Saturday in the country

As opposed to last Saturday, when I was packing in art films, bookstores and city friends, today was all about Gillen and Jesse and their favorite things to do - which are much better done in the country.

Most Saturdays start with Gillen's archery class. He is getting really good. I admit to hoping that archery competitions, with their stuffed animals, end up enticing him more than real hunting. But then, I grew up in the city. Gillen thanks God he's a country boy.We bought books at the Scholastic book fair and then made our way to our local Rutledge May fair. There were country bands, barbecue, art booths and pony rides.

We got to visit Molly in her studio there and tell her how much we loved her newly published book, How the Caboose Came to Rutledge. She and her husband Ed owned our house before we did. Ed threw out his back while creating this house's second floor. The book is about him giving up the hammer and nails and deciding to buy a caboose. He did just this. Over ten years ago, Ed bought a sweet little red caboose and moved it to Rutledge in order to open an ice cream/ sandwich shop.

We got to see the original pages for the book framed on Molly's studio wall. Our house is in the book:
Then we went next door to The Caboose. I got homemade lemonade, Jesse had a double scoop cone and Gillen had a green and blue ice.
Next was bungie jumping.


Back home again, there was baseball (Jesse's latest self-proclaimed obsession):
My cousin Lake came to dinner.He played baseball, then football and helped Jesse for a while with the guitar.
It is now Sunday. The boys are out there gardening and I'm going to soak and then stuff our grape leaves with something good and serve them with greek salad for dinner. But we also have big sitting-on-the-couch-with-a-movie (or several) plans. I'm looking forward to that.