Happy Anniversary...

...to my wonderful husband, who has taught me to take an occasional risk, enjoy life's little moments, and "know what you want." Orchids, a great dinner last night, and wonderful brunch at The St. Paul Hotel today, while planning a trip to celebrate our 25th anniversary next year. Our last trip was to New York for his mom's funeral in April. We got to Manhattan one windy day, and took a series of photos to parallel Curious George's adventures in The Big City.






That last one is called "Trouble on the Big Board." If you know Curious George, you'll know the story. If not, you're already thinking, "Don't these people have a life?" (Yes we do, and we love it.)

TBT: Augie playing Pinetop

This first appeared in September 2009.

When Augie was just over a year old, he'd come in the door and head for the den, saying "Dah-Nn." Doctor John. The DVD is "Dr. John Teaches You to Play New Orleans Piano," and Augie's immediate favorite was "Pinetop Boogie." While I struggled to learn fingering, he absorbed the music, heart and soul. Here's proof.

Found food

Our friend Molly Balcom is a performance artist who uses food to make us think about the environment. In a major piece at the Soap Factory, she created a whole range of flowers, plants, seeds, and roots using edible materials, and had the audience forage through the rooms, collecting specimens to be eaten as part of a picnic lunch. A character talked about humans first trying various indigenous plants: "How do we know it's delicious until we eat it?"

For 19 years we have ignored the apples growing on a tree in our yard. Didn't want to spray chemicals, so the apples tend to get spotty; then they fall and the critters get them.

This year, Augie has been picking them up. Most of the time we get to inspect before he chomps down, and he's learned to find solid whole ones, watch out for brown spots, etc. Along the way, I've discovered that our apples are crisp, tart, and juicy. Today I picked up an apple from the ground, turned it around, wiped it off, and ate it. We plan to prune the tree so the fruit is closer to the ground and we can actually do some harvesting next year.

How do we know it's delicious until we eat it?

I'm writing minutes for the carousel board...

...but first, a little distraction. In August we visited barns full of carousel figures, band organs, and real horses. Beautiful day! Beautiful girl!