hey jud

Here are some photos from our most recent Vermont visit. We rode the chairlift to the top and walked back down on the one good day of the weekend. The day before it rained all day and the day after it snowed about 4" on the top! The kids have gotten their new gear and we're all ready for the start of the season.

Sometime this spring we noticed a rip in the plastic covering the greenhouse, and by summer the wind had pulled it all off, leaving the frame open to the elements. We settled on this past weekend to all (Phil, Marcia, Jay, Peter and I) meet up in Orange when the weather looked ok for the job - no rain, not too cold and especially no wind. Saturday, the day we arrived, was the most promising day, so we got everything ready while we waited for Phil to arrive from his drive up from Virginia. The plastic had already been dropped off by FedEx, so we just needed 1x3's for the cleating and a box of screws. We got the plastic rolled out next to the greenhouse and loosened the folds by opening it up a bit. Then we laid out the 1x3's and started screws about every foot so everything was in place and ready to go when Phil arrived. He put on his work boots and hauled out the special ladder, which I'd seen forever lying in one of the greenhouse beds but never had any idea what it was. The ladder was exactly wide enough to cover one sheet of glass and rest on the frame on either side, with a roller at the top for sliding it up and clamps at the bottom for hitching it tight. Philip was quite confident about going up on it but no one else expressed interest in trying it. To get the plastic over the ridge to start, Jay had put an old baseball into a bag, tied it closed and, with enough line to go over the greenhouse, tied the other end to one corner of the plastic. Then he threw the bag over the greenhouse and Phil began pulling the plastic up and over and untied the line. There was one moment when a very slight wind started to blow the plastic off the peak, but luckily the wind died right down, and we were able to pull it back along the peak for Phil to go up the ladder and cleat it to the house. Once it was stretched tight and cleated at the far end of the greenhouse as well, there was no more worry about it blowing off, and all that remained was cleating both sides and trimming off the excess plastic. It went quite smoothly on this calm day but it was easy to imagine how frustrating it would have been had we been forced to do the job on a windy day. There was much rejoicing when the job was complete. See it all in the job pictures.

Last Sunday we had a great walk from Charlestown to the river to watch the Head races, and back home again to Charlestown. Along the way, we had coffee at our favorite Area Four, passed by the always colorful graffiti alley next to Central Kitchen and watched much of the race from the Western Avenue bridge. As the races were finishing up, we walked up the river and headed into Harvard Square where we got a prime football-watching bar spot at the Russell House Tavern and yummy steak tartare for me. After dinner we paused in the Square to check out a band playing behind the subway stop and then meandered back down Mass Ave, through Kendall Square again, and on to home. See some random photos from the walk.