Departure

Two intrepid souls starting out from Chicago's O'Hare airport. Are we crazy?

Would you look at this leg room? In terms of space and noise, the best flight of the whole trip was from Chicago to Atlanta. Our seats were the first row behind the first class cabin. Thankfully there was just a flimsy half curtain to separate us from them (no wall). Ma couldn't even touch the seats ahead of us with her toes. Take-off could not have been smoother. If our ears hadn't popped, we wouldn't even have known we were off the ground. The cabin was silent (no engine noise).

Our seats weren't quite as good on the trans-Atlantic flight, and it was much noisier. Still, that was another good flight.

Here's our meal from Atlanta to Athens. Everything was packaged so cleverly into individually wrapped portions: salad with dressing, roll with butter and/or cheese, water, entree, and dessert. Ma got the last chicken entree they had, so I had the pasta. (Actually, I got the last chicken, so I traded her for the pasta.) Both meals were delicious.

Antiquities Tour

My mother and I have just returned from a two-week tour. We focused on archaeology of the civilizations that lived near the Mediterranean Sea.

It was a fabulous two weeks!! I hope you enjoy reading about our trip.

Our first stop was Athens...

...followed by Cairo...

...and finally Istanbul.

It will likely take several weeks for me to blog about the whole trip. I took 1,300 pictures. Never fear. I'll pick the best and write about the highlights (and lowlights) of our journey.

Fall Harvest

I picked my pumpkins and the little squash. Pretty nice little family, hey?

These are the remaining gladioli for the season. They bloomed late, but were beautiful this year.

The mum is finally open, too. It's an eye-catching orange.

Last gasp

My vegetable garden is pretty much done for the year. The pumpkins are almost entirely orange now. The vines have died back. There are a few little watermelons not yet picked.

About the only thing blooming right now is my Clara Curtis daisy. This plant is one of the few that survived from the mail order shipment I got last fall.

I hope the mum that survived from last fall will be blooming soon, too.

Not quite orange

I've got three good-sized pumpkins that are just starting to turn orange.

This one is the greenest. It's sitting upright next to a tomato cage.

This one is the biggest. It's laying on its side, so it's hard to gauge how big it really is.

This photo was taken looking down over the top of the cucumber trellis. It's sort of hidden among the squash leaves.

How do you tell when butternut squash is ripe? This one measures in at a whopping 11 inches long with a similar circumference. The vine is beginning to wither.

I've been trying to snap a picture of the neighborhood hawk. I haven't been able to yet, but I did find this feather. I'd like to believe it was his.

Pepé Le Pew

A lot of things went wrong this week. I had no phone service on Monday night (and thus, no Internet either). I had no wireless connection on Tuesday night (thanks, Vista), and no power on Wednesday night (bad storms). So, tonight was the first night I could post this picture of a skunk waddling around my patio. I wish I'd gotten a better picture, but he was a quick little bugger.

But, at least one thing went right: he didn't spray me!

Cucurbits

The vine plants like melons, cucumbers, squashes, and pumpkins are known collectively as "cucurbits".

Except for my muskmelons, my vines are setting fruiting like crazy.

Good thing I'll be seeing my mother tomorrow. I can give her a bunch of cucumbers.

Butternut squash

Pumpkin

Watermelon