Pretty leaves and chestnuts from the farmers' market....
I had never actually seen a chestnut in its natural skin before, have you? They're painfully prickly!
Thankfully they were just for show. "Chestnut Charlie" was happy to give me a sample that was already peeled and roasted to delicious nutty goodness!
After laying out provisions for any trick or treaters that might come by in our absence, Sweet Husband and I headed for downtown Lawrence to handout candy for the big trick or treat on Mass Street.
So many awesome costumes! This Wall-E--by far our favorite for the night--was even motorized!
Then we met up with some friends and ended up retiring to their fabulously decorated house. There was a fog machine, a "scary voice" microphone, candy for the wee kiddos, and fizzy gin cocktails for us older kiddos....
Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!
Saturday morning, we were up and at 'em early for some green bean picking at Pendleton's.
They are such smarties out there! When they have more veggies ready than they can pick, they start paying pickers in produce--you get to take half of whatever you can pick, for free! Sweet Husband, myself, and Nice Friend Moxie picked something like nine pounds between the three of us.
Our's went straight to the freezer, but I don't think Moxie's made it that far!
As Martha would say, consider this your gentle reminder--it's time to be eating strawberries.
As much as the idea of being buried gives me the heebs, I love going for a walks in pretty, old cemeteries. Strangely, there is one kinda-sorta near our house that I hadn't yet visited, so tonight I decided to rectify that situation.
Do you ever sit down on a Sunday evening and think, "Holygosh, this has been the greatest weekend ever....?"
Today, I am four. I think Mom is maybe a little sad about this--me entering middle age and all--but I'm completely down with it. I don't mind being older so much, and birthdays always mean fun!
If you're local, go check out the Lawrence Art Guild's Holiday Fair tomorrow. Along with tons of other artists, Sweet Husband and our good friend Calley will have a booth with lots of pretty jewelry for you and yours!
This evening, my very nice co-worker asked me if I would like his basketball tickets for tonight's game. Sweet Husband is behind on his work for an art sale he's doing this weekend, and I had a gingerbread house to make--so, of course, I said, "Absolutely!"
(As you might imagine with that whole national championship thing, Jayhawk basketball tickets are expensive and wicked hard to get hold of.)
In fact, this was Sweet Husband's first KU basketball game, and as such, pictures were in order. I truly believe there can't be anywhere as cool as Allen Fieldhouse to watch a game. Although I know the small size contributes to the astronomical ticket prices, it makes for a phenomenal experience. There isn't a bad seat anywhere, and it is so loud. (In a good, "Yay school spirit" kind of way.) Although I'm told by my basketball expert friends that this will probably be a "rebuilding year", it's still way too much fun to watch our guys play.
From left to right...Sweet Husband, the pretty new banner hanging in the rafters, and Baby Jay.
Every year Lawrence has a "Festival of a Trees" to raise money for charity. I love seeing all the creative themed trees that people bring--gives me good ideas!
From top left to right...the room full of all the tress...a recycled tree (with ornaments made from pop lids and grocery sacks)...a tree made of chicken wire..."Rudolph Rex"...a tree with candy ornaments...a tree from a local pre-school with kid-made "gingerbread" houses...a quilted tree...a metal tree...a minimalist tree...a Monarch butterfly tree...a tree with knitted ornaments...a tree with liquor ornaments (as our friend that came with us wondered, "Is this supposed to be an advent tree?")...a tree with spoons...a fly fishing tree...a recycled newspaper tree...a "ragged" wreath.
If you're local, the festival goes on at Liberty Hall all this week--it really is very beautiful and admission is only two bucks!
After a gorgeous walk through the park, I spent the early part of Halloween handing out candy to little ones. Then it was off for some sushi, and a meander down Mass Street where I met the legendary John Brown, alive and well. I also hung out with a manly (but hilarious) Sarah Palin, a lovely pirate wench, and a suitably dressed Scot.
More pictures here.
I have to giggle at myself sometimes when I imagine what my great-grandparents would think of how going "to the farm" has become a special outing. I think they'd think we're all a little insane!
And, while it probably is a bit funny to drag your Sweet Husband out into the middle of nowhere to make a scarecrow and play with butterflies, Saturday afternoon I did just that.
Late last week, I got an email from Pendleton's saying they were looking for people to come build scarecrows for next weekend's Kaw Valley Farm Tour. Payment was in the form of a free mum (which, ostensibly, was my motivation), and as additional bait they mentioned their Butterfly Bio Villa was teaming with Monarchs. How could we pass up a free mum, right?
From the top right...a male Monarch butterfly (notice the scent sacks on his lower, inside wings, only the boys have 'em)...Sweet Husband in the "No Left Turn" maze (Sweet Husband, ever a fan of logic puzzles, figured it out in fairly short order. I, on the other hand, gave up in even shorter order!)...a gnarly pumpkin...and last, but not least, our scarecrow. Isn't Mr. Bob Frapples very dapper in his matching suit and frilly collar?
A few more pictures are here.
We took Moe-man to Lawrence's annual dog swim--the Pooch Plunge--this evening. He was so excited when he saw the pool, he started making these horrible squealy noises as I fastened on his life jacket. People were starting to stare at me like I was torturing him, so I hurried towards the pool and very unceremoniously tossed him in.
He didn't seem to mind. He spent about a half an hour happily chasing tennis balls before we fished him out to go home.
A trip to the farmer's market, a long country drive--with a yummy breakfast and a long nap thrown in for good measure.
It's gotten cooler here (70's and 80's instead of 90's and 100's) and school is back in session--all of a sudden it feels like it's time to suck up every last drop of summer....
More berry picking this afternoon. More jam making this evening.
I don't think I like raspberry jam quite as much as strawberry--it's the seeds--but it's still better than anything I've ever had from the store. And the jam is just the color of the raspberries that went into it--beautiful!
Today is "Dump the Pump" in Lawrence--an annual day where the local bus system ("the T") is free, in an effort to encourage more people to try riding.
I thought it might be a fun adventure. Although we walk and scoot quite a bit, I've never ridden the bus in Lawrence before. While there's a regular ongoing debate about whether the T is really cost-effective, I certainly support the idea of public transportation in general. Especially when Sweet Husband and I first moved to Lawrence and hadn't made a lot of friends yet, it was comforting to know that if the car broke down we wouldn't be without other options. In addition, with gas getting more expensive by the minute, taking the bus every now and then just seems to make sense.
Kind of.
In defense of the T, for people that don't have to juggle between routes (like Sweet Husband) the bus is a really good option. He could get on at roughly 8:15 a.m. and be at work 5 minutes later.
On the other hand, for me to get to my carpool drop-off point by 8 a.m., I would have to be at the bus stop around 6:45 a.m. For reference, I'm rarely even awake yet at that time, and on a normal day it takes about 10 minutes to get to my carpool from my house. I'm not positive--because Lawrence is really hilly--but I think I could probably walk the distance in less time.
Sleep outweighs most other considerations in my world, especially at that time of the morning, so I will not be dumping the pump today. But this whole exercise has made me curious. Is this the norm for public transportation? I know there are a lot of variables at play, but I'm particularly interested in experiences people have had in places that are of the large town/small city size. (Lawrence is roughly 100,000.) Do you have to live in a big city to have really convenient public transportation?
(Photo c/o the Lawrence Transit System.)
If you're in the area, Pendleton's has started their pick-your-own asparagus and spinach. Aside from the fact that a field full of asparagus stalks looks like some sort of science fiction landscape, you can't get much fresher than two hours from field to dinner.
Today was the parade for the basketball team...or, as I guess I should properly say, for the University of Kansas National Champion Jayhawk Basketball Team.
But before we get to the parade, I have to talk about these cutie banners. I'm trying to get some practice with my sewing machine, and I wanted to have some sort of flag to wave for the parade, so voila! I made the little ones for practice (and to give away) and the big one to keep. I was going for a well-used, battle-worn look, and I think succeeded.
As for the parade, I can't even begin to guess how many people were there, but I think 100,000 would not be a crazy guess. (Looks like that was a good guess!) The three or four blocks I could see were absolutely packed and the total parade route was about four times that. As the players came down the street (in convertibles) the crowd just kind of converged on both sides of them, they were literally getting high fives from everyone on the street. (Mouse over the pictures for captions.)
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