Sunday, July 05, 2009

our trip to Vermont

... wore my mother's pearls to a four-star restaurant for a three-course locally grown and raised dinner on a date with my husband ... the kids ran down the same dirt roads that dusted my bare feet when I was a kid ... went to a dinner/cookout at a dairy farm down the road from mom's house -- all the food donated, work volunteered, and proceeds given to the church for people in town who need a little help getting by, fabric napkins and real tableware that was gathered in baskets and dishes of soapy water when we were finished, baseballs and bats and toy tractors out in the field for the kids ... newspapers lined up on the counter of the general store with residents' last names at the top, because homes are too far-flung for newspaper delivery ... knitting on my mother's porch, but happily giving it up for a momma robin and her new brood ... took home a recently-vacated nest from the eaves ... explained my novel to my mom ... watched TV once and was reminded that I'm glad we don't have reception at home ... a CD of music handed to me from former neighbors, all the music written, played and sung by Kestrel, the 25 year-old who was my first babysitting job when she was tiny ... a new moleskin from a friend/writer, the way one should receive their first moleskin ... co-ops the size of grocery stores, the smell familiar and comforting ... a free play of Stuart Little, lots of kids from 2 weeks-old to septuagenarians ... watching my daughters play with the dollhouse my parents made me ... two new books (one hardcover for $7 in the sale bin) and the anticipation of opening them being better than a box of chocolates ... dogs to pet and snuggle, Tucker, Hershey, Hannah, Maya and three white shepherds that came up to my waist ... remember, when you find a novel with a fantastic cover, based on one of your favorite historical events (the Salem witch trials) you can't go wrong.

Posted by Melissa at 1:11 PM 4 Comments

Friday, July 03, 2009

Feathers for the Fourth of July and Friday

What I brought home from Vermont yesterday ...




two books from the local bookstore ... and a recently vacated robin's nest from the eaves of my mother's porch. Treasure, true.

Posted by Melissa at 9:05 AM 4 Comments

Thursday, June 25, 2009

early feathers

This week Feathers for Friday comes a little early once again ...

Tomorrow we pack up the kids and half the house and head to Vermont for a week! I'm so excited! It has been a long time since we were able to get up there for such a stretch of time and it will be such fun to see family, reconnect with friends, and enjoy the gorgeous Green Mountain State. Photos to come, I'm sure ... but first ... we have Josephine ...

Jo, as I've mentioned, loves the other pets in the family. She is manic for our cat, Django, and first started her bobbing and cooing routine for our dogs, Nell and Winslow. Now that she has free flying time on a regular basis (we put the cat out and the dogs in their crates) she has a blast walking, flying and fluttering just about everywhere. Here she visits Eli as he eats his breakfast:





But one of her most favorite things to do is worship old Winslow, who is, like Django, not at all sure what exactly to do with this nutty bird's adoration ...

Exhibit A:



video

Have a great week, everyone! I'll post when we return ...

Posted by Melissa at 4:05 AM 4 Comments

Monday, June 22, 2009

springtime neighbors

A sweet little snail I found relaxing on our rhododendron in the rain on Saturday ...




I won't tell you what I said when Eli showed me the spider he found in the girls bedroom ...



Posted by Melissa at 7:56 AM 3 Comments

Friday, June 19, 2009

feathers for Friday!

It's Feathers for Friday, back on its regularly scheduled day, folks! TGIF to all! And happy we're-this-close-to-summer day! Charlotte, speaking of free birds, is at school until 1 today and then will officially be done with first grade. Thank. God. We're going out for ice cream to celebrate and Eli is going to be coming home a little early to help join in the fun.

Remember the snake photo?



Well, I found our reptilian guest as I was about to walk into our back room -- the room off the kitchen that serves as garage/storage area/laundry room (ie: our version of whatever room in your house that is usually a total disaster area). It has a sliding door to separate it from the kitchen and as I slid said door open a couple of weeks ago, I thought to myself, "Wow, that looks like a snake clinging to the door frame." A millisecond after I thought that it came to mind that there were some odd-looking turds (sorry KJ) in Jo's cage the morning before ... she sleeps in a small cage in the back room ... I thought they were large mouse turds. A millisecond after that, I realized that it was actually a snake looking back at me and my heart skipped about four beats.

I like snakes and had a garter snake (Ssssydney) as a pet when I was in fifth grade. But they are the sort of thing that still make one jump and utter four letter words when faced with them in one's house. I stood watching it for a moment. The kids heard the four letter word I hadn't had the presence of mind to squelch before it left my mouth and asked what was wrong.

"Um. There's a snake in the kitchen," I answered in an upbeat, ain't it cool, kind of voice.

They trundled into the kitchen to look at the snake which blinked back interestedly at us, that is, if snakes could blink.

I called Eli. Why do I do this when there is absolutely nothing the poor guy can do to help me?

"There's a snake in the kitchen." I told him.

"Oh!" Pause. "Okay."

"What should I do?"

Pause. "Uh, can you get it in a pot or something?"

"SHIT!"

"What?!"

"It just slid down the door a little bit."

"Oh." (relieved)

I ended up trying to get it into a pot (letting fly with several more, rather loud four letter words), after I managed to get a close look at its head and tail and deduce that it was harmless. But it was onto me and got away before I gave up on the pot and tried to reach it with my hands. I love holding snakes, though they make me a little giddy. I was bitten by a milk snake when I was little.

Ultimately, Eli found it when he arrived home from work, got it by the tail and dropped it in a bag that I held out. I ran squealing and laughing to the door with it in the bag, while Charlotte screamed bloody murder and ran to her bedroom, slamming the door. The snake in all this was completely chilled out, except the part when Eli picked it up by the tail and then it whipped around like a lasso looking for something to latch onto, and he was released out in the woods.

I still jump every time I see an electrical cord in the back room.

And those turds ... snake turds. In. My. Bird's. Cage.

That freaked me out. Not that the snake was anywhere big enough to get its mouth around my big ol' Josephine. I was just imagining what it was like for her to be sitting in there trying to get some sleep when a SNAKE slithered into her cage for a drink out of her water dish.

Here are a couple of shots of Jo in her free-wing time ...


Looks like we have another artist in the family!



Anybody seen Jo?



Awww, snuggly bird ...


Happy weekend, everyone!

Posted by Melissa at 7:01 AM 5 Comments

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

feathers for ... oh, hell ... for Tuesday!

I know it isn't Friday yet, but I just couldn't resist posting this shot a few days early! Josephine is becoming more adventurous in her walk abouts and flying routine while free of her cage. The other day, while doing the dishes, Eli walked into the kitchen with Jo perched on his shoulder ... she had hopped there from a Christmas cactus where she had been nestling and cooing. Then she hopped to my shoulder for a bit, pecked at my eyelashes (gently) and flew off at some point to walk around on the floor and investigate every knot and chip in our wood floors. While taking her out of her "boudoir" (aka: her evening cage in the back room where she sleeps ever since she started joining in the wild bird song at 4:30 a.m. ... yawn) on Sunday, she flew from the kitchen and into the living room, lighting on a pile of the kids toys that are stored in a plastic tub ...

We call this one, "Noah, the dove is back ... and it's a heck of a lot bigger than when it left ..."

Notice how Noah is double-parked next to Cinderella's Lego coach?

We've been busy here with the end of school (I finally got to respond to the last couple of comments from my last post), last minute fun in the girls' classrooms, and shifting from school schedules to summer ... and I've started going up to check on Cody, my paraplegic buddy next door. His owner, Kyle, has new hours at work, and Cody needs to be let out twice a day. I really enjoy walking up and hanging out with him for a bit. Today Iris and I got him into his doggy wheelchair and took a walk in the woods. Not bad for a nearly blind, fifteen year-old Pointer who can only use his front legs!

I'll have a good Feathers for Friday coming up at the end of the week and Charlotte finishes up first grade that day, too! Then ... it's summahtime, baby!

Posted by Melissa at 11:10 AM 3 Comments

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Thursday thirteen for June

1. A friend and reader recently asked what I was up to with knitting lately ... here's a shot of a pair of socks I made for myself out of yarn that Eli got me for my birthday last year. It's Green Mountain Spinnery (sheared, spun and dyed in Putney, VT) sock yarn and the pattern is called Monkey Socks ... a lot of fun to knit and beautiful yarn.





2. I love knitting socks and as soon as I finished the monkey ones I wanted to cast on another pair. In honor of a dear friend, I'm knitting a pair of wool socks and a matching pull-over that I will donate to an organization that sends warm woolly things to children in Russian orphanages (where it is bitter cold in the winter and warm water is hard to come by for baths). The socks are a quick and very satisfying knit!





3. Next I'm working on a little something for a friend who had her first baby recently -- and what a cute little guy he is! I just want to squeeze him whenever I see his photos! That project started out well, but then I realized I made a mistake ... so I started over ... and made the same mistake again in a different manner. The very cool thing in this is that I have been challenging myself in knitting over the past couple of years and with all the knitting I'm doing I've noticed that it's easier for me to recognize what I've done wrong and figure out how to fix it. Problems that once would have had me nearly in tears are now moments where I can calmly say, "Hmm, what happened here ... oh, I get it!" Which is huge and exhilarating for one who was very intimidated by knitting anything other than a pattern that had knit, purl or yarn-over stitches in it!

4. It has been raining. A. Lot. I love rainy days and have enjoyed the stillness and the quiet sound of rain on our roof, along with the occasional blast of a thunderstorm ... though, of course, I'm always watching for tornadoes .... and the rain has made the whole world green. You can almost taste the green when you walk outside and this morning I tried to capture some of it as we walked back up the driveway from the bus stop.








5. Speaking of bus stop ... there is only one more day of school (tomorrow) for Iris and six more for Charlotte ... I cannot believe how fast this year has past, or the amount of emotion this particular school year held. It was not an easy one for Charlotte, which meant a lot for us as parents and for her as a growing girl. For Iris, she will miss her classmates and teachers immensely this summer. It will be the last of four consecutive years that we have had a daughter in the Friends school preschool class and saying goodbye is going to be hard. I'm trying to keep it at bay for now ... I'll deal with it tomorrow when we hand the teachers bouquets of flowers, thank you cards and a class gift.

6. Eli and I are working hard at figuring something out in our life as parents and it has been a bumpy road. The answer needs to come soon and I think we're at the cusp of coming to a conclusion. It's one of those moments where I wish a neon sign would light up in our living room. But there isn't and we need to set aside the 2,876 "what ifs" and do what we think is right ... which is both scary and exciting.

7. I'm editing steadily each week and am loving this book and its characters. I'm cautious about the next step, because this is a really crappy time to be considering putting a book out ... sales are way down all across the board. But there's time and maybe soon people who can't go on a literal vacation will rediscover the get-aways offered in literature and will set the publishing world on fire! The other day the woman who is helping me shape this book up said some pretty amazing things to me. She saw this book at its very first sentences, when I wrote three pages of the beginning at a writer's retreat. It's now 256 pages long and she said, "I can't believe what you've turned this story into ... I have no doubt in my mind that it will be published and for some reason it isn't ... it would be a crime against humanity!" Talk about a compliment! I'm still flying.

8. Funny bird!




9. Hard workers, these two!




10. Though I once was not a big fan of summer, my kids have reminded me of what fun it can be. I'm really looking forward to the next three months with them ... while simultaneously bracing myself for the first two weeks of the girls readjusting to being around each other 24-7!

11. About a month ago, I smashed my finger while stacking firewood. It is still painful, though I can bend my finger and use it fine ... it's still a little swollen and I can't get my engagement ring back on. My wedding band is stuck on, which doesn't bother me at all (it is very rare that I ever take it off and prefer it on, anyway). Not sure what I did to it ...



12. I heard about this man right after his three daughters were killed in their own home during the rocket attacks in Gaza over New Year's ... his pain was almost too much to listen to. Yesterday there was an update about him and the extraordinary way he has taken his faith and turned away from the hatred and anger that could poison the rest of his life and his heart and is instead using what has happened to him as an opportunity to teach about peace and reconciliation. Truly inspiring.

13. Did I tell you I found a snake in our kitchen the other day?


Posted by Melissa at 5:34 AM 7 Comments