seen in the parking lot

Honk if you think I put this up for you.

Maymont park

It hit me, as I walked through Maymont Park last week, that I am always taking people there in the winter. So for the edification of those of you who have seen it in the drab cold days of winter, here are a few shots with flowers, grass, and running water in the fountains.

Above is a shot of the fountain and stairs in the Italian Garden; below is a shot of the waterfall in the Japanese garden.


The bears were out wrasslin'





It was so hot when I was there. I was mostly taking pictures of fences going up hills because--as part of my resolution to celebrate the end of grad school by spending the summer doing things I have always wanted to do, I decided to paint a big picture of crows standing in front of a fence on a hill.
Now everyone who knows me knows I can't draw any better than I can sing, but lack of skill notwithstanding, this is fun.
Here's the angle I started with


and here's the first stages of the painting


which has really kinda fallen apart since I began to add the crows, but it was off to a nice start, wasn't it?

File under “things that are just WRONG”

Sorting through mom’s old recipes that I filed in with mine, I found this:

Hot apple pie

1 ½ tsp raisins
¼ C + 2 T applesauce
1 pk artificial sweetener
2 tsp reduced calorie margarine
Apple pie spice to taste

Mix well.
Stuff into pocket of a mini pita. Wrap in foil. Bake until heated. Serve 1.

1 fruit, 1 fat, 1 bread



Ok, so we have a 1) imitation of a fast food “hot apple pie,” which pretty uniformly suck to start with, and 2) Two of the 6 ingredients start with the word “artificial” and 3) this has really got to suck and 4) look at the exchanges you blow on this anyway! (If you do that sort of thing. Which I don’t.)

So very wrong, on so many counts. Had to share before I threw it away.

July 4

We went up to the farm on the evening July 3rd so Vance could get up early and spray various fungicides and pesticides in the morning. Oh, the glamour of a vineyard.
The Cab franc grapes look like this:



Here's some shots of Vance and Betsy. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera out earlier in the day when she was standing on the picnic table. (I guess to a dog of small brain it does look like a stairway.)





Then we came home and went to the fireworks at Dogwood Dell, which, of all the towns that play the 1812 Overture with fireworks, is apparently the only one that has both 1) cannons and a military attachment to shoot them off and 2)an attached Carillon, for the joyful bell-ringing part. Yes, we were told, even Boston has to pipe their bell sounds in.