This Morning

This morning we awoke to rain.  Skyler woke early (5ish), but stayed on his top bunk to read (The Mysterious Benedict Society).  Gryffin was already in the big bed, so stayed snuggled in and asleep to the late hour of 6:30.   We breakfasted, made the beds, opened the windows wide to let in the smell of the rain & watched the garden drink deeply. 

Corner of 'The Big Bed', everyone's favorite place to watch the rain


 

 
 

 
 
This morning the boys are doing projects with maps...I have no idea what sparked the interest, but maps are located and pondered over.   Gryffin finds interesting things on the map of Massachusetts, Skyler is finding all the places he knows on the map of Cambridge.   Right now, Skyler is sitting at his new desk, working on a graph paper, to scale, map of his room, which includes a number of secret and previously undiscovered passageways.  Hmmm. 

 

 
 

Skyler's new desk was our labor day labor :).   A true 'back-to-school' prep for this homeschooled child.   This desk was found on the curb across the street -- we spent the weekend removing awful hardware, sanding down even more awful dark-brown laminate, and painting.  There's a piece of plexiglass covering the top so Sky can conduct science experiments or mix wizards potions without destroying the surface.  

 

Later in the morning the boys were invited by my sister, her husband & my niece for a walk to the wet park.   I join them later, walking along with my camera in hand and find these moments...

 

 

 

Camera play - puddle focusing on the surface 



Camera play - same shot, but focusing on the reflection

 

 

 



 

 

Cousin Beatrix

 



 

 

Peek-a-boo-Bea

 

 

We return home...me to my tea & this post.  The boys to further rainy day explorations in the backyard, where there are holes to dig and worms to find.  And treaure to bury.  And mud to make. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"in Just-

spring when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful"

 

e.e. cummings

 

[I know it's late summer, not spring, but this morning was soooo mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful that I just had to add ee cummings to my post.  Hope your morning was luscious & wonderful too.]

 



This Morning

This morning I am sitting on the screen porch in an old, white wicker rocking chair. I am pretending to read, but instead find myself putting the book down to gaze at the clouds rising out of the pines. 


It rained all day yesterday & last night, and I can hear the increased volume of water in the sound of the river. I hear the summer song of cicadas, the string accent of crickets. Even though it’s 8:15, the world doesn’t seem quite awake yet, still wrapped in a blanket of mist.  


I grab my camera and set off on a morning walk, alone. Here are some of the photos I took along the way, without a single picture of the boys (shocking!), but instead a few pieces of the quiet awakening world.

 "How can you explain that you need to know that the trees are still there, and the hills and the sky? Anyone knows they are. How can you say it is time your pulse responded to another rhythm, the rhythm of the day and the season instead of the hour and the minute? No, you cannot explain. So you walk."

 ~Author unknown, from New York Times editorial, "The Walk," 25 October 1967