On Zucchini, and Green Beans, and Tomatoes, Oh My!:

Yes, we have Zucchinis by the bucket and we didn’t grow a one of them. Friends and family send them our way.

The green and wax beans, and tomatoes are taking turns going through the canning pots today. We have two canners, but are not using them both at the same time yet this year.

Hard work in the humidity. But food for the winter must be processed in the summer. Not too bad really. Better then the years we didn’t get
much at all from the garden.

There are the berries and greens and cucumbers that have been gracing our table too.

Canning Season is upon us. Glass jars tinkling, radio sing, canner hissing, chopping knives keeping the rhythm.

I’m trying to have the time for ball practice. I fear some days I won’t make it.

Thought for the day: “Large tomatoes don’t body roll as well as I had hoped.”
Extra Quote “I clean that up right away.”

On Busy Weekend:

I’m having a hard time getting back into blogging daily. Not that I haven’t been missing all of you, because I have. It’s more of a out of the house kind of thing.

And the places I’ve been, there is no internet to use.

In town there is a Fine Arts Festival every year at the end of May and it landed on this past weekend. World Goth Day was on Saturday, and my daughter was in town burying her fathers ashes that day too.

I will do something I should have done the other day when I posted about Amelia Earhart house. After you use the link of her name, turn the picture to the left and you are there. Move up and down the street and look at the house from a few different angles. Walk her street.

If the link of her name doesn’t work, try this. vPike Type in [ 78 brooks st medford ma ] and hit the submit button. It is a street side view where you can go to any street that they already have in their archives. And since they are attached to Google Maps that is a lot of streets. Enjoy. Try it on your own house or your grandma's.

On Now that I‘m Home, Pictures:

Well, where to start with my Boston trip? I played work horse to my daughter. Being pregnant she was not to lift the heavy boxes left by the movers. So, I did the heavy lifting while Prince Charming was at work. And when both kids were at work, I played dog walker.

While I was gone my own house did not clean itself as I had hoped. Now Mountain Man is not a major mess maker, but he doesn’t do dishes or laundry until absolutely necessary. And then there was the laundry I brought home with me. You get the picture. I just wanted to clean and straighten my world when I got back.

Now that I can sit back and relax, I’m feeling the muscles that were too long unused before the last few weeks.

Boston: Every day we packed a lunch in the car and went to a different neighborhood looking for out of the way cemeteries and historical sites while taking the dog for a long walk. My daughter and I both needed exercise, and the dog was game.

One of the first things we did was look for Amelia Earhart’s house.

There are no tours of the house because a family now lives there.















This picture is from the street corner that the house sits on.















The house faces another street and I took the next three from that street angle.














One picture much closer to the stone marker.















The plaque itself.
It says: “Amelia Earhart, The famed flier lived here from 1925 until she left to make the first transatlantic flight be a woman July 17, 1928. Here she wrote the poem ‘Courage‘.”

On Up Coming Gothiness:

Well, I’m back home and only a little worse for wear from lifting packing boxes. My son’s birthday was two days ago and it was harder on me then I thought it would be to not get to visit his grave like I was used to doing all these ten long years.

My daughter and her husband are here because they will be burying her fathers ashes this weekend in an adjacent grave to my/our son. Feeling a little strange about this.

More about my trip to Boston another day.

On to the Gothiness:

Saturday May 22 is World Goth Day! To find out about Gothy events in your area, or let others know about a planned event in your area you can go to the to World Goth Day Dot Com. Just hit the Goth Day Form link and you can find your area of the world and what is going on.

Even if you don’t have anything to go to where you live, get your Gothy self out and show your stuff and/or support.

On Day Eight, Boston:

On Connecting In The End:

My daughter and I reconnected this week. We hadn’t had time to do that much while she was in school these pass three years.















Yesterday we went to a street fair and there was a labyrinth there made of little flags and marked with tape. I had fun talking to the people that put it up in the grass for the day. Mostly children were using it, but a few adults where winding themselves through the pathways in and back out. I was told that it was also International Labyrinth Day on May second.















Lady Sheltie, my daughters dog, also had a connection. We found this cute marionette of her at the street fair and had to bring it home.

Today my friend from the web and I will finally get to see each other. A day late and for a much shorter time, but some is better then none. After which I will be heading home.

I’ll be meeting Mountain Man in Rhode Island for that connection.

On A Little Miss Directed:

The best laid plans and all that.

On May first I didn’t blog because everything was crazy around here with running around, getting ready, and people arriving for the two days of graduation. I even managed to get myself lost a time or two for short lengths of time. Her father and grandfather came from out of state and her uncle who lives closer, all were there for her big day.

My daughter was a recipient of an award and was hooded on Thursday at the convocation and she got her degree on Friday at the graduation ceremony. Once the state test for her licensing is done she will be a fully fledged Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. She has been an RN for a while now. I’m proud enough to pop my buttons.

There have been dinners and parties. Too much food and not enough time. Places to go and people to see.

In between graduation stuff, shopping was good. We went to a few thrift shops (One of my favorite places to go no matter where I am is a thrift shop.) and I picked up some clothing, music and other goodies. So much for coming home lighter then I left. Even my luggage is heavier. But despite the wealth of food choices I was good with my diet. I may not have lost weight but I didn’t gain because my clothing didn’t get any tighter.

I also got this blog today out late because we got home so late last night after wonderful dinner party at my daughter’s uncle’s house. The dog was sick and I had packing to do.

I did not get to my friend house today because I missed the window of opportunity before my daughter had to be elsewhere. That will be left to fit in between leaving Boston and meeting up with Mountain Man in the afternoon for the long ride home.

Plans met or not, I am still having a good time, but I am longing to be home at my quiet country life again.

On Day Four, Boston:

I must say I am flummoxed. I can no longer show you the pictures I have been taking in and of the cemeteries of Boston.

I know that ultimately it comes down to money, but I am deeply disappointed just the same.

I was asked to stop taking pictures here. Something that has never happened to me before. Most places where honored ‘not’ to be forgotten. But, because these places have books for sale about them, I am not aloud to show you my vacation photos of the graves, grave markers, or statuary of the famous or not so famous buried here.

I will try to get some pictures of myself here in Boston. But, as today is the Convocation and tomorrow the Graduation of my daughter from her nursing program to become a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, along with the parties and other festivities, I don’t think there will be much time left for playing dress up. I came here to enjoy my daughters long worked for graduation day and the focus will be on that now that the day has arrived.

My family, nice as they are, do not want to be pictured in my blog. And they have every right to their privacy. I can respect that, so there will be no pictures of them here either.

On Saturday, while I’m still in Massachusetts, I will be meeting with and be staying at the home of a long time friend I met on the internet, (in a Harry Potter web site) back when I still had cancer. And on Sunday I will be traveling back home to Pennsylvania.

Next week I’ll be home and back in my black Victorian clothing. Perhaps I’ll get Mountain Man to take me for another picture taking spree at the cemeteries of my home turf. They let you take pictures of the graves there.

On Day Three, Boston:

Here are a few pictures from our first walk in the Forest Hills Cemetery. We came in through a side gate.















Here is the main gate. The not so small buildings built into each side are now rest rooms, woman’s on one side, men’s on the other.















The Receiving Tomb. This is just the large front of the place. The rest is under ground carved into the hill behind. It has skylights in the halls, so you can find the crypt of your loved one inside. They hold events under the large outer roof.















And here I am at one of the many gothic family crypts.

Yesterday I took advantage of staying at my daughters apartment and did some laundry in the morning. I also watched some movies and knitted.

When my daughter got home from work early in the afternoon, it was too hot to feel like site seeing, so we shopped the day away. (Air conditioning, don’t you know.) First stop was a yarn shop. Of course I bought some yarn. We hit places that sell crafts from around the world, and some organic grocery stores.

Today is supposed to be much cooler, we will hit some thrift shops in the afternoon. But in the morning it’s the train to the down town historic district. I can’t wait.

On Day Two Boston:

No pictures yet, of the many I‘ve taken. I didn’t bring the cord to attach my camera to my computer. (Of all the things to forget, I forget that.) My laptop doesn’t take the memory card and I am looking for a solution for the problem.
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Yesterday I was on my own for the morning. Knitting was started. I recuperated from the trip and walked the dog up to the cemetery entrance and back. I was dieing to just let the dog loose and get myself lost in the place. You’ll be happy to know that I was a good dog walker and stuck to my job at hand.

I did get into the Forest Hills Cemetery later in the day with my daughter soon after she arrived home from work. We got some beautiful pictures there. I could spend every moment of the rest of my stay here, just walking in that cemetery, and still miss large parts of the place.

The web site doesn’t cover much, and nothing at all in comparison to the place itself but it does have a blog spot that is interesting and it has pictures too. (They sell a 144 page guide book of the place at the visitors center there.)
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Today is supposed to be a hot one here in Boston. I’m going to look for some indoor and air conditioned places to be for the day. Still, so many cemeteries and so little time. Too bad they are not open after dark, a better time for us who don‘t like the sun.