first day of school

isaac has completed his first day of traditional school.  after 3 years in the wonderful Montessori classroom isaac began first grade at Ashland (a public elementary school about eight blocks from our home).  he had a great day and was full of stories when we picked  him up.  especially good to have kath (Geoff’s mum) here to help with the transition.

here we are having some ice cream to celebrate the end of the first day.

 

and here he is on day two with grandma out the front of Ashland.

grandma’s visit

geoff mum is visiting us from australia for the month of august and as you can imagine, isaac is loving every minute.   sadly, geoff’s dad wasn’t able to come but we are all excited about visiting melbourne in december to celebrate christmas australia-style.

here they are at our favorite orchard picking peaches.

here they are ten pin bowling.

 

and here they are checking out the lexington farmers market…

and our new neighborhood farmers market.

the tooth fairy cometh

friday afternoon…big day here at 262.  isaac lost his first tooth and survived the trauma.  chomping on some mac’n’cheese had the tooth hanging by a thread.  with a twist, geoff popped the peg right out of there.  here’s some video and pics to tell the story.

saturday summer garden

another warm weekend here in Lex.  the tomatoes needed some serious tidying up.  sherry managed to harvest a tasty load of veg including okra, tomatoes, carrots, ground cherries (a new favorite), raspberries, beets, and peppers.

some local peaches from the farmers market topped things off for dessert – peach cake in the cast iron skillet.

we also discovered an empty bottle launched over our fence into the Jerusalem artichokes. 

finally, a bonus visit from the kids at SEEDS (a seedleaf and kid’s cafe initiative teaching kids to grow and sell their own veg) who sold their produce from our driveway.

Turners – the final chapter

sad farewell to match the joyful arrival.  another chapter in the transatlantic affection we share.  final pictures of the turners in kentucky and already longing for our next reunion in hackney.

we love the turners and especially adore our god-daughter, milly.  cherished memories.   it’s no too early to become sentimental about the blessed reunion of 2010 in the USA.  follow their ongoing adventures out west at http://turnertale.blogspot.com/

Turners – post two

the good times keep rolling with the Turners.  several meals with our communality family, visits to the freedom center in Cincinnati and local treats from sunrise bakery and spaldings.  walking and biking around our east end neighborhood and visiting the community garden…gathering images to go with our phone conversations in the months to come.  they leave later today and look forward to San Francisco and an RV driving tour around the south-east before heading home to Hackney.

the Turners of London

we are in hospitality heaven at the moment hosting some of our dearest (but most distant…geographically) friends – the Turner family from England.  we are cherishing the chance to share our beloved Kentucky with these dear ones who have hosted us countless times in their home across the Atlantic.  we picked them up from the airport after their whirlwind 4 days in NY city.  they leave us next Wednesday for further US adventures out west (San Francisco and two weeks in campervan exploring the wild west).   Millie is our Goddaughter and the day they arrived was her birthday so the reunion celebration was all the more special – we gave her a USA-style birthday chocolate chip cookie cake.

july garden

things are kicking off at the world cup…and things are kicking off in our garden.  here’s a quick sample (of the garden, that is).

- blackberries, sweet potatoes, raspberries, green beans, figs, peppers, okra, apricot, tomatoes

the 4th and summertime

we had a wonderful holiday weekend.  on saturday i ran in the bluegrass 10,000 race and managed to complete it in a personal best time of 44min14secs (that’s 7min10secs per mile for those of you who still like to measure things in miles).  it felt good to pound it out with 3,487 other runners and i came in 223rd overall.  we also enjoyed walking the parade with our friend Chris Ford who is running for our district council seat.

 

on friday night we walked downtown with our new housemates, thad and felice, to hear the lexington philharmonic belt out some patriotic tunes. 

today (sunday) has been sabbath-y with some shopping and gardening and a lovely afternoon/evening of rest and books-on-tape (roald dahl).  finally resetting the rest-clock after a wonder-full month.  now we are looking fwd to a visit from the Turners of London and Kath’s (Geoff’s mum) visit in August.  hooray for summer!