Was it really that long ago?

This week has seen a temperature shift. It is chilly, overcast, rainy. And that means I'm baking and making soups. I wish my family loved soup as much as I do.


So it seems odd to look back at these pictures to a warmer time. With sunshine, shorts and sandals, sans socks.

The boys spent a morning preparing a tea party - denuding the yaupon holly bush of red berries, smashing them, mixing with water, straining and then serving.




I just liked this one. This boy has a sweeeeet tooth.



Ghoul & The Gang





Previous years we treated (because who tricks anymore?) with friends in a "planted" neighborhood. (i.e. we sugar-careful parents selected healthy treats to leave at the neighbors' houses for when we came to the door. granola bars, pretzels and nuts galore... It's really all about the process of costumes and friends, right? right? I haven't damaged my children irreparably?) This year it was full-on door to door chocolate. And as they lorded over all that they conquered, I was astonished at my candy repertoire; there were literally dozens of different types of packages of candy before me and I could identify with complete accuracy and clarity the contents of each; deftly singing "sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't. almond joys got nuts, mounds don't."





The boys have had the habit lately of picking up the camera to capture something to remember, so when I dump the camera bits onto the computer I am met with several shots of something unexpected, like this playdoh turtle. I wonder if she had a name.




And speaking of remembering things, In Nbear's class they set up an altar for Dia de los Muertos, the day to celebrate and remember those who have died. I decided we should have our own altar at home.



Contents:
Photo of Grandma Hubbell at the beach
Photo of Me & Bruno in San Diego
Photo of Betsy & Bailey
Photo of Grandpa Alden
A postcard from Salt Springs because it is near Quaker Lake where my Great Aunt Mabel and Uncle Gene lived in the summers
Lilies because Betsy liked them, in her crystal vase
A trivet from Grandma Hubbell
A paintbrush from Grandpa Alden's workbench
Bruno's purple leash
Lace doilies from somewhere in my family
A tin of guava paste, scavenged from Betsy's pantry
A cup from my great Aunt Ann and Uncle Dick for me when I was born
A small dish of pine nuts for Betsy because she really liked them (the squid ink that she was always searching for to make black pasta was respectfully in absentia, because I can't find it either...)
And marigolds, because that is traditionally part of the Day of the Dead altar and they are growing in my garden.

Rememberance Day

"In Flanders Fields"

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1915)




"We Shall Keep The Faith"

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
— Moina Micheal, 1918

My weekend. What did you do?

Yesterday was one of those busy days when every one of the 4 people in my household each had their own place to be at around the same time and only 2 of those people can drive. After careful orchestration on my part, I had it covered. Which means... cue the sick child.

But I got to go where I was supposed to go. yeah me!

Before this year, I had never done a fun run, a walk for anything or even a turkey trot. Yesterday marked my second event for a charity (the first being the danskin.) I walked a 5k for the National Association for Mental Illness (NAMI) on a team urging NAMI to recognize eating disorders as a mental illness, because currently they don't. (okay. so if they aren't a mental illness, what are they? hmm?) Anywho. If you would like to vicariously support me (or my beloved team captain) you can donate here. It's not too late to donate.

Hope ya'lls weekend was swell. A big shout out to my "quasi" high school SV reunion mates in my tiny town in New York. I say quasi because I moved away in 6th grade, which means I knew them before their hair got really big. Maybe I'll make it to the next one and we can recall slumber parties on shag carpets listening to the Bay City Rollers and Billy Joel.



In other news? It rained and I made soup.

Summer of '09 Roundup

Since a few days of rain has transformed us into a spring/fall feeling (green grass out all of a sudden/cool temps and windows open) it is the perfect time to reflect on our summer, aka our "Minnesota winter" (we hole up inside because it is TOO HOT outside.) Who would have thought I'd be HAPPY to see 90 degrees?! Bring out the courderoy!

[Pour yourself a Pimm's Cup, this is a long one.]

Just as my momentous triathlon was complete, thus began my next adventure of having company! Yeah! My cousin D is one of my first cousins (I only have 2) amidst the array of significantly older second and third and once removed cousins that I am blessed with. Sadly, I have no good pictures of D to slide in here for good measure, but know that we swam in Barton Springs, ate bbq, went to our most famous state attraction.



Some were impressed with this:


notice the proud arm draped on the cold metal.

After we sent D back to his moderate-temperature locale, which is utterly lacking in BBQ, we got ready for the Cool House Tour. There was one project that Smith and I wanted to have done before the tour, but it just so happened to be the one thing that we could never agree on. We had been back and forth for the last year about the backsplash for our kitchen. I don't know how we ever agreed on this:



But we did.


Midway through the installation, I realized why the tile looked so familiar: it is the exact same pattern and color from the kitchen backsplash at my grandma's house. Ours is glass tile, while hers was ceramic.


And so we are cruising along to tour day and I think I have everything under control when Smith drops a comment while we are brushing our teeth:
"By the way, I think John Dromgoole will be here tomorrow morning around 8 or so to shoot a segment in our garden for some tour promotion."

spit.

gasp.

choke.

John?

yes.

Dromgoole?

yes.

tomorrow at our house?

yes. he liked the look of our raised beds.


For all of ya'll not from around here, John Dromgoole has what I fondly refer to as garden mecca. He is the go-to guy for organic gardening know-how, products, and all things growing. It's HIS dirt in my beds. It's HIS mulch all over my house. Most of the landscaping plants were from HIS store. And he was going to be at my house. And I hadn't weeded yet (today), because I've been dealing with this weed:

[From my "Texas Gardening The Natural Way," by Howard Garrett:
Nutgrass... There's only one guaranteed way to control nutgrass: Remove all the plants and nutlets by sifting the soil through wire mesh. Put this material in the driveway, soak with kerosene and burn to ash. Put the ash in a sealed concrete container, take it to the coast, ship 200 miles offshore, and dump in the ocean. No other techniques I know will work...]

It's as if Martha was at my house for dinner and I hadn't bothered to vacuum.
He was very nice. And he didn't know what else to do with the nutgrass either.


The tour itself was fine, if not exhausting. I think we had over 700 people in our house, and they were all very very nice. They were curious and asked lots of questions. It's like a pop quiz at times...
Why is there a window here?
How many eggs do you get from your chickens?
How does the solar affect your electric bills?
So how many square feet of bookshelves do you have?


I had to refer him to Smith for that, and he had an answer.



So with it being so unbearably outside, what did we do inside?
We tried to grow tadpoles into toads. Our creek had an abundance of tadpoles and the boys gathered them for rearing. Out of 10, only 1 was released into the wild.


we had fancy sandwiches



a tape project



playmobil! pirates! arrr! sushi?


- let's find some saltier salmon eggs!

- yeah, and crunchy seaweed to wrap around them!

- we have plenty of seaweed, now let's suck up those eggs!

- can you hear me captain?!








piano in pajamas



another instrument...



Smith worked.



made martianmallows



they were wonderfully fun to make! and beautiful! and tasted like. well. Nbear just had one. We built things with the rest before we tossed them.



Took apart a rotary dial telephone




Hey - we made it OUT of the house, all the way to Houston for my 20th high school reunion. which rocked. Here's me avoiding the camera for the "prom-style" photo.




And summer also sees a birthday or two.
Here's the cake of my 4 year old.







And the 40 year old. We even got to reuse the 4. The "0" we had to be a little more creative with.





the greatest show on earth! in glorious black. and white.


It was the boys first circus and they LOVED it. Also the first taste of cotton candy. They had seen it for sale in the grocery store (how wrong is that!) I told them it had to be eaten either a) at a circus b) outside at a fair.



And ah. the First Day of School.


and so far, they are still smiling.

Today I am Moved.

These is pure beauty.

One of my favorite things

To watch the end of day succumb to dusk....

Too much of a good thing.

I think it will be a long long long time before Nbear tries this again:

a cinnamon spiked shot of peppermint extract.

whew. took his breath clear away. (but he sure smells nice.)