as we type, the pie cools

the Vanderbilt summer cottage--half the rooms of the winter home!

Thanks Mom for birthing me, etc.

Today was just like our wedding day, only 20 degrees cooler, and we were very calm. Well, that is a fancy way of saying it was very soft and misty/rainy/pretty for our trip to Newport to see The Breakers!

MY BIRTHDAY!

Right now the Rhubarb Custard Pie (my b-day request) is cooling downstairs, and we are VERY eager to dive into it. This is by far my favorite pie in Ken's large repetoire of luscious pies!

We took a tour of the Vanderbilt summer home--it was lovely & sort of sick. Ken thinks that they should also offer a Marxist tour that would perhaps bring to light HOW the family rose to such prominence on the backs of the proletariat. The fee for the tour would be on a sliding scale.

My major birthday gift was a Dar Williams concert last weekend at a very cozy little venue in Northampton... I ran into Dar near the bathrooms, and she said hi to me. I was star-struck and rendered a speechless mass.

Miss Marble and Lula enjoyed a Beef treat tonight. They had a good day chasing their tails and napping.

98% Chimp

Posting photos is so much easier than writing . . . should I have entered a different field? It's been a lot of fun to photograph all the lovely things that spring up around here. Our garden is now almost fully fenced in (if chicken wire can be considered true fencing) . . . and we're waiting for some seeds to come up.

In indoor news, Miss Marble and Lula continue to get along very well. Marble is more kittenish than ever (we think she didn't have a real childhood before now). Ken continues to study for his exams, and I continue to go to class & consider writing my seminar papers. Tomorrow we might go on a tour of a mansion in Rhode Island . . . unfortunately only one of our lawyers and two of our real estate people will be able to accompany us, so we may not be in a position to put in an offer immediately.

I'm writing about DARWIN yet again . . . perhaps I'm creating a dissertation topic for myself . . . this will be my 3rd seminar paper about how Darwinism influenced literature. One book on my desk is entitled "What it means to be 98% chimpanzee." I'll let you all know . . . though if you know me, you pretty much understand already.

hmm . . . according to her, she is only photographing flowers

one of the two tulips that made it through the winter

backyard bliss

look what k. unearthed

my favorite smelling flower

the biggest rock so far

from grass to garden in only 2 back-breaking days!

action shot of the rad fork we found in the basement

This morning we made a to-do list that included many things associated with furthering our educational goals . . . but alas, we ended up playing in the dirt. We want to plant snow peas, snap peas, beans, tomatoes, and other things (edible and not).

hot diggity

We rock

Irises

So that's what I planted . . .

As our crocuses died (gee, they had a short little stay on the earth!) three irises popped up. They are mini-irises, though you can't tell from this picture. We also finally saw our first daffodil in the yard!

daily discoveries

planted by a former inhabitant

If only we had the time to really get this property in the shape it used to be in! Our landlord has a good idea of where all his mom's gardens and orchards were back in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and even 80s! Abundant bulbs sprout up in seemingly random locations . . . like this little crocus. We found a grove of them just this morning. Lucky, lucky, lucky. We also have some pretty snow-drops. Other than finding flowers, we just continue to read, read, read, and write, write, write. And dote, dote, dote on our kitties.

Miss Marble probably had a "small gene pool"

Sniffing for signs of Spring at the screen

We took Miss Marble to the vet, and she is healthy! Thank goodness. However, the vet did confirm our suspicion that her legs and arms are, well, a bit funny. Some sort of technical thing she said after feeling her back legs. Something about a patella. I don't know, but it does make her sort of funny to watch. It doesn't affect her too much, just when she jumps down from things, she sort of splats more than lands.

This weekend we went to a PowWow. It was cool. Lots of drumming and dancing. Are we at all Native American? Any genealogist relatives out there?

Blooms!

spring, on the sparse side

Next time I plant crocuses, I'll do them a tad closer together. I thought I did! I remember people telling me to plant them close together, and I meant to! Anyway, it's nice to see something peeking out! Soon I think the backyard will be covered in daffodils. I was checking under the leaves out there, and there are some green shoots. But I think I'll stop peeking. I want it to be like Christmas morning--or the first snowfall. One morning we'll look out, and the backyard will have little pockets of gold all over.

Easter Egg colors in the window

Miss Marble: "Pssst . . Lula I'll race you to the pillow!" Lula: If I don't look, she might go away