four snapshots

From youngest to oldest, all enjoying the sea. 

you can't get more relaxed than this

This baby found her inner beach bum this past week - not even leaving the shore to take a morning nap.  I've looked through all three billion photos from our vacation, and this might be my favorite one.  Total surrender to rest, sleeping to the sound of the surf.

I've hit that post vacation slump on this day after our return.  Not quite into the swing of the routine and missing that afternoon snooze in the pages of my book.  So I'll sign off for tonight and post more tomorrow.

concentration

The most effort put into anything during last week's vacation.

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Enjoy this week's vacation recap - loads of photos to sift through and sigh over.

our house is sporting a lot more artificial flavors and colors than usual...

The banana buffet is taking shape...

new wheels

My new bike arrived a couple of weeks back and other than my camera, I can't remember being so excited about a new gift.  I've wanted a bike for a long time.  I borrowed one during grad school and it came in handy in those months when I was car-less.  After that we always seemed to have other priorities - the house, family, etc.  When E got her new bike a few years back I was tempted to get one.  But pregnancy and a new baby pushed that once again to the back burner.  When I opened that silver helmet on Mother's Day, I was pretty jazzed about having a new mode of transportation.  There are about a billion things that I like to do within a couple mile radius of the house, and I'm already looking forward to hopping on this to get to them, rather than hopping in the car.  There may be a kid seat or a bike trailer to follow soon, but for now I think I'm okay with just getting on and heading off on my own for awhile.  Nothing wrong with that on occasion, now is there?

The model I settled on after test driving a lot of bikes and researching a lot more, was the Electra Townie Euro 24D.  I bought it from Big Shark, and they were excellent at taking my wacky list of things a wanted in a bike and finding the model for me.  I wanted a nice hybrid bike that could handle the sometimes crappy streets and paths around here - cobblestones, bricks, but mostly just potholes - and with enough gears to get my out-of-shape self up the big hills.  I also don't like hunching over on a bike - I much prefer the way a nice vacation rental bike rides (minus the pitiful single speed).  It had to be super light to get up and down the exterior stairs to our basement for storage (no garage), fenders to keep the water and mud from splashing up on my rear (never attractive), and feature #1 - a rack to hold gear like my camera or a bag of vegetables or a stack of books.  Cool color was optional (wasabi - a great shade of green, bonus), and a cool shape.  Step through bike and one that I could put both feet on the ground because I'm a bit of an uncoordinated klutz. The headlight and taillight were just icing on the cake.

I'm still working my way outwards on it, and will continue to work my way further and further abroad.  After walking everywhere for so long, it's amazing how quickly you reach those familiar places once on a bike.  No complaints here though - a quicker commute just means more time to enjoy the cup of coffee, another chapter or a longer conversation once I get there.

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Thanks to M and family for such a great idea and a truly perfect gift.

(gulp)

Thirty feet +/- up. (She makes it to the top bell.) She said it was a blast, but did admit it seemed pretty high up once she got up there and looked back down.

photos by a.n. thanks!

not alone

It's a banner year for lillies in our backyard.  Tonight, at dusk, they were lighting up the back yard like flames so I grabbed the camera to take a few photos.  I got up close and personal with one of them, and then suddenly had the strange sensation that I was not alone.  Bees are very curious about cameras.

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Thirty seconds later I looked down and my legs were covered in mosquitos.  It shouldn't require so much effort to get out and enjoy a piece of the evening.  Spray down, or not spray down?  I came back into the air conditioning.

namesake flowers

My parents sent these flowers  years ago to M when his grandmother died - they were in the chapel at her funeral, and made the trip back with us when we returned home.  They rode alongside a very young E - a fortunate little girl who was able to meet and know three of her four grandmothers.  We transplanted them from pot to garden immediately, the flowers slowly faded, and the plant itself didn't seem to appreciate the move.  For a few years we kept looking for signs of life beyond a few green leaves, but it wasn't until last year that the flowers appeared - just a few, and just a few weeks before the new baby arrived.  This year we discovered that the tiny little hydrangea plant had actually been growing more sideways than up - it still appears smallish, but when the flowers burst through they appeared throughout the planting bed - intertwined with the much larger neighboring plants.  They are stunning this year, and abundant.  Margaret's flowers, the baby's namesake, have come back just for her. 

her very best effort

We'll spend a lot of time today with Dad.  We'll start early, and end late, and tell him how much we love him and appreciate him and enjoy him.  I'm sure he'll enjoy every minute of it (and those minutes that he has to himself as well!) but I know that I've enjoyed the whispered conversations with this girl over the past month or two much more.  Some of her Father's Day "ideas" have been more far-fetched than realistic, but he's been on her mind, and she wants to do it up right.  For a few weeks she's begged me to let her wrap his presents in the morning before school and camp, and each day I've put her off with the excuse that she still has time but we just don't have any more of it that very moment.  Yesterday morning he was out for a bit and she didn't even bother to ask. She gathered up those items and her notes, tape, scissors and wrapping paper with birthday-hat-wearing fish and a roll of my trace paper and got to work.  She hummed the entire time she worked, and when she finished she carried it all downstairs and arranged it on the hearth and announced that no matter how hard she worked, she could never make as many gifts as her dad deserved.  And I think she's quite right.

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Happy Father's Day - we've got a family full of the swellest Dads you could imagine.

scenes from a bike

I'll post a longer piece on the bike in a few days, but here are a few photos of my first good run on it.  Seriously loud storms came through in the wee hours of the morning with thunder and lightning and hail.  This morning the air was saturated but a bit cooler, at least for the first hour or so of daylight.  I put the camera on the rack and cycled over a few blocks to one of my favorite parks, and then for coffee where I bumped into friends.  A lovely way to kick off the weekend, I must say.

patience

Once the green tomatoes show up, it's really hard to wait for them to turn red.  F agrees.  She's our tomato girl.

the baby and her eating habits have taken over this blog (and our dinner table)

I apologize for the lack of stimulating content lately here.  The older child has not in fact, moved out.  She is, however, a bit elusive in front of the camera.  How is it that we can be so busy in the summer, with no school and more sunshine?   But we are, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.  And no matter how much we delight - or try to delight - in the mundane and the ordinary, there is still just so much that is mundane and ordinary.  We rise, there is breakfast to be made, breakfast to eat, breakfast to be cleaned up and before we know it we start the ritual again with lunch.  Throw dinner into the mix, a couple of baths to wash off the summer grime and in the blink of an eye we're a couple of chapters into our latest read and trying not to doze off before 8 p.m.  And the rains continue, popping up and thwarting plans for snowcones with friends, bike practice and gardening.

Tonight we'll attempt to dodge the showers once again in our front yard with some live blues and friends (Stop by!).  Maybe with camera, and maybe without.  And my bike is here!!!  So I'll squeeze in a ride of my own and take the camera along.  What are you up to this summer?

the only monkeys were in the stands

But that's no reason not to go to this show.  If you are local, book your tickets now.  (You can opt for the cheap seats - there's not a bad seat in the house.) The circus is almost over, and you'll be truly sorry you missed it if you don't.  We found out as we were snapping photos that we weren't supposed to be snapping photos.  The photos on the website are much better anyway.  Or check out Scott Raffe's personal work - his photos of the circus are up at the galleries at the Sheldon Concert Hall. The show was delightful.  My stomach flipped up into my throat with every single high wire / trapeze moment - the performers were so close that I felt like I knew them, and as a result I felt very much compelled to squeal with each death defying release and catch.  The story line is super funny, the horses are gorgeous (and talented) and there were even two babies no older than the one above in the show.

Don't kid yourself.  She's got her eye on that trapeze.

chin height

F's room is particularly nice to be in during a storm.  The rain beats down on the roof and outside the windows, and there is a window at just the right height for watching.  From this window you can look across seven or eight rooftops - it looks like an outdoor set for Mary Poppins.  This storm brought with it gigantic drops of rain which bounced off the parapet and chimney tops and glistened in the western afternoon sun.  She watched until the rain stopped.

what? you didn't get the memo?

Yeah, see, I feed myself now...

sick bear

Some little cutie that we know had a rough time Friday night, and mid morning Saturday, after a long morning nap, woke up with a draining ear and a bad case of the grumpies.  Less than an hour later we knew we had two infected ears, one eardrum had perforated and the explanation behind the near constant drooling.  She rallied nicely for the circus, and is certainly on the mend.  But look at this face.  It hurts just to imagine this little one in pain. 

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For all of our friends from all over the place running under the blazing sun in the Race for the Cure... nice job!  That pink ribbon in her hair was for you.

role reversal

Usually the bigger one is running full steam ahead, into the fray.  Last Saturday her little sister joined in for the first time, and suddenly someone was very protective.  The baby loved those shiny brass plates in the ground, even though we warned her repeatedly that water randomly shoots up from them.  And when the water came (strong, and without warning) she backed up with fear - and straight into the arms of her big sister.  That morning was the turning point I realized.  For the first time the little one needed the bigger one, and the bigger one has wanted nothing more in this world than to be needed.  

back steps

another project, another day

Alas, I did not take any photographs of the "before".  I'm sure I could hunt through the archives and find one (too lazy), or you could just take my word for it - there was ten years of ivy growth in this spot that is now dirt and straggling roots.  You can see the rusty sections of fence that were underneath all this ivy.  It was time to do some general maintenance on the fence - clean it off, re-prime and paint it for another decade.  Before we planted the ivy we had hostas, and daylillies and even some tulips under the dogwood tree, but every year those plants got a bit more choked out by the ivy.  We pulled the ivy out in the blazing heat of this past Memorial Day weekend - not a task for the faint of heart - and within 48 hours the other plants bloomed for the first time in several years.

Like I mentioned last week, we're sprucing up the front yard this summer and making it a more pleasurable place to hang out and enjoy the music that is played across the street on Thursdays and Saturdays.  And each weekend we'll do it a bit more to get it that way.  I'll try to post a sketch of the landscape plan for the yard soon.

the eleventh hour

This is what the homestretch looks like and I must tell you that it's leaving me a bit sad and wistful.  You delight us in each moment that you are awake and asleep, but each day you shed a bit more of that dependence on us as you feed yourself, turn your own book pages, motor around the house from one object to another, dive out of our arms and into your bed before we are quite done snuggling your delicious sweetness. 

Always a kid that loves food, you've taken your appreciation of good eats to new heights this past month.  I have enjoyed cooking for you for the past five months - you've let me try everything from the basics to the bizarre, gulping down every last bite and begging for more.  I no longer have to puree those lovely dishes to within an inch of their life - you pick up each bite and transfer it in, making short work of it with just two teeth a few weeks ago to now eight teeth in the past few days.  Even your smile looks older this month.

Your personality comes through so clearly in your face - a sour blueberry won't stop you - it's just a good opportunity to get a laugh out of the crowd.  Your smile comes easily to friends and strangers alike, and your wave is on auto-pilot with the gray-haired crowd in any room.

Most notably, this month, is the change in your relationship with your older sister.  I know she can get a bit overbearing at times, but you are so very hard to resist and put down, even when we know you want (and need) your own space.  But now you watch her, and follow her, and sometimes even need her and it delights her to no end to be needed by you.  You've replaced that look of tolerance to one of admiration, and occasionally a look that very clearly demonstrates your early grasp of inequality.  Sometimes she has things (strawberries) that you cannot have (yet) and even at eleven months you know this is unfair, holding your empty carton that used to have blueberries, wise beyond your days on this earth.

Next month we'll celebrate your first birthday and everyone will marvel at how quickly the time has gone by.  We will not marvel.  We see it as we tuck in your sister's ten foot long legs and watch you fill up more and more of your crib each night.  It is as everyday and expected as the sun and the moon, and the urgency to slow it down and enjoy every plump and juicy bite is nothing new.  Oh my, how we try to.

Happy birthday, my girl in blues.

not blueberries, raspberries

Saving blueberries for tomorrow when someone has a birthday.

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On the subject of raspberries, here's a very simple and yummy sorbet:  just raspberries, sugar, water and a pinch of salt.  The hardest part of the recipe is straining the raspberries.  You can achieve this fairly quickly if you sort of mash the juices through the strainer with a spatula.  Or you can just leave it to drip through slowly while photographing it, playing a round of pirate snap with your daughter and chopping up a watermelon.  Chill the raspberry syrup for a bit and then pour it into your new found love...the ice cream maker.

There it is, spinning around in its near freezing state.  A watched pot may never boil, but three people standing over an ice cream maker watching it work its magic hasn't yet seemed to halt the freezing process.

The ice cream or sorbet comes out in this very smooth and creamy state and hardens up a bit in the freezer.  Without preservatives and gums that store bought brands have, it takes a few moments on the counter once thoroughly frozen to scoop easily.  M had the idea to put dollops of the stuff into the baby's food freezer trays which was a stroke of genius.  Now they pop out into easy to serve and eat sizes - just pick the number of scoops you want.  Also a good way to do a bit of portion control, which isn't a bad thing when you like to end each day with a bite of raspberry (or vanilla or chocolate or mint) heaven.