friday

Friday began cool and moist, so we headed back into the woods, taking Papa along...

Indian Pipe (monotropa uniflora)

 

This is one of those flowers I look at in my field guide but hadn't seen before. I knew just what it was when I saw it, it is so unusual.  It can live without chlorophyll, according to my book, fed by fungi that release nutrients for it to use. No wonder it looks sort of fungal...

Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens) (I like this scientific name!)

Named for the markings on its leaves, which supposedly resemble the markings of a rattlesnake, and for the snake bite medicine of its roots.  My book also says that folklore says that "Native American women believed that rubbing this plant on their bodies would make their husbands love them more." Hmmm...I did not try this, but maybe that would explain my reading of the scientific name?

My sensitive child...the shoes had to come off, the dress was annoying, and was converted into a skirt...whatever it takes to enjoy the walk is what I say.

My squirrel, excited that acorns are already appearing...

I think this is a spined micrathena (micrathena gracilis)

Our destination - the peak overlooking the lake.

the day

Today there was spontaneous figuring.  Anika hefting a bowl of water to the table - "I'm gonna see what floats here" - all right...that is always good for some fun.  Water, wondering...

Nuts? Float. All of them? Yup. Even acorns? Yup. Sheep vertebrae? Doesn't float.  Rocks? Driftwood?

Then Papa came home and after we let him take a very small nap, he agreed to wrestling...
and we tried to help him with his opening night cards for the cast.

Tonight Eliza got to go with Papa to the show (Into the Woods).  It will be a late night, and we thought the dark side of the tales should better be seen during the afternoon, while there is still light after to reckon with all the gritty bits, should they need reckoning with.  We'll all go together on Sunday for the matinee.

Don't they look great? Ani was a good sport about being home alone with me, and came up with a "deal" for me - how about we go to the bike path, with a water bottle and a snack, and her bike, so I can get a walk???? What a fabulous idea.

I spend all day with my kids. Everyday. And especially during weeks like this last one, I am pretty much alone with them except when Dan can come home to refuel.  Of course I go through feeling burned out and desperate for a moment alone from time to time, but I still find that evenings like this, one on one with my littlest daughter, make me really really happy.

(Chasing a posse of 9 training bicyclists)

My kids are 8 and 5, and I still marvel that they are walking around with their own bodies and the myriad possibilities that opens them up to...they are whole people, experiencing their lives, right here before me! 

 So, so happy to be here for that.

Richness

To Begin

(Breakfast. Watching birds. Imagining that Trixie, our cat, 

nicknames birds by mouthfuls...)

Three cats at the window,

looking at lunch

One bite, two bites

munch munch munch!

Eliza

:: :: :: ::

Do you ever forget to pay attention? I do. Even now, my multi-tasking has me examining the sprig of dill on my table (the flowers are SO BEAUTIFUL), consulting my medicinal plant book for information on sassafrass, listening to Tin Hat Trio, and pausing now and again to wipe the sweat off my face (yes, it's hot again).  All while waiting for my photos to upload so I can write this post.  Even so, today I paid attention. It was a great day...

We went to Wednesday market solely with the purpose of feeding our love affair with fruit.  It is so fleeting, this season, even with the languid oozing of the sweaty days, it is so short. So why not buy as much fruit as you possibly can?  Peaches, possibly the last blueberries of the season, more peaches (they were soooo good), sunsugar tomatoes (they count as fruit, don't they?).  I convinced the girls that this might be our last cool morning and we should maybe see what treasures the woods held for us? They were reluctant, as it's been weeks since we took a good long hike...they had forgotten how wonderful it is.

The treasures were many...and color-coordinated in lovely shades of green and orange...the rain has had fun with the forest...

(This one amazes me. It looks as though it grew so fast,

it still has the dirt it pushed through capping its top. 

There is something really tender about that to me.)

We are deep into another amazing tale by Ethel Cook Eliot, called The Wind Boy, and it sprang to life in a narrative today as I stumbled across these forest creatures fast asleep on the moss...

It is one of the things I love most about hiking with my girls; our adventures can so easily be transformed by the imagination. I remember hiking with Eliza when she was 3 and Ani was in the sling and I so desperately needed the stride and movement of a hike to work out the kinks in my body and the fog in my new mama mind and dreaded dragging her little body along...Peter Pan saved us.  There were lost boys and crocodiles and pirates around every turn, and it was me who had to work to catch up and we arrived, panting, back at the car over an hour later...

Today they were forest children, wind creatures, Tree Girl...I was a human with clear eyes, able to see the inhabitants of the natural world...it was lovely.

The textured map of the bark of a sycamore tree...

Our loop brought us back to the pond to spy on frogs and wonder, do they ever actually sit on lily pads? and eat some market-bought buttermilk biscuits.

This was a beautiful slice of our day, but it was not the only beauty in it.  We have enough dry, what-are-we-doing-and-WHY days that I want to savor every dimension of this one! There was breakfast discussion about how something was going to be 10 and another 10 - twenty, right? There is a slight pause as food is being eaten and Anika says, "Well, that means there will be four fives." That might not sound amazing to you, but this isn't the kind of thing we drill, it just comes up as we are figuring out life, so when those things are grasped and noticed and articulated, well, I tingle.  There was the Water Cycle program at the library, there was Where the Wild Things Are this evening in a large snuggle on the futon, there was more Wind Boy, there were more maidens, there was knot-tying and bow-tying and more facepaints...it was good.  And if you are still reading, thank you for being interested and supportive enough to follow along on the ins and outs of our days and if you are Dan (yes, my husband), this post and its glut of pictures are for you today, because you have been spending every evening for the last month in a black hole of the theater and tomorrow is your Opening and you will be Ours once again!

sweetness and mischief

It is gloriously cool(er) here this week...thunderstorms arrived while driving Mormor to the airport on Friday, and they've been with us on and off ever since. It brings new energy and some peace to our days - the girls really come alive with a warm rain, which I blame on their being born in Seattle.  Then what's my excuse?? Anyway...today began with this sweetness...

I came downstairs (at 7:15) to find these two characters setting the table and laying out breakfast!

(Ani's singing)

Do you see the ribbons and scarves festooning the chairs? It was elegant.  After breakfast we got ourselves to the garden.  I have been wanting a cool morning to go and weed (oy! the weeds!) and had a plan to keep the girls engaged while I got some work done...they pretty much had it all figured out for themselves though, with the lovefest that was going on today...

(I am pretty sure this was either for my benefit or they were in character, 

but either way, it was pretty sweet...)

There were wee carrots.

And some fairy mischief...

And in spite of my forethought and late-night planning - this idea for a scavenger hunt/bingo game came straight from those wonderful fundanas (you can find them here),  and though I'm sure mine was not as well-thought-out, it was really fun to make - the girls thought it was neat but they had really important work to do...

Mom, we dug out ALL of this dirt here! That's how we found the centipede (ah! so they did at least look at the game!)! And it was hard work, and when I go to switch my brain from digging to working in my book (drawing in her nature journal) it is really quite a hard shift to make. It's hard work. So I'm tired...

We found one or two critters together, and then headed home just as it started to rain...

The rest of the day just went, kind of like that.  Some anthropomorphizing of our carrots...

 Some drawing in nature journals...

A quick trip on some errands, and to see the doctor for a cough Eliza has but that is not slowing her down a bit...I ended my day and shared my supper with a couple of new characters I found on the street...

Hedgehogs, dontcha know.  (I'm told the little one is just shy, not sad...) It was quite the day.

Capoeira at the library

Our library has a wonderful month of activities this summer.  Every Wednesday there is a workshop or class, and every Saturday there is a performance or demonstration.  This Saturday was what I thought would be a demonstration of capoeira, the dance/martial art form created by the African slaves in Brazil as a way to "legally" practice fighting under the watchful eyes of the plantation owners.  It turned out to be a participatory workshop, and Eliza loved it!

After a quick demonstration of the breakdance-like moves, the instructor started the kids playing some games that worked on their balance.  The first challenge was to stand on one foot and lean over and grab a paper bag in your teeth and lift it off the ground.  This is not as easy as it may seem...

Taking a break from the balancing, the instructors (a man and a boy who appeared to be about 13 - he was awesome!) taught the basic dance step that begins the game of capoeira.  It's called the ginga, and is a rocking one foot after the other, while blocking your face with one arm and then the other.  The kids paired up and practiced.

The second balancing challenge was to go against someone in the circle, picking up the paper bag again with your teeth, standing on one foot, not using your hands, and take it out of the circle before your opponent.  Here (above) Eliza and Ani go against one of the librarians...

After learning some basic kicks and blocks, it was time to try them out!

Totally fun.