The Albumblatt Is Prettier Than It Sounds

Our piano teacher hosted her annual student recital yesterday.

Todd played a couple minuets by J. S. Bach . . .

. . . and Anna performed a beautiful song with an ugly name:

"Albumblatt Opus 66."

Apparently, "albumblatt" is German for "album leaf,"

and it means a short, instrumental composition.

That's all well and good, but to our un-German ears,

the word sounds like someone gagging.

It felt a little strange to not see Daniel's name on the program this year.

Daniel decided to stop taking formal piano lessons a few months ago,

but he still plays the piano almost daily--

a mix of old favorites, new pieces he's polishing, and his own compositions.

He says he may start lessons again someday,

but for now I'm glad he enjoys the piano so much

that he keeps honing his skills and learning new songs.

A Little Help from My Friend

A while back, I purchased some woodworking plans on Etsy . . .

. . . to build a planter box . . .

. . . that holds five-gallon buckets.

Woo-hoo! Bucket garden upgrade!

My carpentry skills are somewhat limited,

but my friend Jean loves to help with carpentry projects and yard work,

so she happily volunteered to give me a hand.

She's also helping me tear out the hydrangeas out front,

so I can replace them with something that doesn't look like

a sad bunch of bare sticks for most of the year.

Thank you, Jean!!!

Pirates and Not Owls

The last day of school for Parker seniors

almost has a carnival atmosphere.

The senior class picked a theme 

(this year's group chose an ocean theme--think pirates and mermaids),

then they decorated portions of the school . . .

. . . and this car . . .

. . . and even the younger students

(if you look closely at Anna's cheeks,

you can see that she's been painted with pink "mermaid" glitter).

Incidentally, the balloon Anna's holding 

has nothing to do with the ocean or the seniors.

One of her friends likes to draw creatures that look like owls,

but she insists they are definitely not owls.

Anna asked her friend to teach her how to draw "not owls,"

and the drawing on the balloon is Anna's handiwork.

I'd rather have her bring home a "not owl" than a pirate.

A mermaid might be fun, but we don't have a pool.

Blanket Flowers and Mallow

There's something about springtime that suddenly makes me want to do

ALL THE GARDEN THINGS.

Now that I've planted veggie vines and fruit bushes,

I've started scouring the local garden centers for perennial flowers . . .

. . . like blanket flowers to add color to the berry patch . . .

. . . as well as this mallow plant . . .

. . . and some sedums to liven up the area near our mailbox.

I also picked up a coleus because it wilts dramatically when it dries out, but recovers quickly.

I bought it as a "canary" for my bucket garden, to show me when I need to water it.

And this red yarrow?

I'd like to say I bought it because it attracts beneficial insects,

but the truth is that I couldn't resist the striking red color.

Cycle Gear

We heard that Cycle Gear was having a Memorial Day Sale this weekend . . . 

. . . so we went on a little family outing this afternoon.

We figured it would be wise to have properly-fitting helmets and jackets

when Daddy takes the kids (or Mama) on a motorcycle ride.

We also took some family pictures this weekend.

You be the judge--who wore Mom's sunglasses best?

Anna?

Todd?

Or Joy?

Yeah . . . definitely Joy.

Girls' Night Out

Anna has outgrown a bunch of her clothes,

so the girls and I went shopping in Leominster this afternoon.

We tried on a few practical things . . .

. . . and some slightly less practical ones . . .

. . . then went to dinner at Olive Garden.

It's fun to have a girls' night out, now and then.

A Hare-Brained Home-Cooling Experiment

It has long irked me that our main floor gets so hot in summer,

while our basement stays nice and cool.

If only we could somehow get that cool air into the the upper floors!

This week, I persuaded my reluctant husband to try an experiment.

What if we propped the bulkhead door open,

and turned on the whole-house fan to pull air up through the basement?

We tried it, and that seemed to help with the temperature of our home,

but we couldn't just leave the door wide open

because of my other summertime nemesis: mosquitos.

So . . .

. . . we built a bulkhead cover out of scrap lumber and hardware cloth.

We didn't have enough hardware cloth to cover the top,

so we used metal fabric from an old screen,

then covered it with cardboard so the fabric wouldn't tear 

the moment a chipmunk or squirrel hopped up onto it.

Abby: That monstrosity is a crime against carpentry.

Martha: Think it'll work?

Abby: It would take a miracle.

Unfortunately, Abby was right, but not for any reason I would have anticipated.

Humidity is the percentage of moisture that air can hold, and hot air can hold more water,

so guess what happens when you pull hot, humid air into a cool basement?

The temperature drops, but the amount of water doesn't, so the cooled air becomes VERY humid.

And super-humid air is NOT what you want in your basement.

Once we realized how musty our basement was getting, we closed the bulkhead, turned off the fan,

and Phillip headed to his office to research portable AC units, which is what he had wanted to do all along.

Thank you, dear husband, for helping me try my wacky experiment,

and being gracious about how badly it turned out.