Happy anniversary (again!) (114/365a)

My parents got married twice 35 years ago, so we arrived at Stringer Brook for our big adventure on their second 35th anniversary. We celebrated in the evening with a bottle of champagne and some pistachios.

chatting around our bonfire

We inspected the progress on the new outhouse, oohed and aahed about the garden, collected chanterelles and I spent hours practicing in the very warm hut by myself.

plastic glasses in syracuse colors gold and blue

brian and i went to town to get some watermelons and fruit and milk for coffee and then i tried to write on my blog but the wireless was too weak. when we arrived back, felix was asleep, henry was nearly out, and the mushrooms were ready to eat. yum. 

Henry checking out the cooked mushrooms he helped gather

Zero Day(113/365a)

when we were hiking on the Appalachian trail (in 2003!), there were occasionally days that we didn't want to hike anymore for whatever reason,so we would stay in one spot for a day and call it a zero day.

Such was today. We had a funny miscommunication which meant we were expecting my parents to come back to their home at any time, but they weren't even on their way here. They have no cell phone so we couldn't check very easily.

Instead we just lazed around, I went and bought soap (i had to smell all the Dr.Bronner's options!). We played tennis and kettcars. We ran around. We cooked and played and I tried to use youtube to learn the fiddle.

felix chop chopping - he made

henry bugle-ing

New Haven with Amanda (112/365a)

With a Farmer's market setting up directly outside your window how can you not go to the Farmer's market first thing in the morning? New haven is a pretty city, reminding me of a slightly more upscale Syracuse. Reasonably walkable. They are trying to be bike-friendly, and there are more bikes around than are typical for a US city this size, but the bike lanes are still relatively unsafe, and not used as much as they "should" be. A big 8mpg jeep parked outside Amanda's house proclaimed we should be actively engaged in "wildness preservation" and included a Thoreau quote - though we would like to hear what Thoreau thought about cars in general and about terrible gas mileage specifically.

oooh, look out there!

ok, let's go as soon as we have had breaaakfast (Amanda made us some amazing amazing bread that was totally gone before i could get a picture of it)

yummy yummy in our tummy tummy

Then we took a lovely walk around New Haven and up to their monument. The trail is called "Giant Steps" and it got its name from the.... you guessed it... giant steps you have to climb.

Obligatory selfie at the top with the view of New Haven in the background.

These are just normal steps

At home we ordered two giagantic pizzas and ate them all. In a complete food coma, we all took naps. What to do when you wake up from a food coma? Make ice cream of course!

watching it churn

actually icecream took a really long time - we started it before the farmer's market, and let it chill for 8 hours before we churned it. :) Then onwards and upwards to pick up some things in Worcester before (finally!) heading out on our main adventure!

Heading out from MD. (111/365a)

Started the day at 9 with a message from the universe:
NO MORE VIDEO TAKES. BE HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU HAVE.

The universe made it very clear. It rained on us, messed with memory cards, twirled heavy tripods into our faces, let the trunk of the car gather water and pour a bucket full over our heads, and generally did not like our suggestions until we went inside and gave up.

Instead, Tara spent several hours finishing my two(!!) videos, and then presented them to the whole family, including Charlie the cat.

The verdict: Tara did a great job making me look like a rock star!

On the way out, one more thing - a 4-generations photo - not so easy with Grandma always getting up and going somewhere else and saying "no no no" and Kids who make faces and wiggle around a lot.

Everyone is looking at the camera!

I ended up driving for 5 hours straight, no stops and no breaks. I haven't driven in so long that my feet were starting to feel tired from pressing the gas pedal. Our first stop was a contra dance in Rockland, NY. Everyone was hoping we lived around there and would be back in the fall, but no, we are just passing through.

I don't know if we can technically include this in today, but when I got to Amanda's (Yippeeeeee!!!) we sat on the floor till 2am saying we were going to sleep. Amanda gave us her bed to sleep in, and her new apartment looks like it came out of a magazine for hip cool millennials who decorate houses for a living, with lots of beautiful furniture she made herself from scratch. She herself slept on the floor on a yoga mat. Since Fritz is taking a class far away in Vermont, we got to see his apartment before he did!

viola video (110/365a)

I was so tired today. We wanted to try going on another date today, but instead we settled for just taking a 3 hour long nap in the middle of the day.

A few days ago, I mentioned that I would like to try ... one day ... to make a self-promotional video of me viola-ing so that youtube isn't cluttered with 100 year old garbage of me. Two days later she got a microphone in the mail, that she had been "meaning to order forever"

So the last full day here is a photoshoot with Tara. The likelihood of being able to get it all done before we leave is low - video editing is notoriously time-consuming and fussy. We got all our takes at twighlight in the field. Some of the takes were ruined by cow mooing and kids singing. One of them was completely ruined with crickets playing.

We stayed up until close to midnight lining up footage from two cameras and an audio track. We plan on finishing in the morning.

Meanwhile, everyone else was kept busy by exciting this.
Brian inoculated mushrooms in logs.


Felix and Gramp drove a tractor.


Henry tried to use up ALL the stickers. (from a 10,000 sticker book)

Theodore built paper craft trains. (Theodore is wearing his new cap from Alaska. All three boys got one. Theodore's has the big dipper and Polaris on it, which happens to be one of the groups of stars he just learned about on it. It is, of course, also the state flag of Alaska)

and everybody fell asleep.

Lawn-mowing and Date night (109/365a)

The kids were so happy that Granny and Gramp were back, especially because they get to drive the riding lawnmower and the tractor and all kinds of other things that require ear-protection. Felix drove in tight donut circles.

felix making crop circles

henry turning corners

Riding two at once

My careful Theodore mowing in straight lines.

We got to go out on a cute date night tonight! I haven't driven anywhere really at all since I got here (except to take Tara to the lab testing place) Tonight we stopped at a restaurant in Frederick and then a dance in Baltimore (about 2 hours away in total).

our pre-dance selfie - I borrowed the skirt from Tara*

The amount of energy I had made me invincible on the dance floor. Brian got a video of me while I was dancing, but actually, this was the lowest energy dance I danced with the least compatible partner that I had. Still, this is what I miss weekly in Austria. I got blisters on my feet and didn't care at all! I was so happy coming home.

Dinner was supposed to be maitake-based, a mushroom that I need in my life. But they made their one vegetarian option, mushroom risotto, with chicken stock. WHO KNOWS WHY!?? And speaking of America/europe differences... my runner-husband and I almost couldn't finish two green salads and a child's portions of macaroni and cheese. We stopped at the grocery store for fresh snacks, peaches and blueberries, and found Maitake mushrooms in their produce section and bought some so I could fix my craving. It made the car smell like armpits the whole drive there and back.

*The story of the skirt: Once, nearly 10 years ago, Tara and I went to a Halloween contra dance in Concord, MA, a legendary place for contra - dances multiple times a week. We decided to dress as twins. At the costume contest, we paraded around together, twirling each other in perfect form, and ended up winning one of the top prizes. People still ask us separately about our "twin sister" ......

Proof from 2008. 

This too shall pass (108/365a)

When we first started taking care of Grandma many days ago, it seemed like it would be a long time. But "this too shall pass" and so it is - time marches onward and you're left stunned and surprised at what you've experienced and wondering when you did all those things, and sometimes even wondering "what did happen" because you've already forgotten yesterday.

So today was the last day getting her up and out of bed for us. Just in time for our friend Karen (3 kids the same age as ours) and Tara to come over for breakfast. She's Brian's sister-in-law's sister. (Katie's, the one who's married to Shawn)

Kids all around, all cracking eggs and making their own omelets, banana bread rising in the oven filling the house with cinnamon smells, and lots and lots of reaching and shouting and laughing and singing.

nearly all of us at breakfast.

Karen is special because she is the comfy kind of mom who just trust all 6 kids to just go out in the barnyard to play and collect eggs and play with cats. the kind of mom who says "ooh that sounds fun, I'm going to do that too" when we suggest throwing some rotten eggs back to the chickens.

getting ready to throw some bad eggs

Attempting a 1000 piece puzzle. This is about as far as they got.

By evening, the kids were tired. Granny and Gramp were home, we had pizza and salads for dinner and then it was bed time. No pajamas, just falling into bed and listening to stories. We found a wasps nest attached to the bottom of the porch swing. - THAT'S why I was getting stung about once a day, always on the porch. I just assumed there was a nest under the floor somewhere, but NO, I was swinging their nest back and forth by accident.

Granny!

(bonus: in case you were wondering why Felix isn't listening to the story.... he fell asleep with his shoes on)

this is after I took his shoes off

scrizzling (107/365a)

Still had my headache all day, but it's low-grade.

Brian and the boys made it today to the old stone fort and I spent hours on the phone with Amanda (super duper yay) and then hours practicing.

They took some 180 pictures which I will sort through... eventually. - Lots of images of leaves and rocks and bugs and sticks. Beautiful!!

Our intrepid trekkers.

They stayed up to look at the most gorgeous sliver of a moon that rose exactly at sunset, but then fell asleep soon thereafter.

Tonight I played all the guitar songs I knew one after another. One night, years and years ago (15 or so?) Tara and I rode together in the rear-facing backseat of a car after a contra dance and sang "When you dream" by Bare-Naked Ladies. We couldn't remember any of the lyrics at the time, they were all muddled in our heads. When we got back to the house, we looked up the lyrics (probably by finding them in the CD booklet) and I memorized them, and it was the first guitar song I ever learned. Yesterday I found I couldn't remember the words again :( :( :( so Tara got out her fancy smart phone and scrolled for me. That's what good family and friends are for!

Remembering lyrics with our google brains.

Speaking of brains, the Grandma brain is quite an interesting one to behold. Sometimes she can read, sometimes she can't quite say or read her own name. Lately she hasn't written anything at all, but today she spent about 2 hours doodling, writing letters. When we asked her what she was doing, she said she was "scrizzling" I found it gorgeous, the juxtaposition of her hands and her scrizzles.

scrizzling

Since she stayed up until midnight, so did we. About 11:58 we hear a pff pff pff BOOOOOM. Oops, we forgot we had a squash in the oven.

The prettiest exploded spaghetti squash you'll see all day.

"nothing happened" (106/365a)

"nothing happened" is a frequent quote from Grandma's diary.

Felix, Henry, Theodore

In some sense that's true today. Brian found lots of books in the attic, and we read them, it was cute to see them all engaged quietly on the couch at once.

Tara was working all day, and Brian headed out early in the morning with the kids to see if they could get all the way to the Old Stone Fort and back, but they didn't get all the way there. They'll try again tomorrow. Brian got stung in the foot by a bee when he climbed over the last gate to get home.

I felt the very early beginning threat of a migraine in the evening (nausea and light-sensitive headache) so I took a vitamin I (ibuprofen) and settled down with the barest beginnings of a movie. (a pre-code movie called "Kept Husbands" the premise of which was very promising)

Let's go fly a kite! (105/365a)

Some people from Tara's airbnb had left gigantic "marshmallow skewers" behind, so I begged her for them, and the kids used them to make kites yesterday. There wasn't much wind, yesterday, and it was super hot and we were hiking most of the day.

Today was cool, and there was a soft breeze, and then a storm picked up so suddenly you couldn't believe it, and we started trying to fly our homemade kites - Benjamin Franklin style - in a gale of a thunderstorm. We could barely open the house door the winds picked up so quickly. Henry abandoned his kite for an umbrella. We all got soaked. There was really way too much wind for any kite, and I got tasked with untangling a few meters of kite string that had gotten super tangled when Theodore had flown the kite for about one and a half minutes.

Making the kites yesterday:

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Flying the kites today.

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We also finished watching Bedtime for Bonzo today, at Bedtime for Grandma time. Kids were fighting and difficult, so they went to sleep "early" at 9pm.

I finished transcribing Grandma's diary today. 37 pages of....... "worked. nice day." and "did not work. programs swell. cold."

It was so interesting to get a perspective on everyday life from then. I loved the little interesting pops of anecdote, with wry sarcastic humor that you only see if you read a lot of entries. It really really really makes me want to make any record keeping as transparent and accessible as possible. I would love to know who "joe" was, or what "the pains" were that mother had, but there's no one to ask. She also loved yodeling! Who knew? We asked her today about yodeling, and she just laughed and said "No, I don't do that." She loved Georgia Mae, who was known as Yodeling Cowgirl. You should listen!

A walk to Harper's Ferry (104/365a)

It was a hot hot hot day today. And humid.

This morning, the health care assistant dropped by for a visit, to give grandma a bath. To make it worth her trip we asked her to stay for 4 hours, so we got a chance to go out as a family. We took a short hike down across the river to Harper's Ferry, WV. Brian's family farm is at the intersection of 3 state lines, which means you can walk into 2 different states pretty quickly. We were warm but happy. Coincidentally, there were things going on in the little town - people dressed up in Civil War era clothes, showing off kids games of the past.

In West Virginia. On the other side of the bridge is Maryland.

Looking at quilting patterns.

In one of the games, each player got two sticks and you catch a large-ish wooden ring, and make it fly again by pulling the sticks apart. It was really fun, though presumably challenging to actually play well.

Felix played a while with Mama. He really enjoyed the game.

We walked back up just in time for Rebecca to head out. Then we went and got Tara (who would have loved going on the hike with us, but still can't really walk). She drove herself home for the first time since the snakebite. Tomorrow she has to work at 7am. She's not sure how much walking she will need to do so she had Henry fold up one of Grandma's walkers and put it in the car for her. Henry loves little tasks like that!

I've wanted to watch Bedtime for Bonzo for a while now, so we finally started it. It was a silly and fun movie, where the themes are quite complicated and underdeveloped.

We've all been going to sleep way too late - it doesn't get dark till 9pm, and neither Grandma nor the kids can be convinced to sleep when it's light out. Doesn't matter though - there's no school and no work and no appointments. They still get up as soon as it's light out, which can be difficult for everyone.

Helmet Pancake Day! (103/365a)

nearly annual tradition now that started 4 years ago. Helmet-Pancake-Day with Tara!

group selfie

We spent the morning getting Tara's airbnb ready for renters today, and I got my first cup of coffee at noon. Felix pointed out I needed 1,000,000 coffees.

mmm...

Henry wants to pour himself a half gallon of maple syrup.

That stack was gone in 2 minutes flat. So I had to make another batch. No problem. The kids played Old Man again while I did that.

Grandma was in a really good mood this afternoon. We laughed together for about 2 hours straight. Delightful.

petting Charlie the cat, who is supposed to stay outside. he sheds a lot and likes to lick peoples' toes.

Stuff has been arriving in the mail. Here we are with a beautiful 25lb bag of oats for our upcoming adventure!

It's big!

We wanted to watch the end of Mary Poppins and gave the remote control to Henry. This is four smart people trying to figure out the scene selection.

Move up one, no, over 2, ok, move up again, now move down, oh, go back......

Shawn and Katie visit (102/365a)

Brian's brother and sister-in-law live in Virginia "only" 2 hours away. They came and spent the day with us, and we did the "traditional" things, a walk along the towpath and pizza night.

In the morning the kids played "old man" - a new game where they use all the walkers and wheelchairs they can find and, according to henry, they "sit around telling stories about things they never saw."

Old Man

animated conversation around the kitchen table

The walk along the towpath for Tara with swollen foot, and Grandma, who did not like the bumpy gravel, was just sitting watching the boats on the dock. For the rest of the party it was finding a cave and exploring it with flashlights, and putting their feet in the river and the mud.

Pizza making was fun, and afterwards we did a little photoshoot to update their wall-picture too!

cute couple!