Another pink tulip. I love the green background, it speaks to my preppy side. This weekend is our annual Civil War event. The weather promises to be beautiful. I will be busy today baking pies, cookies and muffins. Tomorrow I will sit around in 19th century clothing, knitting and spinning. Good times.

Hope you have an exciting weekend!

The lilacs are growing.

But so are the socks.

I never thought I’d beat the lilacs but I just might do it.

As I told you last week, my sock mojo is back. It’s been (almost) all socks, all the time. And that means I have a finished pair to show you.

These are the socks for Hannah knit with Knitterly Things Vesper Sock Yarn in the color Serendipitous.

The yarn is amazing and the stripes match perfectly – something Hannah truly loves.

The pattern, natch, is my picot edge sock pattern but knit with 60 stitches instead of 64.

And the model, well, she’s just thrilled to have a new pair of socks.

The topic this week is 10 Favorite iPhone Apps. I’ve chosen this for very selfish reasons – I want to know what apps my friends are using! I’m hoping that the 10 on Tuesday participants who don’t have iPhones will find a way to adapt this to their needs. Okay, here are my 10 favorite apps:

1. Facebook. I just can’t be without my Facebook hook up.
2. SplashShopper. This is great for grocery lists, travel lists, book and movie lists and so much more.
3. TipCalculator. I use mine a lot, especially if I’m figuring a tip after a martini or two.
4. AroundMe. Great app for finding restaurants, ATMs, movie theaters – anything you might need when you don’t know where you are.
5. Flickr. Not only can you upload directly to flickr but it has a very cool way of turning photos into videos.
6. Hipstamatic. I blame this on Gale. It’s addicting.
7. iBird Plus. The most expensive app I’ve ever bought but worth every penny if you’re into birding at all.
8. PowerLyrics. Start this up while a song is playing and all those words you couldn’t understand suddenly become clear.
9. Sushipedia. The biggest problem with this one is that it makes me want sushi every day.
10. Words with Friends. Lots of fun but the games seem to drag on forever. I’m hoping future updates will improve this online scrabble type game.

Those are mine. What are yours?

On Saturday I had the privilege of going with Hannah and the other seniors in the music program at her school on a day trip to Boston. I was surprised – and immensely pleased – that my daughter wanted me to be a part of this day with her friends.

We started the day with lunch at Fire and Ice. This was my first visit to this restaurant and I enjoyed it a lot. Everything was very fresh and the combinations are endless! The cooks at the grill make it a fun dining experience – Hannah even had to dance before they would give her her food.

After lunch we went to see the musical production of Young Frankenstein. Our seats were in the nose bleed section and that made the actors hard to hear but other than that the show was good. It’s mostly just like the movie (one of my favorite comedies) and many of the jokes are the same. The music is pretty good and the dance numbers were excellent.

Finally, after the show, we headed for Faneuil Hall for some shopping and dinner. Dale was able to join us at the last minute due to a cancellation and he and Hannah and I had a great meal together at Durgin Park. I love going there. It’s reliable and delicious and just so Boston.

It was a fun day and so nice to have the chance to spend it together as a family. I know days like this aren’t going to be plentiful in the coming years so I’m happy to have made the most of this one.

We had a mini getaway on Cape Cod this week. The beach is gorgeous this time of year!

Have a great weekend!

Last weekend Dale and I took a Sunday drive to the Herring Run in nearby Middleboro. This particular spot that we visited has been an active fish spawning site since the late 1600s, when the Native Americans used it. It was rebuilt back in 1996 and the herring have rewarded us with their visits ever since.

It’s a lovely spot, all green and full of flowering trees at this time of year.

It’s also full of water. That’s a good thing, though, because the more water there is the easier it is for the fish to make their swim upstream.

I don’t have a lot of scientific understanding about this but the gist of the whole thing is that the herring have to make their way from the ocean to their place of birth in order to spawn. Cool, huh?

Anyway, the ladder – which really is like a regular ladder laying on the ground – helps them to get upstream.

It’s quite an arduous journey for the little fish and they collect in the cement corners of the ladder structure after they make it over a ladder rung. You can see their silvery bodies in that picture, I hope.

When they finally make it to the top they hang out in this little pool and rest before swimming on to the spawning location. Last year 800,000 herring made their way up this particular run.

That’s a lot of fish, my friends. A lot of fish.

I have lilac buds.

They can be found both in the form of lilacs:

And socks:

Which do you think will come to full fruition first?

Earth Day is Thursday and in honor of that this week’s Ten on Tuesday topic is 10 Ways to Be Green. I think we’ve done variations on this before but you never know when someone will come up with a new idea that might make all the difference to someone else. So, while I may risk repeating some of these things, it’s for a good cause.

1. Use reusable bags at the grocery store.  I have some from Winn Dixie that I love to confuse just to confuse our local grocery store clerks.
2. Get yourself a Sigg bottle. We all have them and use them constantly.
3. Recycle everything possible. Our town trash is “pay as you throw” so we have a great incentive for recycling as much as we can.
4. Switch to CFL bulbs. They take a tiny bit longer to warm up but they last and last and last.
5. Ride your bike for local errands. It’s a great way to get some exercise, too.
6. Install a programmable thermostat. We did this a few years ago and, even with out wood stove, it made a big difference in the amount of oil we use.
7. Hang clothes on a clothesline. I still think sheets dried in the sunshine have the best smell in the world.
8. Buy local food whenever possible. We will be participating in a CSA for the 3rd year this summer and I can’t wait. We also buy local eggs and beef when we get the opportunity.
9. Speaking of food, try a vegetarian meal now and again. I sneak one meatless meal in every so often and, while Dale may not be thrilled, he has adjusted.
10. Tell someone else something that you do. If we all spread the word then the word will spread!

It’s Patriot’s Day here in Massachusetts (and Maine) and that means a day off for both Dale and I. While he is going to march with his Civil War buddies in the Lexington parade, I am taking the kids out for shopping and lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. I can’t help but wonder which one of us is being more American. Heh.

Hope you all have a great day!