Chickens & Lous

For those of you interested here are some photos of my Lous & Chickens also know as my parakeets.

Left to Right: Nostradamus, Tippy, Sinclair & Nina. I got Nostradamus and Sinclair the Boston MSPCA and Tippy I found abandoned just walking around a parking lot. Nina I got at a pet store.














Tippy and Sinclair:

The Sunflower Experiment

For years I have tried unsuccessfully to grow sunflowers in my back yard in Andover. Every year I grow the most perfect little seedlings and despite tonic bottles, saran wrap you name it I have been unable to deter those chipmunks and rabbits from nibbling my little seedlings down to the nubs. One year I even bought pregrown sunflowers at the nursery hoping they wouldn't taste as sweet as baby seedlings. They got munched right down. For whatever reason I managed to grow sunflowers this year! They were wicked tall and looked awesome. Check it out:

Andover Garden Summer 07'

This Summer in Andover was an interesting one as it marked both my best and last (at least for a while) Summer @ 24 Granli Drive. I'm not sure if the greatness of the Summer was something of a blessing or just plain luck, or more likely a perfect combination of the two, but no matter I couldn't have appreciated or enjoyed it more. Lots of great things happened this Summer: I saw three shooting stars, one of the stars when I happened to wake up in the middle of the night and go to the window to look out (can you believe it) and the other two driving down the highway during the metor shower. I went for a jog on a trail that I have jogged a million times if not a hundred, and coming around a bend found myself about ten feet from a giant doe, she was as surprised as I was and made a great leap away from me into the grass - I've never seen a dear in those woods before , and never seen one that close up except at a zoo. At the end of possibly the best gardening day ever in my life, as I was standing there just thinking how great a day it was a hummingbird flew right up to and past my face. I saw two seperate nests of baby robbins hatched and raised. I saw a whole flock of robbins, parents and fledgings gather on our lawn for a couple of nights as they got their final practice in before flying South; it really was a sight. I saw what at least was a humungous hawk and at best I think a bald eagle teaching her baby hawk, or bald eagle to fly; she soared through the air way high up and he followed behind both in great acrching circles. I got to go on a whale watch, have the best dinner I've ever had in the North End (possibly ever at all), take a trip to the Cape: stay in a great house, won my first ever round of beer pong and go to a great beach. I got to take a private tour of Boston Harbor, go to Newbury Port a bunch, found a really great used bookstore there that I'd never been to before and finally, I got visit my favorite beach in Marblehead three times. Really, it could not have been a better Summer. It was also my best gardening Summer ever I think. I'm not sure why, maybe because this time I didn't try to shoot for all sorts of crazy plants and seedlings and just stuck to what worked. In anycase you can see the great pics from my garden below.






























The plants shown are as follows: Morning glories, blue and pink, butterfly bush, coreopsis, calladium aka elephant ears, iris, bleeding heart, hanging petunia, zinnia, snapdragons, hens & chicks, geranium, yellow snapdragon and marigolds.

Little Miss Fancy Pants

Most of You have already seen these pics --- I wanted to put them up any way, lord knows when I'll be this dressed up again and it is worth cherishing. The ocassion was a dinner at the Four Seasons in Atlanta. I'm kinda psyched at having had the opportunity to dress up, it was fun.

The Deck Is My Back Yard

This apartment has a really great deck off the back and two doors leading out: one from the living room the other from the kitchen. It was empty and in need of sweeping when I moved in. I knew I'd get good results from gardening it, but I had no idea it would look as good as it does. I am really infatuated with how nicely it came out. The matting on the floor and the screen against the rail came from a roll of chinese bamboo that I bought at Home Depot, it was inexpensive and you got sixteen feet worth. I got all of my plants at Home Depot too. HD down here seems to have a much better selection of plants at much better prices, I assume that this is because of the lack of local nurseries, regardless I was very excited. The white box-bench is a piece of trash I found on the sidewalk in Cambridge. I grabbed it and with a little mending courtesey of my father and a little refinishing and repainting on my part it came out great. Its the perfect little place to keep all of my gardening supplies. The deck is no where near as big as the back yard and garden at home, but it sure is a lot easier to water!

Plants include: Majesty Palm, Fern, Cotron (orange, green and yellow leafy plant)Mums, Pumpkins, Pansies, Snapdragons, Oleander (tall in the corner) and a gardenia bush. It's gotten too cold at night now to leave the plants outside so I've moved everything in. The gardenia is blooming and smells awesome - the snapdragons have loads of flowers on them too.

My Apartment

As you all know I moved down to Savannah, GA the first week of September. Since then a lot has happened: I got a really great apartment, which I have managed to furnish and "landscape", I landed a really great job at Hilb Rogal and Hobbs Insurance Agency (HRH), they are the 8th largest agency in the country, 10th in the world w/offices in London and rumor has it Russia even! HRH sent me off to insurance classes and I have officially become a licensed Agent, throw in sitting on the beach in October in my bathing suit, getting more dressed up than I have in ten years (pics to come) it's been quite a surreal past three months. I got very home sick when the Sox were in the ALC's and World Series, but otherwise my missing home has been tolerable. When people ask I always say "I miss home, but I like it here" and that sentiment just about sums it up. Below are pictures of my apartment. It looks pretty good I do need some things on the walls to make it feel a little more cozy, but all in all I'm elated with getting to live in this great apartment. Finally, to toot my own horn, all of the furniture in these pictures I put together myself and brought up to the second floor myself - Kate and I even managed to get one of the couches up on our own...and a couple of polish guys got the other one!

In regards to the quality of the photos who ever developed them at Rite Aid is an idiot - not only did they mange to get little flecks on the film, they developed them in reverse. For anyone who has seen my place things may look a little "backwards" for those of you who have not it should be fine.








I got the couches at a store called World Market. What is so great about them (other than that I can fit two of them in my living room) is that they have a 50/50 split. The backs can be lowered up and down to different angles, the seats have legs zippered into them, you pull them out, the seats fold out and you have a full sized bed. A little bit of detective work on Kate's part revealed that yes, I have made myself a second bed in the living rom...I have to admit on weekends it's not a bad deal unfolding one of these, curling up to watch a movie and never actually going to bed! The mantle is covered with seashells, beach rocks and one spotted crab. The seashells were all found by myself or my parents and the rocks are from various beaches that I have been to in Niece France, Marblehead and Rhode Island. The photograph on the wall is from Ann and I love it. I've also found a great new way to use Japanese Paper Lanterns, perch them on top of bookcases rather then hanging them from the ceiling. With 14' ceilings hanging things gets a little tricky.




This is the Kitchen:















This is the Bathroom:

















The Bedroom: