gardens of magic

last weekend we stepped into the world of Isaiah Zagar's Magic Gardens

I've been past the South Street entrance many times, but never realized how much was beyond the gate!

Over the course of 16 years, Zagar crafted this labyrinth of incredible mosaic work including all sorts of reclaimed treasures

what a fantastically beautiful place!

our first CSA picnic

CSA: Community Supported Agriculture

this spring we signed up for a farm share from the Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-Operative.

we paid a lump sum to the farmers back in April to receive weekly shares of whatever is most abundant and ready to eat from the fields. the shares have been amazingly delicious and have spawned extra levels of creativity in the kitchen!

we enjoyed our first picnic at Hillside Organics farm on Saturday to meet one of our growers and harvest some yukon gold potatoes from the earth via mule cart.

the picnickers

the mule cart (sans mules)

searching for potatoes was better than any easter egg hunt for the kiddies!

straight from the earth

bargain kitties--and there was an "honor code" box for payment
no kitties purchased, to jon's dismay...

join a csa in your community to enjoy the most fresh and tasty produce while supporting your local economy!

the backroads

my camera died about 1 mile before we got to the campground during last weekend's camping trip, but the ride down to World's End State Park was a beautiful adventure in itself.

lovely yard sale stop

most scenic backdrop to a beer distributor

have you any wool?

stern looks for playing with their babies

the camping was great, too. we tubed, swam, hiked and had some wonderful campfires!

ill spoil

hops, fires, bikes and flowers!

last weekend was wonderful.

we biked down to an international beer festival at the navy yard (super cool).

our favorite beer turned out to be a hoppy local number from the Manayunk Brewing Company!

the beer fest featured buckets to dump leftover beer samples into. i became fixated watching people continue to dump their beers into the buckets well beyond a reasonable meniscus. felt sorry for the crew that had to haul these out...

then we headed to becky and andrew's for a little bonfire action in their incredible garden

the next day we watched the bike race from a new vantage point along Kelly Drive;

Barry brought a boom box and provided riveting (and sometimes controversial) live commentary...

the weekend concluded with some lovely wildflowers jon gathered on a run.

more more morris arboretum!

having lived in philly for almost 8 years, i'd never visited the lovely Morris Arboretum until yesterday.

it was beautiful and definitely worth a trip!

the rose garden...a slice of heaven!

my mom pretending to be a robin.

hooray for Morris Arboretum! What a jewel!