In an effort to declutter I have decided to take some pics of old projects that are getting grungy and taking up too much space in my life.  I made this 3-D cardboard piece many years ago (in the 90s) after a visit to Siena, Italy.  It is a combination of cardboard, paper painted with pen and ink and tin foil.  It was inspired by a visit to the cathedral above.

My favorite cookies . . . Chocolate Mint Cookies.   Pretty easy to make and they taste like the Girl Scout Thin Mints.  The beautiful cookie jar was made by Jeremy Ayers in Burlington, VT, a gift from my brother.

I spray painted and decorated an old dingy toolbox, filled it with some basic tools and gave it to my brother as a birthday gift.

We headed down to the Westport, MA and Providence, RI area for the 4th of July.  There happened to be a Waterfire Festival downtown Providence.

We enjoyed the lighting of the bonfires and then rushed to the waterfront to catch the fireworks.  As you can see we found a somewhat gritty location, but it was a great show.

In our never ending search for the perfect chowder we made our first visit to Farnham’s in Essex.  We used the chowder rating scale that we developed with some friends.  Jay gave the chowder an 8.0 and my rating was a 7.8.

in Winchester Center.  I have no idea what kind of bird this is, but I liked how the water looked swirling around it.

This year we are having better luck with our cucumbers.  We made 4 mounds and planted the seedlings on the top of each mound, hoping the mound will retain more moisture.  Since there was a clear space between the mounds I was able to squeeze in some onions in the cross between the mounds.  I have read that onions keep pests away, so between the onions and the mounds we are determined to finally have a decent cucumber crop this year.  We have also mulched with sea grass to suppress weeds and retain moisture.  All seems to be going well so far.

A new sunflower seedling in our vegetable garden with the seed still on top.

Update: Birds or Chipmunks kept eating my sunflower seedlings.  After several failed attempts I cut up toilet paper rolls to 3 inches in length and put them around the seedlings once they sprouted.  This seems to have saved some, but not all my sunflowers.  The critters were able to get to a few despite the protection.

These strawberries and sugar snap peas were the first pick your own fruits and veggies from our CSA Farm last weekend.

We went to see Willie Nelson this past Sunday Night.  It was great to have a chance to see a music icon who is also a big farm advocate through Farm Aid, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to keep family farmers on their land.

As you can see from these shots we had great seats.  I also took a pretty crappy video to capture some of the sound during my favorite song, You are Always on my mind.