Last Sunday afternoon we finally had the set of favorable circumstances I had been hoping for since the beginning of March. The weather was fair, everyone was healthy and we had no plans for our afternoon. We packed the expedition bag with binoculars and guidebook, filled our water bottles, put on our boots and headed for the woods.
Our destination was Wampatuck State Park, in the nearby town of Hingham. Our objective was to scout for likely southern bog lemming habitat that Maura and I might revisit later on the Great Lemming Hunt. We didn’t find any place that seemed very promising, though there were a few spots we might visit again.
Despite not finding lemmings we had a wonderful hike and saw plenty of wildlife considering that Wampatuck is heavily traveled and hardly a pristine wilderness. From World War I until after World War II it was part of an ammunition depot where the Navy stored ammunition for large guns and the park is crisscrossed with roads from that time, some crumbling, some well maintained and popular with bicyclists. Between the roads are footpaths and bridle paths that cross the hummocky terrain. Most of the park land is gently rolling hills with swampy valleys between. In places there are open ponds. Everything is covered with brushy, second growth forest and there are occasional old buildings, stone walls and rusting chainlink fences.
The forest attracts many animals as well as people. Even in the early spring there are animals to be seen and heard. Along one sunny stretch of bridle path we spotted a pair of brown and yellow morning cloak butterflies. Further along on our hike we encountered a vernal pool filled with wood frogs. They could barely be seen in the shallow water through our binoculars but they could be clearly heard. They sounded more like a flock of ducks than a pond full of frogs. As we climbed up a bank to get closer to the pool of frogs we startled a barred owl and spotted it as it flew to a perch in a tree a bit further away from the annoying people. We weren’t sure what we’d seen, only that it was a large reddish-brown bird flying away but when it called “who-cooks-for-you” we knew what it was and we spotted it through our binoculars watching us from its perch.
We walked perhaps two miles on our expedition, hiking at an easy pace with many stops. I could have happily kept going, and I think Jennifer felt the same but Maura wasn't in the mood for a long hike so we headed for home. On another day we'll revisit the most likely spots to look for evidence of lemmings. This may be a year of frequent hikes. Everyone in the family enjoys them and hiking in local woodlands is an inexpensive pastime.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Adventures in Frugality, Part 2: Challenges
There never was an adventure without challenges. Trouble, danger and fear are part of adventure. With nothing to be overcome an adventure becomes merely a journey, and it’s likely to be a tedious one. It is challenges that bring excitement. They stretch us beyond our limits and force us to learn and to grow.
I’m feeling very challenged these days. The prospect of losing my job is frightening. I’ve had it for nine and a half years and, even though I have little love for it, its loss will be wrenching. The rhythms of my life that have been built around my job are comfortable from familiarity even if they are sometimes irksome. It will be hard finding the new patterns that I will need to succeed in my life going forward.
Money is an issue, of course. I’ll have to give up some things I enjoy. So will Jennifer and so will Maura. I hate having to tell her that she can’t have something or do something because we don’t have the money for it, but I know she understands. We’ve never been rich so Maura is used to not getting everything she wants. It is just as well. If she had had all she wanted before she would take it harder now that she certainly can’t.
I’ve come to see the upcoming loss of my job as more of an opportunity than a disaster. My job in retail bookselling has been a side job for years. I hung onto it for the money while I spent more effort on other, more important things. The trouble was that it took too much mental energy and distracted me from what I needed to do, which was to write and to sell my writing. I’m not going to be unemployed. I may, unfortunately, be unpaid. My hope is that my time working without payment will be brief.
I’m feeling very challenged these days. The prospect of losing my job is frightening. I’ve had it for nine and a half years and, even though I have little love for it, its loss will be wrenching. The rhythms of my life that have been built around my job are comfortable from familiarity even if they are sometimes irksome. It will be hard finding the new patterns that I will need to succeed in my life going forward.
Money is an issue, of course. I’ll have to give up some things I enjoy. So will Jennifer and so will Maura. I hate having to tell her that she can’t have something or do something because we don’t have the money for it, but I know she understands. We’ve never been rich so Maura is used to not getting everything she wants. It is just as well. If she had had all she wanted before she would take it harder now that she certainly can’t.
I’ve come to see the upcoming loss of my job as more of an opportunity than a disaster. My job in retail bookselling has been a side job for years. I hung onto it for the money while I spent more effort on other, more important things. The trouble was that it took too much mental energy and distracted me from what I needed to do, which was to write and to sell my writing. I’m not going to be unemployed. I may, unfortunately, be unpaid. My hope is that my time working without payment will be brief.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Adventures in Frugality, Part 1
Recently I learned that I will soon be losing my job. It wasn’t a good job. I won’t miss the work much. I will miss the people I’ve been working with, some of them for more than nine years. I’ll miss the money too. Even though I haven’t been well paid, selling books has contributed to our household needs.
I’m confident that in time the money issues will work themselves out. I’ll sell some of my work or I’ll find another job. In the meantime my goal is to spend as little money as possible, to stretch what we have as far as possible. I intend to have a good time while I’m doing it. It’s time for adventures in frugality.
For a start, I plan on driving the car less. Gas is expensive these days and likely to get more expensive. I can’t afford to burn any if I can avoid it. I’ve started walking Maura to school again now that the snow has melted off of the sidewalks. The mornings are brisk but if the weather is clear the walks are still enjoyable. The birds are singing in the trees and the first flowers of spring are blooming. I also walk to the library often. I can use the exercise; the library is often a good place to work and its services are still free.
The dinner table is another place we’ll be enjoying frugality. I’m trying to find ways to make inexpensive meals that please my family. No one in our house is a vegetarian but no one is a determined carnivore either. Meatless meals have always been among our favorites and I plan on making more of them. Made from scratch, they should be healthy and cheap. The challenge is to be creative enough that no one gets bored. I have plenty of time for cooking most days and I enjoy being creative in the kitchen.
I also don’t want to waste anything I can use. We already make homemade stock out of our vegetable scraps and bones. In the past leftovers often went to waste but I’m going to try harder to make sure edible leftovers get eaten and scrap paper gets used again before it gets recycled.
Our need to be thrifty will probably keep us close to home this year but Maura and I are still planning some adventures that will start as soon as the weather allows. For a school project on animals Maura researched lemmings this year. One of the things she learned was that the Southern Bog Lemming lives right here in Massachusetts. We’re planning on being amateur naturalists and searching them out in their natural habitat. While we’re at it we’ll get to know some of the other animals and plants that inhabit our local bogs and fens. I’ll write more about hunting for lemmings when we’ve made our first expedition. With luck we’ll find them close to home but I expect it may be a project that takes a good part of the summer.
I’m confident that in time the money issues will work themselves out. I’ll sell some of my work or I’ll find another job. In the meantime my goal is to spend as little money as possible, to stretch what we have as far as possible. I intend to have a good time while I’m doing it. It’s time for adventures in frugality.
For a start, I plan on driving the car less. Gas is expensive these days and likely to get more expensive. I can’t afford to burn any if I can avoid it. I’ve started walking Maura to school again now that the snow has melted off of the sidewalks. The mornings are brisk but if the weather is clear the walks are still enjoyable. The birds are singing in the trees and the first flowers of spring are blooming. I also walk to the library often. I can use the exercise; the library is often a good place to work and its services are still free.
The dinner table is another place we’ll be enjoying frugality. I’m trying to find ways to make inexpensive meals that please my family. No one in our house is a vegetarian but no one is a determined carnivore either. Meatless meals have always been among our favorites and I plan on making more of them. Made from scratch, they should be healthy and cheap. The challenge is to be creative enough that no one gets bored. I have plenty of time for cooking most days and I enjoy being creative in the kitchen.
I also don’t want to waste anything I can use. We already make homemade stock out of our vegetable scraps and bones. In the past leftovers often went to waste but I’m going to try harder to make sure edible leftovers get eaten and scrap paper gets used again before it gets recycled.
Our need to be thrifty will probably keep us close to home this year but Maura and I are still planning some adventures that will start as soon as the weather allows. For a school project on animals Maura researched lemmings this year. One of the things she learned was that the Southern Bog Lemming lives right here in Massachusetts. We’re planning on being amateur naturalists and searching them out in their natural habitat. While we’re at it we’ll get to know some of the other animals and plants that inhabit our local bogs and fens. I’ll write more about hunting for lemmings when we’ve made our first expedition. With luck we’ll find them close to home but I expect it may be a project that takes a good part of the summer.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Wii, Wii, Wii (and mostly stay home)
Maura and I haven’t been traveling much of late, even over the Christmas holiday. We did a bit of shopping one day and on Christmas Day we visited with friends. We also went to the movies twice. It’s one of our Christmas traditions. We saw Tangled on the day before Christmas and Tron Legacy the Monday after. Both were thoroughly appreciated, but not very far from home. There were no visits to museums or other attractions.
We’d planned some, at least a trip to the Science Museum in Boston, but early in the week after Christmas the weather was lousy (a blizzard hit during the night on Sunday) and then Maura came down with a fever so we wanted her to get plenty of rest and we didn’t want to expose too many other people to something that might be contagious. A call to the pediatrician convinced her mother and I that the fever wasn’t very serious and it was gone by New Year’s Day but it kept us at home for most of Maura’s vacation.
During the days Maura felt fine so we all played together at home. There were new Christmas gifts to play and play with. The gift that kept Maura busiest and given lots of fun to the whole family was the Wii game system that Maura’s grandma and grandpa gave her for Christmas. All three of us in the Ellett home have been spending much of our free time in front of the TV waving around the Wii remote.
I’m a bit worried that the Wii might aggravate Maura’s tendency to spend all of her time in front of the TV but provided we can keep that under control the Wii is a good game system for Maura, and me for that matter, to be playing on. We don’t have Wii Fit, which is designed for exercise, but many of the games we do have are active enough. They’re best played standing up and some of them can get your heart racing. Many of them are fun for the whole family to play together, so unlike the games we play on our computer, and many other video games, they are not isolating. On the whole I think playing on the Wii is healthy in moderation and it’s certainly fun. I’m not planning on making Maura stop (and I’ll play now and again myself). Next time Maura has a break, though, I hope the weather and our health give us a chance to get out and do something outside the house. If we never leave home I might have reason to worry.
We’d planned some, at least a trip to the Science Museum in Boston, but early in the week after Christmas the weather was lousy (a blizzard hit during the night on Sunday) and then Maura came down with a fever so we wanted her to get plenty of rest and we didn’t want to expose too many other people to something that might be contagious. A call to the pediatrician convinced her mother and I that the fever wasn’t very serious and it was gone by New Year’s Day but it kept us at home for most of Maura’s vacation.
During the days Maura felt fine so we all played together at home. There were new Christmas gifts to play and play with. The gift that kept Maura busiest and given lots of fun to the whole family was the Wii game system that Maura’s grandma and grandpa gave her for Christmas. All three of us in the Ellett home have been spending much of our free time in front of the TV waving around the Wii remote.
I’m a bit worried that the Wii might aggravate Maura’s tendency to spend all of her time in front of the TV but provided we can keep that under control the Wii is a good game system for Maura, and me for that matter, to be playing on. We don’t have Wii Fit, which is designed for exercise, but many of the games we do have are active enough. They’re best played standing up and some of them can get your heart racing. Many of them are fun for the whole family to play together, so unlike the games we play on our computer, and many other video games, they are not isolating. On the whole I think playing on the Wii is healthy in moderation and it’s certainly fun. I’m not planning on making Maura stop (and I’ll play now and again myself). Next time Maura has a break, though, I hope the weather and our health give us a chance to get out and do something outside the house. If we never leave home I might have reason to worry.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Election Day Zoo
Last Tuesday was Election Day and it was a zoo—the Franklin Park Zoo, to be precise. After I had completed some necessary morning chores and cast my ballot I took Maura to the zoo. She has Election Day off every year because Weymouth uses the public schools as polling places and closes them for the day for the safety of students and the convenience of voters. The school closure does nothing for the convenience of parents but because I work evenings it was an opportunity for me to spend some quality time with my daughter.
We got to the zoo around 11:30 and spent three hours there. We had the place almost to ourselves, which surprised me. Weymouth is not the only town that closes its schools on Election Day but almost no one thought to visit the zoo besides us. Perhaps it was the weather. It was one of the chilliest days we’ve had so far this year. It wasn’t too bad to enjoy the zoo, however. It was dry, sunny most of the day, and not very windy. It was plenty comfortable outside if you were bundled up. Many of the zoo’s best exhibits are indoors anyway.
The best exhibit at the Franklin Park Zoo is probably the tropical forest exhibit which is indoors out of the weather. The zoo’s troop of gorillas lives there. Maura’s favorites ringed tailed lemurs live there too, as do free flying birds and many other fascinating animals. We spent over an hour exploring the exhibit. One thing that left me curious was the mice running around the bottom of the fruit bat enclosure. They didn’t trouble the fruit bats but I was left wondering whether the zoo has a mouse problem or if it was simply convenient to keep snake food in with the fruit bats. No signs mentioned the mice so I doubt they were intended to be on display.
The rest of our trip to the zoo was also enjoyable. We heard the lion roar, which we never have before, and we saw the prairie dogs popping in and out of their holes, which is always fun. At Franklin Farm a friendly zoo staffer introduced Maura to the animals and she got to pet the horse and feed the goats.
Our visit to the zoo was educational as well as entertaining. Zoo New England, which runs the Franklin Park Zoo, takes its educational responsibilities very seriously and signage gives a wealth of information about the animals and their habitats as well as about conservation. Maura is curious and smart so she didn’t need any prompting from me to read the signs. Watching her paying attention and learning was a big part of what made the afternoon enjoyable for me. I hope she never loses that curiosity and can still enjoy a visit to the zoo when she’s grown up, even if she doesn’t bring her own kids along. I think the chances of that are probably pretty good.
We got to the zoo around 11:30 and spent three hours there. We had the place almost to ourselves, which surprised me. Weymouth is not the only town that closes its schools on Election Day but almost no one thought to visit the zoo besides us. Perhaps it was the weather. It was one of the chilliest days we’ve had so far this year. It wasn’t too bad to enjoy the zoo, however. It was dry, sunny most of the day, and not very windy. It was plenty comfortable outside if you were bundled up. Many of the zoo’s best exhibits are indoors anyway.
The best exhibit at the Franklin Park Zoo is probably the tropical forest exhibit which is indoors out of the weather. The zoo’s troop of gorillas lives there. Maura’s favorites ringed tailed lemurs live there too, as do free flying birds and many other fascinating animals. We spent over an hour exploring the exhibit. One thing that left me curious was the mice running around the bottom of the fruit bat enclosure. They didn’t trouble the fruit bats but I was left wondering whether the zoo has a mouse problem or if it was simply convenient to keep snake food in with the fruit bats. No signs mentioned the mice so I doubt they were intended to be on display.
The rest of our trip to the zoo was also enjoyable. We heard the lion roar, which we never have before, and we saw the prairie dogs popping in and out of their holes, which is always fun. At Franklin Farm a friendly zoo staffer introduced Maura to the animals and she got to pet the horse and feed the goats.
Our visit to the zoo was educational as well as entertaining. Zoo New England, which runs the Franklin Park Zoo, takes its educational responsibilities very seriously and signage gives a wealth of information about the animals and their habitats as well as about conservation. Maura is curious and smart so she didn’t need any prompting from me to read the signs. Watching her paying attention and learning was a big part of what made the afternoon enjoyable for me. I hope she never loses that curiosity and can still enjoy a visit to the zoo when she’s grown up, even if she doesn’t bring her own kids along. I think the chances of that are probably pretty good.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Our Annual Trip to Nashoba
Last Sunday we had our annual trip to the Brews and Bluegrass Festival at the Nashoba Valley Winery. It was Maura’s ninth trip to a Nashoba fall festival. Her first was when she was only two months old. As every year, we had a good time, though unlike last year it was just the three of us at the festival. That was just fine. We have fun either way. The less than perfect weather we had didn’t put much of a damper on our trip either. There were a few showers but we’ve been to festivals at Nashoba when the weather was far worse.
The Brews and Bluegrass festival has something for the whole family, which is one of the reasons we go every year. I think the highlight for me was the beer. I had a wonderful bourbon barrel porter. It was a really good take on a beer style I really love. I wish I’d picked up a six pack to enjoy later but the lines were long and I wanted to save a bit of money. It was popular and a limited edition so I don’t expect they have any left.
Maura had a good time getting her face painted and guessing the number of candy corns in a jar. I suppose she guessed wrong since we haven't been notified that she won. We all enjoyed our lunch and the caramel covered cider donuts we had for desert. We also had a good time stomping our feet to the bluegrass music provided by Southern Rail. They’ve played the festival for several years now and I always enjoy hearing them play. I can’t claim to know much about bluegrass but I do enjoy it when I hear it. Maura and Jennifer seemed to be enjoying it, too. Maura got both of her parents dancing a bit to the music they played on the PA between live sets. When the band played live I watched. I find mandolin and banjo picking fascinating to see as well as listen to.
While the festival itself was fun as always (and we’ll be back next year) the trip had its share of hardship. On the way to the festival we got stuck in traffic for half an hour because of construction on route 128 around Dedham. The traffic jam wasn’t the result of particularly heavy traffic but instead resulted from poor planning as traffic got shifted first one way and then the other and lanes were closed seemingly at random. We had worse trouble on the way home. The clutch failed on our Toyota when we pulled off the highway to pick up some dinner from the Whole Foods Market in Dedham. Things could have been much worse. We made it home thanks to a ride from our friend Andrew Tittler and the car was back in working order in time for the next weekend. Fortunately we have two but rarely need to drive both at once, so we can get by.
The Brews and Bluegrass festival has something for the whole family, which is one of the reasons we go every year. I think the highlight for me was the beer. I had a wonderful bourbon barrel porter. It was a really good take on a beer style I really love. I wish I’d picked up a six pack to enjoy later but the lines were long and I wanted to save a bit of money. It was popular and a limited edition so I don’t expect they have any left.
Maura had a good time getting her face painted and guessing the number of candy corns in a jar. I suppose she guessed wrong since we haven't been notified that she won. We all enjoyed our lunch and the caramel covered cider donuts we had for desert. We also had a good time stomping our feet to the bluegrass music provided by Southern Rail. They’ve played the festival for several years now and I always enjoy hearing them play. I can’t claim to know much about bluegrass but I do enjoy it when I hear it. Maura and Jennifer seemed to be enjoying it, too. Maura got both of her parents dancing a bit to the music they played on the PA between live sets. When the band played live I watched. I find mandolin and banjo picking fascinating to see as well as listen to.
While the festival itself was fun as always (and we’ll be back next year) the trip had its share of hardship. On the way to the festival we got stuck in traffic for half an hour because of construction on route 128 around Dedham. The traffic jam wasn’t the result of particularly heavy traffic but instead resulted from poor planning as traffic got shifted first one way and then the other and lanes were closed seemingly at random. We had worse trouble on the way home. The clutch failed on our Toyota when we pulled off the highway to pick up some dinner from the Whole Foods Market in Dedham. Things could have been much worse. We made it home thanks to a ride from our friend Andrew Tittler and the car was back in working order in time for the next weekend. Fortunately we have two but rarely need to drive both at once, so we can get by.
Monday, October 18, 2010
A Visit to Drumlin Farm
Last Sunday we took advantage of gorgeous fall weather to pay a visit to Massachusetts Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Sanctuary in Lincoln, Massachusetts. The sanctuary has a small working farm operated for the benefit of both people and the numerous bird species that thrive in and around farm fields but do less well in woodlands or suburbia. The farm raises a variety of vegetables and also keeps chickens, cows, goats, pigs and sheep. The barns and coops are open to the public and well-done signage makes the visit educational but education is not the only purpose for the animals. Eggs are collected, cows and goats are milked, sheep are sheared and pigs go to market to end up as pork chops and sausages. The sanctuary has woodland as well as farmland and there are wild as well as domestic animals on display. The wild animals come from the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s wildlife rescue and rehabilitation efforts and are animals that were rescued but cannot be returned to the wild because they cannot fend for themselves either because of injuries or being habituated to human contact.
We made our visit to Drumlin Farms during the Harvest Festival. Jennifer thought Maura would enjoy it and of course she did. So did her parents. Besides exploring the farm and seeing the animals we ate cider donuts, drank hot cider and took a hayride around the vegetable fields. Maura made a pumpkin kite to take home as a souvenir and before we left we picked up a pumpkin and a goose necked gourd to make jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. We had wonderful sunny weather that was warm enough, but not unseasonable and the trees were beginning to show their fall colors, reminding us how few good weekends we are likely to have before our New England winter arrives and we spend most of the next four months inside.
We made our visit to Drumlin Farms during the Harvest Festival. Jennifer thought Maura would enjoy it and of course she did. So did her parents. Besides exploring the farm and seeing the animals we ate cider donuts, drank hot cider and took a hayride around the vegetable fields. Maura made a pumpkin kite to take home as a souvenir and before we left we picked up a pumpkin and a goose necked gourd to make jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. We had wonderful sunny weather that was warm enough, but not unseasonable and the trees were beginning to show their fall colors, reminding us how few good weekends we are likely to have before our New England winter arrives and we spend most of the next four months inside.
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