the small and large

Chris Stark, the sixth grade science teacher at Central Tree, invited me to take a few students with me to take pictures of plants on a tract of land that Mass Audubon is looking to purchase in Spencer. It was an old horse farm and it was really very beautiful. We hiked through old grown in pastures and through the woods to see glacial anamolies. It was really something today. I got to invite 5 students to take pictures.

Mr. Stark is then going to give those pictures to the art honors society and they are going to make sellable cards that anyone... even you... can purchase to fund Mass Audubon in their efforts to secure that land. Its a 300 acre property. We hunted around for plantlife that would be fitting for cards. Here is one of the plants that we found, it's called British Soldier. Cute little thing, it was about the size of a quarter. I'll throw a couple more pictures up there just for kicks...

I really had a great time with the students hiking around for a couple of hours.
nice day...

db

...yup...

So, its March. Here I am hitting the first real dreaded wall that I thought would pop up. I guess the first was the stupid sickness I had, but this one I knew would eventually show up. I am boring. I don't really have some crazy life. I literally go to school, and then come home most days. School... home... school... home... and I can't even really write about all the absolute craziness that happens at school because of privacy situations with students. So. Here I am, meeting the exact reason that I started this blog in the first place. I am kind of bored with things. Trust me, my days are busy, but they are repetitive and commonplace.

Here are the top things on my mind right now.

I am tired
My friend's husband recently passed and I am not sure how to comfort her.
My wife is lonely
MCAS is 8 days away


There you have it. That's all. I knew this would come at some point, meeting my boring life head on, and here it is.
I fully intend to continue to write for the entire year. It will be interesting to see what happens after this first wall goes away. I am hoping I will be forced into something more exciting.

Well, time to go to bed and get up at either 6:30 or 7:00 and go to school and come back home and correct and eat and go to bed and get up at either 6:30 or 7:00 and go to school and....

db

burning and boiling

Today was a pretty good Sunday. Bridget Janaque and I did well on a new song today, and on a song that we reimagined. Actually, it was a version that Janaque already knew. It was nice though. The three part harmony was really good, I really enjoyed not having to take center stage as well. After church, Henry and I tried to go to the indian super market on rt. 9 in Worcester, but the St. Patty's day parade blocked the route. Henry was fuming mad. I think I got his imagination going to hard regarding all of the foreign, new food that they would have. We were going for lemon grass, tamarind paste, and star anise.

After we got home we took a quick trip to my parents. They were making syrup (thus the picture). They built a shed this past summer and this is their first year trying their hand at it. They aren't doing bad at all, although, I guess its an awful year for it. But they will probably end up with a couple of gallons after all is said and done. I also was able to pay off some money that I borrowed from them to build the upstairs of our house. It felt good to be free from any personal debt that I might have. It was good.

Tomorrow is school, for me at least, not the students. It will be an early morning. Goodnight.

db

Bruised but not broken

Henry came home with a note from school saying that he had taken a blow to the head. It was some sort of official form for head injuries. He actually seemed kind of proud to have had it. He's completely fine. Although, true to form, I was kind of worried...me worried? that he had a concussion. He said that he had blurry vision for a while, and that he thought the whole thing might have beed a dream.

I couldn't really tell if he was playing it up or not. He isn't prone to wanting attention like that, but in the same respect, he does exaggerate things when he gets hurt. Both of our kids haven't really been hurt bad. The worst, I think, was when they dumped bubble liquid on a yellow jacket nest on the back porch and were stung several times. Nora actually tried to kill the bees with her bare feet... brave girl.

Henry's account of what happened reminded me of a thousand similar events in my own childhood. He was playing tag at recess. Some girl ran up behind him as he was running and pushed him. He of course, fell on his head, because that is what we all do.

He's fine.

In other news, the clocks switch today. No more taking Chauc for walks in the morning before work for a bit longer. But, it also means spring is coming. Ah.... spring.

db

Rutland Pizza

Somethings transcend our lives. They seem to be anchor points for the universe. Rutland Pizza is one of those things.

I have serious memories of this place back to my teen years. Back when it was filled with chairs that had obviously been stolen from naquag elementary school at some point, complete with gum stuck to the bottom and all. I remember the first time that I ever actually walked into Rutland Pizza with my then girlfriend's father and Dr. Hastings. We were officially fixing the organ in the Protestant church in the center, but unofficially, in the words of Mr. Martin, we were touring all of the worst dives in Central Massachusetts.

Even then I remember thinking that the place wasn't all that bad. They use the shreddy lettuce for their grinders... they can't be all bad. I love the little place. It is the classic, small town eatery.

I took Henry and Nora there tonight for their pick of grinders. Henry chose Seafood, an early favorite of his, and Nora chose Meatball, the standard. I chose tuna. I had a time that I was completely addicted to Italians when I was a teenager. The Ice Cream Barn in the center of Templeton knew the magical proportions of mayo and oil and they made one heck of an Italian. But, tonight it was tuna, small of course.

Henry and Nora decided they wanted to switch halves of their grinders. I love it when they team up like that. So, we ate. I saw a student there. I always see at least one student there. More often than not, its like 20 students there. But tonight only one. She waved. It was nice.

And that was that, nice, small, towny and perfect.

db

Red witch

My Witch Hazel bush bloomed this week. I love that thing. It blooms in February some years... crazy. Chaucer took out all of his nervous energy on it and chewed all of the branches off but one... sad. But it is still there and it is still blooming. Bright red in winter.
I also ordered my seeds last week. This year's garden is going to be ... interesting. I had an awful time with tomato horn worms last year, so, I am giving my garden a year long break from tomatoes in hopes that that will starve off the hornworms. So, taking that as a launching point, I am having a primarily root vegetable garden this year. There are three exceptions to the rule. I am still planting cucumbers. I am planting cilantro, and Dill. (I intend to make pickles this year and cilantro is quickly becoming a must in this house). This years garden will include a few types, and colors, of carrots, beets, turnips, rutabagas, radishes, and parsnips. I also have a small herb row that will carry over from last year with some thyme and sage and a few other things. I love to talk gardens. I love to talk spring.

db

a lot to say

Well, I seem to have come through a pretty low time here. Sometimes I go through these. Hopefully, we are all in the clear.

I have taken some pictures, but just couldn't seem to get myself in the right mindset to write anything... maybe I just should have posted the pictures. In the past... whatever. So here we go into the future.

We took the kids to Amherst this past Saturday. It was really wonderful, even better than I thought it was going to be. The short story is: we took them to Hawley's for lunch, tried to watch the beginning of the iditarod on my ipad at Mcdonalds, but it didn't seem to work right, went to the Yankee Candle Factory in Deerfield (that is where the pictures are from, more about that later), took them to Bueno y Sano for supper, then out to the faculty dance concert for the five college dance. I am so happy with my kids. They were amazing, and they seemed to really like the concert too. I am a bit surprised about that. But, especially Nora, took a real interest in each performance. Henry was interested as well, but Nora was really interested and even had picked out her favorite piece, not one that I would have picked lol, but I was surprised that she had already formed opinions about it.

I love dance. I don't dance. But, I love to watch it, at least at that level. Every time I walk away really filled and inspired. This is a really hard thing to explain to those of you that have seen only what is presented to the general public, but there is an underlying, what I would consider to be a purer, art form there that is amazing. Really love it, without embarrassment.

So, back to Yankee Candle. Those who haven't been, it is a big place that is set up almost as a mini Disney land of candles... haha. Well, that's what it is! The rooms are all fantastically decorated and it even snows in one of them. (That is what they are trying to catch in the first picture) Henry and Nora absolutely loved it. They were really amazed by the magic of it all. They even held hands spontaneously in some of the rooms, just caught up in the magic of it all. I really really enjoyed seeing them so blown over. Jenny was happy, I was happy. Just a beautiful day. And.... to top it all off, I saw Steve Gonsalves from Ghost hunters. He was shopping with some girl. Totally him for sure. I creeped out and snuck a picture of him... posted below. ;)

db