A Tale of Two Weekends

And how different they were. A few weekends ago I decided, mostly for Anna's sake but also for my own, that I needed to make a real effort to get back into our normal, "old" life routine - more home time, more baking, more gardening (the weather has really been that nice!), more time with the animals, and maybe even a few blog postings here and there.

Of course this will all have to be packed into our weekend time, but we were off to a good start with a trip to the sugar shack and the bulb show at Smith College - two of our favorite harbingers of spring. Spring and the start of the growing season seem the right time to make that kind of resolution - moreso than the start of the new calendar year.

Anna took about a hundred photos of her favorite spring bulbs and other plants as we walked through the greenhouses. There was talk of our own gardens and thoughts of starting seeds.

Last weekend, I made good on my intentions and we really got down to the business of being home and focusing on the enjoyment of doing all our home work together. Oh, there were the usual problems with sheep breaking into the house, but the weather was great and we accomplished a lot.

And usually the sheep are good helpers, and not too naughty (except maybe Bunny).

The daffodils were starting to pop up and we noticed that many of them were under branches that had broken off during that devastating snowstorm in October, so we did a comprehensive cleanup of all the storm remnants and made a scary-big burn pile. We might be separating it into smaller piles for safety reasons.

We strolled around the yard and assessed the garden situation, planted some of our indoor bulbs for next year (the green parts of our spent tete-a-tetes looked tasty to Miss Fudge), found a little curled up wooly worm and put him under one of the butterfly bushes away from hooves, prepped all the containers on the porch for planting, looked through our saved seeds to determine what new seeds need to be purchased (not many) and planned this year's beds.

As you can see below, garden planning is a serious process involving analysis, organization and documentation, using not one, but two laptops. Anna has also set up an excellent, ongoing gardening journal (great homeschool project!) listing all our ornamental plants and fruit trees, information about their location, cultural requirements, how well they grow from year to year, and photographs of each one.

But a girl can only work so long without a break for baked goods. In anticipation of our annual hot cross bun baking extravaganza (every weekend throughout the Easter season - we were a little late starting this year - or maybe Easter is just a little early!), we made a huge supply of candied orange peel. I wish I had some photos of the peel cooling in the pot - it was the most beautiful, rich, glossy, deep orange color - but I was very busy trying to keep Michael and Anna from eating too much of it. It was an excellent batch - even better than last year's, I'm told.

Anna enjoyed making the hot cross buns - she put together the mixed spice with a lot of freshly grated nutmeg, and she is the best kneeder, only once distracted from her task by a squirrel trying to get into the squirrel-proof feeder at our kitchen window. Poor guy. We threw some black oil sunflower seeds on the porch floor for him for his effort.

We make our buns with a cross scored into the top before baking rather than an icing cross, but the buns do benefit from a sugar glaze when they are hot out of the oven.

They are irresistible, especially eaten in the sunshine on the porch with a cup of tea. Crashy was relaxing just inside the door, close to us but out of the sun. Such a handsome old man, isn't he?

Being in the cooking mode, we also made Michael a traditional Irish dinner for St. Patrick's Day.  Potatoes featured prominently in each dish.  And we weren't shy with the cabbage either!

By the end of the weekend, I was feeling great and thinking that splitting my time between two states could really work as long as I had this time at home on the weekends to focus on the important things.

And then there was this past weekend.  I drove over 900 miles (seriously).  It all started with a trip on Thursday to Children's Hospital in Boston for a follow-up for Little Miss Anna's ankle.  She is in pretty good shape - one ligament is completely healed, the other is still a little frayed and damaged, but she is on the mend.  She has been on pointe again for 4 weeks with no real problems other than a little soreness from not having used certain muscles for so long.  We don't have to go back for 5 months - great news!  And the weather was gorgeous and the cherry trees and magnolias were in bloom. In Boston.  In March.

Friday we drove to Philadelphia for a ballet summer intensive audition.  We didn't stop off at home as originally planned, but met Michael for a quick lunch in Noho and then headed straight to our B&B. It was a nice night to walk around the city but not for too long because Anna needed a good night sleep. We came across this garden built of broken china and glass - beautiful with the night lights shining off every surface.

And here she is the next morning, ready to walk to the Rock School for her audition.

We had already emailed the three required audition photos (taken during my lunch hour in the community center behind City Hall - all that physical therapy for her ankle did wonders for her legs too!), so the only thing left for Anna to do was to wow them with her beautiful dancing. It went very well - the director said they would "love" to have her this summer.

Unfortunately, our plans for walking around the old part of the city and seeing the Liberty Bell were ruined by the ever-increasing rainfall. I offered to drive Anna around so she could at least get the windshield tour, but her response was "Let's just go to Grandmom and Grandpop's. I got what I came for." She is all business when it comes to ballet - don't let that smile fool you!

We spent a great 24 hours with G.mom and G.pop, and then drove home. Michael made us dinner, Anna snuggled her Tiger, I gave Crashy puppy treats, and then, 2 hours after we arrived, we left for NH. So much for settling in at home last weekend, but I'm looking forward to a quiet, busy-at-home weekend with my girl beginning in 2 hours, after my drive home.

Primary Day in NH

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Massachusetts any more...

Yuck, I feel dirty just knowing that's right outside City Hall!

A Couple Days in Boston...

courtesy of the EPA (thank you to all the federal tax payers out there) which provided the members of the New England Municipal Sustainability Network with lodging at the Marriott, conveniently located across from the aquarium.  Obviously Michael and Anna joined me on this business trip.  I worked on climate adaptation planning issues, they spent quality time with the penguins, jellyfish and octopus, we all had dinner at Faneuil Hall, and Anna made good use of the pool by doing a ballet class.  The view of Boston Harbor from our room was just beautiful.

It was a nice little trip for all of us!

Catching Up

The last three weeks have been a whirlwind of tying up loose ends, weather events, new faces and places, meetings, illness (Little Miss Anna), and a lot of driving.  Let's start on October 27, the date of our first snow of the year.

It looked magical at night when the snow first started and by the time the sun came up the next morning, there was an inch or so of wet snow.  I though Anna would be thrilled (Crash was, running around licking the snow), but she said "Eh," knowing that more snow was on the way.  And we had plans to go to our favorite ballet store in Newton.  Definitely more interesting than a touch of snow.

New pointe shoe ribbons were sewn, Nutcracker rehearsals were attended, and we were ready to leave for Concord directly from ballet on Saturday afternoon, even though the snow had started.  After we passed the third car off the road, as well as a police cruiser being towed out of a ditch, we decided to head home to Leverett instead, scrapping all plans of cleaning the apartment from top to bottom before the start of my new job and hitting the outlet shops for some new work clothes (Planning Departments have significantly higher standards of dress than construction companies!)

The power went off at around 8:30 pm.  No big deal, we have candles, the house was warm enough to last through the night, and we had already eaten dinner, so there was no need to open the fridge.  Sunday morning, there was well over a foot of really heavy, wet snow and about a dozen trees and/or large limbs down, many on our sheep fencing, three in our driveway, but fortunately nothing fell on the house, sheep shed or our cars.  And the power was still out. 

After enjoying some play time in the snow, marveling at both the beauty and the destructive power of nature and assuming everything would be back to normal soon enough, Anna and I left (again) for Concord.  It became very clear, very quickly from driving on the roads - there were definitely some scary moments driving under trees and power lines - that there wouldn't be power in our area for days.

Michael drove up to Concord to take me out to dinner on my first day at the new job, but had to head back to MA the same night to hold down the fort and bring water from UMass to our animals every day since our well pump had run out of water the night before.  UMass also opened one of the gyms so people without power could take showers.  Rashonda joined us in Concord the next day, sick and tired of having to drive around in her car from time to time to warm up and charge her iPhone.  Power was finally restored after 6 long, cold days.  Well, cold for Michael.

My first week at my new job in Concord was busy.  Meetings every day and some evenings.  Having Rashonda and Anna unexpectedly with me all week made the transition easier and much more lively.  Anna tried out a back-up ballet school for when she's with me in Concord, which uses the same ballet syllabus (Vaganova) that Rose and Charles use.  Consistency is important and the girls in her classes were so friendly and kind.  Homeschooling fell by the wayside.  There's always next week...

Not so.  Anna had been feeling mildly under the weather for a couple weeks, and after driving home, spending the weekend cleaning up after the storm, driving back to Concord, doing a little cleaning at the apartment (still not done), I went to work, attended many, many meetings and by Tuesday morning Anna was burning up and could barely get out of bed.  Seventh day on the job and I left early to drive Anna back to MA to our usual doctor's office, not wanting to have to pick a doctor in the Concord area under these circumstances.  She had an ear infection and strep.  That would explain why she was feeling so miserable.

Two days of rest at home with her Tiger to snuggle, plus amoxicillin, and Little Miss Anna was feeling much better.  So much better that when I got back home for the weekend we were able to clean the sheep shed and the chicken coop, scrub all the water and food buckets, finish stripping lavender for sachets (yes Joelle, that's the lavender we picked at your house a couple months ago!), clean and organize the utility room, get out the Christmas decorations, and, most importantly, celebrate Rashonda's birthday.

I'm just winding up my third week at my new job, still feeling very unsettled because we haven't been able to fall into a regular schedule of time at home and time in Concord, and really looking forward to heading back to Leverett for what will be the official start (a very late start, for us) of the Christmas Decorating with Anna.

R.I.P. Buttercup

Buttercup, the last of our three runner ducks, died on Monday morning.  She was the sweetest of all our pets.

We Heart Ducks (Buttercup is behind Jemima)

Anna, Natasha and the Ducks

Baby Ducks

Duck Girl

Looking a Bit Skeptical

Among Her Chicken Friends

Yum, freshly planted flowers!

Taking a Dip

Always on the Move

Enjoying a Warm Shower

Best Buddies

Eating Peaches

Sweetest Duck in the World