OMG, I killed a snake

I killed a snake.

See picture above. You can't even tell it's chopped in half.
I went outside to check on the garden after I got home from work yesterday afternoon, and I let the cats out to play while I did. One was terribly interested in a particular bush, he kept smelling it and dancing all around it, and I ignored it for the first few minutes. But he kept smelling and prancing, this from a cat who normally bounds all over the yard, and finally I went over there to see what all the fuss was about.

About that time a snake slithered out of the bush.

It wasn't big, or poisonous. A little black-and-yellow garter snake of some variety, I imagine. It would have been hard-pressed to swallow anything bigger than a cough drop. Nevertheless, I certainly didn't want it getting inside the house. And, you know, it was a SNAKE. So I scooped up the cats, deposited them inside, and came back with the hoe. And chopped the snake in two.

Then I ran back inside and called my husband to come home and remove the corpse.

I'm about equal parts proud of myself and grossed out. I also feel a little hillbilly for chopping a snake in two with a hoe. (My dad had a good laugh at that one.) Nevertheless, I feel like I've earned my Wildlife Badge.

So, let's recap. So far my backyard has hosted chipmunks, squirrels, groundhogs, rabbits, foxes, mice, a raccoon, a turtle, deer, about 900,000 different kinds of birds, and now a snake. I've even heard owls. We've seen every kind of wildlife present in the eastern half of the US with the possible exception of bobcats and bear. I wonder if my neighbors are seeing this much action or if it's just me.

If I have to kill another snake any time soon, I may hyperventilate.

The final plants are in the ground!

Which means the gardening prep work is done. All I have to do now is water, weed, and watch everything grow (I hope). It took longer than I thought to get everything transplanted, but hopefully next year a) it won't be so rainy, and b) I won't need to create new rows/gardening space from scratch like I did this year.

We're in the process of firming up vacation plans (which should include a week in New Orleans/Gulf Coast next month) and possibly a trip somewhere fun over Thanksgiving.

But these days, going into my backyard after work, looking at my garden, and having a nice cold drink on a hot day is enough of a vacation for me. ANY nice weather after the last nine months or so is like a vacation.

Neptune Oyster

While roaming through Boston last weekend, we happened upon Neptune Oyster and decided to give it a shot, based on the recommendation from a guy working a high-end wine shop in the North End. (When in doubt, wine and cheese shop employees will almost invariably have good restaurant recommendations.)

It didn't disappoint.

We gorged ourselves on fresh seafood, starting with a round of Wellfleet oysters. I also discovered the Kusshi oysters, from British Columbia, and Summerside from Prince Edward Island; the Kusshi were very meaty, and the Summersides were almost lemony. The Wellfleets were terrifically briny, as always, but I may like the Canadian ones better. We paired with a LaCryma Cristi Dei Feudi 2009 from Campagna, which was delightful--it had an almost salty aftertaste, which went perfectly with the seafood.

Next came a hamachi ceviche with a jalapeno pesto. I could have eaten a huge plate of that--it was really good. (I had to explain the concept of ceviche to my husband--raw fish or seafood which is marinated in citrus juice, so that the texture changes and becomes similar to the texture of cooked fish/seafood, even though it's still raw. Very light and refreshing. Yum.)

I moved on to P.E.I. mussels in a Thai curry sauce (which I sopped up with a side of fries, moules frites-style); my visiting friend had seared scallops with a black bean-corn thing, and my husband had the lobster roll.

One of the things I missed most in Southern California was good, fresh seafood. You'd think Southern California would have good seafood, but you'd be wrong. That was one of the (few) saving graces of moving from there to Boston--I knew I could finally get good seafood again. Restaurants like this are perfect for scratching that itch--super-fresh seafood, small, inviting ambience, good wine list. We'll definitely go back.

Summer's finally arrived

I think we had three Marches in a row, skipped April and May entirely, and went straight into June. After weeks of rain and more rain, it's been sunny, mostly clear, and in the 80s for the last week or two. We got a picnic table and citronella torches so that we can eat outside, and I'm scurrying to try to get the last of the seedlings planted (all tomatoes and peppers, at this point). Everything that's already in the ground is growing wildly; I swear I can sit and watch the green beans grow, they've shot up three inches in the last three days. I hope this means a really hot summer, and a bumper crop of vegetables.

Memorial Day weekend was very nice. An old friend from college came up to visit. The last time I saw her was at the wedding, and the last time I'd seen her before that was probably my college graduation, lo these many years ago. We had a great time catching up. Saturday night I had a dinner party with a bunch of people, Sunday we went into Boston and had a great meal (separate blog post on that later), and Monday we recuperated. I didn't get as much gardening in as I would have liked, due to hanging out with my visitor, but at least I managed to get the knee-high grass cut before she showed up.

I also got a credit card paid off. It was just a little one, but I finally feel like we're making progress with debt repayment. I cancelled it right away.

Wedding quilt

This is the quilt my mom made me, in honor of our first wedding anniversary. The topside of the quilt has a bunch of personal references; the red is for my red wedding shoes, the dogwood blossoms in the middle are for Virginia, where my husband and I met; there's an Ohio design in each corner, since he's from Ohio; and so on.

The backside of it is handwritten blocks from the wedding itself; all the wedding guests signed a big piece of material in permanent marker, and that was woven into the quilt. Here are a couple of selections:

Gardening update



Tomatoes, squash, and cauliflower seedlings. Note inventive use of lawn as grassy garden patch.


Rain. That's the update.

For about two weeks straight here in Boston, it rained. Every day was cloudy, grey and overcast (when it wasn't actively raining), and late May temps struggled to clear 60 degrees. For several days, there was standing water in the garden, because the ground was too saturated to absorb it.

I'm really, really pleased to report that it looks like summer has finally arrived. The forecast is rain-free and sunny for at least the next 10 days, and temperatures are in the 70s.



Early morning shot of actual non-lawn garden. Note vigorous kale in far left row.

 Which is good, because I still haven't transplanted all the seedlings yet. I've been transplanting the tomatoes, a few at a time (the ones I transplanted right before all the rain started are on the verge of dying--they're all limp and yellow, so I'm holding some seedlings in reserve to replace them, if the sun doesn't perk them up). The rest of the garden is planted (green beans, corn, cucumbers, etc.), and the early stuff (kale, peas, spinach) is finally showing signs of life.

I'm hoping to get the rest of the tomatoes and all the peppers transplanted within the next two weeks. I'm hoping that's not too late.


Tomato seedlings, in lawn.




More tomato seedlings, in lawn.



Containers moved outside and finally showing actual greenery.



Eat: Dinner at the British Consulate, a Pop-Up

There's a blurry line between "underground restaurant" and "pop-up restaurant," though one of my fellow attendees at this past weekend's pop-up opined that "underground" is technically illegal, and "pop-up" is just in a non-restaurant venue--i.e., legal.

Whether legal or illegal, it was awesome. Eat hosted a pop-up dinner at the British Consulate, featuring a British-inspired menu. This was my first foray into the underground/pop-up world in Boston, and it was a smashing success.

First, the British Consulate. I've no idea how they got that space, but let's just say that the Brits have their conference room lighting down to an art. The meal was held in the lobby and a large conference room, both equipped with automatic chain-mail curtains and automatic lighting worthy of a Pink Floyd concert. It was full dark outside, but the lighting stayed at a perfect 9-AM-sunlight-just-coming-through-the-curtains setting the whole time. Sometimes pink, sometimes blue, but always bright-daylight-esque. Everyone was impressed. James Bond jokes abounded.

Second, the meal itself. Cocktail hour featured a local Berkshires-made gin, Greylock Gin, in Tom Collinses for everyone. Appetizers were haggis on toast, grilled cheese sandwiches with mango chutney, and boar sausage wrapped in puff pastry. There was a string quartet playing Beatles songs. There were quite a lot of people there, I'd say at least 60 or 70, far more than I was expecting. But that's the best part of this kind of dinner--being able to interact with all the strange new people. It's much more fun, and intimate, than a restaurant meal.

First course: Seared foie gras on a crumpet with maple gel, HP powder, and pickled berries. Imagine breakfast, with foie gras. A crumpet is sort of like a cross between a waffle and an English muffin. Best of all, the lady beside me didn't want her foie gras, so I got a double portion.

Second course: chicken korma soup with fiddlehead ferns. The lighting changed to a blue setting for this course, which is why the soup looks blue. It wasn't actually. They added a dusting of fenugreek to give the whole thing a curry vibe.

Third course: a riff on bangers and mash. An Earl Grey-smoked duck sausage with egg, grilled tomato, brussels sprout, and local fried egg. The sausage and the egg were the best parts.

Main course: locally-caught hake (not cod as per the menu) wrapped in a sort of pastry shell, with basil tartar sauce. The fish was excellent, light and flaky, and I really liked the basil tartar sauce. My husband said it was the best fish he'd ever had. Note pink lighting.

Dessert: Sticky toffee pudding, sort of deconstructed. The plates were fun, but beware of serving food on a sloping plate. A good portion of everyone's dessert ended up sliding off the plate onto the table.

The wine was by Bear Flag, which I'd had in California, so it was good to see a wine that I was already familiar with.

It's heartening to see such a lively alternative restaurant scene in Boston; I'm looking forward to attending a lot more of these, now that we're settled in. Maybe I can finally get my own underground restaurant up and running.