Yard transformation update

The landscaper is doing a great (and fast) job with the yard. Small sections of grass have yet to be seeded. We are excited about not having a yard of dead grass and weeds. There is a lot more detail as you walk around, but the following pictures give a sense of it.

I love witch hazel. My mom has one in her yard; they bloom in the middle of winter when everything else is brown. And they smell wonderful. This is a similar variety to the one that she has, called Arnold's Promise. When I lived in St Louis, the park I ran in frequently had several witch hazel bushes, one of which was an Arnold's Promise. My friend and I would make fun of the name because we could never remember it. Anyhow, it gives me great joy to have one in my yard and to be able to smell it every day during the dark winter months.

What's a tractor doing in our front yard?

Or, what does landscaping look like in the middle of winter?

It feels extravagant to pay someone to play in the dirt for us. But, neither of us have the expertise or time to do, at least, an adequate job of fixing our sad yard. It wasn't landscaped well to begin with, the drainage is horrible, the sprinkler system doesn't reach everywhere, the grass was driven on a week after we moved in (by some idiot guys in a truck) with resulting rut marks, and on and on. We think it looks better in its current state of destruction than it has for the last several months.

I'll update with pictures as it progresses along.

Ireland Part I -- driving

I have finally decided to write about our trip to Ireland this past summer. It'll come in several installments ...

We landed in Dublin at 8am on July 21st amidst a downpour. So, we were tired after some 15 hours traveling, in a different time zone, wet, and disoriented.

We rented a car in order to see more of the country in our alloted 11 days. Mike was unanimously elected to drive during the trip, and I the navigator. Before we left, everyone kept warning us about the narrow roads, crazy drivers, and having to drive on the opposite side of the road. After about 2 days, driving was basically okay with occasional moments of absolute terror.

The roads are narrow, curvy, and often lined with stone walls less than a foot from the edge of the road. Imagine driving on US country roads that are usually 30-40 mi/hr at best. These same roads - with the above added features - are often 100 km/hr (60 mi/hr). And if you happen to slow down below this speed, maybe to go around a sharp curve, the car behind will be tailgating and wanting to pass at the first available opportunity.

When the roads weren't lined by rock walls, they were lined by shrubbery. When another car would come towards us - on the right side of the road, which took several days to begin to get used to - Mike would veer the car as far over to the side of the road as possible since the roads are so narrow it feels like you will scrape the side of your car on the passing car. I became intimately familiar with some of the shrubbery as my side of the car dove into it. At least it was better to touch bushes rather than rock walls.

Most of the cars in Ireland are small which makes this whole scenario a little more tolerable. However, there are public and tourist buses running around on the same streets. It's a long story that I won't get into now, but we ended up on a bus to get us back to our rental car after 2 days on one of the Aran Islands. There was another bus that appeared to have broken down that we had to pass. At most, there were 6-12 inches between the buses as we __slowly__ passed the broken down one. We stared at the folks on the other bus and could have reached out to shake hands had the windows been open. Someone on the other bus shot a picture of us as we drove past.

The first picture is the only photo we got of the car. I meant to take another but forgot. Note its small size. The next is a caution sign I found amusing. The next is an example of the roads. The "shoulder" is generous here. The next 2 are us following a tractor. And the final picture, another sign I found amusing (which, in case you can't read it, says "burn fat, not oil" next to a picture of bike).

The last thing I'll say about this topic for now, is that we were strongly encouraged to buy car insurance while renting a car in Ireland. It, along with Portugal, I believe, is one of the only foreign countries where one's insurance from the US doesn't translate since the roads are just so dangerous. It was comforting to be able to drive around with relative impunity and not worry about having to pay hundreds of dollars if the car were to sustain a scratch or two. Luckily, I guess, we didn't end up needing to use the insurance. But we were certainly glad we had it.

a date palindrome

apparently these are pretty rare ...

01-02-2010

!!

nature in winter

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks.

We went to Eastern Washington to spend Christmas with Mike's family and captured a lovely sunset on the way over.

And a drive-by view of the Olympics while going over the Hood Canal Bridge.

A (slightly blurry) New Year's Eve blue moon over the neighbors' house. Apparently there won't be another blue moon on New Year's Eve until 2029 or something.

For New Year's Day we drove to Port Townsend. We got there at high tide and the wind was whipping the water all over the place. Just as you drive into town, by the ferry terminal, the water was splashing onto the side walk. This dock looks like it is going to be submerged.

Fort Worden wasn't quite as windy as in town but the sky was just a sheet of dark blue clouds.