Happy Birthday Astrid Millay

Astrid was born two years ago tonight and look at her now!



Check out Momo sporting the Pippi Longstocking with those torn tights.


Momo and Astrid up a tree on a little nature hike


We love looking out our front windows to see this dayglow maple tree



The beautiful North Carolina Outer Banks. Here's the soundside...






And there's the crazy Atlantic Ocean


Just me and my girls


Astrid helped me shell these Scarlet Runner beans from our garden...they're purple!


Momo's inspired artwork...with a little parental advice on spelling
The latest on Andrew's school search and where we might move this summer... he's got three PhD advisors interested in him: Tulane in New Orleans, NC State in Raleigh, NC, and VA Tech in Blacksburg, VA. New Orleans offers the most interesting research project, but we're reticent to move so far from family. Also, we know nothing about living in New Orleans...just drinking in the French Quarter! If anyone has lived there or has any advice or info, please send it our way!

One last bit of news that it's still a bit early to spread, but I've never been one for keeping a secret...Astrid's not only 2 years old, but she's going to be a big sister in June. Surprise! (for us, too)

Our Summer

Our Summer has come and gone and I am ready to settle back into home for the Autumn.

Andrew was busy with his field work in the surrounding mountains this Summer.
Here's where Andrew stayed for free when working in the Smokies...biologists have it made!
We were out town so often that a suitcase was always sitting half-packed.

I stopped making bread and barely cooked a meal...I don't know what we ate.

The garden grew and grew and became a tangle of vegetables and flowers. It was too dense and full of mosquitoes for me to tackle. I just let it go wild.


My Fall vegetable garden seems so tame compared to the Summer garden...the simplicity of uniform greens and occasional golds...kale, spinach, beets, lettuces, and collards.

Autumn is by far my favorite season. I love the colors and anticipation of what's to come, the order of a school day.

Ramona has started preschool five days a week. Her class includes children from Zimbabwe, Mexico, Pakistan, and India.

Astrid has started daycare twice a week, but prefers to stay with her family. She is a brave and busy little girl who loves bugs, painting, and books.

Ramona has been loving drawing, music, witches, playing with her good friends, and swimming.

Ramona, Astrid, and Andrew all go to school at the University and we've enjoyed biking the kids to school in the bike trailer, although Ramona's almost too big for it now.

Andrew is teaching a 200 student biology lecture and likes being Professor Laughlin. He's looking into PhD programs to research tracking of avian migratory patterns. He hopes to teach at a university when he finishes.
States we're considering moving to in the Fall are Oregon, New York, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Jersey, to name a few. I don't know where we'll end up!

I am working 2 or 3 days a week in Labor and Delivery at a small hospital near our house. After considering graduate programs in public health or midwifery, I'll decided to stick with L&D nursing for now.
I love the free time my schedule allows me to spend with the kids, garden, travel, hike, and bake.
garden

At the Frog Pond

We almost walked right by this muddy pond as we hiked through Buffalo Mountain. It looked like a big mud puddle and I've since discovered these big mud puddles are called Vernal Pools. They appear in the Spring with the rains and often dry up later in the year. They are amphibian breeding grounds.


It was Momo who wanted to take a closer look and this is what we saw...zillions of tadpoles



And frogs. All in different stages of development.



We fashioned a homemade net out of an onion bag, a wire coat hanger, and a dowel and caught some of these little guys to investigate further.






Here's Momo's rendition of one of the tadpoles we caught.



We also spotted birds, deer prints, beer claw marks, millipedes, centipedes, snails, dragonflies, snake skins, and this Great Spangled Fritillary.



Andrew has been doing his fieldwork in the spruce-fir forests tracking out Hermit Thrush and Veery breeding territories. Usually this is done by ear, until now. He spotted his first baby Hermit Thrush!



Here are some beautiful Flame Azaleas from the Unaka Mountains.


And a beautiful view.

Late Spring...


Shelling peas from our garden, or, in Astrid's case, eating peas from our garden


Enjoying our homemade meal - peas, kale, carrots, mint, and cilantro from our garden, homemade bread, and raw milk from a nearby farm



Finding trilliums in the woods



Discovering the magic of a Spruce-Fir forest...where fairies must live



Celebrating Emily's 33rd Birthday



Experiencing the excitement of a dance recital


Looking under rocks for salamanders



Hanging out in our backyard



Vacationing with family at the beach

Happy Mother's Day! Every day is a good day to be thankful for Mothers. I just found out the origins of this holiday and am so excited to share this original proclamation of Mother's Day by Julia Ward Howe.

Andrew, Ramona, Astrid, and I have been enjoying the spring in our garden, with friends here in Johnson City and back in Asheville, and with our families. We were happy to witness the coming of Spring with our very own robin family nesting on the front porch. Ramona and Astrid watched the whole process from mating, to nest building, to little blue eggs appearing fresh each day, to mama sitting and sitting, and finally the babies all pink and tiny, then the growth in size and of feathers, and then they were gone...we did see them one last time a few days later still being fed by their parents out on our birch tree.


We have been eating the first of spring harvest from our garden...spinach and kale. I have lots of new ground planted and am trying to keep "peter" rabbit from eating much of my baby plants. I think it is rabbits because we have seen big brown cottontail rabbits a few times in the back yard and my turnips are always all eaten down to a nub. (Isn't that what Peter Rabbit loved out of Mr McGregor's garden?) We just finished putting up a new fence, hopefully that will keep Peter out of my garden.

We just spent a wonderful weekend going to the Lake Eden Arts Festival and hanging out with good friends. I'll have to say that even Andrew was dancing at the festival. If you've never heard Haitian music and want something that will get you dancing try this artist. There was a kids tent full of instruments and Ramona really enjoyed playing with the violin.

Andrew has finished his first year of grad school and will soon start his field work in the Smokey Mountains. I am still working two days a week on Labor and Delivery as an RN. Ramona has gotten into a full-time preschool that will start in late August. Astrid will start attending daycare twice a week in the fall and hangin' solo with Mama the rest of the weekdays. Of course, Andrew and I are still pondering all sorts of plans for where we might move when grad school ends, but our top two are Missoula, Montana or Chapel Hill, NC.

Happy Spring!