lots of playing outside! much less blogging.
out in the garden early today, then again after lunch, about seven hours--still not caught up after a week away up to popham beach. this year i was wondering what would grow while we were away. it has been a really dry spring but we had gotten 2 1/2" of rain thursday the 28th, two days before we left. i had weeded on friday, but all that water and a week of sun and heat pushes growth like crazy.
sure enough, everything had put on a lot of green, plants and weeds alike. by five this evening i had to come inside and rest my back. i came back out to water and snapped this picture, complete with cows in the background. the electric fence is my feeble attempt after a few years off, to keep deer from grazing the vegetable isles. this year was the first time i ever saw them go after tomatoes! so far my little solar zapper seems to be working. a week at the ocean is totally worth a long day--or two--in the garden.
it has been plenty busy all june, but since the last post of the four MOC 'campers' i have gotten in a few good outings, and one monster bruise! pam and i had run up south peak on moose mountain one saturday from the canaan side of wolfboro road to where the AT crosses. i try to hike a few times a month barefoot. it helps me pace myself when i am with pam and gives the bottoms of my feet a workout. i swear, even though pam laughs at the idea, that i pick up a fine silt making things pretty slippery down there. at least that's my story as to why i slipped on the stairs the next day.
my lower back swelled up like a balloon. some arnica and vitamin i fooled me into riding down to windsor the next morning to meet with the PBEE, place based environmental education, wellborn folks. just a bike ride might have been ok--but maybe i should have past on the five mile kayak paddle down the connecticut. my chiropractor might not agree, but i don't think it made it too much worse. of course a week later, the first time i went into the ocean, a fellow cabin dweller we've known for years, came up and pulled at my trunks, "i don't mean to get fresh, but what the heck did you do?" do you think all that color makes my butt look big?
the cold water hopefully sped up the healing. i say cold but, it didn't seem as frigid as it sometimes gets. pam even went in on three different days, one day for two long swims. i was in at least once a day and noticed that as the week went on, the temperature seemed to go up--at least i could stay in longer. one low tide, sadie and i swam out a fair bit where it felt a lot colder. coming back in, we both clearly sensed passing into a warm zone.
while i wasn't swimming, i was often reading. one of our favorite times is after five, when the beach pretty much clears out. we sit and read until one of us gets hungry enough to go up and cook supper.
another routine i have is an early morning beach walk to collect toys and things that get left behind by the crowds. this year was big on clothing as well as buckets, shovels and flip-flops. the treasures on sunday and monday helped me make early plan to make the yearly 'sculpture' like the three figures pictured below.
the cartwheeling figure was inspired by 6 year old katherine, who jumped up and did a perfect one when i asked her how she liked gymnastics. when her craig, her father and a long time cabin dweller, announced he could do better, she quickly flubbed one and told him, "that's how you do it." the tree pose was an ode to two namaste yoga mats i found one morning. the lttle release the beast croquette player got built to use up the 9 different bucket handles i picked up--finally, a way to place the ubiquitous but rather useless handles.
friday was our one rainy day for the most part, but warm-ish and not bad for building a "go outside and play" theme.
last year's sculpture, the picture to the left taken just before halloween, was up through the winter, but my buddy tom, a semi-permanent cabin dweller and off season documentarian, has informed me that the rangers are saying they have to take this year's down as the clothing counts as debris.
i wonder how they classified all the stuff hung from the dream catcher last year?
oh, well art is ephemeral...and why worry when i have plenty of weeding to keep me busy!
out in the garden early today, then again after lunch, about seven hours--still not caught up after a week away up to popham beach. this year i was wondering what would grow while we were away. it has been a really dry spring but we had gotten 2 1/2" of rain thursday the 28th, two days before we left. i had weeded on friday, but all that water and a week of sun and heat pushes growth like crazy.
sure enough, everything had put on a lot of green, plants and weeds alike. by five this evening i had to come inside and rest my back. i came back out to water and snapped this picture, complete with cows in the background. the electric fence is my feeble attempt after a few years off, to keep deer from grazing the vegetable isles. this year was the first time i ever saw them go after tomatoes! so far my little solar zapper seems to be working. a week at the ocean is totally worth a long day--or two--in the garden.
it has been plenty busy all june, but since the last post of the four MOC 'campers' i have gotten in a few good outings, and one monster bruise! pam and i had run up south peak on moose mountain one saturday from the canaan side of wolfboro road to where the AT crosses. i try to hike a few times a month barefoot. it helps me pace myself when i am with pam and gives the bottoms of my feet a workout. i swear, even though pam laughs at the idea, that i pick up a fine silt making things pretty slippery down there. at least that's my story as to why i slipped on the stairs the next day.
my lower back swelled up like a balloon. some arnica and vitamin i fooled me into riding down to windsor the next morning to meet with the PBEE, place based environmental education, wellborn folks. just a bike ride might have been ok--but maybe i should have past on the five mile kayak paddle down the connecticut. my chiropractor might not agree, but i don't think it made it too much worse. of course a week later, the first time i went into the ocean, a fellow cabin dweller we've known for years, came up and pulled at my trunks, "i don't mean to get fresh, but what the heck did you do?" do you think all that color makes my butt look big?
the cold water hopefully sped up the healing. i say cold but, it didn't seem as frigid as it sometimes gets. pam even went in on three different days, one day for two long swims. i was in at least once a day and noticed that as the week went on, the temperature seemed to go up--at least i could stay in longer. one low tide, sadie and i swam out a fair bit where it felt a lot colder. coming back in, we both clearly sensed passing into a warm zone.
while i wasn't swimming, i was often reading. one of our favorite times is after five, when the beach pretty much clears out. we sit and read until one of us gets hungry enough to go up and cook supper.another routine i have is an early morning beach walk to collect toys and things that get left behind by the crowds. this year was big on clothing as well as buckets, shovels and flip-flops. the treasures on sunday and monday helped me make early plan to make the yearly 'sculpture' like the three figures pictured below.
the cartwheeling figure was inspired by 6 year old katherine, who jumped up and did a perfect one when i asked her how she liked gymnastics. when her craig, her father and a long time cabin dweller, announced he could do better, she quickly flubbed one and told him, "that's how you do it." the tree pose was an ode to two namaste yoga mats i found one morning. the lttle release the beast croquette player got built to use up the 9 different bucket handles i picked up--finally, a way to place the ubiquitous but rather useless handles.
friday was our one rainy day for the most part, but warm-ish and not bad for building a "go outside and play" theme.
last year's sculpture, the picture to the left taken just before halloween, was up through the winter, but my buddy tom, a semi-permanent cabin dweller and off season documentarian, has informed me that the rangers are saying they have to take this year's down as the clothing counts as debris.
i wonder how they classified all the stuff hung from the dream catcher last year?
oh, well art is ephemeral...and why worry when i have plenty of weeding to keep me busy!
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