CU Graduation

A couple of months ago Bryan and I flew back to Colorado for my graduation from the University of Colorado.  We left Calvin in Virginia with some friends who generously offered to watch him while we were gone.  It was a great trip back to Boulder with lots of friends, plenty of nostalgia, and some needed closure.

My good friend Lisa and I are reunited before the Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences Department graduation ceremony.  Her graduation ceremony with the Geological Sciences Department was the next morning, so we were able to attend each others PhD hooding. 

I'm ready!

Fellow APS graduate, officemate, and friend, Bonnie, and I pose in our floppy caps, waiting for the ceremony to begin.  The ceremony was held in the Fiske Planetarium on campus and included undergraduate and graduate students in our department.

The pre-ceremony slide show listed the graduating PhD students in the APS department.  There were lots of very cool research topics, some more succinctly summarized than mine. 

This is a very grainy picture of my advisor, Dr. Brian Hynek (on the right) talking about my research just before he put my hood (collar that hangs down the back) on accidentally upside down.  He had a lot of nice things to say about me and my research, after which I was able to say a few words - it was nice to be able to thank everyone who played an important role in my graduate experience.  I'm standing on the left, and other APS faculty are in the background.

After the hooding ceremony, we took lots and lots of pictures.  Brian Hynek and I pose for a few (my hat is way better)

My good friend Addie and I celebrate after the APS graduation ceremony.

Bonnie, Addie, Raina (who graduated a few semesters ago), and I pose for more pictures.  My cheeks hurt from smiling so much.  It was a great feeling!

There was definitely champagne in my glass that evening!  After the APS graduation ceremony, we moved on to downtown boulder and celebrated at the historic Hotel Boulderado with happy hour at The Corner Cafe and a delicious dinner at Q's Restaurant.

Community Shared Agriculture (CSA)

I am excited to say we finally joined a CSA this summer.  Most of you know what Community Shared Agriculture is and have been participating in your own CSAs for years.  For the rest of you, it is a fantastic way to get local, fresh, in-season vegetables (and sometimes fruit, meat, dairy, etc) from your local farmer. 

Our CSA bounty during our second week (third week of the season).  In the beginning, we had lots of lettuces and greens, some beets, kholrabi (upper left), squash, cucumber, greenbeans, raddishes, and herbs like basin and dill. 

We are sharing our CSA membership with another family by splitting the cost and alternating weeks that we pick up our veggies.  So far it has been fantastic!  The amount and variety of vegetables have been much more than I expected (good thing we're alternating weeks or we'd have a hard time keeping up), and we've had some unusual and very tasty items I would not have tried otherwise, such as garlic scapes and kholrabi. 

Our first share included garlic scapes, which I had no idea even existed until they showed up in our crate.

To prepare mine, I trimmed the ends, tossed in some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roasted for 20 or 30 minutes at 350 degrees. 

The final result was a very tasty strip that tasted like mild roasted garlic.  Yum!  I will definitely be looking for these again next year!

It has been a little challenging to plan and cook dishes with only vegetables that are in season right now (though I do supplement with onion, garlic, potatoes, and Calvin's favorite, corn-on-the-cob).  But the challenge makes it fun, and the variety of fresh vegetables has really been fantastic.  So far we are loving this!

Naptime at Calvin's barn

Growing Grapes

The family who lived in this house before us planted grape vines along the backyard fence.  We are now overflowing with green grapes that aren't quite ripe yet, but they will be soon.  Here are some pics that I took in early June that shows the grape vines pretty well. 

Calvin poses in front of the grapes while Pedro walks in their shade (on left).

Hamming it up for the camera, probably screaming or talking in a funny voice or acting silly. This was immediately followed by Calvin insisting it was his turn to take pictures with the camera.

Calvin took this picture (one of many in a sweeping effort to keep me from taking the camera back.  Not bad.)

This pic was from the end of May when the grapes were starting to appear.  We are going to have a LOT of grapes this summer.  Anyone know of a good recipe for green grape jelly?

Wildlife

The back of our house is bordered by a neighborhood walking path that regularly brings walkers and runners past our yard (and lots of barking from our dogs, our neighbor's dogs, and whatever dogs are on their walk).  Beyond that lies a small strip of wooded greenspace, which provides beautiful seasonal views out the back windows and, occasionally, visitors from our neighbors in the forest.  Big bunnies are very common, and they don't hesitate to help themselves to my flowers and decorative grasses that I have gradually been adding to the small bed in the front yard, though I don't really mind - they are fun to watch.  We've also seen deer on several occasions, like this one who wandered out of the woods one day while Calvin and I were playing in the backyard.

Sandbox

We inherited a sandbox from the neighbor of a friend a couple of months or so ago and Calvin has been loving it ever since!