Squirrels

How did the squirrels know about the sunflower seeds in the bottle? They even ate the plastic. Did they get stomach pain?

New England: Beach day in April!

Boston set a record today with a high temperature of 86 degrees. What better way to enjoy such a beautiful weather as with a visit at Crane Beach?

The only downside is that the magnolia blossoms don't last:

Long Patriots' Day Weekend in MA

This was a great long weekend, filled with sunshine and gardening. Here in MA, we celebrate Patriots' day every year on the third Monday in April. It's a holiday commemorating the anniversary of the first battles of the American Revolutionary war. Early risers can visit the re-enactment of one of the major battles in our neighbor town Lexington.

In our first year in the States, we went at six in the morning to watch the re-enactment, starting with Paul Revere's ride and right afterwards the battle at Lexington's green. There have been so many other spectators there that we hardly could see anything, but we got a great pancake breakfast after the battle in one of the churches in Lexington.

This year, we spent the long weekend working in the garden: we needed an extension to the irigation system and an additional fence unit. I also spent a couple of hours cleaning up, seeding and replanting. A lot is in bloom, even the apricot tree:

For Easter

Creativity or Stupidity?

I read today in the newspaper that a teacher in a cash-strapped school district in Idaho made a deal with the local pizzeria: The business will provide paper for handouts, worksheets and tests for his classrooms and in return, on each provided sheet of paper will be an ad for the pizza shop.

So, while taking a history test the kids can already think about which slide of pizza they will buy for lunch: cheese or pepperoni?

According to the newspaper article, some officials applaude the teacher for his creative solution of the spending freeze in his town, others criticize that he crosses a line.

I agree with the critics and find the idea of sponsorships for school material most worrisome. And by the way - what's with the fight against obesity?

Vegetables from the White House

Today, I read in the newspaper that Michelle Obama is planting an organic White House vegetable garden. She believes that children are more willing to try fruit and vegetables when they see them grow.

From my experience, I can only confirm that. We had in Austria a very big fruit and vegetable garden, and my kids were used to picking apples, pears and plums right from the tree. We never had discussions at the dinner table about eating vegetables. In Austria, people rarely have gardens without fruit trees and vegetables.

One of the first purchases for our house here in America was a peach tree. From my Dutch neighbors, I got red and black currant bushes, and my Portugese neighbors gave me a grape plant. In the following years, we bought more and more fruit trees and bushes and this year, we are hoping to harvest apples, plums, apricots, grapes, cherries, currants, strawberries, gooseberries and raspberries. In addition, I'm planting tomatoes, salad, beans, squash, eggplant...

My neighbors, who first couldn't believe that apricots or cherries would grow in Massachusetts, are now also starting their own kitchen gardens. They are now convinced that even an average sized backyard can yield a delicious crop (and save you quite a lot of money)

Beer and St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's day in Boston means

• a huge parade on the Sunday before the 17th (according to Wikipedia, the world's first St. Patrick's Day parade was held in Boston in 1761)
• Corned beef and cabbage
• many people wearing green (or at least a glittering shamrock sticker on a cheek)
• bunches of green and white carnations
• many more Celtics shirts, caps and wristbands to be seen on the streets than usual
• pubs that open at 6 am (for breakfast with beer?)
• Irish music everywhere (where do all the Irish music playing bands come from?)
  
• long lines in front of pubs despite cover charges of up to $ 20 per person ( plus $ 5/glass of beer)
• and people in the road, who are celebrating the Irish saint with heavy alcohol consumption.

What leads to my question: How became getting drunk a St. Patrick's day "tradition"?