My Special Eyes

I took this photo around 4pm today.  Why was I not at work?  Oh, nothing, just a pretty bad case of conjunctivitis.  Womp-womp.  I attempted to drive to work, but my eyes are really photosensitive right now and they kept closing involuntarily on the highway.  One more time, for the people in the back - my eyes kept closing, on the highway, while I was driving.  Eeps.

So I called my boss and the Rotary Club President (I was scheduled to give a historical lecture at their luncheon today) and the doctor's office.  I have some antibiotic eye drops, a list of ophthalmologists, and strict instructions not to wear contacts until my eyes are healed.  Sigh.

At least the situation allowed me to work from home on the porch and see my hubby & puppies, though!  This is Justin working away with the pick axe on the foundation for the patio.  Hooray!

At Ease

Water break in Concord halfway through our bike ride this evening - did around 10 miles total.  I'm really going to miss these long weeknight bike rides when fall & winter come.

Lazy Noms

Not a particularly busy evening around here, on purpose.  My folks were just leaving when I got home from work (they bring my nephews here on Tuesdays for their dad to pick up) and we chatted with them for a bit.  I showed them my fiddle and played a little bit - they thought it pretty cool.

After they left, we contemplated garden house & patio work or a bike ride, but it was cloudy and getting on 7pm.  We settled on a dog walk and a lazy, simple dinner of bread, mozzarella cheese, olives, and red wine.  Not bad.

Chasing the Light

As the sun starts going down earlier and the number of weekends between now & winter decreases, we're trying to take advantage of the daylight we still have between my arrival home from work and dusk.  For example, Justin's been digging away at the patio foundation, as shown here.

And I spent some time tonight vacuuming the garden house with the shop vac.  I feel bad for all of the spiders I've killed (a LOT of egg sacs and at least two live adults), but it has to be done before I can clean the mildew, prime, and paint.  From there, it's an easy downhill jaunt to done - just putting the furniture in and throwing things up on the walls.

Fiddle Camp!

I spent the weekend at Fiddle Camp at Cold Antler Farm.  :)  Will write more later, but I had a nice time and it's awesome to think that on Friday I couldn't play a note on a fiddle and now I'm up to a whole (short) song!

More about the weekend here, here, and here!

Soldier's Joy

This set-up was a little bit staged, but I wanted to show what happens when you're getting ready for both Army drill and Fiddle Camp on a Friday night.

Late Nights

Home very late last night, hence no post until now. We were up in Dover, NH to hear/see Justin's Army buddy's band. Lots of fun. I don't really identify as an Army wife and some of those guys are knuckleheads, but some of them are really good guys, too. Good times.

Mooooo

I know I keep promising even more garden house photos, but we went for a bike ride tonight and look at the cows we found!

Sheddy

Garden house work continues. Almost ready to scrub down the inside & start painting!

Look Up

The sky overhead during our bike ride this evening.  Crazy awesome.

Success!

I'll post more photos this week, but check out that empty, reasonably clean garden house!

Shedding the Junk

Project "turn the garden house into an office/potting house" began/continued today!  I thought I had posted the "before" shots, but looking back, perhaps I didn't.  Well, it may not look like much yet, but the above photo of the day is how the left corner of the it looked around 3pm after a few hours of work.  The left side of the photo below is how it looked back in May:

And same for the rest of the shed.  Today:

And in May:

May not look like a ton, but it's progress and I'm happy with it!  More work tomorrow.

Better Late than Never

The back yard of my Friday office.  Not bad, yes?

A New Step

This is the door to the garden house (i.e. my future potting shed & writing house).  Justin removed the old tarpapered ramp last week that was used for the riding mower.  Then, I plopped the sandstone rock that we got on the beach at PEI in place and voila!  Sandstone step.

Two Sides

 Two very different images for today - hooked rugs of my great-great-uncle's creation at the museum for a rug hooking workshop and the lead singer of the band mewithoutyou at the Paradise Rock Club.

A Visit from the Monkeys

It's pretty easy to tell when the monkeys have been in the house.  Random things are not quite where they should be.

I was a little nervous that this small door by our bed was ajar, for example, then I remembered that the boys' dad picked them up at our house this evening.  Mystery explained!  Silly monkeys . . .

Look Down

New skirt, and quasi-tan summer knees.

Week #3 of Vacation

Commentary to be added later, as I find the time!

 7/30

7/31

8/1

8/2

8/3

8/3 

8/3

8/4

Week #2 of Vacation

Commentary to be added later, as I find the time!

7/23 

 7/24

 7/25

 7/25

 7/26

 7/26

 7/27

 7/28

7/29

Week #1 of Vacation

Commentary to be added later, as I find the time!

7/16

7/17

 7/18

7/19

7/19

7/19

 7/20

7/21

 7/22

City of Contrasts

Photos for August 11th and 12th.  Montreal in clouds & sunshine.