Island

Aug 4, 2013 By Sarah in Ada, Island, Jolyon, Outside 2 Comments

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.

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!”)

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

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…

Sand

Jul 22, 2013 By Sarah in Ada, Jolyon, Outside 1 Comment

On Friday we went to the coast. It was a harebrained idea, loading my back seat with people whose combined years number fewer than the hours they’d have to spend there. (You may wish to incorporate this newly formulated Law of Logic into your own vacation planning.) But the bit where we were actually in/on Cannon Beach was brilliant. The sea was cold but good for splashing. Ada taught everyone how to make sand angels. (You execute them tummy-down, then scuff your feet backwards to make the tails — sand angels have tails — when you stand up again.) Jolly shrieked and flapped at the kites other beachgoers were flying. Tufted puffins abounded. Seagulls ate part of our lunch, but left us the string cheese and the vegetable-fruit paste pouches we call num-nums. And we supplemented with muffins from the Sleepy Monk Café.

Ada’s nap went awry on the way home and we got mired in traffic, but we were saved from the ensuing ugliness by eight cement mixers and The Highwaymen. No one can stay surly in the face of heavy construction equipment and ’60s folk music. By the time we finally reached I-84, Ada was cheerful enough to sing along and replace lyrics with “slice of cheese!” at random, to everyone’s amusement.

All in all, a good day. And I’ll be even more thankful to have a co-pilot along when we all head north to Friday Harbor for family vacation.

Grow

May 24, 2013 By Sarah in Ada, Home Front, Outside 5 Comments

New in the garden, such as it is: a bean tepee! A bean-cucumber tepee, to be exact. My friend Betsy once trellised some pumpkins; why not cucumbers, I thought? Nothing growing on the ground stands a chance against the gamboling dog, after all, and we do love cucumbers around here. (Hendrick’s gin and tonic with mine, thanks.) Ada and I did the planting together.

“Kentucky Wonder” pole beans and “Muncher” cucumbers, to join the bush beans and carrots growing in pots. They’d probably like it if the sun decided to come out some week soon. And may fortune protect them from squirrels and snails. I have high hopes of a leafy bower with a tiny seat beneath for my girl to enjoy in a few months. My girl. She is growing tall of stature and of tale.

“Mama, last weekend I had FIVE ARMS so I could hold a lot of bird feeders with toast inside and the chickadees came and ate it ALL UP and they flew up my shirt and their tickly feet was SO TICKLY!”

I like her so much.

Whistling Girl Knits

whether or not the laundry is folded

Outside

Island

Sand

Grow