Laowai

I've packed my last school lunch for a while – yay!

I've been feeling so thankful for my garden lately. I find myself putting aside all the things I should be doing in the house to wander outside and tend to my plant friends.

The rose petals have been falling onto the lambs ear and it looks so pretty.

In the past, my greatest joy in (summer) life was going to get a car load of free wood chips from our town. But since they stopped offering free wood chips I had to buy some. Four cubic yards were dropped off and I hauled them to the back yard. Then I couldn't lift my arms for a day and a half but it sure looks nice with a thick layer of wood chips under my maple tree.

Here's my vegetable garden. I've been harvesting some peas and I have tomatoes, green beans and herbs planted.

Something has been eating the little bean seedlings – I think I might have to replant some of them.

I must have a pot or two of nasturtiums every year. The are so unique and sweet.

After last year's success, I planted even more morning glories. They come up super fast but then half of them got eaten so I replanted with an improvised little fence. Crossing my fingers that the bunnies (or whoever eats them) stays away.

Here's one of my little Japanese Anemones. They are slow growers so I'm trying to protect them and keep track of them with some chicken wire. Oh and several blue sages that I grew from seed are in the background. This is their second year and I'm excited to see some blooms.

Here's one of the bee balm flowers that I grew from seed – this is the first time I've seen them bloom and I just noticed the pretty dots on the petals.

And when those petals fall off this different looking flower is left.

I thought the few meadow anemones that I planted last fall had died, but look – they're alive and well. Yay!

Here's my front garden – another work in progress but it's starting to have a nice variety of perennials.

I've been looking and looking for verbena bonariensis sprouts in my front bed – they are supposed to be good at reseeding. Finally, just today I saw some coming up and I'm so excited. Note to self – must memorize what they look like for next year – sort of like daisy leaves but more textured.

This is one of the 10 feverfew plants that I started inside in March. I planted them in my front bed today. I hope they do well and I hope they come back as perennials for me.

The other plants I started inside this spring were these baby Heuchera. I also planted these in the shady side of my front bed today. They are so little but I'm trying to be patient. Patience seems to be a theme when it comes to my garden. Things can be so expensive and that's discouraging. So I challenge myself to try starting things from seed or I buy small plants instead of big perennials. And I've been trying to divide and move plants around instead of just buying more. Maybe my garden looks a bit crazy but that's okay – it's thrilling to root for my tiny plants and wait for them to thrive. And it's so fun to be surprised at what is coming up differently each year.

Last but not least – I'm enjoying peonies on my windowsil.

This month has flown by. Here's Bea and her friend Mabel coming out of school. The girls have less than two weeks of school left. They are ready to be done for a while but at the same time it all slips away so quickly. 

We got to take a tour of the school building where Bea will start her sophomore year next fall. I'm a broken record but… It's so big!

I think it's exciting and intimidating for Bea.

The garden has come alive now that we've finally gotten some warm weather. I have been spending so much time just puttering around my garden.

I have been carefully hardening off my seedlings. I've messed this step up in the past so I'm being very cautious and giving them lots of time to adjust to the outside world.

We had the house painted last week and as soon as the workers were done I finished planting my pots, got out the yard furniture and arranged everything so we're all ready for summer.

Over the weekend Bea and I went to a ropes course in Wisconsin. We had a really good time – felt great to be out in the woods.

And we saw a cute (?) little snake and a baby snake too.

Even though I hate the feel of the scratchy plastic yarn on my hands… I'm making another macrame lawn chair. I found two old lawn chairs out for the trash so I had to have them. Come on over and sit in my backyard – I'll have lots of seating soon.

Bea has her drivers permit now and she's enjoying driving whenever she can. She drove us to Dairy Queen and it felt like summer.

Claire turned me on to Chia pudding breakfast cups. We mix the chia seeds with milk or yogurt drink or nut milk and then we let them sit overnight. We usually add some fruit and a little honey or maple syrup. Yum.

I started working on another window. I'm waiting for the putty on the white one to cure and then can I do a final coat of paint. The blue window is from our upstairs hallway – I just started scraping out the old putty and removing the glass today.

So, hello June and let the summer begin.

We had our house painted last week. The painters took off the shutters to paint them. I've always wondered what the house would look like without it's shutters – they bother me because they are not real shutters. In fact fake shutters really, really annoy me. They are everywhere you look and they take a very practical thing and make it stupidly useless. It's especially annoying after I've just visited Europe, where they have great shutters everywhere you look and they are serving a very useful purpose.

I've been raging against fake shutters for years (ask Brian) and then I was delighted to find the #ShudderSunday hashtag that is put out by my window restoration guru, Scott Sidler. He finds some real doozies – like these:

And yet – my house – I have to admit does look better with its shutters. 

I think they are the right size for the windows – maybe if they were properly installed inside the stone frame part it would at least make sense. But that is beyond me. So I will just live with them.

And to be fair – the Shudder Sunday guy does feature good examples of shutters too – like the one below.

Okay – ranting done.

I had been missing getting out in nature with my family. So we took a short walk at Fort Sheridan on Sunday and it felt nice. 

In 2019, when we were still living in Switzerland, Brian and I were invited to the wedding of a friend and work colleague. But that never happened, the pandemic happened instead. The wedding was delayed multiple times and in the meantime the couple got married in a courthouse and had a baby. When we found out that the wedding was happening this year it was a nice coincidence because our trip to the wedding could also be be a celebration of our 20th wedding anniversary. We went to Italy for our honeymoon and so it was a perfect trip to revisit some of the places we saw those many years ago.

Here are some photos from the wedding.

It was set in a beautiful location – an old village turned into comfortable guest accommodations and amazing wedding spaces. 

There were three nights of events plus a brunch on the last day. So much celebrating and socializing!

The wedding cake was a mille-feuille made while everyone watched. 

It was all so pretty and delicious and fun!

Here are some photos from the first part of our trip to Italy.

We flew into Milan and spent one night in Modena. And then we drove on to Sienna to spend a few days.

20 years ago – for our honeymoon – we traveled to four Italian cities (Verona, Bolzano, Venice and Sienna). It was the first time I had been to Europe and looking back I think I spent a lot of the time feeling nervous and out of place. 

But I still enjoyed myself and it was amazing to me to see so much ancient architecture everywhere. I remember flying into Milan and noticing that all the roofs were the same red tile.

We ended our honeymoon in Sienna and it was one of our favorite places. I tasted pecorino cheese with honey on top for the first time at our little hotel. 

Unsurprisingly the town of Siena hasn't changed in the last 20 years.

I, however have changed in the last 20 years. Brian has taken me all around the world and so now I don't feel so nervous when I encounter other languages or strange places.

We always joke about how we got into an argument at about 3:00 each day of our honeymoon. It was usually when we were flummoxed by some travel logistics issue. But this trip seemed very relaxing. 

Brian and I are still happy to just walk around all day when we travel. I still like to take an afternoon nap. And my never-tired husband likes to go out for a run while I sleep.

In Siena you can walk around all day and talk and stop for gelato and you won't run out of interesting things to see.

And towards the end of the day, but before dinner, you can stop for a drink and do some people watching.

That's our hotel's garden above. There was a pet turtle. Or is it a tortoise? He walked around and around and I think sometimes people would feed him bits of fruit from their breakfast.

Here are some more photos from our lovely old hotel. 

On one of our days we left the city for a hike in the countryside.

We hiked on the Via Francigena – "an ancient road and pilgrimage route running from the cathedral city of Canterbury in England, through France and Switzerland, to Rome and then to Apulia, Italy"

I remember 20 years ago being struck by the Tuscan landscape – they really do have those tall pointy trees dotted around. It's just like the iconic illustrations you see on wine labels.

We hiked to the hilltop fort that you can see above. It was a defensive position between Florence and Siena.

What a pretty hike we had. 

The next day it was time to go to the wedding venue. Whenever we got in the car Brian put on one of his favorite cycling podcasts. The Giro D'Italia bike race was going on and as we zoomed along in our tiny rental Fiat we would listen and catch up on the race's progress. And Brian did all the driving while I sat back and put my hand out and rested my palm on the woosh.

Here's my last batch of photos from our trip to Italy. These places were all new to us. 

Between Siena and the wedding venue we stopped in the city of Arezzo. Another pretty hilltop city with astonishingly old buildings and artwork.

All over Tuscany we saw swallows flying around. The Italian swallows have white bellies and they sort of animate the sky above the old buildings. So in Arezzo I bought a little terra cotta swallow sculpture as a souvenir.

We saw Ukrainian flags hanging here and there.

The wedding took place outside a town called Poppi (Poppy).

Poppi is a teeny hilltop town. You can see its 13th century castle from far away.

We explored the castle. Often castles seem stripped inside and it's hard to imagine what the interior once looked like. But the inside of the Poppi castle was a surprise. It was well preserved and well interpreted. 

The castle had nice graphics too!

Those books are very old! 

There is an Italian cat. I tried to talk to him but he didn't understand English and he was too busy hunting a little Italian lizard.

It's unfortunate that Brian is too tall for Italy.

We took one more hike in the national park next to Poppi. It was a hot day and I was preoccupied with staying on the shady side of the path the whole time. It was a beautiful hike.

On our way down the mountain we saw these little motor-less cars. They were getting all set up for a race down the curvy road complete with hay bales along the edge of the road and electronic speed monitors. Boys and their toys.

So then our trip was almost done. We stopped for a night in Pavia – which is close to Milan. A little bit more walking and talking, I little bit more gelato, another good meal and then it was time to go.

So I think the theme of all these photos and all these memories (old and new) is that it is all because of Brian. When I married Brian I was taken along on the best adventure. 

On to the next 20.

or just checking his emails?

From the military academy in Modena.