Wildflower in the Wind

Dropping off Eli

He’s off to camp for 4 weeks. He loves it, and is so happy there. I am thrilled as I know how much I loved camp when I was growing up… ok… I know how much I have always loved camp, even when I was grown!This is a rare photo, as he is usually dodging out of the way so that I can’t get a good photo. He is obviously so psyched to be at camp, and so comfortable here, that he even allowed me to take this great picture of him!!! I know he is happy at camp!

Even Emmett has a good time and is comfortable here. I am not sure if it is the right camp for him, but at least he has a wonderful sense of familiarity with being at an overnight camp. The water was cold, and he asked if I had brought his bathing suit. I said yes, it was back at the Bungalow (where we were staying a 100 yard walk away). He proceeded to run back and forth in the water, then strip off his shirt, then get totally soaked! and enjoyed every minute of it. He later told me he was studying how the sand was swirling around his hands with the ebb and flo of the waves.

We then went for a last dinner with Eli, and he polished off a huge steak! The child is just growing like a weed. And, yes, he is taller than me now. At age 12. and feet size 10!!!!

Emmett played hookey

He just needed a mental health day. School was almost done, and for goodness sake… It is June 18th!!! I could totally relate to him being tired of it. Since it was a Thursday, I was off to the barn. I told him he could skip school, but he would need to come and hang out at the barn, watch me ride, and have good behavior. He agreed that he would, so off we went.

He later said that his favorite part of the day was watching me ride Zulu!!! Yay!!!!

Rhubarb goodness…..

Trish has a HUGE patch of rhubarb growing in her garden. I picked alot of it, and made several batches of rhubarb crisp… OMG…. sooooo good!!!! Who would think this weed looking growth could taste so good?!?!

(will post the recipe soon)

firing no matter what….

I am so tired of this war and just wish it were done. I, along with many others, feel so powerless to do anything about it. When you read things like this (on wemovetocanada – she publishes a letter written by a marine who was there) about how the soldiers have to “fire no matter what”…. it all just makes you realize how much we don’t hear in the media.

We seem so disillusioned that we think we are told everything on the nightly news. Not even close. If we were really to have the atrocities that are occurring in Iraq on a daily basis, shown to us on a daily basis, we’d work even harder to get it to stop. Somehow. Bring our troops home. Enough. Why do we think we are solving everything anyway? We aren’t.

Let our troops come home to their families. Be done with spending an incredible fortune on the war and perhaps spend it on saving something universal like our planet! We can all benefit from that. For those of us who have read books like Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed and When the Rivers Run Dry, and more. Our planet needs help and we need to figure out how to sustain what we have, not spend countless amounts of money trying to police others. Spend it on sustaining our existence. THAT we need…. this crazy war we don’t.

amazing skies

The skies, the stars, the clouds and the colors found there has always made me stand in awe of the world we live in.

In the last few days, as I have driven in the afternoons over to pick up Eli from school, the skies and the clouds have been so incredibly beautiful and dramatic.
(make sure to click on each of these to see them full-sized)

even the puddles seemed to reflect their gold…..

they turned 40!

can’t believe my little brother and sister are 40!!!

it really was only a few years ago that mom took this photo of me pushing you….

but it was 1982 that someone snapped these……

Happy New Year

We had fun last night going to see the early (6pm) fireworks in Bushnell Park. We went to supper early at City Steam Brewery first (which is in the old Brown Thompson Building) and it was great. The restaurant is fun with seating in tons of levels, and lots of up down activity, of patrons, waitstaff, etc. There is alot to look at and we kept the kids busy playing I Spy while we ate- the kids loved the waffle fries there, and I had a fabulous seared tuna with a great dipping sauce. (click the above link for the restaurant to see the view from our table).

It was so good to get out to some festivities for the night- although odd to have it so unseasonally warm, and not even need mittens or coats zippered up! But certainly made it a pleasant evening for walking around downtown Hartford.
Happy New Year to everyone!

christmas scenes

a few things….

a firey sunset over the misty lake on the night before christmas eve…..
(saw it from the trampoline with emmett, climbed off and ran across the street to grab this shot)

my small child’s handwriting…..

some wine that was really good from our feast
I loved the label and name too…..

more coming (blogger is being a pain in the butt)….

morning, afternoon

Driving up to emmett’s school on a cold bright morning….

cold afternoon sky (as seen from lying on the trampoline with emmett- it was so cool looking I had to run get the camera to capture it)….

cold beautiful sky

this was the view yesterday, as emmett and I were lying on the trampoline (taking a break from tons of jumping)

…. and this was the view looking down onto the trampoline, just before I lay down.