Luke

And Henry too. Luke really, and I am serious, thinks he's a dog.

around and around they go

around and around
they go...
the kids that is,
at the mini bumper cars.
so polite and considerate,
they've been trained well
by parents and preschool
and so only go
in one direction
like a merry go round
not bumping into anyone
except by accident.

i tell my kid
go ahead,
bump into them!
and he looks at me
to see if i'm joking,
deciding i'm not,
he goes for it.

it's fun!
the other kids catch on
and soon they are all bumping
and bouncing around
going in the same direction
still.

i tell my kid
turn around,
go the other way!
why??
so you can see them
when you bump them.

soon it's a mess in there
everyone bumping around
and going
all different directions.

crazy fun!
the kids are not so serious
trying to drive
like grown-ups
anymore,
now it's kid's play.

luke runs out of tokens
for his ride
and being the good mom
i am,
i run in to give him some more
so he won't loose
his favored black bear car.

i power him up
and he steps on the gas
and bumps into me
laughing.

it really hurts
and i say "STOP!"
and he doesn't.
he keeps bumping and steering
into me.

my knee twists,
my foot is bruised
and i escape before
i fall on my ass.

it was a very close call,
getting run down
by a laughing
five and a half-year old
riding a black bear bumper car.

laughing still even.
i guess i taught him
too well
the meaning of bumper cars.

or, as they say
what goes around,
comes around.

crabbing

a pair of boys
at the edge of the beach
where the breaker rocks lay,
were luring little crabs
with a string
and a paper clip
and some bologna.

they were having the best time
and drawing a crowd.

"oh my god, oh my god, oh my god",
the biggest one would yell
each time he saw a crab
going for the bologna.
and then he would stand up
and turn to the crowd
of smaller boys and girls
and say:
"Everyone be really quiet!"
even though they were all
holding their breath
and wondering what
he was screaming about,
had it bit him?
was it the biggest crab yet?

his friend had the lure
and he had the quick hands
and they worked as a team
with the smaller kids
yelling out
each time they spotted a crab too.
and when the crab was caught
it was put in a bucket
whichever bucket was held out for it,
whoever didn't already have a crab.
my boy got his after he had spotted one
that got away.
and so the next one caught
went in his red bucket.
all the way back
to the beach towels and toys
he sung his new song
"i got a crab, i got a crab,
i got a beeeeeautiful crab".

i asked him
what he was going to do
with his beeeautiful crab.
he said: "I'm gonna eat it."

(i took him out for lobster and steamers instead - it was SUCH a great beach day.)

Dragonfly and Shutterbug

Nine New Hampshire Things

The Good:
1. Family
2. Warm rains
3. Warm nights
4. Sunshine
5. Frogs singing
6. Rock walls and white birch trees everywhere

The Bad:
7. Allergies/Cold/Flu thing from the time we landed
8. Mosquitos and nasty bites next to Luke's eye
9. Humidity

Blue Between Closing for Two Weeks

Just a little FYI: Luke and I are off to steamy New England for two weeks to visit family and all that. I'm taking my online store and etsy store offline so I don't have to worry about orders and such, but will be back soon and hopefully even have some new offerings then as well!

My Little Graduate

Yes, I've turned into one of "those" moms - the kind I swore I'd never be. All goo-goo about a preschool graduation... pretty silly stuff really, I admit, but there I was, clicking away with tears in my eyes... proudest mom in the bunch. After all, he has worked so hard these two years - hardly talking when he first started school, to being the kid "with the big imagination who entertained us all with his amazing stories" - learning to ride a bike just so he could raise money for "the sick, sick kids", telling us each day how he helped someone at school in whatever little way he could find to help them, learning songs and numbers, and how to sew, and grow flowers, and swing on the swings without anyone pushing him... Yes, he's come a long way, baby. I can't help but be proud of him.

Here he is at graduation, with his teacher Jessica, who he loves and thinks is beautiful, and with his diploma:





Here he is at the parade:



Here he is on a pony:



Here he is rock climbing. He didn't know what to do, but got half way to the top after just a few false starts... and then he turned to tell his dad that he was all done, asking, what should he do? Dad said "just let go" and so Luke did - he didn't seem to think twice about it, just trusted and went with it - smiling at the suggestion, even giving a thumbs up it looks like, and then he just... let go. And then went flying out over the crowd and slowly, slowly floated down to the ground. (I, of course, practically dropped the camera to see him swinging out in the air on that thing and missed what could have been a really great shot.)

Taming the Jungle

I have been working so very hard. Physically hard, not mentally hard - I've been taking a much-needed break from that. My fingers are stained earth colored and my nails are a wreck... my body is very tired and sore, but happy too, getting strong and in shape again after too long. What have I been doing? Working in my Magic Garden, of course. For the longest time I'd only been waiting... waiting to see what secrets my new garden would reveal - and secrets and wonders galore were discovered: a magnolia tree, a lilac, a fence-long of wisteria, rhododendrons in pink and fuchsia and yellow and salmon, camellias in magenta and white, fruit trees, blue bells, tulips, poppies, peonies, day lillies, roses, roses and more roses... and I forget what else. All these things came and went... and I thought about pulling weeds, but the weeds were not weeds I knew, and I was afraid they might actually be something wondrous too. So, I left them for the longest time, waiting... waiting... waiting... watching my garden turn into this Wild Place, a Jungle, really. Vines winding around shrubs, smothering them, winding tighter and tighter... weeds crowding out who knows what might be under there... things looking more and more intimidating... And then I gave up the hope of something truly amazing popping up from the midst of that mess, and went to work. I've been working there for weeks now, and wow... I've only got more and more work to do it turns out. But I feel like I've made progress - my jungle is getting tamed, things are getting under control. Sort of, because I know if I turn my back, the weeds will grow 8 inches over night - I know this from experience - that is one of the magical things about my yard - things grow. It's fabulous, really.

Before shots - taken a couple of weeks ago, weeds, weeds and more weeds. You have to see these, otherwise the next shots won't look like much!





And here are the after shots, taken today. That bare dark brown patch - used to be a bed of weeds - I'll be getting a bag of grass seed tomorrow for that area - I moved the rock wall and made it more... intuitive - before, you would get to that part of the garden and wonder... where am I supposed to go now? Where am I supposed to look? It confused ME anyway.

An Elephant Necklace

A friend of the family asked if I could do anything with these elephants she'd had for years and years... and this is what I came up with. Hope she loves it!

Great Northern Pacific Railroad

Beaver Lake Park Flowers

Kitties and Dragons and All That is Luke

Luke was a kitty for a day, at the Edmonds Waterfront Festival. He had fun, obviously:







Then we got his room going finally - it's been a lot of work trying to figure out how to fit all his toys into this new smaller room - and we still have a ways to go - but finally, after hearing every day how he'd like his room to be horses (which we started with), nope, changed his mind, really wants race cars, no, power rangers, no, sea animals, no, wizards, no, a castle, no, space (with black walls, mom!) and everything else under the sun... We finally settled on something sort of castle/dragons/magic themed after a trip to IKEA. I like it, he loves it. It's nice and cozy, light and colorful, and fits Luke to a T how he is right now in this moment in his life. It fits the wall-hanging my grandmother made for my room when I was his age too, and it's perfect for the painting that artist Debi Hubbs was so nice to send him. I might paint on a few castle bricks here and there, or put up some triangle flags or something, plus there is still more art to hang... not sure what it will end up like yet, but he thinks it's done for now so that's good for me. Except I definitely need to add some glow in the dark stars to the ceiling (he doesn't know yet!).

Oh, Varekai!

It was SO good - the best thing we've done in a very long time. Luke's first Cirque Du Soleil Show, my second. Or maybe Luke's second too, as I was pregnant with him for the first. Though this time I got to see his eyes open wide like saucers and hear the gasps and "Whoah!"'s that came from him every time someone flew out of the sky or back up into it. His little hands clapping all on their own, and his announcements that this was a volcano, and that was a lizard... and then an angel, and all the amazement that followed. The colors and textures, the sounds and effects, the action, the bodies. Oh, to own a body that would do the things those bodies are capable of! Amazing, just amazing. And so inspiring.

Little Picaso

Luke painted this for me. It's a dalmation of course. He got the idea from a silly magazine he talked me into buying for him. It's called Hollywood Dog and it's got really cute pictures of dogs and all the accessories people "need to buy to make their dogs happy", at least according to Luke. And the magazine obviously. But it inspired this masterpiece, so it's all good, right? 12 X 8, Acryilic on stretched canvas.

Beachy

This is my summer cottage-by-the-sea fireplace display... so far.

$400 Saved

I dug through my old film SLR bag and found a set of magnifying lenses that fit my new camera! I can get right on top of the flowers now - I think this may work! The true test will be when I try to capture my beads, but for now I think I can play with this and have some fun. Happy happy. Now, off to see how to solve a moldy rose bush problem... oh, and yes it turns out my flower IS a peony! Check out this fabulous peony blog for more.

Better than Haagen-Dazs....

Better than Ben & Jerry's... better than you know what! LOL, I made my own ice cream from scratch today for the first time - it was soooooo good. The best chocolate ice-cream ever. One cup of cocoa to one cup of sugar, then eggs, milk, cream and vanilla. That's it. Took forever and a day to make, but so very worth it. Will do again. And again.

Have been taking hundreds of photos with the new camera and not really loving most of them. I think I need that Nikon 60mm Micro Lens that costs $400. Yes, I'm sure of it, it's exactly what I need.

Here are a couple of shots - not sure why the background came out black on a sunny afternoon outside... but there you have it. And I have no idea what the white flower is - it closes up at night and the ants love it - I thought it was a peony when it was budding... could it be? I just don't know.

Things to Love

12 minute-old kittens.

3-day weekends.

The music heavy rain makes on the roof and having the time to just lay in bed and listen to it.

The smell of wisteria blossoms.

Getting the Sunday paper and looking at it over a good mocha.

Trike-a-thon

Like the Energizer Bunny, he just kept going and going. And going some more. It was his school's annual trike-a-thon to raise money to help the "sick sick kids at Saint Juniors" (St. Judes). Luke went around 75 times - getting a sticker on his tag each time he made a lap. Even better than the stickers though, each lap earned him another dollar - that was what we promised him, never guessing he'd go even half that far! He did great, all told, he raised $310 with company matching. Go Luke!

The Flower Painting Class

Each week now for about 9 weeks, I've been going in to class with a beautiful flower or bunch of flowers... inspired by their beauty, color, texture, shape... ready to paint my masterpiece. And then, our teacher imposes her rules on us. "We will be painting in watercolor style this week" (the class was in acrylics), or "only use contrasting colors this week", or, "only use analogous colors this week", or, "no, don't paint all of them, just pick one and paint it from three different angles", or, "paint with dots this week", or "this week we will paint a close-up, cropped version of your flower - no no, don't paint two flowers, just one", or "paint this picture one square of the grid at a time". I have never been one for rules, especially when it comes to creating things. Really, I hate rules in just about everything. Impose a rule on me, and I will almost always find a way to break it. I'm afraid I was just born that way. But in this class, I tried to follow her rules - for the sake of... I don't know what - in case I might learn something new? Or just because I've been too exhausted to fight it. Whatever the reason, it has not been enjoyable and I have not finished a single painting. I'm not sure I'll even finish the class - next week is the last week and I think I might just play hookey and go play with my new camera instead.

Here are some of my unfinished works - I'm missing my magnolia (it wasn't any good, so no great loss). I might try to work on two of them a little more - the rest might get a nice coat of gesso so I can start fresh - with no rules.