monkeys and ponies

We visited Macdonald Park in Medford today, not far from where we live. It was a gorgeous, sunny fall day, and the sea oats were especially pretty in the sunshine.



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Congo bars, from the Rosie's Bakery recipe.

It's going to get awfully close to freezing this week, so it was finally time to pull everything out of the garden. This meant puréeing the basil and parsley so we can enjoy it all winter long.

Four cups of green goodness, now sitting in six individual bags in my freezer.

Getting a little desperate for photography subjects at home, but this one's got some interesting color, and has a surprising amount to say about me. There's the pink gel pen I like to use for proofreading. The shiny silver and orange ballpoints from two different tech firms I've worked with. The children's pencils with Sanrio and other Japanese cartoon characters, because I love their cheerfulness, and the similarly amusing Peeps pencil with matching eraser. An X-acto knife I used to use to cut line tape and waxed stories on resin-coated paper for the college newspaper.

And of course, the talking Dalek pen and a sonic screwdriver.

This "photo a day" thing is really eluding me this year, probably because October is a slow month for me in terms of leaving the house for meetings, and there are only so many things I can photograph around my house before I get bored. However, to make up for missing a couple of days, I have some extra photos.

This one's from the woods near one of the paths at Drumlin Farm, where my summer CSA share comes from. (I'd have taken a shot of the cute chipmunk I saw instead, but he was too far away.)



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Cinderella pumpkins at the local grocery store.

Made these garlic knots tonight to go with caldo verde, and yes, they are as good as they look.

This was my view for about an hour and a half this afternoon. Out of deference to those of you with the Dental Fear, I will spare you the description of what a gum graft is like and just say that I feel like I've been punched on both sides of my lower jaw.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to dislodge a cat from my chest and go track down another ice pack.

Purple and orange ones from the CSA, which is replenishing our supply faster than we can eat them. These four ended up in the carrot cake currently in my oven, and more will turn into a mustard-dill carrot side dish to be served with meatloaf ... which will probably also have a carrot in it. And even with that, I bet I still have a pound of the suckers left before we get the next batch on Wednesday.

It's October, and thus it's time for A Photo a Day(ish). Will I make it all 31 days this year? Let's find out!



Today's photo was going to be of the stunning purple asters in my backyard, except that the Boston area is currently catching the edge of a tropical storm, and I didn't feel like standing in my backyard trying to shoot photos. (Also, I need more batteries for my camera.)

Instead, while walking back to my car after lunch today, I saw this statue in Radcliffe Yard and snapped some quick shots with the iPhone. The statue is dedicated to the memory of the Radcliffe Institute's first director, Constance E. Smith, but frankly, I find it kind of creepy, especially with the dark spots from where the rain was trickling down. Honestly, I'm not sure why someone would consider this an inspirational tribute, and since it's hard to find information about Smith online, I have no idea whether the statue represents something important about her personality, her life, or her work.

It'll just have to remain a mystery. A creepy mystery.