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.

Second Story Photo Shoot

The weather is starting to heat up again . . .

. . . so it's time for Joy to climb up onto the roof

and put the cover back on our skylight.

Joy has an odd fascination with clambering around on our roof,

and as usual, she asked me to take pictures of her

perching on the tallest, most precarious parts of our house.

Mom: I'll take a few quick photos,

then come down immediately before you get hurt!

Teenage Daughter: OK, just a minute.  Let me fix my hair,

and get my pose just right.

Teenage Daughter: All right, I'm ready.  

After this shot, can we take some more pictures 

over there by the chimney?

Mom: No. Come down before you break something.

Teenage Daughter: (Exasperated sigh.)

A Revolutionary Cemetery

Memorial Day is coming up,

so my co-leader and I thought it would be nice

to take the boys in our church activity group . . .

. . . to a local cemetery

to take pictures for Billion Graves.

This little cemetery is the resting place

of dozens of Revolutionary War veterans.

I love the idea of memorializing them and their families, 

and helping their descendants learn about them.

Many of the headstones are weathered and overgrown with lichen,

so we'll need to type the inscriptions into the website 

in order for the photos to be useful to researchers who can't squint at the stones in person.

Sometimes doing family history is a labor of love.

New Bed, New Berries

When we bought our house,

it came with a (mint-infested) raised bed out back under the bay window.

I appreciated the free garden plot,

but the wood was starting to fall apart in places . . .

. . . so we recently built a new bed in its place, and lasagna-mulched the plot

with things like chicken shavings, fallen leaves from the woods,

and of course, part of the free mulch mountain in our front yard.

Now that we're safely past our area's last spring frost date,

I bought some tomatoes and zucchini plants from a nearby farm,

and we'll see how they do in our upgraded bed.

As soon as I finished planting veggies out back,

I turned my attention to the overgrown "berry patch" out front.

Some of the raspberry plants our piano teacher gave us

have soldiered along through drought and deluge,

but are in danger of being overrun by things like this Choke Weed 

(I don't know its real name; I just know it's a royal pain to remove).

I spent hours this week yanking out weeds

(which the chickens are now happily composting for us) . . .

. . . then I planted another blueberry bush by the raspberries . . .

. . . and put a couple honeyberry bushes next to our house.

I've been meaning to yank out our hydrangeas for a while,

and I figured I might as well replace them with something

that makes tasty fruit.

Honeyberries produce best if you plant more than one variety,

and after a bit of research on Ye Olde Internet,

I settled on "Aurora" and "Blue Banana,"

which reportedly grow well together and have great flavor.

Honeyberry fruit tastes like a combination of blueberry and blackberry,

and one of our bushes actually came with a little berry on it,

so I can personally attest that their sweet-tart fruit is very good.

Hopefully we can get them established this spring,

and enjoy some yummy fruit in a year or two.

Prom Again

This afternoon . . .

. . . Joy got all dressed up again . . .

. . . to go to a second prom with some friends.

She debated whether to go with a date,

and ultimately decided that she'd prefer to just

hang out and socialize this time (in a spiffy suit).

I Think Those Are Mine

The weather is warming up,

and I'm ready to ditch my jeans for capris,

but I haven't been able to find them anywhere this week.

I searched everywhere they could possibly be, with no luck.

Then, when Todd arrived home from school today,

I noticed that his pants looked a little . . . baggy.

The last time our family separated the laundry,

someone must have assumed my denim capris were Todd's jeans.

I guess they are about the right length for him.

Hey, Todd--your mom wants her pants back!

Nurturing Small Things

There's a cynical Mother's Day joke

that says moms only get one holiday each year,

and they have to work that day too.

Actually, Mother's Day has been pretty good the last few years.

My family cooks dinner so I don't have to,

and the men at church serve brunch to all of the women

while we listen to a nice message during Sunday school.

I also came home today with some chocolate . . . 

. . . and a golden sage plant . . .

. . . which I planted next to some rosemary

that looks a little worse for the wear after this past winter.

This year, I'll try cutting it back at the end of autumn

to help it weather the cold months better.

Because that's what moms do--

we nurture things that need love, and try to learn from our mistakes.

OK, kids.  Now play nice with the irises!

One last little heartwarming Mother's Day gift

was this cute painted rock Anna gave to me.

(I don't know who the artist was; Anna just said they wanted their rock 

to go to someone who would enjoy it.)

I think I'll put it beside the oregano near our kitchen window,

so I can see it every time I look out at my little bucket garden.

Thanks, Anna!

Bouncing with Friends

Our family agreed that today was a nice day . . .

. . . to head to the temple . . .

. . . for a little picnic on the lawn.

While we were there, we bumped into our friends Frank and Autumn . . .

. . . who decided to come over and help us set up our trampoline.

The air is still a little chilly, but we're pretty sure that snowy weather is done for a while,

so it's time to get bouncing again!

Once the trampoline was all set up,

our friends helped us test it to make sure everything was in working order . . .

. . . then we pulled out our bows and targets to practice archery together.

Ah, the delights of spring!