Greetings from Wildfire Smoke

Thursday was another smoky day, though not as bad as Wednesday; it seemed to be clearing in the morning, then came back in the afternoon. So I was mostly indoors again, though we did get a walk in the evening and the bunnies seemed to be doing all right. I worked on setting up the Star Trek Tarot cards Paul drew me as a gift over 30 years ago for printing and I read some more of The Book of Air and Shadows. 

We had veggie burgers for dinner with cheese fries and I just got off a Thursday night chat which ran two hours, so I'm running late, but we only watched a bit of tonight's one baseball game (Phillies-Mets) and half an episode of Discovery. Here are ships and skyline in the background from Sail Boston, including Bunker Hill Monument, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and (I'm told) the building where Paul works:

Greetings from the Ecotarium

I spent a lot of Friday in the garage organizing things -- I had a bunch of papers that had been in a plastic under-bed drawer which then ended up in storage and are now in cardboard file boxes, plus I found a bunch of things I had no idea I still owned (oversize theater programs from our honeymoon, 1990s Pre-Raphaelite calendars, Princess Diana stuff my uncle collected) that need to be sorted. I also started reading The Book of Air and Shadows, a conspiracy theory around a lost Shakespeare manuscript that's kind of if Dan Brown had a great sense of humor. 

The Orioles beat the Royals with some eighth-inning heroics, then we watched Apple's excellent Friday night lineup: Sugar (a bit too violent for my film noir taste but very tightly written), Silo (I'm really enjoying the past-present split in this season's episodes, though I, like her friends, want the real Juliette back), and the season finale of Star City (still very dark and well done, and it better come back for a second season, though I did not expect the love story!). Here are some of the New England animals who live at the Ecotarium:

Greetings from Saima Park

Sunday was the annual Kesajuhla (summer festival) at the Finnish Center at Saima Park in Fitchburg, which is not far from where Adam and most of his in-laws live. Hildy, Cindy, and Solveig were playing and singing with the Fitchburg State Community Orchestra at the event, and Hildy was also performing with the Finnish dancing group. So we spent several hours there watching the performances with Tom, walking through the little market, and hanging out with various relatives and their friends.

 

We did a little shopping on the way home, did some watering and pruning of the lilac bush in front of the house when we got there, and took a walk to see bunnies when it got cooler. We watched the always-fabulous Vampire Lestat after dinner and I loved all of it but I screamed when Lestat told Daniel he was saving all his energy for Wor-chester, Massachusetts, then argued insisting that that's the correct pronunciation. Now we're watching late season three Discovery, and the stupid, it burns.

Greetings from A Bug's World

Monday was mostly rainy, so I tried to do outdoor chores early -- sweeping the deck, setting up the new hose which I didn't get to use because I couldn't find the master switch for the outdoor spigot -- it was already drizzling when I wiped down the railings out front. Then I did laundry, unpacked a box of astronomy books and Grateful Dead souvenirs I found in the garage while looking for the water valve, and finished reading Mieville's Un Lun Dun. 

It was pouring when Paul got home, so we never took a walk, though I did a lot of running up and down stairs doing chores. Instead we had Cincinnati chili for dinner, watched the finale of The Way Home -- pretty satisfying all around -- and now we're watching the second season of The Agency, which is less stressful now that my two favorite characters aren't sharing the screen much. From the Bug's World exhibit at the Roger Williams Park Zoo:

Greetings from Moore State Park

We had gorgeous warm weather on Sunday, so we went to Moore State Park in Paxton, which has an azalea-rhododendron garden, waterfalls descending from an old sawmill, a number of building ruins, a bat house, some turtles, lots of birds, and many water snakes in the large pond. There are many hiking trails, some in the woods and some through the flowers, plus a big sunny hill with bird nests in the grass. 

 

We got ice cream at Scoop's Scoopz on the way home, plus we ran into Paxton Marketplace for drinks and Shaw's for a couple of things we forgot yesterday. Then we came home, watched a bit of the Orioles victory and a bit of the Mariners loss, had soup and crusty bread for dinner, and watched a bunch of Boston Blue around a late conversation with Daniel about work, real estate, and China Mieville novels.

Greetings from Acton

I found a pair of bookends I hadn't known where they were packed earlier this week, so I spent the morning doing a bit of shelf rearranging across multiple floors of the house, which was very relaxing. Then we had lunch, I talked to a couple of friends, I did some computer stuff, and we watched the end of the Mariners victory over the Astros and the delayed start of the Red Sox loss to the Phillies. 

It rained all day, so we took a walk when it was drizzle. Only three of us made it to Thursday night chat, which is always fun, and around it we watched this week's Ghosts and the second episode of Boston Blue, which starts at Fenway Park and has a decent amount of shots around Boston even though it mostly films in Toronto. Here are some of the flowers we saw on Mother's Day at the Acton Arboretum:

Greetings from the Bookseller

I did a bunch of chores on Wednesday morning, then we had lunch and I chatted with my high school friends. It was a nice nearly-50-degree afternoon, and when we took a walk, we could hear spring peepers in the water around the glacial erratic in the middle of our neighborhood. Then I watched the coronation episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power with Cel and Laurie. 

It was semifinals night on The Masked Singer, so we're at the point where all the performances are really good. Afterward we put on the first episode of the second season of Daredevil: Born Again, which is just not my kind of superhero show, and now we're watching the start of The Forsytes and I feel like I should just watch the older version. The printer at Old Sturbridge Village: