Tag Archives: New England

A Blizzard is Coming!

So, it sounds like we might be getting snow. Every time I hear about it, it’s a little more. The guy who’s fixing my ceilings today just said that it’s up to 33 inches!  I didn’t live here in 1978 when the biggest blizzard of all time hit New England. It’s the storm that every other storm is compared to, including the event that’s forecast for tomorrow and Saturday. I can’t help but think that it would be nice for my kids to have “blizzard memories” like my adult friends do of the Blizzard of ’78. We’ll see what happens!

Our preparations are well underway starting with the most important thing, what should I make to eat? I’m thinking chocolate chocolate chip cookies and a Pioneer Woman chocolate sheet cake should do it. I know that there are other flavors but we are chocolate people. I have a good stock of milk, juice, tomato sauce and pasta. There’s also some canned food and two pounds of bacon (thank you Michael). I bought bags of apples, oranges, veggies and even some blueberries the other day.  Michael and the kids have the firewood stacked up and I may do a sweep of the woods to collect extra kindling a little later, just to be sure. I think we’ll be just fine here in the Salem Garden.

I have some fantastic snow day projects lined up. Last night we picked up the new white roman shades that I ordered for the office. I think that installing them while the wind whips at the windows will be fun! I also have a collection of matching boxes just waiting for all of my paperwork to be organized into. Hopefully we’ll spend some family time relaxing and playing a board game. I may brave the trip to Target to find something new and fun to play. My plan is that just as the troops get restless, I’ll whip it out and wow them, then peace and happiness will prevail until we can get outside to shovel.

I’m off to fill water containers!  I’ll keep you posted as the snow falls.

Stay warm today!

Love, Michele

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More Fluffy Robe Photos

We had just a little bit of snow overnight. It was so pretty that I had to wander outside with my camera for a few minutes. It was gorgeous this morning!

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The buds on the pear tree are looking ready. to. go!! Yes!!DSC01580

I miss the days of pushing my little kids on the swings in the middle of the morning. Hug those babies everyone, they grow so quickly!DSC01581

I love our black pussy willow. Michael and the kids gave me this bush on our first Mother’s Day in this house. It’s one of my favorite plants in our garden.
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Hi Zoe, my cute little compost factory…DSC01586

Hi pretty chickadee…

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and guess what?

I wore boots instead of crocs today!

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He, he, he…no splat for me!

Enjoy everything!

Michele

Winter Morning In the Salem Garden

Michael took these shots while I was still sleeping. I love the early morning but he’s much better at getting out there than I am…

Waiting for spring…DSC01421

The asparagus bed…DSC01422

A cold little girl…DSC01423

She’s not too happy…DSC01425

The rest of the ladies preferred to stay in the warm coop (kind of like their mama)  😉 DSC01427

Compost bin, still cooking (I hope)..DSC01429

The birds need some food. Michael sat down to eat breakfast and glanced out at the feeder.  As soon as he was reminded of it he ran outside to give them some seed before he ate. He really takes care of things, unlike me… I would have finished my french toast. DSC01431

The boys wasted no time… I’m not sure about why their using a wagon. We do have sleds??

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I just looked out and the yard is full of kids and sleds. I love these days!

Enjoy Everything~

Michele

Watching and Waiting

The title of this post has changed a couple of times since I took these photos the other day. I started with something like “Fall Color, Now and In Years Past”… I was going to include photos of past years too, when the colors were brighter and prettier. Then I went to “The Colors Before the Storm”.. thinking that all the little bits of color that we had this year would be gone by Tuesday. Then it went to “The Calm and Color Before the Storm” which morphed into “Watching and Waiting”.  I’m pretty settled with this one. It best describes how I’m feeling here on the coast of New England today. Hurricane Sandy is projected to track south of us a little bit.  We will likely experience strong winds, rain and very high tides.  That’s our best case scenario, which isn’t too bad for New Englanders who don’t live directly on the ocean. I’m thinking a lot of our countless family members and friends who live on the water or  right in the mid-Atlantic area that may be hit the hardest.

My “fall color in the garden” photos are pathetic this year. Here’s what I have:

A little pink and yellow and a happy looking spruce tree…Bits of yellow..and red..and the garden. That’s it!

As you can see, we went from green, to bits of yellow and red to brown. I kept waiting for the day when I’d get outside and take those beautiful photos! It happens some years.  I never made it out of town during the peak times to see the foliage north of here but it was probably quite lovely. This is a very small concern when we have much bigger worries on our minds this weekend.

I’m thinking of all of my east coast friends and family this morning and sending you love and safe thoughts!

I hear that Halloween is being celebrated wildly downtown.  If I make it down there later today or tomorrow I’ll posts some photos that will be sure to make you smile!

Love, Michele

This Morning’s View

I was having my coffee this morning and I looked up and saw this…

I couldn’t believe it,  the first glimmer of fall!

Fall in New England is knocking at our door. I really don’t feel ready for it, but I’m never really ready for anything (except for maybe spring and summer).

Are you ready for fall? Winter isn’t far behind…

Whats Happening in the Garden-September 1st

Today is September 1st. How is that possible? I can’t believe this summer has flown by so quickly! My kids start school on Wednesday so we’re very busy running around, buying the last minute supplies and shoes. We’re going kind of light on the clothing shopping this year but everyone needs a few new things. I am about to head out to the mall with my teenage girls so I may be recalling that last statement in a few hours!  🙂 It’s fun to get ready and anticipate new teachers, new friends and the return to predictable routine. In our case the routine will be intense this fall with soccer, dance and golf, something for each of my kids, along with church, scouts and lots of other community commitments.

Since I just posted an update a week or so ago things have not changed too too much out in the garden. Here are a few quick photos from the past few days:

The cabbage looks beautiful! I’m excited about this because usually I’m at war with the slugs. Maybe we won the battle last year and the victory is still fresh.

The carrots are also coming along beautifully! This type of carrot (scarlet nantes) does well without being thinned too much so I did it a few times early on and then let them go. There’s also a few rows of a rainbow blend variety. Their white, yellow, red and purple. I’ll post a few photos of them soon. 

The pumpkins are turning color.. 

Here’s a sad and rather stressful part of our week. We had to cover every herb and vegetable because the Mosquito Control people sprayed throughout our part of the city. I put us on the “no spray”  list but, really, we live in a dense neighborhood and I know that that was an exercise in futility. I still had to make my point and feel that we were doing our best to keep the pesticide away as much as we could. If I decide to venture into more opinionated, political topics I’ll be writing more about this. I would like to focus on the benefits of  organic gardening sometime soon. It’s hard to write those types of focused posts during school vacation with my kids bouncing around.

And finally, a step out of the garden to a pretty shot of the moon over the harbor. Michael took this last night with his new little camera. It seems to take great photos and he’s having lots of fun playing with it. I’d share what model of camera it is but he went out and took it with him. He really likes it! That makes me happy!

so, Happy September and Happy Labor Day weekend! Hope you all enjoy these last few days of summer and find some time to get outside. It’s a gorgeous New England day here…as soon as I can get those girls out of the mall, I’ll be in the garden!

Love to you all,

Michele

Tornados in Salem?

Yesterday afternoon we had a tornado warning here in Salem. Seriously, here, in Salem, Massachusetts…on the coast of New England, where we don’t get tornados.

Blaire sent me this photo from downtown as the warning was issued.   Thank you Blaire!!

Just as Blaire sent me the photo above, our cell phones sent my girls and I messages warning us to seek shelter and my husband called to relay the tornado warning that he had also received and to ask me  how things were going. Below is a photo of what I think  was the cloud as it worked it’s way across our backyard.  I took this shot kind of early on as it approached.  I should have stayed with the camera as the wind, rain, lightening and hail went through. I really couldn’t though because I was distracted by the nine children who were playing in my house at the time. They were fine, but I was running from window to window trying to discretely keep an eye on things and thinking about where to stash all of these kids should an actual tornado make it’s way through my neighborhood.

  The news broadcast later in the day reported that a funnel had been spotted in Peabody and Lynn, less than a mile from here. Yikes, that was a little on the close side!

Fortunately, all is well.  There’s no damage to report at our house. The garden is fine and so are the people, pets and property.  Some residents of Salem experienced flash flooding, wind damage and power outages. I hope that things are settling down for all of them today.

We are truly blessed.  It’s good to be reminded of that sometimes.

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5:17 am Chicken Call

Is that not an early hour to be woken up by squawking chickens?

Michael went down there to check on them and they were upset because a small part of their shelf had fallen down…

He fixed it, gave them some birdseed (have I mentioned that their a little bit pampered) and went back to bed.

I was up and awake…

The good thing about that was it gave me a few minutes to wander around the garden and enjoy the early morning.

I got to see this…

and this

and say good morning to the ladies

I could do all of  that at 5:45 tomorrow though, or even 6:17 if I’m really lucky?

It’s going to be in the 90’s and humid here in New England today. Stay cool out there!

Michele