Time Flies When School Looms

I don't quite know where the time went this week -- certainly I was caught up in the "waste every minute you can before school starts" frenzy, but there was also time for some fun (lunch with my mother tops that list, along with listening to D#2 describe her "best first day ever").

In any case, here we are, it's Labor Day weekend, and, like some other teachers I know, I have plenty left on my summer to-do list. We are puppysitting (we didn't get to keep her but we still get to have her in our lives), recovering from moving around a lot of furniture (thanks, CG brother!), and trying to manage D#1's leg pain. She has been having significant pain in the lateral thigh area (both legs) for some time; after visit #2 the pediatrician ordered her to do NOTHING this weekend and shuffled us on to the orthopedist for help in finding answers. With any luck, the rest will help enough that she can start school on time. Sitting around isn'ther favorite thing to do but she's been a good sport about it for the most part. She's also mulling over an extreme change in her look and has spent lots of time online inspecting short hairstyles. The tween version of retail therapy, perhaps?

There has been knitting but I can't show it. If all goes as planned, though, I will be in endless faculty meetings Tuesday and hope to finish off a couple WIPs before deciding on a project to inaugurate the school year. I like the look of this ... and of course my Ravelry queue has plenty of scope for choosing, as well.

We're awash in tomatoes, finally.

An Important Anniversary

Today is the anniversary of the date on which the 19th Amendment to the Constitution became law, in 1920. That's correct; women in the United States have only had the right to vote for 88 years. Surprised?

I was thinking about this anniversary anyway (my mother is an historian and I have learned some of my lessons well!) when I ran across a blog that asked fellow bloggers to write about something that gave them pleasure. So there you go -- although I am dismayed by the fact that it took our lawmakers so long, I am very pleased that I live in a country in which it is legal, possible, and safe for me to cast my vote.

Tomorrow D#2 goes back to school. She is looking forward to it. This, too, gives me pleasure. She is returning to the school where she went to kindergarten, and since she hasn't been there for 2 years, I suspect she's a little nervous. Luckily, there will be some children from her summer school class in her room this year, and she is great at settling into a new group. (Amazingly enough, she has not yet chosen her outfit.)

Can You Post Tomato Pictures to a Knitting Blog?

That was R's question, and the answer of course, is: why yes, you can. I've been doing it all season, as you know. This is the first full-size tomato from my garden, and it was spectacular. Each slice was glowing yellow inside and amazingly sweet, and there were very few seeds.

So then D#1 wanted me to take a picture of her lunch.

Objects of My Affection

I forgot to show you how the tomatoes held up while we were away.



It's a jungle out there -- but there are signs that some of the bigger fruits are going to ripen. I expect I'll be hovering over them til the first frost! Enough of that, you're probably bored with the garden anyway.

This blurry blob of approximately 1 yard of yarn is what I had left after binding off the Tuscany shawl yesterday.









I wasn't surprised that it looked like a total blob (photo to left) because I've seen other knitters' lace photos and I didn't expect to be charmed by simply getting the thing off the needles.










Once I began to get it blocked out, complete with ends darned but not clipped as per the various tutorials I found on line (Eunny Jang's was great -- I found the link on Ravelry of course) ....
I will confess to an absolutely overwhelming feeling of "wow, I actually made this!" Of course, I can see a couple of places where it isn't totally perfect (and I sure hope I haven't inadvertently photographed them for all of you to admire too) but I am really pleased with the way it turned out, and I am totally hooked on lace knitting now. I hope the recipient of this shawl will wear it in exotic locales and send pictures!

Here are 4 oz of lovely soft white Corriedale and 1 oz of dyed Corriedale from Grafton Fibers (oh, do I love their stuff -- can you say Darn Pretty Needles??) in an unbelievably gorgeous mix of purples and blues. I wish the colors would show up in the photo but it is thundering/raining again so I can't go back outside to try a do-over. Both purchased at Wool Away on Railroad Street in St. Johnsbury, a fine LYS.

D#1 has stuck to her decision and will swim this fall with the advanced practice group.

I am resisting the temptation to start making lists of what I have and have not accomplished this summer -- but cannot resist the addition of one more summer reading recommendation. If you haven't yet run across The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Barrows and Annie Shaffer, there are still a few official days of summer left.

Where's the Instruction Manual?

Tonight R and I sat down with D#1 to discuss her plans for the fall. We are trying to get transportation issues resolved, figure out after school programs, and get a sense of our budget for the semester. So D#1's swimming naturally figures largely in this picture. Some of you know that she has battled performance anxiety for much of her swimming career, and although she has made a tremendous amount of progress she is still hypersensitive about that struggle. She hates being singled out in front of her teammates, even to be praised for this progress, and even the most well-intentioned praise sometimes causes her to fly into a frenzy (not, of course, at her coaches--but at me in the car on the way home). While R and I both want her to continue swimming (and her coaches think that she is only now getting to a point where we might actually see some results that reflect her talent), we are also absolutely united in our resolve to avoid some of the melodrama and stress associated with D#1's swimming career as we head into the new short course season.

So we offered her a three tiered choice: accept the promotion to the new practice group, remain at her current level (which would mean actually practicing less than in the past), or take a break from the sport altogether. We explained that we would no longer coax or cajole her through a bout of nerves or a hissy directed at a coach, and that her choice was for the season -- unless she cannot manage her schoolwork -- re-evaluating the decision she makes now won't be open to her until the end of the short course season. We talked with her about the good that has come from swimming, including a whole new set of friends, and outlined for her the explicit and implicit ways that our family's life revolves around this commitment. It was a remarkable conversation, with three-way listening and communicating, and no yelling. And there were some surprises in the process as well.

At the end, while D#1 expressed a desire to have the time to take her aunt up on her offer of flute lessons, her initial decision (upon which she will sleep) is to accept the promotion to the new practice group. I suspect that she was surprised to hear her father speak so supportively of her swimming, as I think she's misunderstood the division of labor around her practice schedule as reflecting his wish that she play soccer or softball instead, and I also think she was surprised to hear us lay out our abdication of the posts of chief naggers (pack your swim bag, are you ready to go?). I hope we can stick to it, after this lovely moment of clear communication! When R and I discussed, ahead of time, how we hoped to direct this conversation, one of our major issues was how to help D#1 understand that her impulse to procrastinate is a major stumbling block in achieving her goals. I am especially pleased at the ways the three of us found to discuss that tendency without using the word itself, which tends to make her freeze up.

(Can I also say that I was very impressed by Michael Phelps and his mom Debbie, in their post-eight-gold-medals conversation with Bob Costas? That's a forum in which it is very difficult not to fall prey to the fatuous style of America sports interviewing, and they did not.)

[The school is going to give me a new laptop for this academic year and I ca hardly wait --the "n" key on this one is so sticky it takes 2 or 3 strikes to get the letter to appear & I am actually rephrasing some things in order NOT to use the letter.]

{Tomorrow I hope to show you my fibery purchases from the Northeast Kingdom, all other commitments permitting.}

Returning to Regularly Scheduled Programming (picture heavy)

Despite weather that made us wonder if we ought to start investigating good ark-building material, we did manage to capture many meaningful & soul-replenishing moments on memory card and in our memories of Summer 2008 ... (many photos by daughter #1). Above, heifers. Below, Willow.

Fog rising.

A familiar sky, below:

D#2's favorite ride at this year's County Fair (no, her father went with her).

A new calf (this might be Maisey):

some of my Tour de Fleece spinning, and a top view of my spindle ...

Tuscany, nearing completion.

Some of us got a lot of sleep.

Another in our series of interesting bugs, this one spotted on a mailbox in St. Johnsbury:

I was excited to have a shadow to photograph after so many days of rain:

Flowers in an historically-accurate recreation of a 19th century garden:

Some of us managed a little beach time.

Hurray, I finally made it to the barn after days flat on my back. The calves don't mind the camera if the flash is turned off ....

Yes, always one of my favorite views.

Now it is back to the real world -- although none of us start school for ten days there is plenty to do, believe me.

From the Land of Eternal Rain

Here in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, it is lush and green, and very damp indeed. Rivers and creeks and brooks and lakes are rising (here's a math problem: if a lake is roughly seven miles long and a mile and a half wide at its widest, about how much rain would cause said lake to rise EIGHTEEN INCHES?). Yes, it has been a wet week. In front of the Goodrich Library in Newport, there are no fewer than four different kinds of mushrooms growing on the lawn.

Oh, yes. And I've thrown out my back.

Here's hoping that 8/08/08 brings good luck -- let the Ravelympics commence!

Taking a Deep Breath

Here in Red Sox Nation this morning, I suspect I am not alone in thinking that everything's going to be okay. And yes, baseball season (all professional sports seasons) goes on a long time, but no longer than when some young folks were kids -- it is, I think, absolutely true, however, that the media coverage is much more extensive and goes on a long time both before and after the season. It's a business, unfortunately.

An update of sorts -- we're six days away from the beginning of Ravelympics 2008, where I'm knitting for Team Redsoxnation in 2 events, bagntote backstroke (this one's a secret) and WIPs wrestling (at least 3 items are slated to come off the needles). I hope I'll have much to report in my next post (fiber arts, cooking extravaganzas, and local produce galore) but I am headed away from regular Internet access for the nonce and don't know exactly when I'll next be able to check in. With any luck I will be writing about joyful things and *not* the trials of parenting an emerging adolescent. Keep your fingers crossed.

See you soon!