Roadtrip: Boston on Foot

Mr. Cleaver & I took the train down to Boston (our last visit was in 2006!) to wander about and have some fun on the last unofficial weekend of summer.

While we bought T passes, we kept looking at our map and saying "that's not too far", so we ended up hoofing it the entire day and racked up about 5 miles around the city.

We promenaded the Boston Common

We munched lunch at The Paramount (after standing in quite the line - this is a popular and tasty spot!)

We stumbled upon the cutest community garden in Cambridge.

And found happy turtles and triceratops,  indoor lightning, and knitted brains at the Museum of Science.

Now, during this daytrip, Mr. Cleaver insisted on taking more photos of me than usual, because, in his words, "Your blog readers aren't interested in pictures of me, they'd much rather have picture of you."

So, as a concession to the mister, I leave you with this photo of me running from dinosaurs and an opinion poll:

[polldaddy poll=3726516]

The Garden: Then & Now

Then (June 19):

Then (July 5):

Now (August 4):

Then (July 5):

Then (July 28):

Now (August 11):

Then (August 11 - 5:30 pm):

Now (August 11 - 6:09pm):

Weekend Update

Somethings I've been up to this weekend:

What did you do this weekend?

First Meet-Up, First Batch, First Harvest

Yesterday I had my first blogger meet-up with Amy of stash, knit, repeat (also the "Fit to Flatter" series). She was in town visiting some family and we met up at Knit Wit to checkout the new Quince & Co. yarn line, which is made in Southern Maine.

It was great meeting Amy in person and I definitely felt like I was hanging with the cool kids when Amy was recognized about 3 minutes after coming into the shop. It was even more cool when Pam Allen herself popped in to drop over another load of yarn.

The range of colors in this line is fantastic - there are so many variations of each color - 3 or so yellows a half dozen blues, it's a color lover's dream.  Amy came out with two sweater's worth, while I restrained myself to 5 skeins of the Chickadee in Delft and Carrie's Yellow (I'm totally in a yellow phase right now).  And this yarn is so new, it doesn't even have dye lots yet, because there's only been one!

In other news, I've had my first harvest from my garden - this little head of broccoli. It's been so warm, that it accelerated the growth process and I had to cut it before it bloomed. I actually dreamed about it the day before - I was so worried about the broccoli going to seed. It was ready to go on Thursday, so I chopped it off and ate it raw with some ranch dressing. Don't worry I shared some with Mr. Cleaver.

p.s : I must admit, whenever I work with the broccoli in my garden, I find myself singing the Dana Carvey broccoli song (it starts at the 2:00 minute mark).

Garden Update

I've lost one of four basil plants and a sunflower seed never came up (nor its replacement), but other than that it's looking pretty good. Check it out!

How I Spent my Saturday Evening

Thursday night Mr. Cleaver and I went down to the plot and did some basic tilling  and Saturday night, while the Mr. was off playing tennis (after helping me lug my tools in), I went back for round #2.

30 minutes in:

About an hour later:

Spacing out the seedlings:

Sometime after the third hour:

All Planted!

• Row 1: Tomatoes
• Row 2: Bell Peppers
• Row 3: Broccoli
• Row 4: Herbs - Thyme, Basil, Oregano, Cilantro, and Orange Thyme

All plants except the basil came from different booths at the farmers market and Sunday morning I popped a dwarf sunflower seed at each end of all the rows.

Hooray for gardening!

A Bit of Earth

One of my favorite parts of The Secret Garden (one of my favorite children's novels) is when Mary asks Mr. Craven if she might have "a bit of earth". Mary gets her bit of earth and it, along with the friendship of Dickon and Colin, turn Mary from a thistle to a rose.

Now I wouldn't call myself a thistle, but I do have a bit of earth to call my own. Plot #11 at the local community garden. I found out about it's availability and snagged it yesterday morning and then, realizing I'm never grown any vegetables before, went to Longfellow Books on my break to find some gardening books.

It's somewhat late in the season (I think?), so I'll be prepping soil and planning this week and hopefully getting some plants at the farmer's market this weekend and getting them in the soil. I'll be off to buy shovels and buckets and trowels after work this evening.

If any of you readers are Southern Maine-based gardeners I'd love any tips on what it's not to late to plant and for any other gardeners out there - any tips or tricks you may have. It's all so exciting!