This year's garden

We managed to get a yard of nice clean wood chips when the delivery next door would not fit in the space available. The carpet is wearing out - so the wood chips arrived just in time to spread them out in the paths. I thined the forsythia out and gave away a bunch of them to neighbors and friends. I've also torn out a lot of the dogwood at the edge of the garden. My brush pile is now 6 feet high and about 10 foot wide and 10 fit high - after jumping on it several times! Got to take it all to the dump soon.

Broccli and lettuce has been planted.

Perkins Poetry

The following two poems were found in a undated (about 20 years ago) special edition of a Second Parish OPC Newsletter called All Creatures Great & Small.


Deep in the forest of the Amazon jungle
is this place I know.
In this place where the cheetah has no spots,
the zebra has not a single stripe,
the banana is always ripe,
the giraffe has no neck,
and the woodpecker does not peck,
is a rare and most unusual treasure.
This treasure fulfills every worldly pleasure,
but to obtain it an exchange must be made:
The human soul for this unusual treasure.
Woe to the man who makes this trade
and follows his greedy desire,
for he shall burn in the eternal fire
when he dies and leaves his treasure.
Ha! He will pay to the fullest measure
for his foolish action.
Now we must leave this place
and leave not a trace
of our being here.
My friends, let us leave this treasure
to the animals who have no souls to give.
Let us not follow our fantasies and wildest dreams

or we may not fulfill our purpose in life.
This purpose is to love God
and feed our cats and dogs.

--Andrew Perkins

Have a good day in Zion,
Said the lion to the sheep;
For if you venture from its gates,
It surely will be for keeps.
--Dana Perkins

Pictures

Checkout the two sets of pictures Matt's visit in July and our trip to Boise.

Smiley

Joan has been hapilly volunteering at Mercy Hospital arranging flowers for sale. She has a talent for this and much to her delight is being trained by a retired Florist. Ask her about it - she loves to talk about it!

Keyed Up

World Flute Trio

Carl Dimow (bass flute), Nicole Rabata (Irish Flute) and Phil Nyuokai (shakuhacki flute) gave us one grand time last night. This was an amazing blend of Irish, Japanese, Jewish and European music. Ever hear an Irish-Japanese Blues? We did - I think the first time that they played it - so there is no recording of it, but it was some sweet music that left me feeling alive and soothed. I thought the opening footstomper (with an Japanese shakuhacki?-- ya!) was going to be the best, but it just kept getting better. Especially nice was classical guitarist Nathan Kolosko who joined Carl for 2 numbers. The most amazing piece was the last number where there was the most awesome blending of Irish flute and Japanese flute with a suporting bass flute melding into the turns the Irish flute and Japanese flute took at playing melodies that were hard to say were either Irish or Japanese -- they were both at the same time. It is like the music was made for each other's instruments! Here is a link to their site, but the concert was so much better than any samples I found. The World Flute Trio.

Flowers in Backyard on June 01, 2008

Allium

One of my favorites and one of more than 11 flowers in bloom in the back yard.

For more pictures go to flickr

Three in one

I bet not everyone can catch 3 woodchucks at one time in one trap!

Celebration Extraordinaire

If's off to Spruce Point for our 37th Wedding Anniversary!

Nestled away in the woods on the edge of the ocean.
We enjoyed some time on deck
Viewing and listening to the waves
Watching the schooners pass bye.
more on flickr.com

Celebratory Toast

Joan is just getting over a wicked cold so we postponed the culinary celebration of our 37th wedding anniversary. We did however post a toast and bent the elbow with a good Smithwick's Pale Ale using the mugs Andrew got us while in Europe.
I wanted to include some words of wisdom, but the head to page translater isn't working this morning.

Budge wants YOU!

Scribbled on the back of this photo in Dan's handwriting is " I pity the fool who took a picture of me. Budge wants you for the U.S. Army."

Budge's 1986 Picture

I had a really neat picture of Budge to put here, taken in 1986, but his views have changed so much I don't think he'd want me to post it. He even gave the picture a title with a subtitle. Dan -- you want to take a chance and have me post it?

And Matt's smile hasn't changed much either!

Knight

I'm guessing that the carving on the mantle is not really randomly placed but was put there by an all knowing and seeing God. Dad carved the knight many years ago. Andrew's smile today looks much the same as it did in the third grade (1986).

Snow Snow Snow

Snow.... snow .... snow!
3 Big storms in little more than a week. Soon Pepper will be home free!

The Grand Finale

There really are no words that I could use to describe the feeling one has when one walks into this scene. I think Julie could do it justice, but I can't.

What goes "POP" in the oven?

Question: What goes "POP" in the oven?

Answer: Eggplant Pate

Joan was interested in trying a new recipie for this delicacy. She really did punch several holes in it before placing it in the oven...

Saturday we decided to head up to the Maine Botanical Gardens in BoothBay to see how things looked in October and to visit a few of the areas we had not been too on our last visit. We also wanted to see how much the fairy (imaginary kind) village had changed (more on that later). There were still lots of flowers in bloom.

When I took a picture of this carved out and polished in places rock, I didn't see the birch trees. It wasn't until I looked through the camera that I saw it. Kind of like looking at things through another's eyes...

Then I could not help but notice the reflection every time I looked.

And this is what it looks like from the other side!

This is what the tree looks like today.