Lunchtime Walk

A new mural in my neighborhood.



Tree chair, Lee St.

Me 1, Squirrels 2

Damn critters. I have an ongoing battle with the squirrels. They made a nest in my attic and made a pee stain on my living room ceiling. They were humanely evicted. But now they're back, chewing through my formerly pretty porch lights. JERKS!!!

Later, I found a dead bird nestled in the purple pansies in my front porch window box. I don't think the squirrels had anything to do with it, but it was sad. There was a nest directly above the window box, and it looks like the bird just fell out, which would be weird. I gave poor little bird a proper burial out in the swampy back yard so that the neighborhood cats wouldn't dig him up. I hope I don't have West Nile disease.

Ginko, Please

I forgot the PIN for my ATM card. . . the one I've had for 10 years and use sometimes multiple times a week. At this point it's basically an automatic, physical motion that kicks in when I'm in front of a keypad. Except for today at the grocery store when it didn't work. After two more tries I got locked out and had to call the bank to have them reset it. I think I know what it is, so I'll try again tomorrow at an ATM that doesn't suck my card all the way in. Shute. That combined with ordering and paying for a burrito and then almost walking home without actually taking the burrito from the counter is making me think that perhaps I am not aging well. Or maybe I've just reached my username/password saturation point!

Photo: Athens, 3/2007

Happy Mother's Day!

Floury Footsteps

I liked the trail of floury footsteps. This is Nashoba Brook Bakery in West Concord, where I stopped to get a sandwich so I wouldn't get wilty later in the afternoon. Today I took the day off of work to go to the jewelry show with my mom & aunt. We all found a number of strands of pretty beads and will be wearing some pretty necklaces as soon as we string them.

Flowers I Like, Early Spring Flower Twins

My neighbors are far ahead of me when it comes to planning ahead for early spring color. I took these today before work on Thursday in an attempt to beat wilt and damaging rain. My four favorites can be paired off.

Stearns St., Cambridge

Dana St., Cambridge

Upland Rd., Cambridge

Mass Ave., Cambridge.

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday fell on a Friday this year, so I decided to throw a party for myself! I had fun, and I think that my guests had fun. I'll be having one next year, since my birthday will fall on a Saturday, and then a birthday Sunday brunch the year after that.

I took a photo of my wonderfully messy kitchen table after clean-up round 1 before I went to bed because I liked the oranges, reds & blues.

Bubble tea. . . the tea you can chew!

My coworkers and I have been spending a ridiculous amount of money on bubble tea at the independent zen tea shop across the street. While we love the place and like to support the owners I wondered how difficult it could be to make my own bubbles. I did a little research and a few days later a brick of tapioca bubbles landed on my doorstep.



Tapioca bubbles are basically tapioca starch and caramel coloring pressed together in fragile little powdery pellets. I cooked about 2 cups of them in water (with plenty of room to swim, just like pasta), and then turn the heat off and let them sit covered for a half hour. At the same I prepared a sugar syrup with white and brown sugar. when thebubbles are cooked they need to be drained and rinsed. Some of the bubbles dissolve so when they're done they're sitting in a gelatinous black mass. Once they're coated with the sugar syrup they look like this:



If you go to a bubble tea stand or a tea shop you can get all kinds of flavorings and mix-ins and sweeteners added to many different tea bases. Personally, I like regular old black tea with no flavorings and maybe a little milk. The tapioca bubbles in their syrup are fairly sweet, so I usually don't add extra sweetener. Here's the green tea with vanilla soymilk (and bubbles) that I made for myself:



The bubbles stay firm, so you need a special wide straw to suck them up. Sometimes they get stuck:



Bringing them to work, they looked like a science experiment:

The mulch that escaped

I took this a few Sundays ago in Raymond Park, Cambridge MA. I noticed the mulch spiral on my way home on Friday and meant to take a photo early Saturday morning before the park was mobbed with kids. But I forgot, and then it rained and poured. So I was surprised and happy to see that my mulch spiral didn't totally wash away.

New England Spring Flower Show

A couple of Fridays ago I took the day off of work to go to the New England Spring Flower Show hosted by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. I was curious because I'd never been to one. I was also in need of a little injection of spring. This year's theme was "Rhapsody in Green", as in environmentally green as well as obvious green.

Many of the displays were difficult to photograph because they were so large and it was kind of dark in the place - my photographs wouldn't have done them justice. Here are some small scale photos:
giant palm



Patterns on the floor



Pretty garden furniture



Entries from the young Mass Horticulturalists. Flower Power!



Aloe plicatilis, or Fan Aloe. This had a funny little shoot growing up out of the middle but I accidentally chopped it off in the photos.



Oops! I can't find where I wrote down the name of this one. I'd name it the Medusa cactus.



One of the entries in the arrangements section



Lots of orchids. This one is a Doritaenopsis "Chain Xen Pearl" Moth Orchid



Here's a Paphiopedilum Hybrid Ladyslipper



This is a Phalaenopsis "Join Angel" Moth Orchid



And last, a Zygopetalum "River Murray"



The Blue Hills Reservation in Milton had a booth with all kinds of information as well as critters! This is an Eastern Screech Owl that they rescued. Very cute little guy.

In preparation for my own garden, I bought more California poppy seeds and some nasturtium seeds for my porch window boxes. Fun stuff!