In the Air...

Spring is in the air!

To be more specific, robins are in the air.

Swarms of robins coming back from their over-wintering grounds

 cholk-full of succulent purple berries

are filling the oak trees right over my car.

And those nice succulent berries,

after being transformed by the robins into unbelievably sticky

purple globs, are painting my car polka-dot, free of charge.

What nice robins!

Maybe they will stop by your house next.

If they do, I advise moving your car to treeless parking. 

Not that polka-dot isn't totally "in" or anything...

First Plantings

Orin and I planted the first of our seeds today:

4 different types of peppers,

St. Johns Wart, and two types of onions.

They are the first ones to go in because they need the longest

to get ready for the big leagues.

8 weeks in the incubator before they make their debut in the sun!

Valentine's Mayhem

Today Orin made Valentines for his friends and family

(plan on them arriving a bit late, being that tomorrow is V-day)

The whole process could best be described as mayhem:

3 different types of glitter glue,

countless sizes and shapes of tiny-weeny hearts and stars,

14 markers, 2 packs of sparkle stickers,

and no self control.

My dining room may never recover.

February 8

First one up.

Spring is on the way!

Blue Man Group

 If you have never found yourself in a small theater

lit up by strobe lights and 4 ten ft diameter glowing beach balls,

listening to a techno backbeat while precussionists

bang on drums covered with paint

(and of course the paint is splattering everywhere),

while yanking rolls of a toilet paper-like substance 

off reels attached to the walls as fast as you can

and laughing your butt off,

then you have never been to see Blue Man Group.

I suggest you fix that situation sooner rather than later.

You won't regret it.

Orin sure didn't.

Here he is after the show introducing his Blue Man 

to one of the real blue men.

Amazing stuff.

The First Hockey Game

Today we went to a hockey game at Philips Academy,

the high school my mother works for.

As it turns out, it was Casey's first hockey game ever.
Needless to say, the sport just got another fan. 

Garden Time!

Ok, this is an official announcement to all of you

who only check this blog for cute pictures of Orin:

The blog is switching gears now.

It's not that there won't be pictures of Orin,

there will still be an almost nauseating number of those,

it is just that from here on out begins the chronicles of

our suburban mini farm!

Yes, that's right, we are going to take our blah bunch

of lawn and reinvent it.

Although we truly begun our farming adventures last year

with the raising of our chicken coop and our herb plantings

in the front yard, I thought that now would be a better time

to start the farm blog because this marks the beginning of

our first full growing season. 

What is "this" you ask?...

The arrival of our seeds!

Today we received what will likely only be the first batch

of seeds from Seed Savers Exchange

an awesome organization that supplies their customers

with rare types of heirloom seeds.

Feel free to fall in love with them at

http://www.seedsavers.org/

The arrival of our seeds happened to coincide with

a beautiful January weekend (high 40's and sunny)

so Casey and I whipped up the first of many raised beds

that will collectively make up our MegaGarden.

It all starts here!

And, for those of you needing an Orin picture,

thanks for waiting patiently...

here is our first crop in full bloom: