Chestnuts in Arborland

Mother's Day 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Sun, 12 May 2013 05:00:00 +0000

In celebration of Spring and my first Mother's Day, we took a trip to the Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor.

The gardens outside were not yet in full bloom, though, we did see a lot of beautiful daffodils and some flowering trees.

We toured inside the conservatory and saw a lot of nice, tropical plants.

Pineapple

Cocoa

Orchid

Grapefruit

There was also a cactus garden - Jake's favorite!

Hearts!

And a succulent kaleidoscope!

We saw a number of animals:

And generally had a lovely day in the sun!

Happy Mother's Day!

Baby Shower

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 19:19:00 +0000

On Saturday some friends threw me a baby shower. I had a great time and we laughed a lot!

Hagit was the organizer and hostess and she did a fantastic job.

Hagit and me

Veronika and Roni came too!

Veronika and me

Roni and me

Hagit went all out with the decorations:

And she made an entire dinner for us - so yummy!

We played a number of fun games and opened presents.

Baby word scramble.

Roni estimating my girth.

And had some dessert:

Fruits and cheesecake.

There was time for one last game: a test of my baby skills. While blindfolded I was instructed to diaper, clothe, and wrap a baby doll. I think I did pretty well and even threw in a swaddle!

Thank you to my girlfriends, and especially Hagit, for such a wonderful baby shower!!

9 Months!

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 19:01:00 +0000

This past week I reached 36 weeks of pregnancy, the beginning of the 9th month. The birth is becoming imminent and the baby is becoming more real. We've been doing a lot to get ready for her arrival and growing more excited to meet her every day!

At our last checkup the baby was measuring a bit small (she has been for a few checkups already), so my midwife wanted me to have an ultrasound just to make sure everything is ok. It is, this petite mama is just going to have a petite baby, but the ultrasound was very neat because we got to see her face! It makes her even more real.

Here we are, posing for our 36 week (9 months) belly shot (I can't believe I can still wear that shirt!):

Nesting is in full effect, and while that means a lot of cleaning and organizing, for me it also means art. I've already written about some of the knitted items I made for the baby, here is the latest one - tiny booties.

And I've been making some special collages to hang above her bed and changing table. Here they are:

Sheep

Owl Family

Butterfly

Elephant

Mama Bear and Baby Bear

I've had a lot of fun creating these pictures and this weekend we hung them and finished arranging her bed and changing table.

Runner and green sheets in the crib.

This bear mobile was mine when I was a baby. Thanks, Ima!!

Pictures above her crib.

Changing table.

The whole setup.

The countdown is on - only 23 more days until our due date!

Catching Up

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 19:00:00 +0000

We've been busy getting ready for the baby, so I haven't been posting, but I'm still taking pictures.

Other than lots of baby prep, most notable over the past month has been the snow. It started fairly light, but was an accumulation all the same:

It was the first sticking snow, so I was pretty excited!

This was only a small snow and we were able to get out and enjoy it the next day.

Cold on the feets.

Then, a few days later, we witnessed our first snow storm! It wasn't a blizzard, but it snowed for more than 12 hours straight!!

Piled up at our door.

A total of 7.5 inches collected on our balcony.

It was wonderful to watch the snow fall and fall. Some of us were not impressed, though.

"What?! Is this ever going to end?"

With the snow came the return of the car-cicle as well as some house-cicles:

We've taken advantage of the cold weather to get the house ready for the baby.

We set up the big furniture:

Changing table, crib, rocking chair.

And purchased a stroller and a car seat:

The car seat attaches to the stroller!

I've been knitting a lot.

Hat for my cousin's daughter.

New hat for Jake.

And I perfected the gluten free cinnamon-raisin sourdough loaf. (You might remember it was a disaster last time. This time I just used a little parchment paper and it came out much better.)

Oh, and here is a picture of the belleh at 32 weeks (8 months), though today is one month until our due date and we're very close to 36 weeks (9 months).

I'll try to post again soon!

California: Better Late Than Never

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 20:35:00 +0000

I know, I know, I promised to post this about a month ago! We've been busy preparing for a new baby — it's a good excuse, right?

In mid-December I took a short trip out to California to see my family and attend the last-hurrah party of Key Curriculum Press, my employer for 4+ years. It was great to see everyone and I had a lot of fun. Here are a few of the highlights!

The whole gang.

This little guy was extra-happy to see me! As soon as I sat down he was on my lap.

I was there for most of Hanukkah (= oil holiday), and I allowed myself to indulge in my mom's excellent cooking. She even made me my own gluten free sufganiot (donuts)!

My parents also threw a Hanukkah party. More good food and excellent company - we lit the Hanukkiot together.

I was repeatedly asked to show off the belly, so here I am at 30 weeks:

We took a trip to the Berkeley Bowl (a special supermarket) and I acted like a tourist. Miss their fantastic produce selection!

Then it was time for the Key party. Here I am with a dressed-up bump and my parents:

My photos from the actually party didn't come out that well, but here are a few with good friends.

My friend, Anna, whom I met in Michigan and then moved to the Bay Area, came to visit me for Saturday brunch. It was soooo good to see her!

Chamin for brunch.

I was only in California for a week, which seemed to fly by, and everyone was sad that it was time to go.

But, I plan to be back soon and with a little lady in tow too!

Random Hiccups

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 18:16:00 +0000

I'm back from California and we've been settling in to a nice winter break. I'm working on a California post and will publish it soon.

For now, look what we got: SNOW!

On December 21, the Winter Solstice, we finally got some sticking snow. It's been cold too, so some of it has stuck around. The forecast is for more snow tomorrow (Monday) and some on Wednesday too. White Christmas?

We've also received the rest of the baby furniture and have started to put everything together. We have a mattress for the crib and some bedding, but the cat is very interested so we're going to wait with the more delicate pieces. I'll be sure to post some pictures once it's all set up.

Crib

Changing Table

Changing table, crib, rocking chair.

On Tuesday we will be 32 weeks (8 months!). So far everything is progressing well and I am more excited to meet this little lady every day.

She's started to have a lot of hiccups, which feel really funny to me, and I wonder if they are annoying to her. According to her grandma, her dad had a lot of hiccups in utero as well. Genetic link? Here's some video of the bouncing baby girl.

Keep an eye out for the California post and Happy Winter!

Hanukkah Party

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:32:00 +0000

On Sunday we hosted a small Hanukkah party at our house.

I made two kinds of latkes: regular potato and zucchini/carrot/yam.

I also redecorated the tree from Sukkot to be more seasonally appropriate. Jake and I had a lot of fun cutting out the snowflakes – he did an amazing job and created some very intricate cutouts!

And what's Hanukkah without gifts? I made these knitting gift bags for my family and filled them with chocolate. Didn't they come out nicely?

At the party, we began by lighting the candles and listening to the Hanukkah tape.

Veronika with Sonya and Hagit

Everyone brought a dish to share and we had a delicious dinner.

Action shots of schmoozing:

Jacob, Yann, Julia, Hagit, and Sonya

Julia, Hagit, Veronika, and Sonya

We had a fun game of White Elephant with much trading of the humor-gift.

And we played some dreidel. I won!!

Everyone got in on the action:

He was good at making the dreidel land...

It was great to see our friends and we had a lot of fun!

This week I am in California visiting friends and family. More on that when I return to Ann Arbor.

Happy Hanukkah!

100th Blog Post: The 3rd Trimester

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 21:19:00 +0000

This is my 100th blog post! When I was in first grade we learned about 100 and we counted to the 100th day of school. On that day, everyone got balloons and we went for a parade around school. So, consider me paraded.

Today is also the beginning of week 28 of pregnancy (7 months) and the start of my third trimester! Here is my belly shot (please excuse the tired face, it was early in the morning...):

We have been busy busy with baby preparations, but it makes it all the more real and exciting!

We ordered a rocking chair – I loooove this chair already!

We ordered a crib, took it out of the box for inspection, and returned it to the box. We love the crib, but we're not ready to set up all her stuff yet.

The crib will have legs and some other stuff.

We spent the long, Thanksgiving weekend rearranging the bedrooms to make space for our new addition. The baby will sleep in our room at the beginning and we'll use the office to store her clothes and everything else.

There is now room in our bedroom (along the empty wall beside the rocking chair, which you can't see) for her crib and changing table.

And we consolidated things in the office to make room for more shelving, as needed, and cleaned up the closet.

I also finished knitting the baby blanket. Final measurements are 3 feet by 2.5 feet.

Concentric Squares (though, they're more rectangles...)

Close up of the pattern.

The baby seems to be doing well. She is now about 2.25 pounds and about 14.8 inches long. My phone app tells me she is the size of a Chinese cabbage. She moves around A LOT but I love to feel her little kicks and turns. She seems to like music and moves even more when I play songs or sing to her.

And finally, here's a picture of me (looking a little better) at 27 weeks.

Some people have been asking, so we put together a baby registry on Amazon. You can view it here if you are interested. However, we would prefer not to receive too many baby things until closer to or after her birth – it's a Jewish thing.

Grab some balloons and come join my parade!

Turkey Day 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 17:18:00 +0000

Thanksgiving is one of my very favorite holidays and this year was no exception! Our favorite way to celebrate is just the two (three?) of us, a quiet day at home, and lots and lots of yummy food. And so we did.

A little digital art I made.

I began the preparation a couple days ahead of time: a nice loaf of sourdough bread with some extremely happy wild yeast!

And a "flower" arrangement. There aren't too many flowers around just now, so I improvised.

Close up.

Leaves in the vase.

The night before I also prepared for Turkey Claus (and his star-nosed moles), who you may remember from last year. He requires snacks, which we leave on the white board in our kitchen. This year he got BBQ flavored potato chips (the kettle kind), root beer, and a frozen bean and cheese burrito. The message says "For Turkey Claus: Happy Thanksgiving! Love, The Chestnuts."

I was so excited to go to sleep that night because I knew he would have left us a message for the morning! And he did.

Close up shots:

The stork (in green) flew with Turkey Claus this year so he'll know the way.

You may recall I was pretty sick last year.

A surprise party!!

The turkey was ready for the oven around 11:30, surrounded by yams, onions, and prunes. We did our traditional garlic/herb/lemon rub – it was delicious as always.

We enjoyed our customary hot apple cider while we cooked.

The turkey was rested and ready by 6pm, just in time for dinner!

Along with it we had:

Made-from-scratch GF corn bread.

From the top: GF corn bread, salad with persimmons, yam/onion/prune side, made-from-scratch garlic mashed potatoes, GF gravy, turkey (duh), homemade applesauce, and cranberry sauce.

And for dessert! Made-from-almost-scratch GF pumpkin pie.

Here's a look at our festive table:

It was a really fantastic evening!

The next morning I woke to find that Turkey Claus had visited again – seems he forgot his hat...

Close ups:

I might have commented that the stork looked like a duck...!

Welcome little Miss Chestnut!

And to make the long weekend even more perfect? On Friday we had our first snow of the season!!

It was some pretty strange weather because on Thanksgiving day we had a high of 62º, then a big drop over Friday night, and snow by Friday afternoon. We woke up to a thicker coating this morning too!

I love the snow! It's like magic.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wiggles In My Belly

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 21:26:00 +0000

This week I am 24 weeks pregnant, 6.5 months. Three and a half months until the due date seems at once very close and incredibly far away. I can't wait to meet and hold this little girl!

This isn't a fantastic picture, but at least you can see the bump. It's hard to tell from this photo, but I am showing more, especially at the end of the day.

6 months

So I thought I'd do a bit of a pregnancy update.

How I Feel Physically: Mostly I'm feeling good, though a bit tired. I generally have some problems with my lower back and those have been acting up at night, but not too bad. I have good energy and have been walking and active during the day.
It's also getting a bit harder to move, especially doing things like turning over in bed and putting on my socks. The belly looks soft, but it's really pretty solid!

How I Feel Emotionally: Happy! Like I said, I can't wait to meet this baby. Sometimes she seems very real, like when she's wiggling around, and sometimes she seems more surreal. In any case, both Jacob and I are very excited!

Food: Food has been difficult for me lately. Since I'm already gluten intolerant, there are a lot of things I can't eat. Add to that pregnancy limitations (on fish, under- and uncooked meats and eggs, and unpasteurized cheeses). Add to that my preggo-aversion to chicken and my most-of-my-life-preference not to eat meat and you have a pregnant vegetarian who can't eat wheat. I've been eating dairy and beans a lot and have been looking for new things to make. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Planning: We've started to look into the items we'll need to purchase, like a carseat, crib, changing table, etc. That's been pretty fun, though it requires a fair amount of research - there are just so many options!
And we're beginning a birthing + first three months class soon. I'm sure we'll learn a lot!
I've also been knitting a number of things and have more planned:

Tomato Hat: one for my friend and one for me.

White Hat with Basketweave Bottom - my own design.

Sneak Peak of the Blanket - it's not complete yet.

Clothing: So far I'm mostly still wearing my own clothes. Even my pants fit with a rubber band through the button hole and a BellaBand around my waist. Though, lately my pants are becoming much less comfortable and short shirts ride up too high. I have some maternity clothing and I'll probably transition soon.

Name: We have one picked out but we're not telling until she's born – so don't ask!

About the Baby: Generally, at 24 weeks, the baby is about 12.5 inches long and weighs about 1.25 pounds. She is about the length/size of an ear of corn. She should be able to sense right-side-up and upside-down by now and her respiratory system is developing rapidly in preparation to breathe air. Her lungs are practicing by breathing in amniotic fluid.
More specifically, this baby is super active, with lots of wiggling and kicking. Sometimes she keeps me up at night, but often she is most active in the morning. After many attempts (she's camera shy), I was finally able to get some video of my belly wobbling as my little wiggler moves around. Take a look! [Keep an eye out for any kind of jiggling or rigid motions - it's all her! I was laying very still except for my breathing which you can distinguish by it's rhythm.]

A Funny Story: The cat has been very tender with me lately and likes to lay on my chest/belly when I'm in bed. The other day he was on me and I guess the pressure was uncomfortable for the baby because she started kicking him, kind of hard, in the stomach! He didn't leave for a while, which surprised me, but every time she kicked him he would swat me with his tail. Made me laugh!

Our Fur Baby - peaking out from a warm cave.

110 more days until February 19!

Blast Corn Maze

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 18:24:00 +0000

On Saturday evening we took a trip out to Dexter, about 20 minutes from Ann Arbor, to walk through a corn maze.

It was a beautiful, if cold, evening and we timed our outing to be at the corn field at sunset.

In true Fall Fashion, there were a lot of fun pumpkins at the entrance.

Blast Corn Maze

And some other fun decorations:

Jake is an elf?

I am a ghost.

Here is an aerial shot of the maze at it's peak and a picture of the map. We paid $1 for a sealed map and were instructed that we would get a refund if we brought it back unopened. We did! And were told that only about 5 people that day had brought back sealed maps. We're maze experts!

There were three exits: small, medium, and long. We went for the long exit and here it is right next door to the entrance.

Here we go!

There were a lot of dead ends and the corn was really tall in some places.

Some pretty corn pictures from along the way:

Corn + Moon

Sunset over the corn field:

It got dark pretty quickly but we had a good flashlight and were able to see the number markers and small and medium exit signs as we passed.

Small Exit: a little hard to see.

Medium Exit with flashlight.

It took us about an hour to go through the whole, 3 mile maze and we warmed up with a cup of hot apple cider at the end. It was a lot of fun and we'd like to come again next year with Baby outside of the belly!

Oh — I finished a new hat!

Happy Fall, everyone!

Death Of A Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:36:00 +0000

We put our garden to rest this past Saturday. It was time since the community garden is closing for the winter and the frost had killed most everything anyway.

Dead Corn

It was a little sad to say goodbye, but we might plant again next year — depending on how cooperative our little bundle will be. For now we have the blog posts to look back on and the yummy tomatoes to remember fondly.

Here are a few pictures of the end.

A couple weeks ago before we had frost every night.

After the frost – only green tomatoes left on dead bushes.

The frost made the tomatoes fall off.

The melons tried to grow. Maybe next year.

The strawberries actually liked the cold weather!

And this is the dismantling part.

Tearing out the corn, tomato plants are gone.

Jake chopping up the corn stalks for fertilizer. Fence is gone.

We spread the plant remains around to enrich the soil. Goodbye, garden!

A few final words about the garden:

Before the tomatoes died we found this huge, ugly creature hanging out: Tomato Horn Worm - NOT good for growing tomatoes. He found a home outside of our garden.

We made the last few dishes with our garden produce: A potato-crusted, Swiss chard quiche with tomatoes and cheese.

Potato crusted Swiss chard quiche.

And an attempt at jalapeno poppers. I love these and haven't been able to eat them since going gluten free. They came out well in execution, but the jalapenos from our garden were waaaaaay too spicy. We'll have to try again with less spicy peppers.

Both Jake and I really enjoyed our garden this summer and look forward to having one again. We learned A LOT about what worked and what didn't work. I'm going to list some of the things here so we'll remember for next time, feel free to skip or skim these notes, though.

Don't use plastic fencing! Next time use chicken wire/metal fencing that can't be chewed through. Bunnies are cute, but it's better not to have them in your garden.
Plant in rows to maximize space better. Beds are useful, but were mostly unnecessary for the things we planted.
Use more fertilizer. The tomatoes were the plants to thrive the most and I think it's because we buried a piece of fish under the plants (and we should do this again). Next time I would research the fertilizer requirements of the other things we plant. I thought that the rich compost we used would be sufficient, but I think we can do better.
Carrots, peas, lettuce, radish, and the June-bearing strawberry plants really prefer the colder weather. Swiss chard is happier in cold weather too.
The corn was not successful and took up a lot of space. We probably won't try this again.
Plant the zucchinis sooner. The plants were never able to get big enough to produce a lot of fruit. Maybe try to start these indoors?
Yellow Wax peppers are gross. Plant more Bell peppers instead - these were much happier once the rains came, they seem to require a lot of water.
The fingerling potatoes were ok, but the Yukon Gold were much better. Maybe try red potatoes next time.
The basil plant from Trader Joe's was really happy and grew very well. The cilantro and basil plants did not take from seed. Better to grow these indoors to start, or buy plants.

So long, Garden! We'll see you again soon!

Falling Into Fall

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 16:31:00 +0000

The weather has turned cold and we have a thick layer of frost on the roofs and car tops every morning now. We even had some slushy rain/snow the other day! It didn't stick, but Jake was outside when it fell and he said it definitely wasn't rain.

Fall is in full swing and the trees are absolutely beautiful! Last weekend we went for a (cold) walk through Lillie Park to see some of the foliage - it was really lovely!

Here are some of the best pictures.

Leafy paths.

Love all the acorns.

Duckies!

Yellow Brick Road

And, if you haven't seen enough pictures, here's a little slideshow of the leaves from around the neighborhood.

We'll be dismantling our garden this weekend, so look out for some pictures.

Have a great weekend!

Fall Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:04:00 +0000

Fall has arrived in Ann Arbor and it is beautiful just like last year!

I love to see the changes in the landscape and all the pretty colors on the trees.

Park by our house

We've even had our first frost and first hail! I can't wait for the more serious Fall weather!

Fall brings with it the Jewish High Holidays, so we've been busy with all of the celebrations. And what's a Jewish holiday without food? Here are some of the gluten free goodies I've been making:

Honey Cake for Rosh HaShana

Round Challah with Raisins

Apple Cake for Yom Kippur

Traditional Leek Latkes for Rosh HaShana

For the second night of Rosh HaShana we celebrated with our friends, Freddy and Veronika.

Veronika prepared an impressive spread, like always!

Remember the gefilte fish we made last year?

It was nice to see some friends too!

Yann and Julia

Julia and Hagit

We also just celebrated Sukkot and had a tour of a cool Sukkah display at the JCC. This display is called "Sukkah Arbor" and people build Sukkahs out of different materials. (Note: I don't actually know the names of the different structures, so I made them up...)

Inflatable Sukkah

Recycled Tubes Sukkah

Paper Spiral Sukkah

Hay Sukkah

Barely There Sukkah

Since we can't build a Sukkah of our own, I like to decorate inside the house and make our dinning room a faux Sukkah. Here's what I did this year:

Brown Paper Tree

Chains and Tree

Chains In the Dinning Room

And because I love chains so much, here's a present I decorated for our Sukkot hosts:

Ann Arbor is also celebrating Fall with their annual Oktoberfest. We got a look at the leiderhosen on a walk through Downtown.

And last, but not least, today I am 20 weeks pregnant and half way there! We had a checkup yesterday and everything seems fine – I'm even big enough now to be measured. Here's a picture of the growing belly:

Five Months Along

We are busy but doing well!

Happy October!

It's A . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 20:47:00 +0000

We had an ultrasound this morning to check the baby's health and determine the gender.

All of the organs were checked and everything looks perfect. 10 fingers and 10 toes, a semi-large head, well-formed heart, lungs, kidneys, stomach, spine.

One foot

Feets!

The baby is measuring in the 80th percentile and is about 13cm from head to rump.

Profile

A very strong and active little one!

Arm bones

We think she's pretty cute.

Oh yeah...

IT'S A GIRL!

We are very excited to meet her in February!

Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 19:43:00 +0000

I've been a bit out of touch with the blog world lately... Life kind of got in the way!

I stopped writing while I was down with morning sickness. A pregnant friend of mine describes this period as a three-month hangover, and it's true. All I could do was lay on the couch and sleep. Fortunately, I didn't have too many responsibilities at the time, so I was able to do so.

Just in time, the nausea passed and I started a new job. The work has been going well and I've met a lot of nice people, but the job is definitely taking up my time. Also, Jacob just started school again, so we've spent our non-working hours seeing each other!

However, I do have a few pictures of our recent happenings, so I thought this would be a good time to share.

To start with, our garden has been extremely bountiful, especially with tomatoes. Below are two separate harvests.

The corn turned out to be rather gross and the carrots are really strong, but everything else has been delicious!

Once food started to be appealing again, I had a craving for Thai food. Of all the Asian foods, Thai dishes are often made without soy sauce (which contains wheat), so we decided to risk it. We haven't been able to find great Thai food in Ann Arbor, so we drove an hour north to Birmingham and had a great meal! Unfortunately, I still got a bit glutened, so we can't do that again. BUT! I enjoyed eating the food before the bad side effects set in...

Mmm! Tofu Tod!

Afterwards we walked around downtown Birmingham, which is apparently home of lions. There were all kinds of lion statues everywhere we went.

Then we wandered around their *very* posh mall where regular maternity pants are around $200. I know, I checked.

On our way home, we passed this very decked-out Mustang. I thought it was pretty funny!

And because food is no longer revolting, I've been cooking again. I've been craving Israeli food, but Israeli food without Pita is a bit disappointing. Then I had a thought: Udi's makes a gluten free pizza crust which is actually pretty tasty. I sprinkled a little bit of Zatar, a spice mix, and some olive oil on top of the crust and baked it in the oven for a few moments. Yum! Came out sooooo good with some home-made hummos.

I am currently 17 weeks pregnant and the time seems to be passing quickly now that I don't feel sick anymore. I'm still not showing very much, but I feel the baby kick and move all the time - especially after eating sweet or spicy food. It's a feeling unlike anything else I've ever experienced. In another week we'll have a second ultrasound and, if baby cooperates, the big gender reveal!

Taken at 16.5 weeks.

I'll try to update again soon! In the mean time, the boss will be keeping an eye on things over here.

Hope everyone has a good week.

Surprise!

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 00:03:00 +0000

Coming February 2013!

A Walk In The Park

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 15:01:00 +0000

The other day was finally cool enough to take a walk, so we went for a stroll in Gallup Park by the Huron River.

We saw a number of baby ducks as well as full grown ones.

We saw a lot of fish.

And two families of swans!

Babies

Protective parents.

Second family.

There were a lot of nice flowers, both in and out of the water.

In other news, we've been rescuing some animals.

We found this Gray Tree Frog in a parking garage, so we caught him in a shoebox and drove him across town to live in the nature preserve by our house. I hope he found some friends there... We did some research before (Yay for iPhone!) and read that the nature preserve is exactly the kind of place his kind like to live.

We've also saved two turtles from getting run over. They seem to like to cross the busy street on the way to our garden. They jump down from the sidewalk on one side and move, surprisingly quickly, across the street but then get stuck on the sidewalk on the other side. We help them with a nudge over so they don't get squashed. This guy is a Painted Turtle.

Finally, our neighbor called the other evening and said she'd found a kitten on her front step. Her hubby is allergic, so we came to see if we could help. The kitten was incredibly sweet and it didn't look like he belonged to anyone close by so we planned to take him to the Humane Society when they opened the next morning. We kept him in our spare room for the night. It was a lot of fun to play with a kitten again, but our cat was pretty pissed at us for a few days, Mr. Hissy-Pants!

Our garden is doing well too. We've had a lot of wonderful tomatoes, peppers, and carrots. The potatoes are almost ready to be harvested and our corn has grown many ears. We also have two melons growing!

Bounty: carrots, Swiss Chard, eggplant, zucchini, jalapeno, Yellow Wax pepper, Early Girl tomato, Yellow Cherry tomatoes, parsley, thyme.

Tomatoes, pepper, basil.

First Heirloom tomato + Mr. Hissy-Pants

These carrots came out of the ground hugging.

Our corn is much bigger than this now.

Cantaloupe

Hope everyone has a nice week!

Have a walk in the park.

How Our Garden Grows

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 18:35:00 +0000

We've finally reached the other side of the crazy heatwave that swept through much of the US these past few weeks. The cooler weather is wonderful for humans, but our garden LOVED the hot, humid, pouring rain part!

Blooming Mint

Strawberries:

Melon:

Zucchini:

See the baby zuchs?

Peppers: (A lot of the veggies are mud-splattered from the recent torrential downpours...)

Jalapeno

Bell

Yellow Wax

Tomatoes!!!

Big, happy plants!

Early Girl, almost ripe

Yellow Cherry

Red Cherry

Jet Star

Two Yellow Cherries ready for eatin'!

Eggplant:

Basil, lettuce, Swiss Chard:

This will probably have to be composted, but still looks pretty.

Corn and carrots: (The corn is taller than me now — yes, that's not saying much, but still.)

Not everything has been a success. One zucchini plant died and the peas didn't make it. I'm not sure if we waited too long to pick the peas, or if it just got too hot. We'll try to plant those again in the fall.

Also, one of the potato plants died completely. When that happens, supposedly the potatoes are ready to harvest, so I went digging.

Gold! Yukon Gold, that is.

The potato plant that died was the smallest and most sickly, and it still yielded three potatoes. I have big hopes for the rest of the plants!

In total, we brought home 3 potatoes, a bunch of Basil, a Yellow Wax Pepper, and some assorted, funny carrots.

Can't wait to eat those potatoes!!

Also, for those of you reading via email or RSS: I have a new banner, check it out.

Rachel and Matt Get Married

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:12:00 +0000

Last Thursday I traveled to New Hampshire where I was a bridesmaid for my friend, Rachel, in her wedding to Matt.

The lovely couple by the ocean.

Two of the four bridesmaids were hosted by Rachel's parents at their house in Durham, NH — isn't it nice?

Thursday evening Rachel's mom took Rachel and the two bridesmaids out to dinner while the boys had their bachelor's party. Good food and great company!

Afterwards, Rachel's mom treated us to a nighttime tour of Portsmouth, NH. She knew an impressive amount about the history of this little town and the Pilgrim-era buildings were neat to see (though, it was difficult to take good pictures at night...)

Friday morning the bridesmaids threw a bachelorette party for Rachel, complete with massage and homemade breakfast cooked by the mother-of-the-bride.

Gluten free, stuffed French toast.

A party is never complete without party favors, so I picked up some fun stuff from Sephora for all the girls.

Before leaving for the rehearsal, we took some pictures.

Bridesmaids with the bride.

The wedding was held in Ogunquit, Maine, about 40 minutes away, so we had a bit of a drive.

NH on the boarder of Maine.

Then we arrived at Clay Hill Farm and it was beautiful!

Rehearsing

The rehearsal dinner was also in Ogunquit, so we hung out in Rachel and Matt's hotel room for the few hours between rehearsal and dinner. They had a fantastic view of the Atlantic Ocean – which I have never seen up close. Didn't get to put my feet in this time, though. I'll have to go visit again!

We stopped for another photo op before heading to dinner.

Man of the hour.

3/4 bridesmaids + bride (yes, I'm short)

The rehearsal dinner was held at a fancy French restaurant in the cutest little building.

Toasts were made:

And I think everyone had a great time.

The next morning we woke to the big day! We started with some pampering: manis, pedis, and hair.

Everyone looked so nice!

Rachel's hari

My hair.

We rested for a couple hours and then headed to Clay Hill Farms to finish the preparations. The cake had already arrived and the toppers made everyone laugh. So did this silly bridesmaid!

We sequestered ourselves in the designated suite and applied make-up.

We took some more photos. The bride is so beautiful!!

Then it was time to grab our bouquets and make our grand entrance. Unfortunately, a huge rain storm descended about a half-hour before, so we had to switch to plan B and do it inside.

Obviously, I wasn't able to take pictures of the actual ceremony, but it was beautiful!

Dinner followed and then cake cutting and dancing.

First dance!

Soooo happy!

We were out until nearly 1am and then crashed for the night. The next morning I drove back through New Hampshire to the airport and flew home. There was a giant moose at the airport, must have been a good sign.

A humongous CONGRATULATIONS to Rachel and Matt!!!! I am so honored to have been part of your special day!

Garden Explosion

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:04:00 +0000

The past few days have been extremely hot and humid. We also had a pretty good rain storm, and the garden seems to have loved it! Because it rained we didn't need to water, so it had been a few days since I visited our plot. I couldn't believe how huge the plants were, as well as the weeds!

Check out our corn:

The summer squash and melon plants also grew impressively.

Summer Squash

Cantaloupe

The peppers have blossomed and we have a strawberry growing!

Yellow Wax Pepper

Four out of six of our tomato plants now have tomatoes, and the other two have a lot of flowers.

The Swiss Chard and carrots are both getting tall too.

And! We have tons and tons of snap peas!

I think I pulled about 10 pounds of weeds today. Phew.

On my ride home I almost ran over this guy basking in the sun in the middle of the street. He got a little angry at me as I tried to shoo him to safety...

I also crossed paths with a Cottontail rabbit and this toad who did not seem to mind having his picture taken.

All that excitement and it wasn't even 10:00am yet!

Tomorrow I get to go see a good friend and dress up in pretty clothes. Pictures to come.

Flower Power

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:53:00 +0000

A couple weeks ago, we went to visit the Peony Garden in the Arboretum.

First we had a walk through the Arb:

Then we arrived at the garden:

We saw many beautiful flowers!

The whole park was really pretty.

There was no shortage of little critters, either.

And speaking of flowers, look what popped up in our garden!

Potato Flower

Lily

Happy Friday, everyone!

Have a great weekend!

A2 Anniversary and Garden Update

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 19:40:00 +0000

Yesterday was our one year anniversary in Ann Arbor! Last June 7, after completing a 3-day drive across the country, we finally arrived HOME.

And it's been a fantastic home. We love it and have been so happy this past year. We couldn't ask for more!

And now, on to the garden. We've had our first (and second) harvests! Here is the first:

Radish

Yes, it's small, but significant. And here is the second:

Radishes and mint.

I definitely enjoy the garden work, but there's something very special about actually harvesting and eating the things we grew from seeds. It's neat to think that, just last month, I put some radish seeds in the ground, covered them with compost, watered, and now, radishes for our salad! The mint is a bonus left over from last year's gardener. Apparently they didn't read the rules: No planting invasives! Oh well, mint for our salad.

Most of the plants have been thriving:

Happy Marigolds

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Fingerling Potatoes

Peppers

We have FOUR tomatoes!!

Carrots

More Radishes

Lettuce

Swiss Chard getting big.

Sweet peas growing tall.

Corn

But some of the plants just aren't doing it:

Very sad eggplant.

Does anyone have tips for making eggplants happy?

The herbs also never really came up. I had one very small cilantro and no basil. So, I cheated and bought some plants!

Front to back: basil, thyme, parsley.

We also found some dill weed growing and thought it might be fun to see what it does.

A couple weeks ago I planted some summer squash and cantaloupe seeds. The plants are growing very quickly! I think they came out of the ground within a few days. We still have a ways to go, though, before they can bear fruit.

Cantaloupe

Summer Squash

We had a bit more room in the garden, so I put in some strawberries today:

And finally, some pretties! Because what's a garden without flowers?

Lavender

Lillies

Lillies are my favorite! I can't wait for them to open.

Also, for those who would like a bunny update: we've seen the babies hopping around the grounds (not inside the garden). They're bigger but still very cute. And, we're pretty sure we saw their mama the other day. She's cute too!

Another post soon about last weekend's adventures.

Happy Friday!

All About Bunnies

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Tue, 29 May 2012 16:33:00 +0000

I promised you an update about the baby bunnies in our garden, so this post is all about bunnies! If you have not yet heard about our garden guests, you can read about them by clicking here.

It's been incredibly hot lately, so we've been watering the garden every day and had many opportunities to check on the bunnies.

They grow incredibly fast and we were able to get an accurate count the other day. SEVEN bunnies made a nest beside our carrot patch.

They still didn't mind being touched and we enjoyed watching them wriggle around and snuggle each other in the cutest way.

When we went to check on the garden last Thursday we discovered that the bunnies had opened their eyes. It's hardly possibly, but they were even cuter than before! And much more active. They kept kicking each other and we could tell that their nest was getting a little cramped. Obviously, little bunnies grow quite quickly and they now really looked like miniature rabbits.

Because they were so active we figured they would be leaving us soon. Thursday evening I started to panic a bit about the garden getting eaten on their way out, so we made a late-night run to the hardware store for some stakes. No, not to kill the bunnies! But to put up a screen/fence between the rabbit nest and the tasty greens.

I returned Friday morning with a friend who wanted to see the bunnies and they were still there. However, when we came to water on Sunday they were all gone and their nest had been filled in. Thank you, mama rabbit! In addition, absolutely NOTHING had been eaten. They just came, grew, and left. We couldn't have asked for a better situation and we're very happy we were able to share our garden with such considerate guests.

But, in case you needed just a little more bunny, here's a video I took on Thursday. Try to remember to breathe through the cute!

We wish you a happy life, little bunnies!

Eastern Market

noreply@blogger.com (Tamar) — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:51:00 +0000

On Saturday my friend, Julia, invited me and a couple other friends to go to Detroit's Eastern Market. The Eastern Market is a huge farmer's market where you can find everything from produce to crafts to plants, and all at relatively cheap prices.

I hadn't been to Detroit yet and was very happy to have a guide — thanks, Julia!

Here are some pictures of the market.

A funny vendor selling salsa.

Inside the market.

And here are some of the things you can buy:

Fiddleheads, I've never seen these in person before.

Parrot Plant

There were a ton of vegetable and fruit plants. I'll have to remember that for next year's garden.

And speaking of gardens, stay tuned for a second post today about the bunnies.