Gardens

     I don't really take many pictures when I'm on my own; during the my recent nine-day trip to Germany, I think I took about 25, and most of those were of cake. Luckily, my mother is more of a photographer, and she documented their recent stay with me. This should give me good fodder for the next few blog posts.

     It's becoming a tradition that when my parents travel to Maryland, we arrange a trip to Costco for the neighbors and me. I'm way in the back, behind two of my neighbors, and another friend is already up front bagging our haul. It's a chance for me to stock up on good olive oil and cheese, and since we all go together, we can split some of the larger packages, because one person doesn't need four pounds of grapes.

     We fit in a trip to one of my favorite gardens. It's my favorite because (1) it's nearby and (2) it's free. Formal gardens usually have a steep entrance fee (understandably, because it takes a ton of people-power to keep them up) but this one is part of the local park system. Here you can see a typical situation for my family - if I'm awake, my dad is asleep, and vice versa. Now that he's retired, he stays up working on projects all night long, and sometimes just comes to bed as my mother is getting up. I like to tease him a bit because I did the same thing during the summers in between high school and my dad gave me a bit of flak for it then.

     Of course, what trip would be complete without a visit to the even nearer vegetable garden, especially when you have free labor. I hope to have chamomile this year, grown from seeds from my parents-in-law and transplanted by my mother.

     As a final note, I'm happy to report that the weird pine-nut thing went away after about 5 days. From now on, I'm sticking to walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts.