I created the “word cloud” above at Wordle.net using three and half years of blog entries from our site. The larger the word, the more frequently it has appeared on our blog. Wordle crunches the text you give it down to the top n words (n=150 for the image above) and arranges them according to [...]

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Evan loves the Frog and Toad stories, and one of his favorites is “Dragons and Giants” which appears in the book Frog and Toad Together. In this story, Frog and Toad set out to determine whether they are brave. Standing side by side while examining themselves in a mirror, Frog states, “We look brave.” [...]

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Roses. <sigh>.
I will grant that: 1) a well-maintained plant can be semi-attractive, 2) one could find the sheer variety of blossom shapes and colors intriguing, and 3) yes, they can even produce beautiful flowers. But why do these plants require so much effort? Back in 2001, when we bought our house, the back yard [...]

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For the past several years, we’ve had a few azalea plants in the courtyard by our front door. The plant closest to the front door is located mostly under the roof soffit and, up until I put in a drip irrigation system a few years back, would die off every couple years. (We’re currently on [...]

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I chased this bumblebee around one of the Spirea japonica plants in our front yard for several minutes trying to get a crisp, clear shot, but he was just moving too fast. He would scurry around the tiny blossoms collecting pollen for about 5 seconds and then fly to the next blossom cluster. The photo [...]

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Jen got a little too eager for fresh peas and picked these pods well before they were ready. Despite their early separation from the vine, they were still sweet and tasty. And the pods were equally delicious!
So far, our garden is doing quite well this year. Our first crop of lettuce, which we grew from [...]

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As you can see, last weekend’s project was to spruce up the front yard for this weekend’s double-birthday celebrations. (Quiz: Can you name both people whose birthdays we will be celebrating this weekend? The answer can be easily found in the archives.) I am not a big fan of bark. In the past (and in [...]

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