A favorite place and wishes for new ones

 Well, it is her first magazine. A Harry Potter magazine. And so it begins. She is ten and a half (today actually) and she is wanting to know more about her world. I can not hold her off much longer with ABBA and the Beatles - the pressure is brewing. Oh man!

Now, while I worry about exposing her to the tween world, I had no trouble introducing her and Charlie to Fluxus at the Hood Museum this week. The kids were taken aback by all the crazy Fluxus kits (we giggled at the poop collection)  but what  a great contrast to the traditional American wing.  We finished off with my favorite collection piece by Sol Le Witt. I take great comfort in his rational abstraction and am so glad the children love it too - they never whine or pull me away - we just sit and enjoy it. Very cool!

photography by Charlie

Project - Marion's Quilt

I finished up the black and white polka dot binding last night, while we listened to the last CD of Harriet the Spy. Marion was thrilled by her quilt. She had chosen the fabric and we designed the flowers and the hummingbird applique using a quilt we has seen at Waterwheel as our inspiration. I don't love machine quilting unless it is in the ditch so I did large stitching in pearl cotton - a compromise between speed and the handmade look I like.

I think it has a nice pre teen, post little girl style. Just right for where Marion is at.

I like the white stitching but wish I knew pearl cotton comes in many colors before I got mid way through.  Oh well, next time.

It's hot - and all that it brings

 Well, it is hot. Stinking hot - wonderful really. I love that we experience such extremes. Bloody cold and stinking hot.

I am on a mission this summer to finish some unfinished business that I started over the school year. Here is a peek into the colors. Although I love sparse and neutral interiors I can't help getting involved with color. I also can't resist trying to make everything myself. This has been going on since I was a child and is a blessing and well..... a curse. Anyway, that's who I am so I'll just get on with it.

Are these not lovely?

We have been visited by family on flies - the blowy type. Their buzzing sends me right back to when I was a child and my mother, without hesitation or warning would reach for this......

this pump action spray. She would set to work pumping the mist into the air and sending the flies into a quick death dive. All of us children would make a run for it fearing the same fate would come our way if the fine mist settled on our skin.  Ahh, the good old days.

I hate to segway from flies to film but the good old days reminds me of Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris which I saw this week and loved, loved, loved. 

Going for fish

While one is off to drama camp, the other is off fishing. A summer down pour was not going to stop our first fishing trip. No fish but so much more.

the living is easy

Them.........

 and me........

Big Sky

 When you live in the mountains you don't get to see a big sky to often. So it was a treat to watch the sun do it's nightly thing as we made an impromptu ferry crossing from Vt to Ny in search of adventure.

Nice clouds yes!

 The children were sure they spotted Champ in the lake and who am I to question their reality.

 Watching a large bird flying over Ticonderoga.

Loving July

Finally, after a long, long, loooooonnggg session of report writing (that Steiner, man oh man, what a task master!!) I am free to roam as I please. This has included raspberry picking at Peter and Vicky's Cherry Hill Farm, sadly or not,  depending on whether you were in the car at the time, all raspberries were consumed before we made it back to the house - except for the pint Vicky picked for Charles - making sure we put in the back out of reach. Must pick more next time! 

We dropped in on our favorite cafe in Chester on our way through. Somehow, maybe the hippy / healthy / good coffee style reminds me of Fitzroy in Melbourne and I can't resist a stop if we are near.  We made  another visit to Waterwheel fabrics in Londonderry. I go for the fabrics and the children go for the sweet Golden Retriever who is happy to lie in the shade and have the children pet her.  It is their chance at dog time having only a big ol' bunny and a fish for pets.

 And then there is the lake. We have settled into our summer habit of heading to the pond late in the afternoon. The sun is down, it is quiet. I can do some work (Oh boy, stop it with the work, already!) and the children swim, swim, swim. I love this time. LOVE IT.