hollyhocks and sisters

My sis came and stayed with us for a week. Twas lovely for both the kids and for yours truly. We went out to Reimer's Ranch and waded/swam in the Pedernales, and generally just hung out and did boring family stuff most of the week. My folks came up for the weekend and we drove about looking at properties for my parents.

I also planted some hollyhock seeds which were acquired at the Point Ellice house on Vancouver Island, in Victoria. They have sprouted! I will include a shot of their sweet little seedlings as well as a shot of the original plants in Victoria. They have been collected and grown in that garden for almost two centuries. Awesome!

ike??? and sandbox fun

Only the very slightest whiff of Hurricane Ike out here in the hill country. A bit overcast and breezy. Quite a nice break from the heat, actually. Houston got slammed but my folks and cousin seem to have fared just fine. My parents have no power, running water, or cable, and are missing a few shingles from their roof, but they seem cavalier about the whole thing. At least they didn't have to survive by hanging onto a pier like some folks did.

Finally finished putting together the sandbox, too. The ladies love it.

benjamin

One of the great delights of our recent trip to the Northeast was getting to meet little Benjamin, the youngest cousin of the bunch. He is just about eight months now and cutting his first tooth. He wants so badly to move! He lies on his belly and swims arms and legs frantically but just can't manage to swim anywhere. He is like an adorable little sitting Buddha with big big eyes, taking it all in. I'll post some shots of him so you can get a load of his cuteness.

Things are well here back in Dripping. All chickens are alive and pecking, though Penelope still has a cough and their laying is down quite a bit (the heat? moulting??). The grass had grown a mile high in our absence, so Tim went and got a good sweaty workout mowing it. I need to weed the beds but have a hard time finding a moment, as Laurel refuses to be contained anymore. She can return herself to sitting from any position and then scoots around like a maniac. No interest in walking yet, though. She just puts her belongings over her shoulder and scoots away. My Grandpa sent her the cutest white fluffy cat the other day that was just calculated to create jealousy in her sister. Aurora does like fluffy cats.

on a lighter note

OK--so here's proof that I'm a real American despite despising John McCain. I do love me some catalog shopping (or catalog browsing, as there is not a lot of purchasing these days). And the new J Crew catalog is so so beautiful. All those shots of the pretty people in Prague remind me of those teenage days when a JCrew catalog could whisk you away to that perfect land of fantasy, envy, perfect dishevelment, and gorgeous visual storytelling. I love the shot I've attached here of the woman in the yellow jacket. She's a little tired, world weary, and that water behind her is so dark and moody. Forgive me this small weakness. I know they are just trying to sell me something. But hey, beauty is beauty wherever you find it, right??

don't eat it!

My apologies to those of you with sensitive ears:

The McCain campaign is whipping up a load of bull-crap mousse! It might look like chocolate to some of you who fail to take a whiff, but it is NOT!!! That man has voted with Bush 90% of the time. DO NOT vote for him and expect change.

My greatest distaste for the speech and images of the RNC we saw on TV last night was the sea of cowboy hats out there. That man has nothing to offer the folks who are really out there sweating under those hats. Got heat exhaustion? NO health insurance for you! Lost your ranch due to foreclosure? Too bad--we love the bankers and crooked mortgage brokers more than we love you! Kids flunking out of school?? Don't worry--we'll fire all their teachers and close down their school!! What an utter load of bullshit. The people with dirt under their nails and sweat on their brows will not be served by this man, nor does it appear as though he is willing to hand over any of his innumerable houses to the many homeless Americans he is supposedly going to fight for. And on the note of that closing mantra of FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT . . . These folks are nothing but a writhing, senseless mob fighting the inevitable, beautiful, and necessary gathering light of dawn. And that dawn is coming after a long, long night. Woe to all of us if they win that fight. (And woe to them that they should even consider mounting it).

Behind all the tough talk and "country first" noise is a platform that is going to dig us even deeper into the pit we are wallowing in right now. Do not vote for this man!

cliff walking

We did have a few days of gorgeous weather while in RI (70's breezy and sunny!). We went to the cliff-walk one day and the two cousins engaged in naturalist activities with their grandma Sue!

The Birthday Bean!

She's number one (for a day!).

toad stools and fairytables (and lots of cousin-time!)

We are here in Rhode Island with Tim's family for Labor Day (and Laurel's true first B-day!) and are experiencing some real New England weather. It is misty and has been drizzling off and on all day. The kids are getting a little stir crazy. Aurora and Alexandra (her cousin) have been experimenting with sibling rivalry and friendship intermittently. Back in Guilford they both did the princess thing and were super cute. Laurel is approaching one-hood (tomorrow!) and is a real doll, she had her first haircut recently and the sun (when it appears!) glinting off her sweet locks is delectable.

Tim and I took the kayak out today and he dug about in the muck with his toes and turned up 15 or so clams. I sat in the kayak and made him get back in before he had a hypothermic attack. I know he loves the thrill of the hunt of those poor defenseless shelled creatures. It is satisfying, as I recall.

I will post some shots of our adventures here in the Northeast, our stay in Guilford and up here in Rhode Island. Matt and Lakshmi's hood in Guilford is sweet, all that America aspires to. Simple solid houses dwarfed by huge trees, all with baskets of impatiens hanging from the porches. They have miles of wooded trails behind their house, where Aurora and I hunted the wild mushroom.

We also visited Tim's friend Jonathan and his lovely family in New Haven, where we had fantastic pizza from Pepe's out on their flower-filled deck. Sophie is the little blondie.

gully-washer

Is that how you spell it? We've gotten some rain! The world is just sparkling and happy and grateful right now. The afternoon light bouncing off the little beads of rain and refracting through them is dazzling.

And we have our pond back!

pretty kitchen

So we did eventually find someone to install that new kitchen window, and Tim finished just yesterday building some new open shelving. I think it's coming together . . .

birthday fun!

We had a little gathering last nite to warm our cozy spot here in the country and to wish Laurel a a happy first year of life. Such fun! A late nap was the ticket to gift-opening happiness. It was so wonderful to see the vehicles of the folks we love gather out on our rocky drive. We hope to celebrate many many more happy birthdays in this house. And little Laurel will get to celebrate again on her real B-day while we're up in the Northeast!

chicken dog

Aurora received her certificate and goodies at the Dripping Springs Community Library yesterday for being a part of their reading program this summer. "Chicken Dog" came along to the "reading gala" and was super-funny and entertaining with his macaw and three crazy dogs. Aurora particularly liked it when the macaw did an impression of the dogs and scratched herself.

the power of the princess

I went to wake Aurora this morning so that she would have time to eat breakfast before preschool and she was decked out in princess attire (including plastic pumps). Like a fluffy little crinoline rose. Tim put her to bed last nite, so it was quite a terrific surprise. Our friends the Gillentines passed along an entire lawn bag full of dress-up clothes when we went to visit them for dinner last nite. They could not possibly have made a little girl any happier.

(Wait a minute . . . I can't believe I am having to wake my daughter and not the other way around. This is a sea change.)

the poetry of that moment

My grandmother's funeral was really quite lovely. A number of people spoke and told personal, quirky stories that helped us all remember who she was in her prime. My uncle Stan gave a life history and mentioned that my grandmother was named Grace because the day she was born (in Waller, TX, I believe, the same town where the funeral was held) a terrible drought broke. And as her funeral was beginning, the rain began to drizzle down. As they lowered her coffin into the thick, red clay it came in torrents. There was something comforting about the bits of roots reaching out toward that wooden box, just waiting to reclaim it. Maybe some folks would find that creepy. I don't know. It is so rare for us to come close to death in a society that is so strongly in denial of it--we'd all like to stay young forever (and yet we've also got this peculiar fascination with killing, dying, murder--CSI and all that). Someone said as we were about to leave that "in some places they'll throw a bit of soil on top of the coffin--that's the tradition." And yet we seemed not to know what our own tradition was. And so the soil was thrown and one calla lily left lingering there. Our rituals are borrowed and we're a bit unsure of them. Don't know what could be done to remedy that.

Nevertheless, I do think we mourned grandma in a way that was respectful and appropriate, if a bit home-made. Field Store Cemetery, where she is buried, is almost entirely full of people related to us in one way or another. A strange feeling it gives you. It is a little honky-tonk, with some of the gravestones bearing silk flowers in Dairy Queen cups, but it is over-towered by ancient trees, and some of the stones are really quite dignified.

It was a surprising treat to see our relatives and spend this spontaneous time with them. It was like one last gift from grandma. Thank you!

saying goodbye to grace

My grandmother, Grace Trigg (my mother's mother), passed away a few hours ago. She was afflicted with Alzheimer's disease and has, in practical terms, been gone from us for many years now. But somehow that does not make it much easier. For the last few days she has been, according to my mother, asleep. She has been breathing but no-one could even pick up a blood pressure. Truly drifting away.

Here are the things she loved (as far as her eldest grand-daughter was aware):

Her children and grandchildren.
Adlai Stevenson.
Garage sales.
Books.
The Encyclopedia.
Oprah.
A bargain.
Liberal politics.
Quilts.
The land.

And here are my memories of her. Largely moments in time, from the eyes/heart/skin of a child:

Falling asleep in the seat next to her in the car, the air outside the car so hot and the AC blasting on my face (I always stayed with her in the summer).
How she let me watch MTV and eat pop-tarts.
The costume jewelry in her bathroom.
Watching her mow her own backyard at the age of 60-something in the noontime heat.
Playing rummy with her and my grandfather.
How she loved to go to the farmer's market outside of her tiny East-Texas town.
Her curly grey-purple hair.
How she had good legs and good boobs (odd-but yes I did notice this).
The taste of her Thanksgiving stuffing (we haven't gotten it quite right since she's stopped making it).
Her appreciation for peanut-butter candies and pecan pie.

I took Laurel out onto the upper deck after my mom called to say that grandma had passed. It was twilight but the moon was already out. Laurel looked right up at that moon and waved.

Bye bye grandma. And wherever you are headed, I am sure your memories are there waiting for you. We love you.

Pippin: "I didn't think it would end this way.”
Gandalf: “End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back and all changes to silver glass . . . and then you see it.”
Pippin: “What, Gandalf? See what?”
Gandalf: “White shores. And beyond. The far green country under a swift sunrise.”
Pippin: “Well, that isn't so bad.”
Gandalf: “No. No it isn't.”

Phillipa Boyens and Fran Walsh after JRR Tolkien

what a horrible time to be a gardener (in texas)

Spent a long while weeding one of the beds in our garden here (such as it is) yesterday. It put me in mind of a cover of Texas Gardener where Skip Richter is pointing a shotgun at some crabgrass. The frustrating thing about gardening here in the summer is that the rest of the country is enjoying lovely, effortless color and you feel like you should be able to accomplish that. But you just can't, at least not without spending your life savings on water. Even so it's a tall order.

We really are good gardeners! I'll include some old shots of that Zilker garden. I think the raised beds were key there. You just have to add some tillable soil on top of the limestone if you want to make any progress without putting out your back and your patience. I am working on some plans for this garden which include an additional L-shaped bed along the front line of fencing and a mosaic patio outside the kitchen door (where anything and everything is currently tracked into the house).

hot hot hot

Over 100 almost every day, and Tropical Storm Edouard has not performed. Just a drizzle yesterday. We need some rain.

Aurora has begun school again and seems to having a good time. She gave her teacher a big hug on the first day and is thrilled that now she has her own left-handed scissors at school. She has brought home some cool artworks. There is a shot of a little creature she's been drawing at home. She says it's a tadpole (with eyelashes!).

There's also a shot of little Laurel with neighborhood buddy Grover (whose mama grew up in this house!).