stickshifts and safety belts

What a gorgeous Memorial Day weekend! On Saturday, James and I took the #1 bus down to the South End, a neighborhood of Boston we had never wandered through. The architecture is traditionally Boston, and there's a crop of tasty-looking restaurants that we noted for later visits. We passed a couple of really large community gardens - the first one, Berkeley Community Garden, had to be like ten times the size of my little Squirrel Brand garden, and all the plots had wooden separators and sparse roof coverings, and very lush crops of green leaves! It looked so much more developed than our garden, with clearly experienced growers who probably have had their plots for several years now. I guess there's something to be said for continuity. We also came upon a small shop called South End Formaggio, which turned out to be a delightfully tiny place with an incredible selection of wine, cheese, sausage meat, and bakery sweets. About three-quarters of the wines and cheeses were accompanied by little handwritten signs describing their flavor - so personal! I loved it! Plus the people who worked there were super friendly. We bought a hard cider made in the Nothern Berkshires from MacIntosh apples - very delicious. Makes me want to live in the South End just to visit more often!

On Sunday we decided to enjoy the weather by bringing a picnic lunch down to the Arnold Arboretum. We packed up some tasty food, water, and a straw mat, and drove through the city towards Jamaica Plain. When we got to about Fenway, lightning started accenting the sky, and thunder rumbled ominously. Slowly it started to sprinkle, but we forged ahead. Soon enough, we were driving through torrential downpour, and chickpea-sized hail fell out of the sky. We had to laugh at what ridiculous timing we had for having a picnic. But at least we were still dry! We still drove to the park and had our little picnic in the car, with the radio tuned to some really old-school rock-and-roll ballads, giggling at how atrocious the weather was, but how romantic our little picnic turned out. The sun actually came out, in perfect timing with the end of our meal, and we walked around the damp Arboretum for a couple hours, by a rushing brook and deliciously colorful flowers. It was beautiful after all!

James drove back to NH yesterday evening, and I can't tell you how tired I am of saying goodbye to him every single week. I think it's affecting my overall happiness level. I've started stressing about finding an apartment for us to live in next year, just because it will be one step closer to us living together, seeing each other every day. It can't happen soon enough.