"No time for cameras / we'll use our eyes instead"

Oh hey, blog...who would have thought that spending two weeks dog/house/garden-sitting for friends and starting a new job would throw things off so much?

So this is round one of what you missed: my little brother got married last weekend (!), and we traveled south to be a part of the fun and festivities. In the midst of rehearsal dinner preparations and wedding day merriment, we also managed to take advantage of Virginia's earlier strawberry season -- and of course eked out a little beach time (it's now tradition during family wedding weekends for the rest of us to pack up the dogs and a picnic and head to the water's edge).

I'm still having a hard time believing that my little brother is all grown up, let alone married, since he has been the ideal kid brother throughout most of my life. I mean, I guess he still is, but going home won't be the same without someone rigging up zip lines in the backyard or taking us out to a cornfield to shoot off rockets or teaching us the fine art of slingball. But here's to new adventures with a new sister-in-law!

 (our best impression of lawn ornaments)

Flora and fauna

At long last, I'm home in Philadelphia! Friends, neighborhood hangout spots, the sideyard garden, sensible public transit,* and -- most importantly -- my favorite husband ever all point to good summer times a-comin'. 

Before I left Nashville, though, I found time for a weekend adventure with my friend Carrie, an up-and-coming docent at the Nashville Zoo (and an all-around all-star to boot). She has beautifully blogged about our escapade here, so click through and read that. Go ahead, I'll wait.



All done? Here are a few other photos from the zoo day:

 (I was fascinated by these life-sized statues of donors to the zoo that occasionally appeared in different settings. Just...wow.)


The day after the zoo trip, I got to hear Nicaraguan revolutionary, priest, and poet Father Ernesto Cardenal read from his new collection of poetry entitled The Origin of Species. He calls this "science poetry," and I was moved by it. Click here to check out a reading he did a few days before he came to Nashville -- from what I can tell it's similar to the presentation he gave at Vanderbilt. 


Then Saturday, I biked down to South Philly to find the Wild Foodies, a Meetup group for foragers of wild edibles. We mucked around near the pond in FDR Park and I got to sample curly dock, burdock, mulberry leaves, and garlic mustard, among other delectables. I've been wanting to learn about foraging in these here parts for quite a while, but I figured it was in my better interest to go with people who know what they're doing. 

 Lesson one: check. Now on to finishing our garden for the year.

* I know, I just wrote that about SEPTA! This should tell you more about Nashville's system than anything else could. 

new fence, new job, new summer

So, biggest news first. Sharon is coming home in two days. She is in the middle of papers and exams as well as trying to get her room ready for the sub-letter and getting her stuff together to come back to Philadelphia. Can't wait for her to be home!

Second biggest news is that we finally finished the fence that we've been planning for the side yard since we started cleaning it up. As you can see, the fence has been built! We used 15-20 8' slabs from a sawmill in Fairview Village (Spacht Sawmill). These slabs are the first cuts made to logs to make them square, so they are pretty much useless scraps that they sell as firewood. We got all the wood for a little under $30. The people there are super friendly and specialize in fine woods, custom woodworkers, carvers, etc. Go check it out.


The yard rises, so with the old, short fence we would be basically eye-to-eye with sidewalk passersby and the neighbors across the street when we're hanging out on the deck in the back, so the new fence was much needed. This morning I put down all the stone (Schist), and hopefully we will be adding some plants soon to make it pretty.

On to other news. I have a new job which I will begin next week at Preservation Tree. It's a small company and the other guys are really cool. I'm definitely excited to climb some big trees and not be making intern pay anymore. It will be sad to leave the Arboretum, but we have to leave the nest sometime.

In the so-so news category, we are buying a car. I'm half excited to be among the folks out there that can go anywhere they please, no matter the weather or distance. At the same time I'm bumming that I will be back in the land of clutches, brakes, tires, oil changes, light bulbs, timing belts, squeaks, rattles, etc. We're getting a 2001 Honda Civic that gets 35mpg, which I am really excited about. Our last car got 24ish mpg and with $4-5 gas on the horizon, we couldn't go back to that.

Looking ahead, I start my job on the 9th, Sharon starts her summer job on the 16th, we have a Nowak family wedding on the 21st in VA (which should be fun) and then a whole summer of fun ahead of us. On a small side note, Sharon was fortunate enough to receive some funding to do research in Paraguay, so we are starting to plan for a trip to the middle of S. America. Travel, you long lost friend, we are coming back!