Strawberries and More

It's sure warming up here in Williamsburg! Today we went strawberry picking over in Surry. There is a farm over there across the James River--you have to take the ferry to get to it--where they grow vegetables and fruit (mostly strawberries), and you can go pick your own for fairly cheap. We got 2 gallons of them today! It was burning hot out there in the sun--technically only 80 or so, but it was probably hotter since we both wore jeans (to keep the chiggers off us) and since the field is under direct sun (necessarily, so the strawberries can ripen!). Many of the strawberries were sadly not very ripe yet. You really had to pick through to find the ripe, juicy red ones. I guess in a week or two there might be more of them that are riper. Oh well! I'm not sure what we'll do with all of these--some we are freezing and will use in smoothies. With the others, I might make strawberry shortcake, strawberry coffeecake, and a strawberry/spinach salad. Of course, they are so good plain that we might just eat them that way (until we're tired of them!).

In other news... Ben is DONE WITH CLASSES! Hooray! His last class was yesterday, and we celebrated by going to a good seafood restaurant nearby that we hadn't been to before. It was delicious! It was called the Whaling Company, with whales being the theme inside, and the entire restaurant kind of decked out to have a "ship" feel to it.

Besides that, the other news is that we have a bird nest about 3 feet from our front door, nestled in a pot that Ben strategically nailed to the inside of the porch overhang (yes, he WANTED to see if birds would build a nest there!). The birds are some cute little finches, and it appears that they have laid their eggs since Mama bird has been sitting in her nest lately whenever possible (see below). Unfortunately, whenever we go in and out, it disrupts her, so we are trying to make sure we don't go in and out too often, and only when necessary. (Ben is a little more concerned about this than I am, whereas I am thinking that I should not feel trapped in my house all because a bird is out there--it seems, after all, that the bird should just get used to a little noise!!)

I guess that's about it for now. Ben is just going to be busy with end-of-term papers and studying for the next two weeks, and then he will be interning all summer. In the meantime, work is going well for me--just the same-old, same-old, except for the fact that we're in a new building now, and I really like my new office. We're really looking forward to two weeks of "vacation" this summer, one week of my family coming to visit us in May and one week of going to California to go to Mammoth Lakes with Ben's family. Both will be much welcomed breaks of fun in our usual routines of work!