit. My impatiens were wilting one night. There was rain in the forecast, but after looking at the radar, I knew we'd either get lots of rain or no rain overnight. I decided to water them, and am I glad I did! We didn't get any rain. I watered them for the next few days, then we had a rainy spell again.

They seem to be very happy!

1981 and 2008

This picture was taken in 1981 right after Mark's graduation ceremony. Of the many pictures in my albums, this one is burned in my memory. We'd been dating two years by this time. Notice the white tuxedo jacket and black pants. He has already taken off his bow tie and received his carnation.

A friend once said of her enormous engagement ring, "I like what it says about my partner." That stuck with me for a long time. I have a small engagement ring, and it's a ring Mark's mother gave him to give to me, because when we got engaged, we didn't have real jobs yet. I have always loved my ring. Mark once asked me if I'd like a bigger diamond ring, and I said no, that this was my engagement ring and it couldn't be replaced. I finally figured out why. I like what it says about my partner. I married a guy who had nothing and wanted to share his life with me. This was the boy I fell in love with. This was the boy I married.

Twenty-seven years later, here's Andy standing in the exact same spot, graduating from the exact same school. We live in Mark's Aunt Margaret's house, and I knew exactly what I was doing when I said, "Andy, stand right here." He didn't have his carnation yet, but he's on his way, not coming back.

The old tree is gone, and so are all the old people who attended Mark's graduation. I still remember his father getting all choked up during the ceremony. It is one of the few times I've ever seen a strong man cry, and I've never forgotten it. He died less than two years later.

Andy doesn't know it, but he's a lot like his grandfather. I think if he'd been alive to know Andy, they would have hung out a lot. Their conversations would have been peppered with, "I know just what you mean."

And here's all my guys, standing in that spot.

Here's Andy receiving his diploma. The ceremony was lovely. Oh, and we just found out, he's a National AP Scholar. He worked hard for that.

Life is good.

The Harvest Has Begun!

I've never been so excited about eating zucchini in my life. Andy just went to the store to get stuff that will go with zucchini for dinner, but the star will be the zucchini.

One we will grill tonight. We just grill it right on the grill and slice it and eat it. We never knew we liked zucchini (I actually thought I downright hated it) until we ate in a TGIF's in Dayton, Ohio. Andy was in fifth or sixth grade and he ordered something that came with grilled zucchini. We all shared his and we've been fans every since. I had only ever had it as zucchini bread (which I actually like, but it wasn't the zucchini that made me like it) or as the ghastly mix of stewed tomatoes and zucchini. That I hate.

The other one? I'll have to open my mind and my Google surfing to the possibilities.

Missing memory card

I have misplaced a memory card with pictures on it that I want to post. I have retaken a few here, but I'm distressed about Andy's graduation pictures. I suppose it will appear. They are so small and easy to misplace.

This is the door Mark made for the cellar door. He covered it with roofing, hoping that it will take less maintenance. There's so much to maintain here, we need to simplify as much as we can.


I took a whole series of pictures of Rob and me replanting this area with grass. It's right at the end of the driveway and was weeds and bald spots. We killed the weeds with round-up, dug out the stumps from cutting down bushes last year, and reseeded. Baby grass sprouted up.

We have so many areas that need reseeding, we just do a section at a time. The first one that I did about two years ago looks thick and lush. I still stand and admire it. We cut down all the old landscaping from around the house, and that one spot's landscaping was thick and had spread. It took us all summer to cut it down, then we ran out of time and just spread some seed late in the fall. In early spring, I spread some more. It looks gorgeous now.

I hope this driveway spot does as well. I will spread some more seed in the fall and spring, and we'll see!

Check it out!

Look at that garden grow! Mark has been tending it more than me. He has really taken to gardening this year. I'm glad. I hate weeding. It just grows and grows! There are little green tomatoes, cucumbers the size of my pinkie finger, and zucchinis that are tiny.

The zucchini plant has taken over its area. It has sent out new roots in the alley ways and aggressively pushed its neighbors away.

Mark grew potatoes in a barrel. He planted potatoes in the bottom of the barrel, and every time the top of the plant grew up, he added dirt. It kept growing up. He kept adding dirt. It only took a week or two to grow right out of the top of the barrel. This is supposed to give you many more potatoes per plant.

For comparison purposes, he planted potatoes in the ground. He also piled up dirt as they grew, but they didn't grow as high as the barrels. You just can't get as much dirt piled around them. This picture doesn't show it well, but the in-ground plants are about a third as high as the barrel plants.

Is it on the calendar?

This is the family calendar. Conveniently, it was in need of flipping, so I thought I'd show you. You can see that the top one is written on and all crossed off. We are now onto the second calendar.
So I washed off the top one, flipped them, and added the new dates. Whenever one of the boys needs a ride or wants me to go to something, I ask, "Is it on the calendar?" If it's not on the calendar, it won't happen.

With this system, we tend to show up at everything we are supposed to show up at, even when we don't want to go.