Ada

Bocce

By in Ada, Outside, Sewing, Uncategorized 1 Comment

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Ada has three favorite games. One is Bird Bingo, the second is Hit the Hay, a board game devised by my grandfather, and the third is bocce. She usually wins at all of them, but she is practically unbeatable at bocce. For a three-year-old, she has a remarkably true arm. Her brother can’t throw much farther than his toes, but he is very interested in fetching the balls for further rounds. Good family fun all around.

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And yes, that’s a new dress. Mama made it and can hardly wait to sew another. More details when I can get some better pictures of it.

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Harvest

By in Ada, Outside 3 Comments

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I was in the shower on our first morning home when I heard the thunder of a large African mammal barreling up the stairs. It turned out to be Ada, fizzing with excitement. “I FOUND A ‘NORMOUS CUCUMBER! YOU LIKE TO HOLD IT, MAMA?” I would. Our first cucumber was a prize specimen. Nothing to be done but hastily throw on clothes and go down to see if there were any more. And there were! We ate the first one on the spot. The carrots and beans had doubled their length during our absence, too. (Thanks to our neighbors, who watered them!) There is hardly anything as sure to give you hope for the human race as watching little children goggle at food they’ve grown themselves.

And my mother made Ada’s fabulous birthday dress. I tell you, she is revoltingly talented and she doesn’t even practice. I can’t recall that she ever sewed for me and my brother apart from the Halloween costumes, but boy does she have skills. And maybe she’ll leave a comment to tell us what the pattern is, because I forgot to ask. It has a sweet row of pleats at the neckline that’s just enough detail without being frilly, which Ada definitely isn’t. She loves this dress and so do I. Thanks, Mum!

Island

By in Ada, Island, Jolyon, Outside 2 Comments

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This one has island blood. He shrieked to be free of his carrier as soon as we scrambled down to the beach. I lowered him to the sand and he was off to explore.

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This one needed some food before she was ready to brave the slippery seaweed and the chilly water. (In fact, there was a whole week that felt like an endless succession of meals punctuated by the declaration, “I’m STILL hungwy!”)

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Jolly couldn’t be bothered with a bathing costume. In he went.

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Oh, that island of mine. I’m never ready to leave. Ada, though, was missing her own home. Despite the beach, despite swimming in the lake, stalking deer with a gaggle of other little people, cooking out with friends, exclaiming over the cows every time we passed their fields, eating ice cream and watching the ferry churn away from the dock, staying up late for live music, and riding the patient horses at Plum Pond, my girl was asking to go home to Portland. It’s a little sad to know our deepest roots won’t be sunk in the same soil and that she may never love the island in her marrow the way I do. But there’s time for her to claim a second home as she grows. And I’m glad she loves the life we’ve made for her in the city.

I have a souvenir of this vacation: a finished sweater! I stuffed the ends I hadn’t woven in up the sleeves and made my husband pull the car over on the way to the ferry to take pictures before we left. Stay tuned…

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