The FAIR

What is there not to love about a fair that sets out pieces of lumber, hammers, and nails for kids to pound away, hills with cardboard for sledding, buckets of beans just for putting your hands in, parades of people wearing veggie costumes, a "hay jump" for kids, people driving oxen, an ingredients list on the fried dough, and more oddities than could possibly be imagined. The Common Ground Fair is THE fair for fair-haters. Like me.

River of Hawks

The boys and I had a blissful day this week. We went mushroom foraging at Mount Agamenticus, and then flew the new kites that Opa sent them at the top. (FYI 300 feet of string is too much for a two year. I can tell you that based on experience after spending close to an hour getting said kite and string out of the trees:) We stopped and ate the first apples of the year. And then at some point I noticed the throng of people on the upper observation deck oohing and aaahing. We made our way over and noticed their binoculars pointed to the skies. And there above us were literally hundreds of hawks riding the air currents over the mountains. Turns out it is the hawk migration that happens every year. That day alone they had counted 1500 hawks already at 2:00. It was awesome. We loved laying in the grass watching them.

Late summer camera phone recap

My camera is out of commission and a new one hopefully in the mail this week. Here are some iphone late summer highlights: beach trips, Ege's arrival, Dre's visit, wood stacking, Irene, sweet exchange students returning for visits, free peaches, silly shirts, face plants, visiting cousins, boys with popsicles. The usual really.

Winter Panic

So winter panic has been setting in for me this week. It is turning into the end of August. The house isn't done being sided. We have an exchange student coming in a week. We have no firewood stacked (or bought or split) for the winter, and that is our only source of heat. I have frozen one bag of kale and one bag of pesto. I think late blight is trying to set in in the garden. AHHHH!!!!And then a quick picture of the kids to calm me down.

More catch up: fun with Peter

So little baby Peter doesn't know this, but he has officially reached the age of babiness that I love and find truly irresistible. Lucky for me, Mary humors me and lets me steal him away sometimes. Because even though he is completely delectible, I also remember what it meant to be a momma who always had a baby in her arms, could never put him down. It's nice to have a friend whisk him away for a little while. So it works out for both of us.

My friend Mary and her husband are deeply entrenched in the workings of a dairy farm. Her husband is actually the vegetable farmer for the operation, but really they are half of the team that run the farm. All four of the people involved are first-generation farmers, running one of the few, if not only, organic dairies in the state of NH. They lost the lease to their land and will be moving the entire farm (roughly 100 cows, plus pigs, chickens, and people) this spring. Can you imagine? Luckily, they're moving into Ann and Larry's territory. So we can still be friends:) In the meantime I'm just going to breath in Peter's adorableness.

A few other recent visitors!

This is Dre, our Fresh Air kid for the summer! Great experience so far! So good with my kids and a nice kid in general!And then my cousin Sarah, with child, and David for a brief absolutely lovely afternoon by the sea...

A few recent developments.

I am so far way behind on postings. I give up. I'm not going to catch up. So I'm just going to put a few pictures of what has been going on.

Our new window, aka stage. Looks awesome.A cousinly visit with ONE picture as record. Sorry Caroline.
Lots of flowers cut and bunched and headed to market over and over and over again.
A few trips to York's Wild Kingdom where you can ride antique amusement park rides at your own risk...
New potatoes.

A few from before...

Almost like Hawaii

One of my favorite things we did with Brittany while she was here was to take her surfing. It isn't quite like Hawaii, but it was lovely. I rode a few waves, and I think Brittany got up once. Makili donned his own little wet suit and in general we all had a lovely time at the beach. I miss Brittany.