Best Appliance Ever

thanks to all who contributed to the Ocean Street Fund, we now have a dishwasher. this amazing appliance has already bettered our daily lives in the first few days of owning it. we put to use the already re-done corner of the kitchen to the right of the sink...

stainless interior...

tim added two new circuits, one for the freezer and one for the dishwasher.

our favorite plumber Bruce came by to help tim install it.

for now we decided not to cut into the back wall to make the pipes fit further behind the washer so it can be flush with the cabinets. so the washer sticks out a bit but tim framed it in nicely and with a little white paint it looks great-

one of the best parts about having the washer is that means we have an empty sink and clean counters- which makes it alot easier to actually prepare a meal!

Fall Foliage

new and old plantings create color this fall. here is a blue shadow fothergilla.

bluestar and st johns wort

bright blueberries!

staghorn sumac (not planted)

marigolds and broccoli

Morning Glories of All Colors

In late summer, the morning glories started blooming...

The Garden Continues to Grow

Sunflowers

A lone pear on our ancient pear tree

kentucky wonder pole beans

a little crowded, broccoli on the right, squash and melons on the left. the bird's nest gourd climbing the trellis really ended up taking over.

peppers

raised beds and trellises

squash flowers

...and a summer squash

a baby bird's nest gourd

we had many cucumbers, great for pickling

...the rewards

July Flooding

Compared to neighbors around Quincy and other towns in the Boston area, we fared pretty well in the storms early this summer, but we still got a little water in the basement, and some ponding in the backyard.

Our man-made pond:

Where it leaks in the basement...luckily it dries quickly. This is about as bad as it got, but within a day or two it's dry again.

Garden in June

Early this summer we discovered some new volunteer plants in the garden which are not invasive vines (which are typical)! There are brown eyed susans (rudbeckia):

and bellflower (campanula)

our bird feeder with some new and some old plantings around it...pretty hodge podge for now- but we'll see what does well and then plant more!

st johns wort blooming

allium heads (planted as bulbs last fall)

The veggie garden still growing...

Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans just getting going...

leaf lettuce is looking good as are the onions- tomatoes and basil still pretty wee

sugar snap peas! these were awesome in the late spring and then tuckered out when the hot weather came. they made us feel pretty happy about the veggie garden while the other plants grew slowly early on.

melons, gourds and squash getting going...

our first bell pepper

two salad mixes that have amazing lasted a long time through the hot weather

little marigold bed

zucchini

moving along- pole beans growing taller

strawberries