“What I did this summer” by Jill B., age 28
Posted 2 years, 4 months ago at 8:20 pm. 0 comments
Switzerland, Vermont, gardening, biking, house projects… yep, that pretty much sums it up.
What, you want more details? Well, here you go.
It’s been more than 3 months since we made our amazing, wonderful, super-duper, awesome, kick-ass trip to Switzerland. Three months, and I still haven’t gotten all of our pictures and videos uploaded to Flickr. I think I left off on “Day 4″. Only 11 more days to go! That’s a project that will be perfect for a rainy weekend – and I’m sure we’ll be having plenty of those soon, as we seem to have settled into some crisp, fall-ish weather the last few days. If you want to check out the pictures I have so far, they’re all right here. I was pretty good at keeping a journal while we were there, supplemented with plenty of hand-drawn maps and sketches. Todd and I talked about creating a little mini-website all about our trip to Switzerland where we could share all that stuff together with our photos. At this rate we’ll have that done, mmmm say, 2011.
I was also lucky enough to make another trip to Vermont this summer. Last summer was my first visit to the east coast, ever. The week we spent in Vermont was very nice and relaxing for me, however record rainfalls and flooding kind of kept the summer activities to a minimum. I did lots of reading, and also (unfortunately) a bit of work. This summer was totally different – same rest and relaxation, but a lot more summer fun and NO WORK. We totally lucked out with the weather, as they had been having a rather rainy summer but during our week and a half visit Vermont saw temps in the 90s with only the occasional thunderstorm (they provided some awesome skies at dusk). I learned how to wakeboard, did a lot of swimming and reading, got a tan (!!!) and didn’t have to think about work one little bit. It was great. I’ve got all our pictures and some videos up on Flickr if you want to see them.
So aside from all the traveling we did (which we are SO grateful for) we had fun this summer working in the backyard and growing veggies in the garden. It was our first crack at deliberately trying to grow things, and it went pretty well. We learned a lot – like, we really don’t need 8 cucumber starters and 4 roma tomato plants, and that lettuce is disgusting if it grows too fast and flowers (bolting). We already have big plans for the yard for next summer. I somehow don’t have many pictures of the yard this summer; here’s one when the grass was still green (before the heatwave).
Todd got a few house projects wrapped up this summer, too. He built benches for the dining area, and a beautiful dining room table. We had cushions made and upholstered for us (by the Whole 9 Yards, who were awesome) – so now we have a great seating/eating area where previously there was… well, nothing really. Todd also got the fireplace fixed up so we can actually use it this winter. That, plus a new fireplace screen, some new plants and some tidying up, and our living room is looking pretty damn good. Nice and clean, just like Mr Q likes it!
So, with our plants dying, our fireplace fixed, and memories of summer fading, I think we’re just about ready for fall winter. Yea, can we just skip past rainy, dreary fall and fast-forward to a snowy winter so I can try out my new snowboard?
