Life in the Commonwealth

I still haven't figured out what to do with this blog -- a blog about California can't be written in Massachusetts, about Massachusetts -- but as I've been figuring things out, I've let things lapse completely and the next thing I knew, six months (more than six months!) had passed. So here are a few pictures to show you what our lives have been like since we moved.

Spring was beautiful. This is strange, I guess, because we'd already started spring in California, and yet it was early enough on in Massachusetts that it still felt exciting. Before all the rain hit in June, we had a very nice April and May.

I traveled to upstate New York with my family to attend my cousin Kathleen's wedding.

And at the end of May, I turned 31 and we closed on our house. Thus began the long process of unpacking, which is still going on today.

We enjoyed getting reunited with Boston, New England, and our local friends and family. Here are some pictures from a trip up to Ipswich, MA, to eat fried clams and pick strawberries. The clams were great but the strawberries had suffered in all the rain.

Brendan and Barb at Russell Orchards

In July, we drove down to New Jersey for O'Malley Family Track Day at Monmouth Park.

We spent part of the next morning on my brother-in-law's boat in the Atlantic and on the Navesink River with my inlaws, below.

I had high hopes for gardening but had to put it off, for the most part, until next year, when I will be finished with school and should have a bit more time. Fortunately there were already a lot of beautiful perennials in the yard, so things looked pretty good without much effort...although eventually "not much effort" meant that the yard started looking like a jungle. I did get some tomato and cherry pepper plants in the ground, and we had some great cherry tomatoes for a while. Stacey pickled and canned some of our cherry peppers, and with the rest we made hot sauce. I'm planning on a lot more veggies next year!

We flew down to Florida just before Labor Day for the wedding of my good friend from college, Jennie, and her husband Eric. The wedding was a lot of fun and got me excited for my 10 Year College Reunion coming up next May!

Then off to Palm Coast for some R&R with the O'Malleys, including a trip to the fort in St. Augustine, below.

Stacey and I both love fall, so it's been exciting to experience a "real" New England fall after missing out on them when we were in California. However, we were not expecting to get snow -- twice! -- in October!

I took the picture below on my way to work. While stopped in Kendall Square near MIT, the operator on the subway train I was riding announced a "brief delay" due to "police action." After fifteen minutes I gave up and decided to walk the rest of the way. It was a bit chilly on the Longfellow Bridge, but the views were nice! Later I found out that President Obama was speaking at MIT that day. I think I have him to thank for holding up my commute!

Almost every year since I was a baby, my family has spent a weekend in the fall with friends in Maine, making apple cider and stuffing ourselves full of all sorts of good eats. This was my first Cider Weekend since 2006, and although the first day was pretty miserably rainy, we did get a head start on the good eats. Luckily Day 2 was gorgeous -- perfect weather for picking, crushing, and pressing apples into cider.

Here's a shot of Hancock Pond:

And the view from the orchard:

Lucy "helping" us pick:

Becky and puppies

Susy getting down to business

Lucy relaxes while the rest of us work.

First, you wash the apples...

Then you crush them in the crusher...

Then you press the apples into cider in the press:

Crushed apple, waiting to be pressed

Et voila -- cider!

Susy and Becky are an efficient bottling team.

Some of the final product

Lucy relaxing again...I sense a theme.

The next few months should be busy. I need to finish my independent study so that I can complete my degree and we have a lot of walls to paint, carpet to rip up, boxes to unpack and cabinets and closets to organize.  I'll try to report back soon.