Friday, May 28, 2004

round and round we go....

I remember that soon after our dome was built the girls would race around the downstairs. Round and round they would go. I love being home!!! Michael designed and built us a great sacred space. Right now a friend of ours is over having a glass of wine with Michael. They are talking about other artists on the island and basically catching up.
Michael has a piece of artwork up at the Community Center and tonight we went to an artists' reception. It was fun to chit chat with our friends. It was funny that the only people there were the artists. It's a good thing that artists have a lot to talk about with each other.
It rained all day yesterday and two of our sky lights leaked. I guess it's good that we know but yesterday I wished not to know. We had to move our bed and set up a pot to catch the slow drip. It brought me back to the days when we lived in our travel trailer while we were building the dome. I remember one very wet winter night when the trash bag that was covering a drip in the ceiling collasped on us while we were blissfully slumbering. It was cold, it was shocking, we were disgruntled, and it seems like such a long time ago!!
Blessings.....V

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Speedy Little Demons

Xan and I boiled up some sugar water for the Hummingbird feeder that I found. She measured out the sugar and the water in a nice 1 to 4 ratio and set it on the stove to boil. She got to do the "clicker" to light the burner.
After the sugar/water cooled I put it in the feeder and set it out in its place outside our window. After about a 1/2 hour Xan notices that a Hummingbird is there doing its thing. I am sitting here at the computer doing my usual Ebay thing and listening them zipping about out there. They sound like bullets!! I say, "Don't stand near the Hummingbird feeder our you might end up with Hummingbirds sticking out of your skull". They are fast speedy little demons!!!
I am in my element...home.
Must go to do my daily read aloud with Xan.
Blessings....V

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

The Grass Is As High As An Elephants Eye...

We came home to an unmowed (is there such a word?) lawn. Thigh high to be more to the point. It's ok though. We couldn't find anyone to mow it and we gave up in April figuring that it's only grass and we can deal with it. Well, we are dealing with it.
For the first week home we decided that we needed down time and every day I took a nap. I needed some recovery from packing up our apartment and from Mom's birthday party. Now I feel recovered and am ready to face the idea of doing things here. Yesterday was yard cleaning day. We all spent the day weed wacking, pruning, raking and few minutes to jump into our new ponds. I sat outside with the girls and it was wonderful. I got some good Mommy juice watching them play in the water. We made some steps on one of the sides of the our ponds and they sat on the steps catching tadpoles and daring each other to jump in. Artie was the bravest and went for the first plunge. She jumped in and landed on the next level of steps. We had forgotten about those! She didn't hurt herself...was just surprised.
Last night we went over to the community center and watched a movie. It was "Fleeing By Night". A Chinese film with subtitles that Michael read to Xan. Very good movie. It seems that we have to travel 3000+ miles and take a ferry to an island to get some culture.
Another travel story...
At the beginning of our trip we stayed with our friends Ken and Cassie in Appleton, WI. Appleton seems to be about the same size as Saratoga Springs. It has a very hip downtown. We walked downtown on a Saturday and went to an Art Show. It was a show of 35 ceramicists from WI. How nice for Michael to get a chance to walk around and look at other peoples art!! Next to the show there was an Art Center and they were having a gallery show. It was all recycled art. It was "way fun"! I particularly liked the "cereal box woman" made out of cereal boxes. We saw lots of instruments that the kids could bang on. Max (Ken and Cassie's son) really liked the bang away on part. It was a great day!! Our time with Ken and Cassie was too brief. They have a daughter who is 7 months old and really loved Michael and I. She would make all sorts of smiles at us. Of course we couldn't pick her up. Xan and Artie could..but not the grown ups. Only Mommy. Not Daddy or Michael or Victoria. Ah well we'll be visiting them again....
Blessings.....V