what we did on our summer vacation

We lucked out on the weather. The heaviest part of the work—rototilling, raking, picking up sod and rocks—was done in sunshine. And after the fertilizing, seeding, and spreading of "ripe" hay (even Martha now knows how to use a hay fork)—it rained, which is good for new seed.

What else did we do?

Filled the two urns for the cemetery

Put up the porch shades

Had a fish fry at the Flavor Haus with Roger and Eileen

Dinner at Tips Up with Ross and Jeannie

Spent about 4 hours at the Dunn auction

Loaded the truck with almost everything we "won" at the auction

Met Jim and Ed at Dina's for breakfast

Hemmed the drapes in Martha's room

Repaired the bedspread in the rose room

Depleted Martha's wine supply

Ate spaghetti with Martha's marinara sauce with Ross and Jeannie

Attended the Gettysburg address in the cemetery, complete with a pretty righteous diatribe against any war dissenters

Ate on the porch afterward: burgers, hot dogs, cole slaw, deviled eggs, cupcakes, chocolate cake, pasta salad, chips and dip

Found 60 year old toys for Sean and Ryan

Witnessed a race between Ryan and Ed (Ryan is fast!)

And, as I write this, Tom and Martha are upstairs carpeting closets.

Gaithersburg is going to seem restful.

polo people wear hats

Thanks to Bridget, we spent yesterday afternoon at a polo match in Leesburg. Many odd things about polo. The riders hang out during halftime (after three chukkers) and talk to the spectators.

The halftime show is high on male-dominated feats of daring and scary stuff. One of these flag carriers has a prosthetic leg, which he probably picked up in Iraq as a Blackwater employee. Heavy military stuff under cover. Virginia is for lovers?

And the food is good, especially with Bridget's passes. We didn't spend a cent the whole afternoon. We avoided the free-flowing champagne and wine and concentrated on the salads, roast beef, chicken, potato salad, small quiches, interesting vegetables, and lots of water.

On the home front today, after Bridget took off for NYC, we made some progress in the garden. This may look like an onion harvest, but it's not. We spent the afternoon digging up all the bulbs in one section of the garden so that we could plant more annuals. Tom came home from St. Rose today with about 100 plants left over from last weekend's plant sale. Most of them are now in the ground or in hanging baskets. I even did some digging (most of my talent lies in cleanup and organizing, but I made the effort), wearing my new iPod!! I even figured out how to change the volume. I think there's hope.

back home

We made it back to Gaithersburg by 4:00 pm today. No complaints from the cats, the corn has sprouted in the garden, and two Carolina wrens are still working very hard at fitting long sticks into the small opening on their bird house.

Lots of excitement in upstate New York while we were there. Martha had washed the drapes in the twin bedroom, and major disintegration problems surfaced on the hems. The good news is that mother's sewing machine not only works, it works beautifully. And, as we all kind of know, if you can't find it in that house, you don't need it. Orange thread? No problem. Seam binding? Miles of it.

The best discovery was the $1.49 cone at the Flavor Haus. It's worth the server handing over the "teeny weeny" cone.

Ellicottville was overrun with people intent on floating on the Great Valley creek on a beautiful day.

The reports were that around 3,000 people put some kind of floating vehicle in the water on Saturday, a percentage of them spent the night in a tent along the creek, and nobody had any qualms with floating with a six pack.

The picture I wish I had? Tom on the ladder in the dark with a power drill, Martha with a flashlight, an angry starling circling as he attached a perfectly measured board onto the corner of the porch to cover the hole the starling had found.