Testing the Email Update Feature

I'm testing the email update feature of Blogger. I'm also adding a picture to see what happens! 

Updated Blog!

I've updated the template of our blog with the hope that it will inspire use to post more often.

Here is a picture of the sukkah that we made. These were the first High Holidays in our house and it was nice to have the backyard space to build a sukkah. We had friends over for dinner Shabbat night and enjoyed eating in it ourselves the rest of the time. Didn't sleep in it though... The plan is to reuse it again next year and maybe add more decorations!

 That's all for now. Bye!

Hard work is hard to see

This weeks adventures started off BAD - The HOA sent two notices. Fix the raised panel of sidewalk and fix the outrageous weed problem....in 14 days or you will incur fines. We were not amused.

Matthew spent the week calling people to fix the sidewalk and we spent the weekend weeding.

UGH!

(break from the grumpy...)

If you were to rotate this image you would see that the Rose of Sharon that we DRAMATICALLY cut back and transplanted from Peter and Laurie's house SURVIVED - check out the growth!!

We planted Bulbs -Gladiolas and Ball Dahlia along the back of the house behind the blueberry bushes and also in the flower portion of our vegetable garden.

Now we wait....

Also check out our additional soaker hose - hopefully this helps the blueberries and bulbs survive

Back to weeding - this hill was covered now it is a little better and we can use the pile of pine needles as pseudo bark dust for a little bit

We also weeded the front lawn AND bought a cute hand-spreader and distributed fertilizer

While weeding, a neighbor introduced them-self and offered us some little plants that his wife didn't like because they were prickly and gave them to us.

We said thank you.

Aren't they cute and evergreenie - not sure how they will do, grow, etc.

Matthew climbed along the roof and removed GUNK from the gutters and got rid off moss from the roof

Then after all that we helped Peter and Laurie clear up their garden by taking some unwanted Japanese Maple Saplings off their hands

With all that done - it is 10:00 maybe we should get some weekend rest before the next long week.

Lauren's Wedding Shower

We went to Lauren's wedding shower today! Christine specializes in brunch and everything was yummy. Laurie wasn't feeling great so Matthew took some pictures for her.

Guests (including us!)

Ah! Now we are looking at the camera!

Lauren in her Red Dress and "the spread"

Claude - Matthew says this is the best picture.

We are working on the front garden - new pictures coming - we have pictures of some things we like in other people's gardens.

Does ANYONE know what this flowering well shaped bush is?

What are the purple things - we seem to have a lot of them

(but this is someone else's yard)

and what are these - we want them!

Birthday Vacation

We took a Birthday Vacation last month to celebrate our shared March birthdays and traveled down to Medford/Ashland Oregon for a 3 day weekend. This happened right before we restarted journaling but in our attempt at keeping regular posts, enjoy.

Day 1 - the drive

We started with wine tastings along the way - the first one was closed

Great view at the next vineyard - Agate Ridge -Yummy

Matthew at a wine Cellar - they had snackies with the wine

View from the hotel room

Real view.....

Day 2 -Hiking, more wine....

We started the day with an early morning hike up Table Rock

A picture on the drive to table rock (see it all flat straight ahead)

- note the most recent rock chip - this one courtesy of Matthew

Starting the hike - we thought it would be chilly

It was a nice and shady STEEP hike - we ran down

It was so flat after being SO steep

(in the spring these lakes will fill with flowers)

Looking over the edge

Don't fall Leah! (I am holding on)

The self timed camera did not fall either

After that we went to the annual CHEESE FESTIVAL

at the Rogue Creamery where we sampled, cheese, wine and chocolate

- AWESOME

Dinner in Ashland at a British Pub

- Matthew got fish and Chips - Leah got tofu (yeah Oregon)

Day 3 - Play!

The next day we went on a run/mostly walk and then booked it to Ashland for Sushi lunch and watched Pride and Prejudice by the OR Shakespeare Festival and then booked it home

Spring 2010

Apparently our last post was May 09 which means that it has been less than a year since our last post!

We are trying something new - Photo Journalism. Our theory is more pictures and less text = posting more often.

Here are the two big things of the week

1- We our and building our garden. This entails researching and designing (Matthew and Leah), digging it out to flatten it (Matthew), building a retaining wall (Matthew engineered Leah did the labor), building beds and laying grave (all Matthew - although as you can see there is more to do).

HERE IT IS FROM START TO ALMOST FINISH!

Original - see the slope...

Garden Leveled and a map for the retaining wall spray painted

Leah Building the wall - those ARE 30 lb blocks and I carried most of them

Wall finished - note the mud puddle and the first layer of gravel starting

Gravel Down and carpeted - boxes in place and waiting for the river rock

Our Current Phase - Boxes waiting for dirt and plants

2-Passover

We hosted first Seder and believe it was a success. Cleaning and prepping was impeded a little by our multitasking focus on the garden but we had 9 people to feed: all the passover seder stuff - like 2 charosets, soup and salad, 2 main courses, 2 sides, and 3 desserts - and multiple allergies and everything came out exactly on time!

Here are pictures of the Table

Room rearranged to fit larger table

Side table all pretty holding the IMPORTANT stuff

The expanded tables - both cloths have wine stains now!

Lauren came by to help us cook - like the painters tape closing off half the kitchen??