Three Busy Girls Today

Pretty nice to come home from work to homemade treats!

Cider Hill Farm

The Boston Globe ran an article this week about Community Supported Agriculture and u-pick farms. Berries are in season so we decided that would be a great activity with the girls. Yesterday we drove up to Cider Hill Farm about 45 minutes from home to pick raspberries and blueberries.

They are currently in between the early-summer raspberry varieties and the late summer varieties. So the raspberries were a little hard to find. We managed one container of them before deciding to move on to the much more abundant blueberries. It took us a little while to find the right part of the patch, but then we found the mother lode: bushes that were so laden you could just sit on the ground next to one bush and pick hundred of plump, ripe berries. Charlotte probably ate almost as many as we picked.

Back at the farm store we bought some cider donuts and a raspberry turnover to enjoy before the trip back home.

When we got home we planned to go to the pool for a bit. Our neighbors had just returned home from a week of vacation at the beach and decided to join us. When it was time to leave the pool we decided to keep the party going with dinner at our house. We put together an impromptu spaghetti feast. Then the kids settled down watching "The Incredibles" and the adults got to hang out.

Scott and Karen and Carol and I got to enjoy our living room! Carol has been working on painting and arranging it and it's now usable. Thank you, Carol!

We really lucked out in the neighbors department. We feel very welcome and among like-minded people.

Be Still My Heart

My heart would be stilled if I ate many of these babies. Part of the local cuisine is a roast beef sandwich; there are several "famous" roast beef and seafood establishments here. The recommended way to order the sandwich is a "three-way": roast beef, cheese sauce and mayonnaise. I had to try it once, and I ordered mine as a "plate" with onion rings and fries. I felt kinda ripped off by the small amount of fries (that's sarcasm).

The sandwich was pretty good but I couldn't help imagining what I was doing to my arteries while I ate it. I felt like I ate too many fries but I barely made a dent in the pile. It's been a couple of hours now and my mouth still feels greasy. And you can bet there are people who eat this a couple times a week. Online reviews mention ordering a side of fried mozzarella sticks to go with it!

We went to Billy's for dinner because our real estate agent gave us gift certificates to a couple of local restaurants to welcome us to town. Billy's was one of them.

We had another day of work on the house today. I spent the entire day organizing the office - sorting through various piles of paperwork from house sale and purchase, new insurance, the girls' school registrations, etc. I made good progress and the office is no longer a huge mess. Meanwhile, Carol spent the day painting the living room. It's mostly finished and the too-dark magenta-red that was there has now been covered with a light gold. It makes a significant difference.

Between those projects and dinner we went to the pool for an hour. That is so refreshing after a day of working in warm weather.

We haven't figured out what our fun escape will be tomorrow. I bet we'll end up heading for the beach again. The girls love it so.