Summer Holidays Part One: Kim's Family

The youngest member of the Long clan, my gorgeous niece, Eliora, trying on the Elton John glasses in the doorway of Wazoo Playhouse: A treasure hunt brought all six cousins together (ending in a pinata hid underneath the forsythia bush). Here in front of Wazoo Playhouse: Drumroll please. . .the homemade slip 'n slide! My brother-in-law Luke, and Martin, fashioned it out of industrial plastic, duct tape, and pool noodles for the 'speed bumps' at the bottom. Everyone went down, including my mother, who, after her first trip down the hill, sprang up, covered in grass, laughing, and bounded back up to the top, whooping with joy. Here, Heather shows us how it's done:
The whole ride ends for adults in a roll in the grass. The cousins got more and more intrepid:
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The babies found tamer entertainment than the slip 'n slide:

And we found a peaceful corner in the back of the house for outdoor bathing--hot and cold water, mind you, bubblebaths by the trees and showers in the open air!


Here's a little section of my mother's thank-you e-mail: It may be a while before you have a chance to check email, but I wanted to drop a note to say what a wonderful vacation it was at your place! Every day was precious; Dad and I loved sleeping in the shed, the creek and fishing, the slip and slide, the babies in the pool, meal at night outside, fabulous trip to Deep Creek, card games, lovely breakfasts by Martin, watching the children together. What a week!. . .It was magical and the stuff of memories for years to come. > Sunflower Cottage (aka, the shed), where my parents slept in undisturbed slendor:
Lots of wine, cheese, chips, cards, and conversation:


We all had important summertime jobs. Here, Martin with a corncob:

And Luke with the fly swatter, defending Wazoo Farm and its eaters from natural preditors:

Oh, summertime, family, sunshine, food. What a grand combination.

Good Things

Playhouse two days ago--now we've put up all the walls!



It's almost ten and Martin is still out, wrapping things up--literally--due to the 10to 20 percent chance of rain. Two coats of paint on the french doors, shed floor painted, two out of three floors of the house cleaned: that catalogs my accomplishments for the day.

My sister, her three kids, and my mother arrive tomorrow night; some days later my father and brother-in-law join us. We are going to be ready to party! Now if only we can get the gazillion things done that are left before they arrive at suppertime!

Roofing in the Darkness: the Girls Playhouse Continues

What light Martin is going on is beyond me. His inner light, perhaps, or the fireflies, or his supersonic night vision goggles. Now that it's more or less pitch outside, I am glad to hear the screen door slam. I think that means that the roof is up. After I read to the girls tonight, they reported that "Daddy was on the other side" before they scooted off to bed. I do not think they were speaking figuratively, or at least I hope not.

My contribution to the fence and playhouse is holding a few rafters in place, buying gatorade and klondikes, and spending TWENTY-SEVEN days straight with the children. Yes, you heard me correctly. This week I've been putting them to bed every night. Tonight we suffered the second flour-eating incident of the week (that's when Bea waits until I've cleaned the kitchen to clamber onto the counter and eat handfuls of flour from the gallon jar I keep there for baking), an assault with a building block (middle child), and much moaning from one eight-year old, who is also a very active informant. Three days in the nineties has made us all a little fractious, though overall--and now that I am more clear-headed due to five minutes without any children--the three weeks of construction have been enjoyable and relatively facile. I am ready for a bit of a break though, and I'm sure Martin will be, too.

The reason, my dear friends, who are scratching your feminist heads at this division of labor--the reason is that if I had built either fence, playhouse (or last year, shed, and the year before, our front fence), they would have all been laughable disasters. I say this because I know myself and my mathematical and spacial limitations. I don't know how good I am at being with my own children--I'm grateful that they are all alive! But this is about division of labor and who's naturally inclined and talented, not about who's swinging a manly arm with a hammer attached and who's suckling the brood. Martin shows a remarkable aptitude for building, which is foreign to me, coming from a family who only raised a hammer to hang pictures.

Note that the fence ends abruptly on the side yard? It LOOKS weird, but it's planned--our forsythia hedge, which is somewhat smallish at the present moment, will someday meet the fence and carry on down the side yard in style. And the big blue shade tent is just in the Children's Garden temporarily, to give Martin some respite--usually it's over the adirondacks (until our fruit trees grow bigger and stronger.)Also, that funny little bit of deer fence is only temporary.

He just came in; he says that if he gets up at five in the morning, we may just be able to leave after breakfast to go on our overnight trip to Deep Creek, Maryland. Five a.m. is a wonderful idea, don't you think? I'll pat his back as he rolls out of bed: Good job, darling! Keep the old cylinders firing!--and all that.

What Martin and His Father Did

At last!

All photos, courtesy of Ken Cockroft. . .all fence, courtesy Ken Cockroft and son.

All (or at least a great deal of) dizzy joy at finally having some privacy, MINE!

It's so hard to sit down at the computer these days with all the excitement--but I wanted to show you how wonderful this fence really is. It passed the naked test! Beatrix, in her favorite state, running around in her own flowery sanctuary, buck nude. As the sweet older lady who dropped by the other day and found Bea sitting on the couch, watching TV, in her birthday suit, observed, "It's much too hot for clothes!"


The summer is so sweet. Today the girls and I lay under the maple and watched the cardinals, listened to the wind, and squabbled with each other.

Shed Update, in Pictures

A little red. . .

A lot of lupine. . .


Won't this be a cheerful sight on a bleak winter day?

It's almost done! Just got to paint the floor and get the doors up!

Shed

In the dark last night, Martin nailed in the last wall of our shed. Here's him a week or so ago working on the roof:

Tomorrow, Merry starts public school for the first time! She's excited! More later. . .beautiful day outside--in the 70s, sunny and breezy. I don't want to miss it!

Back Again to a New Shed

We're back! After a long gorgeous summer in WA, MT, and TX, and here and there on the way back to our own honey corner of PA, here we are.

It's truly too late tonight to go into any interesting detail, but I told Mama I'd get a few pics up to show her Martin's new 'do and our shed, which Martin and his dad worked on last week (there's now more to show but I have to upload the roof and one piece of siding):

Didn't they do a rather lovely job on the frame?

and--can you find--Martin (looking oddly respectable)? Merry's gap teeth? Elspeth's happy face? Bea's pixie eyes? Me smiling like I just went swimming in TX in my in-law's beautiful pool?

Thanks to Dad C for the pics since mine--including everything from this summer--are still on my camera.

Maybe I'll actually start bloggering again!

I'm Planting Seeds. . .

Occasionally, life seems to upset. At home last night, we thought over taking a dehydrated middle daughter to the ER last night but hydrated her successfully before falling asleep at midnight--overseas, Sri Lanka and Thailand and other countries suffer. When the tunnel of worries gets rather dim and heavy, the best place for me is outdoors among growing things. So despite the fact it was cold and rainy this morning, and despite the fact that I'm late to start seeds indoors, Merry and Beatrix and I left the sicElspeth safely in front of the TV with some sugary tea and toast.

I wrapped Bea in some raincoat contraption and Mere suited up and out we went into the cooling hands of our spring garden. . .

And there we found grace in the reliable, cheery, auntie-like tulips,

deepening grass and blooming trees,

lettuce seedlings

Martin's latest hardscaping

and our own soil mix.

And there's nothing like bringing dirt indoors by the bucketful to brighten a house dimmed by sickness.

So we'll just put ourselves in a bright window like the seeds and hope for warmer, sunnier climes soon.