SABINA

Claud's a dad and I'm an auntie!!!!!!

What's Doing On My Windowsill... At Work!

Some pics of what's doing on my windowsill at work. Including my single PEA! It's so cute! And.. pointless :P

Thanks to Huong for the "Secret Seeds"!!

NM, yeah it'll be hot

That's the full two week car rental price, holy poo balls! I'm loving this trip already. Hopefully food and lodging is just as affordable. And that we find lots of unsupervised motel pools along the way... Anyone know anything about the supposed secret room at the Dia cabin of the Lightning Field? Also, taking suggestions on absolutely anything to see or do in New Mexico and Arizona--Audrey and I've got two weeks of unfettered exploring ahead of us!

Moss at 11 weeks

An Afternoon with Moss!

On Sunday Julia and I went to see the latest (and cutest!) addition to the halfie crew, Ai's seven-week old son Moss.

While Moss caught up on some sleep,

we caught up over some fresh-baked bread (courtesy of Julia) and organic strawberries (courtesy Farmer Ted of the Stanton Street CSA).

After he woke up, we spent some time soaking up the cuteness:

And taking turns holding him

I think Julia has some more uber-cute photos of Moss with Daddy.

Tourist in suburbia

This past weekend I paid a visit to Claud & Eleanor's current hometown (and where they'll likely be staying for another three years until Claud finishes his PhD): Natick, Massachusetts. This town has a very un-illustrious history as far as the decimation of the local Native American population is concerned (although really, which U.S. town doesn't?), being the place where Puritan missionary John Eliot "was best known for attempting to preserve the culture (minus the religion) of the Native Americans by putting them in thirteen planned towns where they could continue by their own rule, with Natick as the political and spiritual center." I can practically see the collective shoulder shrug of the wikipedia contributors who penned this entry. It continues, "A school was set up, a government established, and the Indians were encouraged to convert to Christianity. In November, during King Philip's War, the Natick Indians were sent to Deer Island. Many died of disease and cold, and the Indians who survived found their homes destroyed. The Indian village did not fully recover, and the land held in common by the Indian community was slowly sold off to white settlers to cover debts, and, by 1785, most of the Natick Indians had drifted away." Just kinda wandered off, just like that. Huh! Must've just been in the mood for a change of scenery, I guess.

From what I can tell, Natick is now a relatively middle to upper middle class suburban town, peppered with autobody shops, an inexplicably large number of martial arts studios, houses with vinyl siding

and lilac bushes.

It's also home to the BJ's Wholesale Club corporate headquarters, the US Army Soldier Systems Center, and Casey's Diner--one of the last operational ten-stool diners in the US.

The Natick suburbs have a bit of nature to them too--literally steps from Claud & Eleanor's front door is the Tony Anniballi Memorial Park at Pegan Cove. We originally went on a night walk through some of the trails on Saturday evening, which was awesome and kinda spooky. Haven't gone on a night hike in something like a decade! Sunday is when we returned to experience the park in daylight.

It's a beautiful but diminutive nature preserve with a few towering pine trees,

a bit of a mucky stream,

lotsa poison ivy, and bordering the really large Lake Cochituate.

It was a gorgeously sunny day, but extremely windy.


We kept busy the rest of the weekend with gardening, cooking and eating.

The veggie garden plot:

Sugar snap pea sprouts ready for replanting:

Garlic sprouts:

The soon to be mother of my soon to be niece:

Unmistakeably:

Flattening seitan cutlets in a pasta press:

Sauteed chanterelles:

Fresh baked bread, before:

Fresh baked bread, after:

Dinner is served:

By the time I grace Natick with my next visit I'll be an aunt!

Happy Birthday!