Spring 2013

Roger's Birthday Cottage Alan's Ceramics

Lisa at RenFaire Hikes Yard Flora

Trying out the frisbee golf target.

Backyard creek, full after April rain.

Troutlilies abound in our lower backyard.

Heading to the front yard, the bees were busy pollinating the peach tree.

We requested the free utility-line-finding service before deciding on the location of more fruit trees.

Surreal morning drive to school in the fog.

Ah, it's just a cute little bunny!

Jerry and Beth both stopped in Brecksville on the same weekend, just by chance.

Beth and Laurie took the opportunity to investigate options for the summer reunion expedition.

Hanging out at the homestead.

The old hoist wheel from the cottage now adorns our backyard.

Also the deckbox.

Sarah and Chris sent these for Mother's Day.

Roger's calculator artwork - he had to devise the equations that, when plotted on his graphing calculator, would generate this picture. He added the color later.

We ordered a Flavor Supreme Pluot from a nursery in CA, along with a Burgundy Plum that we hope will be similar to the plum tree we had in Moorpark. It's supposed to be a good pollinator for the pluot.

They sent them in their pots, double boxed, which seems to have worked very well.

The Flavor Supreme Pluot looked great, cross your fingers it will thrive.
There was one slight problem: the Burgundy Plum tree had two labels one it; one said it was the plum tree, the other declared it to be a Flavor King Pluot. We emailed pics of the labels to the nursery. They were very gracious and sent out a new Burgundy Plum. So we ended up with an extra tree, but somehow managed to find a good spot for it. The 'problem' turned out to be a blessing.

We made cages for the new trees to protect them from the deer.

And this is why they needed cages -- I made cages for some of the older trees, too. This Macintosh apple had valiantly kept making leaves; this year it got to keep them.

Glen harvested a batch of rhubarb. Our plot to create an edible landscape is working.

Last year I had noticed a small strawberry-like plant by the dogwood. Curious to see what it would do, I refrained from weeding it out. This year it took over the space and we got a bunch of wild strawberries!

The end of the school year is celebrated in our neighborhood with a bonfire and the opportunity for kids to ceremoniously burn school papers.

Roger enjoys playing Newcomb at the volleyball court.

Discarded shoes. The kids prefer bare feet in the newly-laid sand of the volleyball court.

DVDs for Glen's birthday from Jenny.