now showing.

It'll be interesting at this time next year to read these posts cataloging spring blooms. Things seem to be early this year, which may be due to this warmer-than-normal stretch we've had for the past 10 days or so. Everyone I know has Spring Fever--I've been approving more than the normal volume of days off for the HOW staff.

So here's what's going now:

Magnolias
Redbuds (love those)
Bradford pears
Purple plums
The weeping cherry in the front yard (just now starting)
Forsythia
Some kind of shrub with hot-pink flowers (I think it may be quince)
Purple azaleas

Coming soon:
Crabapple
Dogwood (the flower buds have just started to unfurl a tiny bit)
Azaleas
Lilac

hello, b.

A shout-out to Rob, who's on his way to Bangkok for business, via this lunchtime post. Hi, B! I figure your flight should be arriving at the Bangkok airport in about an hour (I checked online, and it's an 11-hour time difference from here to there). After this trip, you'll probably never want to set foot on an airplane again! (Except maybe for our upcoming trip to St. Barth.)

Things are super weird when Rob is traveling; I find that I don't much mind being alone, but don't particularly love it, either. I tend to not have wine with dinner, get a few projects done in the evening, and then go to bed early and read. Wrigley is funny, too -- he's more clingy than normal, he barks when he thinks a car is pulling into the drive (Is it him? Is it him? Is it him?) and seems to sense that something isn't quite normal in his little world. I suppose you could say the same of me.

seedlings.

Tiny lettuces: Burpee Butterhead and Four Seasons. They're liking this warm weather (hope it sticks around). As are the bradford pears, which are now in full bloom throughout Hyde Park and Mt. Lookout—which, as a result, now smell like feet. We're pretty much convinced that blooming bradford pears stink like toes.

tasting notes.

Friday evening, we went to the Cincinnati Wine Festival, an event that we missed the past two springs (although we did hit a smaller but comparable event in Madison, NJ). I scribbled a few tasting notes about some new wines and a couple we've previously had:

Whites
Stag's Leap Karia Chardonnay: bright and fruity
Mondavi Chardonnay: rounder and softer than the Karia; oaky, but not too
Zaca Mesa Rousanne and Zaca Mesa Viognier: both incredibly drinkable, lovely

Reds
Clos du Val Cabernet: dark fruit and leather
Pine Ridge Stag's Leap Cabernet: soft, big and full of dark, ripe fruit (blueberries)
Pine Ridge Oakville Cabernet: interestingly different from the Stag's Leap; brighter, with more fresh, red fruit (raspberries)
St. Clement Oroppa Cabernet: SGS (seriously good sh*t)
Titus Zinfandel: SGS
Provenance Rutherford Cabernet: SGS

now open: side porch café.

It's official: The SPC opened for the season yesterday. I spent the afternoon cleaning furniture and sweeping up five months' worth of crap and cobwebs. I got all the candles fired up before we sat down to dinner: Rob's famous burgers and grilled sweet potatoes. Perfect!

Last week was remarkable: You could see, day by day, the green-o-meter shifting to "High." The grass greened up, trees started showing that haze of chartreuse, and daffodils popped open. A warm and sunny weekend meant that the purple plums, magnolias and forsythia are going strong, and the bradford pears are in the on-deck circle. I have high hopes for a spectacular display from our lilacs and peonies. Oh! And there were plants for sale for the first time at Findlay Market on Saturday.

I've been snapping photos around the yard to document progress and chart the results of my landscaping plan. I'll post those soon.

the good lunch.

I'm a big fan of lunch, generally. But I need a good lunch: something light but tasty (and sustaining) in the middle of the day to keep me going. Especially during the workweek, having a good lunch is key; I've found that nothing wrecks my day like an unsatisfying lunch. On the weekends, especially when we're knee-deep in projects and time seems to fly, I can grab a granola bar and be sated, but when I've spent all morning at my desk, that won't do when noon rolls around.

Now Rob, he does just fine with a banana and a bagel every day. I need something different—not more, exactly, but more satisfying. If I do just a bagel or some other carb-laden snack, I'll hit a wall around 2:00. So I try to go for something balanced, with a bit of protein to keep me going.

For several months, I'd lapsed into the Lean Cuisine habit. But as we've been on a trend to eat more healthily—few processed foods, no preservatives or additives, fresh meats and produce, homemade bread, that kind of thing—the ingredient list on a Lean Cuisine box left me queasy. So I've lately committed to making some kind of salad on the weekend that I can take for lunch throughout the week. I've been fond of a corn and quinoa salad from Martha Stewart, shown above, (quinoa is loaded with protein) and of a hearty wheatberry salad that my friend Tricia makes all the time, which has smoked mozzarella, corn and cherry tomatoes.

This week, I've been enjoying a two-fer: roasted beet and goat cheese salad, and this one, which I sort of made up after having something similar at a catered event in the fall:

Carrot & Fennel Salad with Chicken
Shredded chicken
2 large carrots, peeled and julienned or grated
2 small or 1 large fennel bulb, julienned or sliced thinly
A few fennel fronds, chopped
A tablespoon or so of caraway seed
One or two tablespoons each of champagne vinegar and lemon olive oil
A generous grind of black pepper
A liberal sprinkling of coarse salt

Midlife crisis? Not a chance.

Last week was the big 4-0 for Rob. We both took the day off to commemorate the occasion. I elected to make the day special by going to the hardware store. Twice.

My 40th was, in many respects, a completely normal day. But that doesn't mean it wasn't eventful in some smaller ways...

First thing in the morning, I got my first 5-miler in as a member of the master’s division. My plan is on track to someday become the world’s fastest geezer. I’m sitting in my spider hole, waiting out the rest of my age group to blow out their knees, finally realize that running is stupid, or just croak. Then I will be the last one standing. Style tip to self: Go for sleeves if your skin is covered in liver spots.

Midlife crisis #1: Bryn is feeling like she’s dodged a bullet since midlife crisis #1 did not involve acquiring something that either squeals, roars, or explodes. No, my midlife crisis was to purchase a big-ass Little Giant ladder. This opens up a new range of projects for me to putter around with. And I’m finding all of my off-color references to “the little giant” are enormously entertaining. To me, at least.

I’m feeling good today because we had a great weekend enjoying the early arrival of daylight savings time. I’m feeling smug too, since those poor suckers in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, and Puerto Rico didn’t benefit from the extra 3 weeks of DST. Sweet revenge, folks.

Big Idea: This gets me thinking – shouldn’t we take this a step further and initiate “Monday Savings Time”. It’s simple. Turn back the clock an hour every Sunday night before you go to bed. You're loving life with that extra hour of sleep. Then on Monday afternoon at 4, turn the clock ahead an hour. Whaddya know - it's time to punch the clock? What are we waiting for?

Midlife crisis #2: I recently hit the new Nike Sumo 2 driver at the range. (You know, it’s that club that looks like a shoebox tied to a hockey stick.) When you hit the ball with that thing, it makes the strangest hollow knocking sound. Sort of like if you took a knuckle to the head of any member of the Bush Cabinet.

While the Sumo 2 was not for me, I felt like a new driver would be fair game for a little splurge on my 40th. So I’m sporting a new TaylorMade 580. Bryn lets out another “phew” as she dodges the bullet yet again.

this is what we've been waiting for.

Yesterday, the temp passed 60 degrees. It's kind of rotten that the first 60-plus degree day of the year is a workday, but there you go. We still managed to get out for a major walk with Wrigley, and then had the very first cocktail hour on the new patio. Hallelujah!

Today was supposed to be rainy all day, but it was mostly gray, and then things cleared off after lunch. I spent several hours making a to-scale plan for the landscaping we need to do, using grid and tracing paper. It was immensely satisfying to think out what we want to do in the back, mostly surrounding the deck and patio. The new plan includes some hydrangea, some dwarf evergreens of some kind, some rudbeckia, that kind of thing. We'll divide and move several things already in the yard. I'm super excited.

Rob, bless his heart, tackled two of the three ornamental grasses we need to dig out -- bastards! I did some pruning and cleanup. There's plenty to do. Next weekend: Peas, per Grandma, on St. Patrick's Day.

Welcome, Spring!

so fun.

When we took Wrigley to the Pet Suites last weekend while we went to Bloomington, the woman at the desk exclaimed, "He's a party in a dog suit!"

So true.