Blizzard of 2013

The last time we posted something on here was the last "historic superstorm" that rolled through town ... too many of those! This time around we got a couple feet of snow overnight, here's a 24 hour (minus the time I was asleep) view out our living room window of the snow accumulating:

Poor Danielle was stranded in Minnesota an extra day and couldn't get home from a trip to Carleton, but I stayed nice and cozy. It was actually kind of fun, an excuse to stay home from work on Friday, curl up, and watch the snow fall. By Saturday afternoon everyone was out walking around checking out the snow or trying to dig out their cars. I saw neighbors up the street I never see otherwise. I also had just gotten some new winter boots and other gear, so it was a good chance to get out and use them :)

Here are some other shots of the aftermath of the great Blizzard of 2013:

Blizzard 2013

All clear

Hurricane Sandy seems to have hit some of the mid-Atlantic states pretty hard, but here in Somerville it was not so bad.  There are a few downed trees or light posts here and there, and the storm rolled some empty garbage cans around our street.  The fall leaves fell thick in the wind and rain, by this morning there were built up mounds of leaf matter in the road pressed out by car tires as if we'd had a couple inches of snow.

And now it's back to life as normal ...

Batten down the hatches

With hurricane Sandy bearing down on the Eastern seaboard, we've holed up at home here in Somerville. Everybody at my work has been told to work from home today, and D's meetings have been shifted to Skype. Our camping lantern and flashlights are lined up in case we lose power, and we've got plenty of water and food.

 We're quite far from the epicenter since Sandy swung left last night and is making landfall in New Jersey this afternoon. So we're seeing the outer arms of the storm, it looks like sustained winds in the 30 mph range and some heavy rain are what we're in for. So some trees will probably fall, but aside from that we're not really under any threat here.  The storm is expected to basically pivot around us so we'll probably get rain for several days.

On Sunday I went out to do our normal weekend grocery run and it seems people are taking the storm quite seriously - there were long lines but the stores knew it was coming and were fully staffed.  I went in the morning hoping to avoid the rush, but then learned that the New England Patriots were playing just after noon.  This is a sports mad state, so it was mixed crowd out shopping: pre-storm buying batteries and cans, pre-game buying beer and chips.

it's fall in new england

It's that time of year again in Boston, where the nights are cold and people are putting lots of pumpkin and squash-looking vegetables on their porches for decoration.  The leaves aren't quite in full splendor, but there are a few early-turners showing beautiful colors.

A couple weekends ago, Joey and I went to Vermont to get a headstart on the season.  Around here, taking trips to little towns to see the leaves is fairly popular, and apparently is called "leaf-peeping."  I find that name to be truly odd, but the activity that it denotes is quite lovely.  We stayed at an adorable little bed and breakfast called Glimmerstone Mansion, which is a newly renovated old house, with a bar and restaurant on-site.  From there, we did a little hiking, covering a little part of the Appalachian Trail.  We did a route that's supposed to have spectacular views, but sadly for our viewing the weather was quite cloudy by the time we got to the top.  The hike itself was great fun, though.  Beyond that, we managed to drive through several lovely towns, saw a few covered bridges, poked around some small-town stores, farmers' markets and other fun stops, and all in all had a wonderful time.

Vermont Leaf-Peeping

Yesterday, to continue the fall experience, we went apple picking in one of the towns nearby as part of an outing put on by the company where Joey works.  It was a lovely cool-but-not-cold day, and the apples were very bountiful.  We again took advantage of being out of the city and in the midst of - well, orchards.  We came home with oodles of apples (which will hopefully last us much of the season), an apple pie, apple cider, fresh corn and other farmstand goodies.  For city-dwellers, we feel like we've done a decent job of getting out and seeing the season!

Apple Picking!

st. lucia!

Well, hello there.  This is a belated set of greetings from St. Lucia, where we were lucky enough to spend a few days at the end of August.  It's the second (and last) installment from summer holidays 2012.  We stayed at a lovely little house in the Soufriere natural reserve area, practically in the shadow of the Pitons.  We had a gorgeous view of the Petit Piton from our pool, and ate ridiculous amounts of mangoes.  The mangoes fell from the trees in the garden all the time ... many more than we could eat!  The summer was a little bit of mango heaven - we enjoyed many large ones in Haiti too. 

While we were there, we visited the beach at Anse Chastanet, went snorkeling at the Jalousie resort (even at some resorts the beaches are public), bathed in volcanic mud and mineral baths, strolled through a beautiful rainforest botanic garden, went to Castries and the fort at Pigeon Island, toured a cocoa plantation, hiked through the rainforest (that was a part of the tour that we didn't quite anticipate!) and we finished a couple books lounging by the pool.  A thoroughly relaxing and lovely time!  And everyone we met was absolutely lovely.  To cap it all off, at the airport on the way home, we lunched on surprisingly delicious and legitimate-tasting chicken rotis.  All in all, fantastic.

Enjoy the photos ...

St. Lucia

haiti!

Yesterday we got home from a very full visit to Haiti.  It started off with adventure - we spent an involuntary night in Miami after American Airlines had a few hiccups with its planes.  By the time we got to Port-au-Prince both Joey and I were spent, but Daddy and Ossilie were at the airport to greet us with smiles, which made the arrival much much more pleasant than the trip.  Ordinarily Daddy and my uncle Michel are the close family members in Haiti, but both Ossilie and Tatie Joujou were visiting at the same time, so we had a nice little party among us all.

The first couple days we saw a bit of the central part of the country.  First, we went from Port-au-Prince over one of the central plateaus to the town of Mirebalais, and then took the road that leads from there to the coast, along the valley of the Artibonite river (map below).  The route covered a range of terrain - the first part arid, the second quite green and agricultural; as well as various kinds of settlement from empty-seeming NGO-planned settlements on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince and vestiges of some of the tent-cities set up after the earthquake, to little farming villages in the valley and old towns built around churches and town squares along the Artibonite.

The following day we went into the mountains beyond Port-au-Prince to the south, near the village of Kenscoff.  Getting out of Port-au-Prince was a feat - it's an incredibly densely settled and surprisingly large city, and the roads are often quite overwhelmed by the traffic and the large number of people making their way on foot.  Once we'd gotten through things were easier (for those of us who weren't driving - the roads through Kenscoff aren't paved), the temperature dropped, and there was a lot to see as we drove by.  The mountains around the village are all cultivated with terraced fields, and have very red soil, which makes for pretty scenery. 

Later in the trip, Daddy took us to the south, where we spent a couple nights at a little hotel on an island off the coast called Île à Vache.  We drove for a few hours to the port town of Les Cayes, then took a boat over to the hotel, which is at Port Morgan.  The island itself feels very much like a pirate hideaway, with no cars or paved roads, and little villages that operate on farming and fishing.  A particular highlight was the ingenuity shown in the boats we saw along the shore, many of which had sails made from various kinds of bags and other materials.

In addition to touring the country a little, we got to meet a number of family friends and relatives, which was wonderful.  We also ate an extraordinary amount of very delicious food.  And happily, the trip back was infinitely smoother than the reverse direction.  We were tired when we got home, but overall, it was a wonderful visit.

And now, some pictures.  Enjoy!

Fourth of July

We went all out this year and attended a whole bunch of events celebrating Independence Day! Click on the image below to see the highlight slide show:

July 4th