Martha's Bulbs--Second Edition

This morning Joe and I went to the annual bulb tour at Martha Stewart's estate. And again...the woman's estate is as astounding as it was last year. The flowers were just as beautiful as last year, although it was surprisingly obvious that they weren't the same bulbs from last year. I missed a few of the color combinations and a couple of my favorite types from last year, but I can't say I didn't find some new ones to love. Joe didn't quite appreciate the flowers as much as I did, but he was a trooper since we didn't have his mom around like last year. He humored my need to stop and take pictures every few feet and even asked me to take pictures of some of the flowers he liked.

I had an extra fun time taking pictures this year since I have my nice camera. I think I actually cut down on the number of pictures I snapped. I'm going to assume it's because I felt confident that when I took a picture with this camera, it wasn't going to be blurry, so I could take just one instead of 3, "just in case". Don't get me wrong, I still took quite a few pictures. In fact I think I managed to take a few of the same pictures from last year, such as the view with one of Martha's bird feeders. It's my favorite one on the property because it's built to look like one of the actual houses on the property.

Here's an array of the pictures...Do enjoy while I head off to finish painting the bathroom!

Spring Painting

This is how Joe and I spent the last weekend.

We decided our walls looked too dingy (and yellowed, and dirty and just plain gross), and what better way to spend some sunny spring days-that aren't quite warm enough to play outside-than painting! So now, our house looks like new! Well not quite, but it looks 100% better! We still have some trim to finish up, but hopefully I'll have some finished pictures by the end of the week!

Meet My Friend

This is Jasper.

I've been playing around with some sculpture and animation and Jasper has been my model. I think I should make him some new friends as a thank you...

To Be a Kid Again...

Did anyone else love this book as a kid?

I most certainly did, and I just found out that Sony Pictures is turning it into an animated movie. Awesome right?!?! Possibly not.

I watched the trailer and am a bit skeptical. It looks like they've added some hokey back story to it that appears to ruin the charm of the book. BUT, I will go see it in September, and I will keep an open mind. I'm just a bit nervous that such a beautifully illustrated and charmingly written story is going to be destroyed by some cheesy cartoon kid... let's hope I'm proved wrong because this story is fantastic!

Happy Easter!

Joe and I had a fantastic Easter brunch here....



Special thanks to Joe's mom and grandma! It was absolutely delicious!!!

Mmmmm!!! More Tasty Food!

First attempt at homemade sushi! Obviously it wasn't the best, but I think it was actually really tasty! --as you can see, we have some size issues to work on, but I think this could be stored in the success file!

Jelly Mongers?

Has anyone else heard of these guys? This article about them in the Times is hysterical! They started a company called Bompas and Par (awesome last names!) and they do commissioned Jelly-molds and sculptures! It reminds me of something my class would have -or maybe should have- done when we were in school!

Hunting for Hunter's

When I went back to Michigan for Christmas, I was stuck in the airport with a family from Maine. We talked for a while, discussing our favorite places on the island. The mother told me about a favorite beach in the park called Hunters Beach. She said it was covered in perfectly smooth stones, and was almost never crowded with tourists. About a week or two ago, Joe and I decided to try to find it.

The stretch of the park loop road we were heading for was of course, closed for the winter. Thankfully, the park road crosses under the main road. So we parked near a bridge and climbed down onto the snow covered park road. It was a bit of a hike to the beach, but it was a surprisingly warm and sunny day, so it wasn't all that unpleasant. We even came across these bikers. I can't say they had a good idea, biking down the snow covered road, but judging by the looks on their faces, I can't imagine they knew what they were getting themselves into either!



When we got closer to the beach, we were surprised to see snow start falling. The sun was shining, it was actually warm, and snow was still falling! If you look hard, you can see it against the backdrop of the dark trees.



The beach itself was beautiful. It was exactly as the woman had described it. The entire shore was layers and layers of perfectly smooth stones. Walking across the beach, you can hear the echo of the stones extending a number of feet below you. It's a bit unnerving thinking that you're standing precariously on layers and layers of stones. When you walk closer to the water, you can hear the stones shuffling and scraping towards the shore and back out to the ocean as the waves roll in and out. I could have sat there all day if the sun hadn't started to trade places with some dark looking clouds.

Stroke! Stroke!

Yesterday morning I rolled out of bed before 6am, groggy and a bit grouchy, but positive at the sight of the sun peeking over the horizon. After a quick shower and some breakfast I was sufficiently awake and functional, and ready for the trek out to Appleton.

Joe and his friend were competing in an annual canoe race in a few hours. I know what you're thinking...we still have snow on the ground, why in the world would there be a canoe race? Well...I'm not sure. But it's a tradition here and after arriving to the launch site and seeing a number of father-son teams, I realized it was mostly a family tradition. If your parents raced, you raced. Of course not everyone was a descendant of a canoe racer, I saw a couple of younger guys in their cut off t-shirts, ball caps and sunglasses (even though there was no sun whatsoever). But for the most part there were locals. Lots and lots of locals--somewhere around 100 participants.

Needless to say, I didn't participate. I watched. There's a bridge in the middle of the roughly 3 mile stretch where families and friends gather to watch the canoes go over a small rapid. We saw one poor guy fall out of his canoe after hitting a rock in the first set of rapids. Thankfully he had a light vessel and was able to stand up in the shallow waters and move his canoe to a better spot before getting back in.

Joe and Pete had a rather close call of their own. They came dangerously close to tipping over into the cold water on the same rapids.



Luckily these guys in red were standing watch, ready to jump in after anyone that needed assistance. I though their suits made them look like they were about to clean up hazardous waste as opposed to jump in a freezing cold river, but I suppose the amount of protection needed for both tasks is rather similar.



The boys made it safely to the end. Their legs and feet were mostly numb from the cold waters, but after a changing into some warmer clothes, they thawed out just fine. We're waiting to hear their race time until it's published in the paper, but they're not all that worried. While some participants were in it to win it, they were merely there for a good time. And lucky for them, there's another race next weekend!

Hello Delicious!

Tried our hand at recreating one of my favorite dishes from a restaurant back home. Calamari a la Florence. And guess what...it was a deliciously, fantastic success!!!

Old Illustrations

I was poking through some old spot illustration books today. Some of these are fantastic! I'm kind of upset I didn't discover these before! It makes me think about how newspapers were put together in the past...cutting, pasting, taping..it all seems like so much work, and yet it has a certain charm to it that just doesn't exist today.

It's Always Waiting

We took a hike out to Compass Harbor the other day. It was a pleasantly sunny day and the harbor was a nice reminder of what we've been looking forward to all winter. The smell of the ocean, the crash of the waves, the rocky shore...it's all there, waiting for us. It's nice to know that the shore doesn't go away in the winter. It might get a bit colder, but it's still there, waiting for us to crawl out of hibernation and come visit.








It's also great to be able to climb a tree again!

Happy St. Patty's

A few days late...