Weekend review

Friday Bob and I set out to explore some of the small towns that are near us that we haven't really been to yet.  We went to New Canaan and Old Greenwich, both of which have wonderful little shopping districts.  Bob and I almost have a requirement that if there is a toy store or candy shop we have to go in and explore.  New Canaan was great, lots of little cutesy shops, a wonderful lunch outside at a Thai restaurant, and the weather was gorgeous.  The only snag was Bob's lunch of a salmon salad came covered in walnuts which he is allergic to so he had to send it back and have it remade without nuts - why that is not listed on the menu I don't know. 

Probably our favorite store was Design Solutions which had fun and different home stuff like a surprisingly comfortable office chair made of bungee cords. There were also a few different toy stores and yummy looking restaurants.  We'll probably go back every once in awhile just to explore more and eat good food.

Old Greenwich I think we could have lived without.  Granted we did go to Almy, a church supply store, and bought part of a baptismal present for our godson, Owen, who will be baptized in July.  There is also a cute needlework shop there, The Village Ewe, but nothing popped out at me.  I think our biggest concern was that we got there about the time that the elementary school down the road let out so the shops were overrun with young children, stay at home moms and nannies.  And this is really bad of me, but many of the moms reminded me of Stepford Wives, dressed too perfectly for a day of running errands and taking care of kids, and I don't understand the appeal of that lifestyle. 

That evening we just hung out and watched TV, but on a plus side I did finish another page of my chaos cross. 

Saturday was confirmation, bread baking (oatmeal no-knead and pretzel bread), a leisurely walk with the dogs and just hanging out with Bob.  For confirmation we played stumped the pastor.  The kids were allowed to ask any question they had about the church, theology, the bible, Lutheranism, etc and get my honest answer.  I was impressed with some of the questions including "Can the devil hear our thoughts?," how to explain Jesus' resurrection to a non-believer, and justifying the bible with science (especially in regard to the creation of the world). 

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous so after worship (see previous post), Bob and I hit the garden.  Many of the seeds that we started a few months ago didn't survive, basically because we were bad waterers, but a few did so we put those in along with the plants we bought from a nursery last week.  We now have tomato, pepper, brussels sprouts, broccoli, oregano, parsley, cilantro, strawberry, and mint in the ground along with our previously planted potatoes, onions, carrots and spinach.  We also made cages for our tomato and pepper plants out of stakes and chicken wire. 

Here are our two raised beds and the additional perennial herb garden that we decided to put in.

Our potato plants are huge, here is Daisy modeling how tall they have gotten (Koko couldn't sit still long enough).

I also attacked the large overgrown shrub next to the house.  You can see some of my damage to the part below the water spigot (hence the need to chop some of it down).  Hopefully this fall we will take this one and a few other shrubs out and replace them next spring with azaleas and lilacs.  

I have also been amazed at what flowers have been growing.  Here are some beautiful yellow irises, we also have some yellow tiger lilies coming in and probably a few other varieties of flowers too.