Squirrel, Berries and Lily

squirrel with strawberry
I caught this squirrel with a strawberry in his mouth (is it a wild strawberry or one of our garden strawberries – not sure, but it looks like the wild kind). So I grabbed my camera and decided to do Nature Notes. I confess, I haven’t been doing much observing of nature, though I have been gardening. My peas did very well in their cage this spring; I saw a deer walk right past the gardening cage (but the deer did take a chomp out of the tomato plants that were outside the cage).

orange lily
I did not plant this tall lily in this spot behind my pink rose bush. I used to have similar lilies in a different part of my garden; I probably pulled them all out by mistake when I was weeding. Or they died a natural death. So I was surprised to see a lily blossom elsewhere in my yard.

raspberry
The raspberries that grow on old can are now ripening in our backyard. The ones on new cane are usually more abundant, and we get to enjoy those in August. Last year wasn’t a great crop; maybe this year will be better? I read somewhere that one should prune the raspberry bushes so they have space in between them. I tried to do some pruning last year. It is hard to photograph a raspberry – the camera doesn’t realize you want to focus on that tiny berry.

For more Nature Notes:
Nature Notes

Lavan, Yaakov and Leah or Rachel

Lavan, Yaakov, Leah or Rachel
Lavan, Yaakov, Leah or Rachel

My daughter and her friend worked very hard on this diorama for her school’s Torah Fair. It’s sort of like a science fair, explained my husband, except the subject matter was all from the book of Breishit. My daughter’s project depicted the wedding of Yaakov and Leah. Or was it Yaakov and Rachel? In any case, for those of you who don’t know the story, Yaakov first had to work seven years to marry Leah. He thought he was marrying Rachel, but Lavan, Leah and Rachel’s father, tricked him into marrying Leah. After seven more years, he got to marry Rachel. Poor Leah – I once did a painting of Leah crying.

In other news, my eldest son graduated from high school, which emotionally is charged for me – how could my first baby be a high school graduate? We discussed in the car on the way home what is the meaning of “real life” – does being a high school graduate mean one has entered the real world? According to my niece who just finished her first year of college, college is not real life.

My blog workshop went quite well – Blog Workshop slides are now up on slideshare. Planning to write a post about the workshop soon. Meanwhile, Valeri Weidmann wrote an amazing summary of the Highland Park Public Library blog workshop: Thanks, Val!

Portrait of the Artist as an Older Person

portrait of artist as older person
The school art assignment was to draw oneself as an older person. This was my daughter’s execution, which she proudly displayed at her school art show last night.

As for myself, I’m trying once again to take a breath by blogging. I admire Robin’s style, in which she both displays nuns in tan and discusses her plumbing traumas. My events of the week involved two down servers, both effecting sites that I work on, both now back up and running again. Is it the season to upgrade PHP perhaps? In one case I called the help desk; the line declared a fifteen minute wait. I hung up, then called back a few minutes later, thinking, I can wait fifteen minutes to find out what the problem is. The line then declared a one hour wait. I waited until the next day, until it was fixed. But then the other server went down, and that one I had to report about ten times before they fixed all the issues. Such as is the life of a webmaster (webmaven?).

Upcoming News: Blogging Workshop at Highland Park Public Library on June 12th – OK, experienced bloggers, what shall I cover? The public is invited.

I scheduled the next JPiX for June 24th (originally had been the 17th). You can learn more about JPiX and submit your posts here.

Review with Bean Cookies

cookies black beans gluten free
Cookies with Black Beans, Gluten Free

I just made these black bean cookies, courtesy of Laura’s Double Chocolate Mocha Bean Gluten Free recipe. Question is: will my kids eat them?

On My Blog

chives Mexican poppies pink butterfly with orange stripes red admiral

Book Review of Septembers of Shiraz

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

  • View a lovely Kosher Cooking Carnival for Sivan hosted on Ilana-Davita’s blog. Thank you for all the hard work of hosting!
  • Thank you to the Jewish Book Council for hosting the May Jewish Book Carnival and including my Holocaust books post.
  • Happy Shavuot to all those who celebrate. Happy Memorial Day to all those who celebrate. Happy Happy to All.

Mexican Poppies Instead of Grass

Mexican poppies pink
In my front yard many pink Mexican poppies are in bloom. My husband remembers the days when he had to mow the front lawn – no more.

poppies and salvia
There is also purple salvia growing behind the pink Mexican poppies.

lambs ear with Mexican poppies
The tall green plants behind the Mexican poppies in this shot are lambs’ ear. I originally planted a few that I transported from my mother’s garden in Newton, MA. That was in 1998, so these have been reproducing for over ten years. I’ll probably pull most of them out soon and replace them with summer plants, maybe cucumber plants that I grow among the flowers.

chives
These flowering chives are growing in a pot in my backyard, but since they are in a pot, I could easily transfer them to the front.

For more Nature Notes:

Nature Notes

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