We spent a week on Cape Cod with Bruno parents, Nick and Pam, in early September with a home base in Chatham. The weather was divine with sunny skies nearly every day. We had day trips to Provincetown and Martha’s Vineyard. We enjoyed the beaches near Chatham, and especially the seals at the fishing wharf (we all forgot cameras!), the Mexican food in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard (who knew?) and the quaint villages of Oak Bluff’s and Edgerton on the Vineyard. The swimming would have been terrific, however multiple shark sightings kept us beach combing and napping along the shoreline. See more photos from our trip to Cape Cod.
Earning Stripes
Progress on the spare bedroom continues, we have the decorating complete and are ready to start moving furniture back into place. We had an exciting week figuring out how to paint stripes on wall, a bit harder than you could imagine.
Our bedroom is now complete with new wood floors. We are still adjusting to sleeping on on the opposite side of the room and dialing our new Sleep Number bed settings to high and low. Hary seems to prefer Bruno’s setting of 90, as demonstrated in the photo below.
The photo below shows us with celebratory latte having just completed the final coat of tung oil. Bruno is still taking orders at the drive-thru window if you need a coffee fix. Actually he is talking to brother Dmitri and Sheri is dreaming of planting lettuce (when she should be moving furniture).
Progress?
This is the latest update from the rash of “things that stopped working”. This started 2+ months ago with the dishwasher, and was followed by a major storm that wiped out acces to the Internet and the TV, the chainsaw that died while trying to clear tress that fell during the storm, the electric fence for Kokee, Kokee’s staph infection, S & B get a major summer cold….
Bruno spent the last 36 hours riding out Hurricane Bill replacing the dishwasher with Sheri standing by (the human clamp, holder of the spirit level, coffee/tea brewer). We now have a new dishwasher that brings us out of the 2-month washing dishes by hand (in 90 degree weather) slump (oh how we suffer). Hopefully this is the keeping with a trend towards “normal”.
Unfortunately Elmer (the weathers station) stopped working just before the hurricane hit and Kokee has been reacquainted with “the collar” due to another staph infection. Stay tuned for more….
We did enjoy a nice dinner at Skipper’s Dock in Stonington Borough with Jo and Eric last night. It was a perfect evening at Skipper’s, good sunset, with a few sprinkles and a rainbow We were later amused by slide-splitting hilarity from local thespians who performed “Dress for Dinner” at the Granite Theater in Westerly. It was nice to have break in the dishwasher repair!
Things that start with the letter "c"
The events last week included some amazing progress on the garage and house renovations. The garage dormer has siding and windows, while the 2nd floor in the house now has new hardwood floors. There was much, much more that happened this week; a few things fall into the TMI (“too much information”) category, so we will spare you the details!
Purple carrots are ready for picking in the garden. The are dark purple on the outside, almost beet color, but orange on the inside. And the taste, you must come over to try them out…
Bruno’s construction skills are once again coming in handy to restore the bedrooms with their new floors back into routine use. He is restoring baseboards and patching some holes in the walls in preparation for re-painting and re-furnishing the rooms.
And finally, it turns out that child’s pose is a great post-colonoscopy recovery trick. In fact, there are a few yoga poses that can help move unwanted trapped gases associated with that favorite routine exam. The doctor’s and nurses at Westerly Hospital are still shaking their heads remembering Sheri doing yoga alongside her bed during her 24 hour stay.
photo from http://blog.gaiam.com/
More rennovations….
This week we are having hardwood (oak) floors installed upstairs, so we are camping out in the family room. This means everything we own is in two rooms (and the basement), including 3 cats and a dog (!). And of course, its the hottest week of the year…..
Lazy Days of Summer
The warm weather is here and things are starting to slow down a bit.
Chatra
Kokee and Bruno’s Coleus Plants
Haryana
“Chats”
Tune of the Month: Elvis Costello
We have been enjoying Elvis’ Costello’s Secret, Profane & Sugarcane which explores bluegrass music as only Elvis Costello could. The album is produced by T-Bone Burnette who produced Raising Sand by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant which was July’s TOTM in 2008. Check out Elvis on Hidden Shame, a song that he wrote for Johnny Cash. You can also read a recent interview with Elvis on NPR (of course).
Conee, the Golden Retreiver
We couldn’t resist a little comic relief at Kokee’s expense, even when she is suffering from a staph infection that requires this cumbersome collar. We have a list of nicknames as big as this E-collar (The Conester, Lampshade Girl, Conekee, Conehead), but invite anyone else chime in… Hopefully she recovers soon since this thing has curtailed life’s one true passion, playing ball.
Face of Produce
Warmer temperatures and more plentiful sunshine is doing wonders for the waterlogged garden we knew in June. The FOP this month is a record of rambling nasturtiums, basil leaves as big as your head, the last of the early raspberry crop (more to come late August), and visions of blueberry buttermilk pancakes dancing in your head.
As requested by one of our dedicated readers photos of the award winning blueberries and potatoes are included below. We feasted on potato salad, peas, cream cheese seasoned with nasturtiums and fresh chives. For dessert… blueberries of course!
Hangman Hill’s Got the Blues
Hurray!!!!
SEVEN Blue Ribbons (1st prize) and ONE Red Ribbon (2nd prize)
We did very well at the fair this year. We won first place for raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, sage, lavender, basil, rosemary and potatoes. The edible pod peas won second prize, rightfully so, the pea winners were very impressive and had a presentation that was hard to beat. We must admit the potato and gooseberry submissions were impressive. In fact when I went to pick up our loot one of the organizers mentioned several people wanted information on our gooseberries! If only they knew about “top and tailing”.
Did I mention we won $13.50?
The fair was well attended this year, with excellent weather. It is always fun to see the “trick” man, the cows, chickens and sheep, take in some onion rings and ice cream and of course the fair queen contest. Too bad we missed the dog dancing and Frisbee show this year.
Here at Hangman Hill 