ah, summer

 mr. twinkle eyes

The baseball season wound up with success. The main success in my mind is kind coaches and good spirit of the game, plenty of runs, catches, surprise double-play unassisted (!), even a rainbow. A very dear young fellow who was sometimes kicking flowers and dirt and other times making some awesome plays, best smile on the team! And my very own sweet guy was a team leader, praised by his coaches for his sportsmanship and manners.

We spent the day as a family on Mount Desert Island to celebrate 13 years of marriage. We hit all the high points (ha!): Pirate's Cove mini-golf (I got a hole-in-one!), then lunch at our favorite beach with plenty of rocks to skip and balance, then one of our favorite hikes up Parkman Mountain, catching up with friends, ice cream, dinner, and a surprise chance meeting with a dear, dear friend on the street!

 these two beauties were collected, then lovingly grudgingly tossed back 

when informed of the "remove no rocks policy" of the park

 he listens to the rocks

 kiss sandwich!!!

And now, summer vacation. I made it through my first teaching year! WooHoo! And as it turns out, I have a new adventure coming for the fall... I will be the school librarian at a school for 8th/9th graders in the same district as last year. This is thrilling on a couple of counts. 

 red leather chairs for reading: 

yes please.

First, middle school (early high school) students are my favorite age group. They are prickly and interesting and hilarious and it's sort of a precious time in their lives, one that can be awkward and awful sometimes. (And I love reading YA literature.) There is so much that is possible in middle-ish school that becomes harder with older high schoolers.

Second: ONE SCHOOL instead of five! One learning community that I can be part of on a day-to-day basis! Hoorah! This is quite exciting, to think of the possibilities for spur of the moment exchanges and developing relationships with teachers and students that I will see every day. I feel so lucky. And am devouring a lot of YA books this summer, which is awesome.

I visited a very venerable library in Boston this past weekend and I wasn't supposed to take pictures, but I took some before I knew... It was a librarian's geek-out holiday.

And finally, because we've had a lot of rain and gray already this summer, I wanted to show you something blue and summery. Rafter's delight and lots of silliness and the water was warm enough so I could even stay in and play and be part of the shenanigans. This was a rare moment of calm...

holiday with my boy

Sometimes, some very few times now, we are just the two of us. Jonas and I visited our old home for a couple of days, Mount Desert Island, which is sort of like a whole lot of beautiful in one tiny place.

our sea glass mosaic at our hosts' house

So if Maine's one of my favorite places in the world for natural beauty, MDI is sort of the essence of that; the best of the best. Most of it is owned by the National Park Service.

the view from Parkman Mtn.

We have so many favorite spots there and so many memories of when Jonas was small. I was always saying: Look, Jonas, that's where we went to the beach! That restaurant bathroom has special significance for you and your dad! That was our apartment when you were a baby! There used to be a goose at this beach we called Lucy!

We kayaked with friends, hiked up a favorite old hike (still great), and visited this lovely secluded beach full of rocks and sun (yes! SUN!).

I did not reenact being the troll under the foot bridge, but only because the stream bed was flowing quite strongly. Jonas was still game!

The Asticou Azalea Gardens are always a treat. And so much more relaxing now that I have an older child who is not about to shriek or run into the Japanese sand garden or stray from the path or otherwise disturb the meditative mood.

We camped out in the backyard of two friends (one of whom is Kate, my Unfurling Ferns collaborator) and listened to the rain on the tent, all snuggled and cozy. (OK, actually it was a little sweaty.) Both of these people are artistic food-lovers and have these amazing little treasures everywhere you look (driftwood accents, for example) around their very sweet and comfortable home. Martha Stewart has one of her houses on MDI and is probably sneaking around stealing their ideas.

Kate has this adorable tea cup, her grandma's. That I am in L O V E with. So here are two pictures, that's how much I adore it.

I couldn't even bear to use it. Kind of like having a crush on a boy in 8th grade that you can barely stand to look at, you like him so much. You might just fall into a really embarrassing swoon, just by glancing. Swoon away, in the comfort of your own home.