While Maya was at camp she spent some of her time making paper and completed this small book containing her work. I fanned out the pages to provide an idea of the variety of colors, patterns and textures she incorporated into her designs. Maya returned to the house briefly for dinner and proudly displayed her work for Nico.
Nicolai returned today from a week in Minnesota with his cousins. He had a terrific time and seemed to have grown another inch since I last saw him. We stopped for lunch at a Mexican place which has become our secret little getaway and he filled me in on his week at wrestling camp and the one spent with my brother’s family. Maya spent the day and night with her friend Lydia affording Nico and I an opportunitiy to do a little driving practice in the early evening.
When we arrived at home Maya’s first priority was to greet and play with Nala who was very happy to see her. After that joyful reunion, Maya’s next priority was to check on the garden. She returned triumphantly with the season’s first carrot which we promptly cleaned and ate. Through Jeanine’s teaching and nurturing she has passed the family’s long tradition of gardening to the next generation. Maya and I spent the afternoon doing laundry and packing for our upcoming southwest adventure. We then had a father/daughter date night which included dinner out and the latest Harry Potter movie.
I retrieved Maya from Wildwood camp this morning and was delighted to see her again. She is pictured here with new friend Amanda who, as it turns out, is a member of our church in Concord and someone I am sure we will see again. On the ride home I learned of Maya’s many exploits ranging from the invention of bumper kayaking to paper making. She has asked if she could attend for 2 weeks next year, a pretty good indicator that she had a great time. As I described my week to her she learned of my close encounter and photograph of the dragonfly from my kayak. After she heard my description of the little creature she told me that it was a damselfly rather than a dragonfly. Wikipedia confirmed her assertion and I shall have to go back and edit that blog post. Wildwood could easily be named critter camp as the kids spend a great deal of time studying nature. Maya, it appears, was paying close attention.
Here is what the baby flowers look like. Speaking of babies, I get to retrieve one of mine tomorrow, and I can’t wait to get my hands on little Miss Maya.
I got home a little early this evening, which is to say the sun was still up, and went out for an ice cream after my 6th straight microwave dinner in a row. On the way home I stopped to shoot some flowers along the road. Their is an entire little field full of these and the sea of color is just beatiful.
This morning I awoke to discover that our field was being mowed for hay. I find watching this work to be very relaxing for some reason and thought the geometry of the harvest lines would make an interesting photograph. After work I did another kayak tour of the Charles River. This time I put in across from the Harvard Stadium and travelled up river to the Perkins School for the Blind. It was a five mile round trip and I finished by 8pm in just under two hours. Again I fought a very brisk headwind only to have it dissipate when I made my turn. In a report from Romania, I learned that Jeanine narrowly missed being hit by an out of control motorcycle, jumping out of the way at the last second. Not so fortunate was our friend and fellow chaperon Nancy Reilly, who was struck and suffered a broken hip and clavicle. She remains hospitalized and her husband is on his way to be with her while her son and members of the traveling group and their hosts have been by her side constantly. Information is still very sketchy but I have been assured that Jeanine was uninjured.
I brought my kayak with me into work today. I had to reorient it on the roof rack in order to barely make the height clearance of the parking garage I use. After work I put in to the Charles River just above the Boston University boat house and did a five mile paddle to the clam shell and back. The return leg was against both an unusually stiff wind and the current so it took quite some time. I started at 6pm and did not finish until 8pm. If the weather hold I may make another excursion tomorrow evening and head up river this time. I received an e-mail from Romania indicating the adventures there were going well and that the teens were getting along very well with their European peers.
Today’s entry, both photo and text, are from my sister-in-law Marie.
Since arriving at 5 on Saturday your son has been to the Mall of America, CROQUET, fireworks in Maple Grove, CROQUET, a volleyball-beach surprise birthday party for the boys at a local park with 20 teenagers – photo to follow, CROQUET, spent about 3 hours on the trampoline, CROQUET, and had a marathon game of monopoly! Not bad for less than 48 hours.
Kayaks make for the ultimate stealth photography platforms. If you are careful you can glide right up to all sorts of creatures without disturbing them. What they offer in quiet approach they certainly lack in stability and it took quite a bit of skill and perseverance to get this shot of a dragonfly (Maya informed me upon her return from camp that this is actually a damselfly) without any motion blur considering I was bobbing on the water, being carried by the current, and shooting a tiny subject from a great distance in low light.
About halfway into my six-mile tour, I caught a fleeting glimpse of what I believe was a muskrat. He was in the deep shadows, which required a long shutter speed to make the image.
After dropping Maya off at camp I stopped just outside of Townsend, MA to do a little kayaking in the Nashua River. I was not on the water for ten minutes when I discovered this spider walking along the surface. First time I have ever seen one of these and I studied it for several minutes. He walked as if on dry land and rode the largest of waves lake a skilled surfer. Quite a marvel of nature. See if you can distinguish between the eight real legs and the eight reflections.
After the opening ceremony Maya meets her bunk mates and counselors. If there is an opposite to separation anxiety Maya would be the poster child for it. She adjusts so well to new situations and makes friends very easily. After unpacking her bags and making up her bed (top bunk, naturally) she was ready to give her dad a big hug goodbye and he soaked up every last bit of it.
Maya and I travelled to southern New Hampshire this afternoon where she will be spending a week at camp Wildwood on Lake Hubbard. Run by the Massachusetts Audubon Society, the camp has a strong focus on understanding and appreciating the natural world. This will be her second year here and she was so anxious to arrive that she coerced me into leaving two hours earlier than necessary. We had a very nice lunch date at the Main Street Cafe in Groton and I scouted potential kayaking venues along our route to consume the extra time.
Before heading back to the ferry, Maya discovered these dancing water fountains and can’t resist a quick transit through the randomly timed blast of water. Fortunately she avoided a direct hit and was only moderately soaked. Click on the photo and see if you can find her right in the center of the action.
After lunch, we enjoyed watching this street entertainer whose grand finale involved juggling three very sharp machetes with a spinning plate supported by his teeth while balancing one legged on a rope tenuously supported by members of the audience.
After touring the Tall Ships, we hop an inter-harbor ferry for Long Wharf and then walk to Quincy Market at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, where we enjoy a relaxing lunch. It was constructed 1824–1826 and named in honor of Mayor Josiah Quincy.
We enjoyed perfect weather and Maya paused to cool down in this water park just off one of the shipyard piers. It is something of a jungle gym for aquatic monkeys and just far enough off the beaten path that many casual visitors are not aware of its existence.
Here we stand in line before boarding the Bluenose II out of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, acknowledged to have the largest working mainsail in the world. It measures 4,150 square feet. The total sail area measures over 11,000 square feet and is 143 feet in length. Since 1937, an image of the original Bluenose has graced the Canadian dime. That ship, the undefeated racing champion among North American fishing schooners, reigned as Queen of the North Atlantic until it foundered on a Haitian reef in 1946. Her daughter, Bluenose II, was launched in 1963, built to original plans by many of the same workers.
Maya and I head over to the Charleston Navy Shipyard to take in the visiting Tall Ships. This week long annual event feature some of the most beautiful antique sailing vessels in the world as well as many modern naval ships.
This morning Maya and I dropped Nicolai off at the Boston airport for his trip to Minnesota. When asked to pose with his sister as we bid him farewell, Nico seems to be setting a double chicken wing. This, I suppose, should come as little surprise after he spent the last week in wrestling camp. I cannot begin to imagine how he is going to great his cousins when he sees them this evening. Nico was very pleased with his camp experience which included three 2-hour wrestling sessions per day. He feels he made significant improvements to his technique and returned with arm muscles that would put a gorilla to shame.
Nicolai’s wrestling camp culminates in a tournament today where he placed 2nd to the New Hampshire state champ winning two of his three matches. Tomorrow he leaves for Minneapolis where he will spend a week with my brother’s family. Before he left for wrestling camp he completed this set of croquet mallets as a gift for his cousins. The heads were made from the trunk of a cherry tree we harvested from our property. I rough cut the blanks and Nicolai did everything else including the finishing. Kyle suggested making a chipper club for situations where you need to jump an opponents ball. We combined that concept with a shorter mallet head which comes in handy in other situations.
This morning I found these two girls on the couch. To say that Maya loves Nala would not really capture the full measure of their bond. Jeanine and Kyle left this afternoon for a 10-day adventure in Transylvania. Jeanine is one of the chaperons travelling with our church youth group to visit with our sister church in Romania. Most Americans associate Transylvania with stories about Dracula, the rest of the world regards this part of Central Europe as a scenic region nestled below the Carpathian Mountains.
Today I flew from LAX to Boston and this particular route covers some of the most spectacular landscapes in the country. My window was clean, the air was crisp and I captured dozens of really nice images. I like this one for the color palette (you will need to enlarge it to appreciate it fully). I did a shorter than normal trip to California so I could see Nicolai on his birthday. He is attending wrestling camp this week on the campus of Boston University. I found him in the cafeteria having diner with his buddies who were not aware it was his birthday. By the time his Happy Birthday song was done I would say several hundred people in the cafeteria were pitching in at full volume. We had a chance to catch up on his camp experience to date and then he had to ready himself for his third training session of the day.
I believe that Michael Jackson had some serious psychological issues but there is no denying that he was one of the most talented and iconic entertainers of our time. We were born in the same year and I grew up dancing to his music. His death shocked me and caused me to reflect on my own life at the fifty year mark. Had I not had to work today I would have probably taken the time to witness his memorial service at this satellite venue in Santa Barbara.
Work takes me to Santa Barbara again, where the weather is simply delightful. I made a ten-minute pit stop at the beach before arriving at the office. I need to spend a weekend here on one of my visits and take some time to enjoy more of the beauty that is everywhere.
Today Jeanine and I dropped off Nicolai at Boston University where he will spend the next week in residence at the Carl Adams Wrestling Camp. Helping Nico get situated in his dorm room provided a 4-year flash forward to his departure for college and it left us both feeling very sad. We know he will enjoy the camp but for us it was a powerful reminder that we only have two years left with Kyle and another two after that with Nico. The program features intensive training with top caliber coaches and wrestlers, rigorous physical conditioning, and concludes with a tournament among the camp attendees.
Maya returned today from a week long visit with her Aunt Susan. She seems to have grown up over night and looks less and less like a little girl every day.
Nicolai, against all odds, is one of the best players on the court having really mastered the full complement of volleyball skills. I can not express how much pleasure I took from spiking a ball that was set to me by Kyle who received the pass from Nico. If I can hold out for a few more years then my ultimate dream will be realized when Maya joins the squad.
If it is the Fourth of July and we are in town then you will find us enjoying the hospitality of my high school wrestling partner and good friend Tom Metzold. Each year Karen and Tom throw a wonderful party with great food and numerous sporting options for the kids. This year I really enjoyed playing volleyball with my boys. Kyle relies heavily on his athletecism but I can see his technique improving dramatically with each game.
Today is a work holiday for me and I spent the morning getting our tractor back in shape. Forensic evidence suggests that one of the two boys drove the tractor into a tree, damaging the front bumper which also serves to support the hinge mechanism for the hood. Unable to determine who the guilty party was they split the cost of the new part and I made the repairs. Nico who recently managed to drive the blades into the ground while mowing for a neighbor paid for a new set which I installed as well. I am hoping the boys will treat the tractor with greater care in the future especially in light of the fact that they are using it to generate outside income.