~snail racing~

Two snails were racing as the tide went out the other day.

According to The Week-End Book, snails travel at 1.916 feet per hour. Does this figure reflect the speed of snails at leisure? Or an average of sauntering snails and snail athletes? Because these two contestants here appeared to be hustling.

I don't know if they made it to the water before the tide went all the way out. Maybe you'd have to calculate the rate that the tide was going out, and this might involve calculating the slope of the beach, and I'm more content to have born witness to the moment that these snails and I shared. Even if I don't know the outcome. Life is uncertain, after all.

Sand forms. This is part of the Waldorf curriculum: making amazing beautiful free-hand forms, sometimes mirrored, or not, and the idea is that you don't lift your crayon (or stone, in this case) once you have begun the form. You are committed. Being there in the moment helps, trusting your hand and eyes to work together. I asked Sylvan to make me one to copy and this was what he made.

Some of our party balanced stones as per usual. Though the Stillmans were notably absent on this day, it was really otherwise perfect. (We felt you with us in spirit! Note to S: The water was actually delightfully swimmable, really pleasant even, and not at all ankle-numbing.)

Novembrish Things

A little sewing, for Ashwood's Yuletide Fair and Artisan Marketplace of last weekend, which in turn benefitted the school. It was a tricky business to be given the parts of this advent calendar and told how to put them together, and then do it without worrying too much about realizing someone else's artistic vision. Would my idea of perfect be perfect enough? It turned out the answer was yes, as the two that I made retailed for $42 each!

Remember those little hand warmers, first pictured in last post? I used local yarn, from Good Karma Farm, the rainbow skein with a little of their green variegated alpaca blend at my oh-so-sensitive wrists. I find that I like them at this length quite a bit: knitted just up to my first pinkie knuckle makes them just a bit warmer than others I have made, but still functional for knitting or typing.

note how that central figure is slightly light in value?

amazed that S thought to convey the notion of distance and perspective that way.

note the bulgy muscles on this fellow

(Babe Ruth)

Here is a good un-blogsworthy photo of what our dining room table usually looks like, just to keep it real:

And for those of you who know our house, you may notice a different view out the window, in relation to the table! We have made a major swap in our downstairs layout. This was a brainflash that I had in the midst of feeling really awful, during a recent nasty cold, when I found myself pulling up a duvet in front of the woodstove and lying on the floor of my dining room.

A few days later, when I was turning the corner towards health again, we swapped the dining for the living room. Hello? Duh? I hear you wondering how come it took us eight years to figure this out... The room with the woodstove should also have the couch in it!

The room with the woodstove and the best nighttime lighting should also have comfortable places to sit for reading and knitting! The room with the woodstove is actually quite hot and annoying in the winter to eat supper in, when we have the stove going.

The former living room was really not much more than a glorified hallway, I never sat there, and now we sit by that big window and eat dinner together. And the slightly longer walk from the kitchen? Not a problem.

It feels like a new house.

And while I grew up with a mom who loved moving furniture a few times a year, this move of ours was a big shock for my boys who have had everything pretty much the same since we moved here. Definitely a creative endeavor and an opportunity for some deep cleaning too!

Autumnal Bounty::2

more loveliness by Orange Iron Fabrications

Well the bounty keeps coming. And I'm not talking about the bounty that Jabba the Hutt placed on Han Solo's head, either. This time the bounty is from our school's recent Harvest Festival and Michaelmas celebration. The weather was sparkling and crisp and this year's festivities involved no caramel apples from hell.

beautiful harvest market offered by the 3rd grade

our 6th grade table of baked goods

But getting back to Star Wars, which we are always getting back to around here, there is some serious fanaticism around here. It goes way beyond the conversations about "if you could have one ship from any of the movies, which one would you choose" or "which character would you be" or "who would win in a fight if _________." (For the record, my answer to that final question is always Yoda and usually I am right.)

2nd grade's activity was sauerkraut-making

scary grater thing for shredding the cabbage

Jonas has a rather ridiculous memory for detail. And he knew more about the plots of all of the movies than we did, even before he had seen them (thank you, interlibrary loan) because he had read a bunch of comic books that covered the movies and then, even better, some of what happens between and before and after the movies. Now from a literacy standpoint, this is kind of cool, because even before seeing the movies he was building up some pretty interesting connections between the complex plot lines and time lines.

Yesterday afternoon, in the car, he was marveling that Chancellor Palpatine (hey, check me out I got the spelling right!) could have set himself up so well to become Supreme Chancellor by vote. This led into a discussion about politics in general. That to me, it wasn't so surprising because I imagine he had been hard at work forming alliances with the senators.

two kraut-pounders hard at work

Which then led to Jonas suggesting that really, what he would like is a block of study on Star Wars (blocks last 3-4 weeks, typically). I think he would have to teach it, frankly.

Me: And just imagine the parents' surprise to find pages of diagrams of various important ships, beautiful colored-pencil drawings of important characters, and essays on the relative merits of the tactics used by various rebel and empire forces, sandwiched between your lovely geometric constructions and geology drawings!

We had a good chuckle.

At one point during his monologue, when I was just murmuring my assent, he said "You couldn't care less about this, could you?" And I answered with honesty: "You're absolutely right. But I love hearing you talk about it and I love listening to your thought process."

May the Force be with you.

Competition

On one of the most stellar days, one of our most perfect days in May, in Maine, we went to Blue Hill to watch this year's Pentathalon: the wind was light, the sun was warm, and the bugs were nearly nonexistant, making the day of outdoor spectating an absolute pleasure.

At Waldorf Schools, in 5th grade they study the ancient Greeks: their civilization, art, myths, political structure, and the events of the Pentathalon. As a culminating experience, many schools organize regional Olympiads (Wrestling, Long Jump, Discus, Javelin, Relay, and Sprinting), and train for the event all year. The trainer records the times and distances for each athlete all year, charting their progress and identifying their unique strengths. The focus is on beauty and form, as much as distance and speed.

Above, Jonas with the discus, his special event:

amazing to watch

When the five schools joined together last week at the campus of our gracious host school, The Bay School, the children were divided into City States...not by schools, but randomly.

So Jonas was on the Athens team, which was comprised of students from Maine, New Hampshire, and Quebec. (There were several Quebecois students who did not speak English! There was an interpreter!) In the above photo Jonas was wrestling with fellow Athenian, Seneb, from Quebec, who as you can see was determined and really very strong. Jonas held his own for quite some time before being overcome.

The city states spend the day competing with their team mates, but actually only against themselves, since the times and distances are measured against each individual athlete's former scores. The scores of an entire team are added together for a combined group score. Jonas was on the Athens team. Though javelin (above) was not his special event, he was so beautiful and bested his previous distances!

long jump

The mood of the day was reverent and filled with beauty. The children presented gifts and recited odes to the Gods, passed the Olympic torch around a circle of 80+ students, cheered for each other, and strived for their own personal excellence. In the spirit of the original Games, this was a festival of peace and fun. Jonas presented his school's gift for the Gods: a lovely Moss Garden made by the children (it was two stories, he tells me).

Each child had so much to be proud of throughout the long and strenuous day and I felt privileged to be present. It was a good day to be a mom, admiring her handsome, graceful, and talented boy.

Assorted delicious.

the photo I would have taken, this one by my dear husband:

chubby baby hand

holds umbrella in the rain

chilly May day in Maine

Happy Mother's Day to you. I got just what I asked for: a sleep-in morning and nice breakfast (scrambled eggs, danishes, coffee) and a big day of housecleaning. Because in May, when we are so busy having festivals and baseball and parties and birthdays and someone is trying also to finish her semester, the housecleaning falls by the wayside.

Sylvan is trying out the position of catcher!

Random things sit in random places. Multiple loads of laundry in need of folding are the norm and occupy a large portion of the floorspace in my bedroom (like the photo from last post).

men who knit!

I married one.

Today we asserted order into our house of entropy.

typical May day celebration in Maine:

dismal 47 degrees

And then as I was cleaning the bathroom, on a whim, I decided to paint.

local Maine ingredients augment these fine chocolates

from Black Dinah's Farm Market Collection

You haven't ever ever seen our bathroom, blogfriends, because it is awful. It is small with weird striped wallpaper, not vintage, just cheap. Also, there was this terrible brown-beige trim around the window, edging the doors, etc. (WHO uses brown to prime?!) Plus, the wall behind the toilet was not wallpapered (OK, fine, it was ugly) and was just plain white sheetrock. And out of all of the rooms in our house, it is the one that has not been touched since our first summer here, almost eight years ago, when we made shelves in it. (There was a linen closet, strangely, with no interior shelves. It made us wonder about the former residents.)

mother's day gifts:

alphabet wine (totally librarian, right?)

PG Tips (without it, I am nothing)

So I painted. We had white paint---imagine!---that I used to prime the wall behind the toilet and the trim around the window. It looks clean! Neat! White! And I figured that getting a small start on this project would then inspire more work when I am officially done with school for the summer. I just did it and it felt SO. GOOD.

There was also some mowing and bike-riding today. Sylvan, recovering from a touch of fever-y virus, bundled himself up quite well on this breezy, chilly spring day: here he is, wearing two adult-sized down vests over his sweatshirt, down earflap hat, with ear-protection muffs.

The apple trees are in bloom, which I love. Not so many blossoms this year and perhaps this means we should have pruned better.

First, the Beautiful

March, where have you gone? How did I fall off the blogosphere? A few things have been at work to keep me from blogging. First, there was March. I mean March in Maine is one ugly ugly time of year. So I have shielded your tender eyes from that because, no doubt, wherever you are living must look better than this.

the Two Friends square:

two strands of yarn, each representing a friend

Second, we have been dealing with the death of a car and the complications that ensue from that. Lots of research, list-making, pros/cons, and a little bit of fear as we went into the car-buying process. (Can we really swing these payments?! Yikes.)

Third, school has been keeping me very busy. I have had some frustrations with misinterpreting assignments in a particular class. Which is especially hard for perfectionist me, since I am used to "getting" things pretty quickly; so this is a good moment to find compassion for myself. Sigh.

Mr. and Mrs. E.:

Green square is the Mister, since it's a pattern I used for his vest

Rainbow square is for the Missus, the Rainbow Goddess

So. What have I been doing lately? I've been knitting squares for a Knit-a-Thon to benefit The Ashwood Waldorf School, where my kids attend and my husband teaches. I will have completed 7 squares of 8" by the end of this week (the deadline). It's been a really fun way to use up little bits and balls of yarn and try out some new stitch patterns.

And I have been needle-felting some little spring friends out of some hot pink curly mohair locks that I dyed a while back. They have such a sweet mohair halo. I figured, what's to stop me from making some hot pink bunnies and chicks? Since Peeps now come in hot pink, I figured, why not?

And the other thing is that the rooster pictured above, oh so handsome, but also oh so rough with our hens, prompted us to move one of our girls into a box in the kitchen. She had significant and deep wounds behind her wings, poor thing. So we brought her in, applied some salve, played her some classical music all day, and kept her fed and quiet (and scooped out her poop and changed her water, etc.).

If you refer back to the photo of the rooster, it's a bit of a coincidence, really, that the photo was cropped in a certain way. This too is in our future, since we can't have a rooster who is this rough with our special girls. (Especially this one, my favorite Buff Cochin: Puffkins aka Madeline aka Puffy Combs).

So. Wish us luck with THAT particular adventure, and more to come soon! I have missed the blog! Happy Spring!