Early Spring

Its spring in New England! I think...the natives say this sudden spate of nice warm weather has come unusually early. Certainly most of the plants up here don't seem to quite believe its time. Things are starting to turn green, and our neighbor's forsythia bushes are blooming, but that's about it.

We have started work on our new deck. Its fun to watch it slowly taking shape. Although there isn't much to see yet, I expect to have better pictures to publish in the next couple of weeks, that is, if the weather holds.

I've been watching to see what plants the previous owners put in around this house. It doesn't seem like they did anything major, just some groundcovers and a few bushes.

There are some pretty yellow wildflowers blooming along our still unpaved driveway. I don't know what they are. They look like some kind of aster. I'm hoping to take a class in wildflower identification sometime this summer, or maybe next fall. I'd like to learn more about what grows naturally around here!

Another thing I did this weekend was drive to the Massabesic Audabon Center, about 30 minutes away from here in Auburn, New Hampshire.  They have classes too, in birding. I used to know a fair amount about birds but when we moved to Texas the birds changed, and then changed again when we were in Hong Kong. I had too many other things I wanted to do, so birding fell by the wayside. Now in New England, once again my interest is piqued. We have all kind of ducks and cormorants around since we live on a lake, and even the occasional sea bird, since the ocean isn't very far away. But we also have old faithfuls, like this chickadee.

I haven't seen any warblers yet at our feeder, but it may still be kind of early for them up here in the north woods. Then again, maybe they just don't get a chance, since our feeder isn't squirrel-proof!

Well, once the deck and new patio and screened gazebo are built it will be my turn to start planting flowers - columbine, day lilies, ferns, whatever the animals around here won't eat and will grow well. I know Gail would be happy to send me cuttings of her hellebores and perfect pink phlox! I may even have to start my own hedge along the driveway....

But until then I'll just have to be content with flowers like these...

Boston Flower Show

Yesterday I went to the Boston Flower Show at the Seaport World Trade Center in downtown Boston with some ladies from the International Women’s Club. I hopped on the express bus into the city at 7:50 am, went to South Station, from there got on the Silver Line and took it to the World Trade Center.

It was a cold, blustery Boston morning. It was snowing a little bit and the traffic was terrible because of the weather, but I made it in plenty of time to meet the ladies by 10 am. The only thing was I was once again not really dressed warmly enough. I keep forgetting how cold it can be walking around in Boston! I shouldn’t have had to walk outside very much, but I got lost when I initially got out at the World Trade Center stop and walked over to the Boston Convention Center by mistake. So by the time I got to the Flower Show I was thoroughly frozen.

Fortunately it was warm and beautiful inside the flower show. I took lots of pictures of course. In my mind I was comparing it to the Hong Kong Flower Show in Victoria Park. If you click on the link you can see my pictures in Flickr from this show. One nice thing about the IWCB – I wasn’t the only one doing comparisons to previous experiences. One of the ladies said she was a bit disappointed but that was because she was comparing it to the Chelsea Flower Show in England, which is probably the premier flower show in the world. It’s a funny thing about having a lot of amazing world experiences. Yes, it does enrich one’s life immeasurably, but we also have to fight against feeling like everything else pales in comparison. I mean right now I can look out the window and it’s a beautiful, sunny( if a bit chilly) very early spring day. Yes, the view doesn’t include a misty mountain or the lights of thousands of high rise buildings, but it’s very pretty in its own way.

I took lots of pictures, of course, and I ran into several venders that were selling things that seemed like they might work for us. One store I especially liked sold something called Rain Chains . Our house doesn’t have gutters. It has a very steeply pitched roof and an area of gravel drainage around the house that soaks up the water as it rolls off. This works great in most areas and because of all the trees it’s really nice not to have gutters to clog up with leaves. The steep pitch also prevents snow from pilling up . The only problem is in one area in the back right by the kitchen door, where the water falls on the deck and freezes in the winter, so Lee is going to build a gutter in that area to move the water away. Once we have a gutter we’ll need a drainage spout and I think we could use a rain chain instead.

I also found a place called The Garden in the Woods that holds classes in Wildflower identification and gardening with native plants. The classes are run by the New England Wildflower Society.  I’m curious to find out what the best plants are to use for landscaping around here. The classes look very interesting so I’m going to sign up for a couple. More education for me!

Springtime in Austin

I’m taking a page from one of my best friends in the whole world and also one of my favorite bloggers, Gail. Gail’s blog entries often consist of pictures and few words. Her pictures of the flowers, plants and animals in her garden are exquisite. The pictures tell a story and the words are only needed to guide us a bit along the garden path.



Well spring is just exploding in Austin. This is the BEST time of the year in Texas! In Missouri I always liked October the best (Hong Kong was February, right after Chinese New Year when the skies were clear and it was actually cool outside!) but in Texas its April for sure. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been taking pictures of the wildflowers and blooming trees and scrubs. There is nothing in the WORLD like Texas wildflowers! The bluebonnets are carpeting the fields and highways with the most intense blue you can possibly imagine. This morning on the way to the house people were stopped all over The Capital of Texas Highway. They had their babies and children plopped in the middle of the bluebonnets while they snapped away and the babies beamed. Somewhere there is a picture of Nicole and Cody when they were little smiling among the Texas flowers. What nice memories!

Enjoy these pictures friends. Springtime in Austin….














For more springtime in Austin pictures go to my Flickr website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/momwizard/sets/72157616355846548/

Austin March 24th 2009

Let’s do a bit of “flash forward” for a bit, shall we? We’ve been back in Austin for a little over two weeks now. For the first week I was just disgusted by our old house. It was SO dirty, the yard was in shambles, the kitchen and bathrooms looked dingy…it was just a mess! Plus my first job was scrubbing the woodwork so that Lee could paint it so I was at insect level with the floor and the worst of the dirt. But now I’ve gone on to painting the walls, and slowly things are coming together. As each room gets the woodwork and then the walls painted it starts looking brighter, cleaner, and more inhabitable. It’s very satisfying.

This weekend they laid new sod in the yard. The yard was just a horrible mess. Our house sitter had gotten a large dog which just KILLED the grass. There were SIXTY bags of leaves in the yard! Not to mention all the fallen branches from the live oaks…just pitiful. Now with all the trash hauled away and the beautiful sod in place it really looks nice.

As one thing gets done, it makes all the other things that still need doing really stand out. So the green new yard highlights the filthy deck. The clean painted walls point to the dirty, scuffed floors in distain. The new stove and microwave demanded a matching new dishwasher as well. And on it goes…

Today the new carpet was installed in the bed rooms. It REALLY looks nice. I’ve had a bit of a dread and reluctance about moving back into the house. Because of our situation I’m very hesitant to get attached to it again since its entirely possible that we’ll turn right around and move back out of it sometime in the next couple of months. Of course, it is also possible that we’ll be here another five years! It’s a very unsettling situation, but I am getting used to it. Really I think things will get more settled, one way or another in the next few months.

By some sort of crazy blessing from the sports gods we’ve managed to return to the US right in time for the NCAA College Basketball tournament, and this year Mizzou is doing quite well. Their coach is in his third season at Mizzou and this is the team’s first time in the tournament since 2003. We’ve made it to the Sweet 16 and although the last game gave me a headache from the stress I’m totally delighted. Every game we win from here on is just icing on the cake.

I’m having fun with running too. Austin is such a great town to run in, especially this time of year. I’m running in the Capital 10k this Sunday, just for fun. I’m not doing any serious training yet. Once Sarah and I pick a half marathon for late summer / early fall for sure I’ll get myself back on a definite schedule. But I AM starting to introduce myself to some speed and hill training techniques. Its fun - breaks up my weekday runs and makes them more interesting. I’m either running in the neighborhood close to our service apartment or heading to Town Lake on the weekends. There are so many beautiful jogging and hiking trails in this town.

Spring is really underway in Austin. The wildflowers and blooming trees are just starting to appear. They’ve had some rain in past week that has really helped the wildflowers. I’ve taken some pictures, but really want to take pictures of the bluebonnets when they are at their peak. I’m going to be like the Japanese – running out onto the median on The Capital of Texas Highway (the wildflowers bloom all over the highways here) and snapping pictures like a mad lady!

As for my mental state, well it’s funny. Most of the time I feel fine, but little things can set me off and bring either tears or laughter. Last weekend we went to the China Village shopping center for a bowl of Pho at a Vietnamese restaurant there. This shopping center is very Asian, with signs in Chinese and a grocery store that has everything a homesick Asian could possibly want, from red bean ice cream to durian! I got a lump in my throat at the signs in Chinese and could have wandered around the grocery store for hours just drinking in the sights and smells. I wanted to go up to the very few westerners we saw and ask them where they had lived overseas! Ha, what an assumption! But they were all wielding their chopsticks expertly, so I don’t think I was entirely out in left field.

Except for occasionally fearing that I’m about to turn into on-coming traffic, or puzzling shopkeepers by trying to hand them money or credit cards with two hands, I think I’m adjusting pretty well so far. I’m not expecting this to be an overnight affair, but I also don’t think I’ll suffer THAT much…there’s a part of me that misses everywhere I’ve ever lived, and everyone I’ve ever known. There’s a part of me that holds onto everything and hates to let go. I was always the last one at a party to leave the room…