Peach Cobbler

Forgot to take photo of uncut, virgin peach cobbler, but here is a slice... This is a super easy recipe, that tastes great. I'm impressed. Even better, I overestimated how many peaches make a cup, so we have more farm fresh peaches still to eat!

St Michaels on the Bay

Legend is that during the War of Independence, St Michaels foiled the British Navy by putting lights in a nearby forest and blacking out their village, saving the village from a canon attack. It certainly is a very historic and pretty town. It was a boat building area, and was known for producing privateers that went after the British, which is why the British were attacking it.
We went on a day cruise, with a 2 hour trip on a catamaran across the Chesapeake Bay from Annapolis, to St Michaels, with about 3 hours to spend exploring in St Michaels.
The cruise was very eventful, climaxing in a bus trip home because the boat had lost something that meant the boat horn and the toilets didn't work (among other things), none of which affected us on the way across. While there, we had lunch, then explored St Michaels on foot in a sweaty lather and ended up at the Chesapeake Maritime Museum, which definitely warrants further exploration.
We would definitely like to try it again, and hope for a boat ride home this time!
Tip - getting broiled seafood means your lunch takes longer. Just get the fish and chips.

Very weird company line

I cannot comment more on this, I am speechless.

Lazy Sunday morning

Yeah, so its Sunday morning, we have visitors who are happy to look after the kids, and what do I decide is a good use of that time?

Capitol Building, Washington DC

They are restoring the dome of the Capitol - scraping off all the lead based paint, repairing the cracks, glueing back on all the decorative bits that have fallen off. It will take until 2017, and we got in to see the inside of the Rotunda the last day it would be open, until 2017, so we feel a bit of a sense of achievement.

More enjoyable than I expected, less boring than you expect of a Parliament building. Bigger than I thought. Tip: visit in afternoon. we were forced into early 11am lunch, because no food or drink, not even unopened things, are allowed in there. Waterbottles had to be empty. Security friendliness is somewhere between Statue of Liberty (cranky, suspicious) and airports (usually quite friendly, so long as you do what they say).

I think this photo is of the South Lawn, where officially, you're not allowed to toboggan, but made news last Winter because people did toboggan.

National Hot Dog Day

Hot dog, hot dog hot diggety dog - is some song the kids have picked up (turns out it is from the Mickey Mouse Show?) that they sing whenever we have hot dogs. They just have tomato sauce (ketchup), we have branched out into sweet pickle chutney and mustard too.

Grove of Willows

This is that grove of willows from the other side of the (ornamental) lake, with a nice haze effect introduced because I had sweated all over my phone while jogging.

View from my desk

It is quite surreal not to be working in a big city. I really enjoy this view, and I love that work possibilities seem less centralised.

The Zinnia

This is the zinnia that was brought home as a seedling from school. I did the right thing and planted it, not thinking much would come of it, but there you go. Mr nearly 6 took the photo with my phone. I was reminded that we are bringing up our children in an environment, with gadgets, that we never had, so there is no precedent for how to deal with the situation. I guess it has happened with lots of generations, and lots of things/gadgets/traditions. But I still get the feeling of being out of my safe port on phone use.

Mission Accomplished

We managed some tomatoes! I kept on forgetting to take photos of the two little bushes with tomatoes attached, but we have harvested. The baby in particular is pretty impressed.

Peaches!

We went to the beach again Friday. It is a big effort, everyone gets home tired, but we got sandy and salty, and had fish and chips (hot chips), and icecream, and bought more peaches, so we definitely ticked all the boxes we could tick.
Here are the peaches, with blueberries, and some greek yoghurt with honey that is soo good, and Moroccan Mint tea. very tasty dessert once the kids were in bed and we could sort of relax (although it took about an hour or more for the last little wiggles to wiggle out).
Next up is some peach cobbler, because we bought a gallon of peaches (what ever that is. About half a grocery bag full).

My favourite breakfast

This is what I enjoy eating for breakfast now the berries are in. Trader Joes seems to struggle keeping a steady supply of berries, but we get by.

The pickle...??

Nearly missed this pickle at a corporate lunch recently - thought it was just a wet patch in the sandwich packaging, but it was a pickle. They wrap the sandwich in 2 layers of paper, and the pickle is between the inner paper and the outward paper.
I was intrigued, so I looked it up on the internet, and apparently it was brought to New York City by Jewish deli owners where it was used as a palate cleanser, and the whole thing just got taken up every where. It is a very good palate cleanser too!

Cow Appreciation Day

There is this fast food chain, called Chick Fil-a, that serves chicken based products. And its advertising campaign is based on the store being a front for some cows to encourage people to 'Eat mor chikn' (because the cows can't spell).
July 14th is Cow Appreciation Day at Chick Fil-a, where people dressed in cow costumes, including something on their head, get a free meal. We thought it would be a fun outing for the boys. Turns out about three other child care places thought it would be a good idea too, the place was filled with small children dressed as cows, it really was a sight to be seen.
In the afternoon, our cows went bike riding.

Big bed for a little boy

Important lessons: It is possible to have too little paint on the paintbrush, necessitating the time for a second coat, in thunderstorm season. 

The boys will love the idea of painting, but really should just be set up with a roller and a bit of cardboard, because it turns out I hate the idea of dried paint drips. 

Oh, and don't store the mattress (innerspring) on its side behind a couch, because a) the boys will apparently be unable to resist bouncing on it, but will bounce on it on its side and bend the springs and b) it might bend a bit from being stored on its side, and the worst - you'll never be able to tell which option meant that you have ended up with a brand new mattress with a whoomp upwards in the middle, due to the metal frame on the inside being bent. It is, however, still quite comfortable to lie on.

Thirdly, the 3 year old will be unable to grasp that the cot is being pulled apart and put away because he now has a big bed, and will insist that he will need you to put the cot back up because he needs that cot after he has finished with the big bed.

Happily, we can report that he is sleeping just fine in the bed so far. We promised to put the cot back up after he grew out of his big bed if he still wanted the cot.

It happens here too!

Just in case I didn't know, it is now time to buy my fall/harvest door wreaths. And I thought Australia was the only place that tried to sell Christmas decorations in September.

Beach BBQ

Lovely summer evening spent with friends. Note the 'fire pit' in the front left - very easy way to have 'camp fire' (and s'mores) without putting fire on the ground!
We walked home looking at the fire flies which were out in force. Hoping to catch some in a jar very soon!
This photo is of all the dads in the water with the little boys - at about 7.30 pm.

Orioles vs Washington Nationals

We went with work on a Friday night. These seats were in a cheaper section, but I reckon we had a better view of the game overall. I do love the excitement of a full stadium under lights! Orioles won with a home run in the 9th (last) innings. Unfortunately they lost the other 2 games in the 3 game series (to the Nationals).

Willows

Lovely willows, all silvery in the sun. Cool, deep shade underneath (compared to the soup in the sun).

B&A Trail

The B&A Trail - a path built on the old path of the Baltimore Annapolis Short Line Railroad, that ran from 1887-1950. It is 13 miles of pedestrian/bike paths with occasional road crossings, even with a ranger station and some picnic tables here and there.
We had heard about this, probably fairly consistently since we arrived, but neglected to follow it up until now. It was perfect timing in terms of confidence on bikes and needing some time out away from our little neighbourhood and all the limited play options there.
What we found, was a lovely green shaded path, with blackberries ripening on the sides of the path, and plenty of friendly people, and more than enough length to get our boys good and tired.
The downsides - as with any shared path, there are the lycra men who don't seem to know where their breaks are, and fail to appreciate that a three year old doesn't hold his line very consistently.
Also, we don't have bikes, so our afternoon consisted of running after the little ones who are surprisingly speedy. Drenched in sweat comes close to describing our condition. I was also carrying the back pack with the water bottles and chocolate slice. (Although to be fair, on the way home, we swapped, and eventually hubby was carrying the backpack, the 3 year old and the 3 year olds bike).
But, we will be trying this one out again. The agreement is that if either of us got in jogging clothes and took Mr 5.5 for a ride, we would get a very comprehensive work out.

July 4th

The morning was wet, and our planned BBQ dinner was cancelled because someone got sick, so it was a quiet day for us.
I finally realised that I didn't need to find the perfect combination of events to go to  in order to feel excited about July 4. the issue is that I think I'm looking through a window when it comes to July 4th - watching someone elses party.
I'm not sure I'll ever completely feel excited about the buntings, I guess. But it is a very handy long weekend.

Bethany Beach, Delaware

We finally took a day to go to the beach again. Weather was first forecast to be stormy, then rainy, and it turned out to be clear (after the morning cloud burnt off). So, we had a glorious couple of hours building a huge sandcastle (very handy for claiming some space) and getting wet in the dumpy waves. Ate fish and chips for lunch, went for a farewell swim/run in the waves, drove home via a peach farm (fresh juicy peaches anyone?!), and the icecream shop.
Exhausting but very enjoyable.
This is the view from near our spot on the beach by noon. It is a very amazing thing to see. People literally camp out on the beach - claim their spots with umbrellas and chairs and towels, and stay there all day. There are no flags, just lifeguards on a high sort of tower every 10m or so, complete with little orange flags to talk to each other.

Excess wrapping

I have previously commented on how pre-wrapped lots of stuff is, which hugely increases the amount of packaging I simply chuck, as it is not recyclable, nor reusable.
Here are some chicken breast fillets, all pre-sealed before being put in the bag they're sold in. It has the advantage that you can buy them bulk (8 in a bag) but the disadvantage of the extra wrapping on every single cut.

Things to do with big boxes II

This is the front of a fire engine. The one or two chairs behind are the seats for the crew. Inside the box are further panels with lots of buttons. The siren lights are made by covering yoghurt containers (little, single serve size) with coloured paper. And each siren has a different sound, according to the crew.
This is probably an extension of the train that was made with two chairs one in front of the other, in our travelling phase. I have to thank our babysitter for this idea, as it just didn't occur to me to use boxes for anything other than things you could sit in or for cubby houses. Apart from the slide down the stairs last year, I guess.
This box has seen hard play for the last 3 weeks or so. Of course, that has coincided with a lot of fires  and smoke in the kitchen.

New Sneakers

I forget when I last bought sneakers, but I know I haven't been jogging much in the last three years. But finally, I am jogging semi regularly, and I braved the store and bought new sneakers. I am so out of the loop that I am not ingrained to think that the current colours available are in any way cool (neon, neon and more neon?!), but I did my best.
The photo above is my old sneakers, with the new version of my sneakers. I ended breaking a tradition from uni and not getting the next version of this type of shoe, and was a bit nervous about it, but I took them for a jog today and didn't get rubbed heels, which makes me very happy. Normally it takes around 2 weeks to wear in sneakers, plus bandaids.