mattie and jes
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

So I didn’t make any postcards but I found some great faces, and some particularly joyful faces.

We went to Isle au Haut, and it was beautiful. I had no batteries and lots of fog for the ceremony, so I stopped trying to record it and set about remembering it instead. It was outside, on the lawn of the house Jes grew up in, with all of us facing them and the water beyond and the little islands and ocean beyond that. The fog kept people from looking too far away, but made all the colors more intense.

In their vows, they married each other and the sea. I didn’t expect that, but it makes sense. It makes explicit something about my brother that many people comment on – his connection to and requirement for the ocean. It turns out, it works in a similar way for Jes. So I think they will be OK. I hope they will be.

It was very, very fine.

Here are some pictures of the surroundings:

And now, some more face postcards.

Sept 7
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Just messing about with photos. I am experimenting with this technique for catching the essence of a face. I think the stone dude worked better, but his face is less familiar to me than Aerin’s.

Alice’s comment to Al, as she climbed into the car to go home: "Well, that was different." That is what we were hoping for.

Alice headed off to Montessori School, first day of Fourth Year. The backpack is stuffed with the things they would like her to keep at school (spare clothes, a mug for coffee cocoa, smock for art projects, etc. plus a healthy lunch.

We were ready so early it wasn’t funny. We sat with the other madly-anticipating-school people on a bench until we the kids were allowed in. Parents were stopped at the door, and allowed to peer through a one-way mirror (brilliant but ever-so-slightly creepy) to see how they were settling. They were all settling fine. Alice was first in the door, wearing her new glasses, finding someone to sit next to, ready to roll.

I have always considered the first day of school a triumph if my child was not the one wrapped around my ankles weeping, and I was not the mom in the car with her head on the steering wheel weeping. There was no weeping, ergo, must be a triumph.

one child started:

Aerin on the right, with a neighbor, headed off to the bus stop and eighth grade.

Tomorrow, Alice goes to the Montessori school, and I get a day to start whatever I needed to do with no children around. What was that? oh….you know, secret grownup stuff.

Sep 4
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

The faces look catty-wumpass (slid sideways) to me, which I can only attribute to more beer than usual (well, one instead of none, I really shouldn’t make it sound as though I live larger than I do). Plus I tried to get awfully clever with the shading in the thread.

I realized this afternoon that both girls are heading into school in very different places than we thought at the end of the last school year. Aerin has jumped a year in math through her and her dad’s extremely dedicated efforts. She has spent the last couple of days being resolutely slothful. She reads, she pokes at stuff on the computer, she reads some more, then she goes to bed late and does it again.

Alice is going to the Montessori school to share a multi-age classroom with 7 in her year and 15 all together. We were there today doing recon of the room (it was planned) and meeting the rest of her first-time-in-the-room peers. They look like an interesting bunch of kids. Their parents were an interesting lot as well. Two of the parents work there, two of us are new and three more have been there forever. Alice promptly parked herself with a book in the book corner and had to be lured out repeatedly. But she also hooked up with a trio of girls in the playground and they were trotting and cantering about in a little pack with their heads together. After worrying about knowing no one, she realized she had been in swimming lessons with one girl (3 years ago?), and she was very relieved.

And I did a good thing. My neighbor across the street is starting 1st grade, having done kindergarden for two years at a very different school. I realized one person in her class is the younger sister of a good friend of Alice’s, so I invited the sister to come play too, so my neighbor could meet one person before school started. It helps so much to have one friendly face to sit next to.

Tomorrow is the very last day of summer vacation before school starts. We have no plans. We aim for boredom. It helps make school more exciting.

Sep 2
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

South American, I think, circa 1000 AD. I was pleased with myself for thinking of putting fabric to stitch and embossed metal for sparkle.

I’m glad this is a 3 day weekend.

Alice was accepted to the Montessori School. The reports from the admissions woman were heartwarming – the teachers who interviewed her said she had poise and confidence, used a large vocabulary with grace and style and was very comfortable with the Montessori learning tools. In short, they would be delighted to have her. I could have told them that!

Now Al and I have to come to terms with the idea of paying for school. Paying a lot for school. It isn’t the desperate situation of a couple years ago, but it is a lot. But she also is pretty cross threaded with the public school. A lot. We have a day to let it all percolate. She needs to report Tuesday for a cubby and orientation, and to have a quick run around. School starts for real on Friday when the returning kids welcome the new kids to the classroom and they all settle down to begin. It sounds so cozy it makes me want to cry. In a good way.

Aug 29
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Printing the photo in black and white, the petals needed some color. I thought about doing it all in black and white and gray, but sunflowers seem to me to REQUIRE color. So there is some. Not much. Some.

In other news, the Verts’ came for supper bearing a pie they brought all the way from Maine. The Bluebird Cafe in Machias makes a very fine blueberry pie. Actually they make two very fine blueberry pies – one regular two crust that is baked, and one single crust that is not baked. The single crust pie is filled with fresh blueberries and just enough gelatain to hold it all together, and topped with piles of fresh whipped cream. Bill and Cathy brought a two crust pie because they were unsure about the capacity of a single crust pie to travel any distance from its point of origin. The two crust pie survived the journey quite nicely, but no part of it survives dessert.

Aug 28
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

We’re home. I whanged this out before collapsing into my (own, nice solid extraordinarily comfortable) bed.

This is one of my favorite things from the trip:

Some close cousins and my extremely large brother. plus Alice in the background being adorable. All together in the kitchen at Herndon Terrace. Someday I will explore with you the intricacies of this house. Too much traveling today.

I had a nice visit with more distant cousins as well. I think we shared the same great grand parents – making us…what? Cousins. Close enough.

My list of stuff to do reads Laundry, Dishwasher (twice), packing lists for kids, clear the counters.

What I am actually doing is stockpiling postcard ideas for the long weekend.

We’re going to South Carolina for my aunt’s 80th b’day. It is a quick trip – fly down Friday, fly back Tuesday. In between I expect we will eat a lot of lovely food, visit the Pine Cottage, the only built piece of my grandfather’s architectural output, and spend a good deal of time explaining how these people are related to the girls.

I rode my bike this morning. It was cold. I had goosebumps for most of the trip, and my ear started to ache from cold. The acorns are falling form the trees, the leaves on the tips of the branches are starting to turn. I think every cold morning is a little elegy for summer. We try so hard to hold onto the summer with cutoff shorts and bare feet but we still needed sweatshirts this morning to ward off the chill. I feel lucky to have missed most of the really scorching weather, it makes me wilt. But I am not quite done with summer yet. I bet once I have had a little South Carolina weather, I’ll just be feeling profoundly grateful to be living here.

Laundry? Soon.