Trading Contra for a Fire (152/365a)

Sometimes it's time for burning things. Everyone was tired (and a bit hungover, perhaps) from yesterday. Also, we had headaches from the changes in weather. We decided it was perhaps a good day to get some last minute shopping done and making a big bonfire and having dinner together. 

Drew and Theodore and I went for a walk to the WPI library to get out a book, so that I could *very optimistically* learn about Charles Loeffler before I leave tomorrow.

playing a favorite game: plumps. (literally the best picture I manage to take of a trampoline)

At dinner time, the wind picked up suddenly, and it got cold. We couldn't keep the candles lit.

lighting candles in the wind

We had no trouble lighting the fire. A big pine-tree from the yard had recently fallen, and all the logs and brush and twigs were just waiting for a match. Burn they did. We tried throwing flour into the fire by handfuls and watching what happened (magic! thanks Amanda!)

Drew and Theodore by firelight

And Chuck came by and stayed a long time, chatting, which was a super wonderful thing!

Bon Voyage! (151/365a)

I thought it would be fun to say goodbye to some people who live close enough or are sometimes up for fast spontaneous unplanned evening parties on a weekday. Unfortunately, my mother was still recovering from a migraine, so I didn't ("couldn't")even invite more than a small number of people. Unfortunately the crazy amount of rain meant we had to stay indoors, but we still managed!

Party is an overstatement, but we did have fun.... :)

Some highlights:

trying out a new trio (Matt!!!)

Trois pièces en trio (String Trio)

(for violin, viola and cello)

I. Dédicace sur le nom des frères Pasquier

II. Chanson

III. Les trios clercs de Saint-Nicholas

Composed in 1936, when Pierné was around 73 years old 

check out this video of a cool band that made everyone dance!

watching Felix warm up to other kids

finding out about great expectations

Bri and Steve showed up despite work!

caroline staying with her kids till well past their bedtime and learning to build things

and finally drew arriving (with his umbrella open!) and staying till well past everyone's bedtimes. Magical backrubs and nibbling on cheeses and almonds.

Dear Doctor Day with Good News! (150/365a)

We're not jumpy parents that run to the doctor at any opportunity, but we went off, tried a walk-in clinic at 8am, when they opened, who told us to go to the emergency room. We thought that sounded silly and waited for the next walk-in clinic to open, which seemed like *forever* - till 1pm.

They told us it was probably not lyme, and probably nothing serious. Took blood to test him anyways, and we were in and out in no time. Hooray!

examining the stickers he was rewarded

i understand *why* but i just thought this was so funny

So glad there was nothing wrong with him, but it was exhausting nonetheless.

More exhausting was shopping later. I got lost driving around Worcester. The funny thing is, I didn't get lost in the city. I got lost when I had quite awesomely found my way to the highway. I drove around in spirals for a while, and ended up in so many wrong places. Oops. At least I bought a can of compressed air to fix my new (to me) laptop keyboard........

Goodbye, Stringer Brook (149/365a)

I woke up at 4:30 this morning, with this strange feeling that Felix might be actually sick.... He may well have Lyme. We have been living among tall grasses and leaves, with deer and their associated ticks for months. The deer-ticks are about the size of a pencil-point, often confused for dirt/moles. I lay there in anxiety trying to decide what to do, especially as we are so far away from anything, even internet/phone use, and we have out-of-country insurance. We decided to pack up एकदम (ekdum, at once) and go to Worcester and deal with the problem there. I was sad to make that decision, especially as we had waited out such a long rainy day yesterday, and today was so perfect, cloudless, warm and wonderful.

Goodbye, Stringer Brook!

It was sad to say goodbye to the hut. We took down the list of "things we want to do before we leave" with many many things still undone or unfinished on it. We made only a small fire for breakfast, and didn't have our full clothes-burning-ceremony that we had hoped for. Felix sat in the car for an hour an a half lethargic and uninterested in the proceedings. We knew we were forgetting things, but we felt an urgency to leave quickly.

what are we burning mama?

some old pants, of course! just to say we burned at least one thing.

taking down the clothes-line.

felix waited for us, for hours, in the car, without much energy

We arrived too late in Worcester for the doctor, but we planned out where we would go for tomorrow. We all took long hot baths! It was a perfect night to sit on the porch and watch the moon with a glass of wine. We even listened to Holst's Venus and Mars.

rainy day contra (148/365a)

the last thing brian said before we went to sleep last night: "Tomorrow is Sunday, even if it rains."

....

we awoke to pouring rain, and i considered using propane, but NO. I REFUSE.
So i built a little rain screen, collected wet wood, created a fire, and when it was hot, i made breakfast, lunch AND dinner on it. That's a little bit of an exaggeration. While I drank coffee, Brian made the lunch.

We cooked three meals at once for two reasons:
 1. we didn't want to have to build that fire again in the rain with even wetter wood!
 2. we were planning on being gone in the middle of the day at open-mic contra. :)

Brian told me to smile. :) it took hours for me to warm back up, even after i dried off.

brian mastering the art of flatbread

we spent the morning inside drawing and writing and reading (and of course eating!) Brian's bread was voted officially the best we've baked here. Maybe it has to do with the extreme outdoor humidity?

Felix mostly slept. I'm very worried about him. He has been lethargic, and hasn't complained of any pain, but seems to be happiest sleeping and cuddling.

Off to Fayetteville we traveled. Brian danced, and I played. The kids ran in circles around the hall and whooped and shouted and yelled. Well, except for Felix who lay on a blanket nearly the whole time. :( I had so much fun playing with a wonderful mandolin player named John Kerr.

it looks like we are playing in an empty hall, but we're not! the dancers/callers are off to the side. true story.

The kids went right to sleep when we got home, but Brian ran out and got some cold hard cider from the closest gas station ("only" 5 miles away). We put the biggest log we had on the fire, and while we drank together and searched the cloudy sky for signs of light (even the moon was hidden behind layers and layers of clouds) we found out the older kids weren't asleep - they were standing and watching us from the doorway, haha. They came out and sat with us for a while.

Highlight
Theodore: Once I saw a sign in a town, I don't really remember where, that had pictures of tires and said "ReTIRE with us".  That's silly.  People make jokes like that sometimes in the middle of towns on signs, don't they mama?

Mama: Sometimes they do..... I was just going to make a joke about going to bed, like, "it's time to retire".

Theodore: Retire for the day you mean? Because this day will never come again.

calm after the storm (147/365a)

evening tea time over the fire

a pleasant day with pancakes and reading and little projects. 

in the evening we made a gigantic fire and the kids fell asleep in their sleeping bags outside and brian and it marveled at the change in shape of the constellations from where we were. at first we thought there would be too many clouds, but they lifted. i got to examine the northern crown from my chair by the fire. luxury!

apples before teeth brushing....

A not-great day in paradise (146/365a)

Even paradise has its imperfections. Today should have been perfect but we were cranky (first x3 and then x5) "Wrong side of the bed" ..... Maybe it was waking up at 5:30 am to star gaze and finding the absolute perfectest sky to watch in the east with 9 new bright and beautiful constellations in full, complete with the Pleiades and venus rising. We woke Theodore up for that.
Wait, no, it couldn't have been that, since the other kids slept through all of that and woke up nice and chipper, and.... seemingly.... ready to fight.

Eventually the menfolk all left me alone and went apple picking in the gravel pit with the new applepicker that my mother had bought.

apple harvest

We went down to the brook and set up a fire on a little island, but the kids got too cold and cried a lot on the way up.

Who knows? Sometimes there are just days like that....

and little moments of joy still creep in. :)