Water

"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water."
Loran Eisley (Anthropologist), The Immense Journey, 1957

Gillen added lots of rocks from the beaver pond at the farm to the pond here at home. I now have a big beautiful flat white rock on which to sit while I wait for hummingbirds, dragonflies and whomever else may turn up. I love the sounds of water - the gentle babbling of the fountain that Gillen created with a solar pump, so that the sound only comes when there is sun hitting the panel - not too often and therefore more appreciated. And Rain! The first good long storm in a looong while, last Friday, had me out on our side porch smelling and listening for almost an hour.

This looks like a great watering hole for the fairies.

Gillen's Garden map

Gillen drew the plants in his garden today and labeled them all, beautifully. His mom is not technically adept enough to get the whole thing pieced together well here. It was on 12x12 paper so I scanned it in to the computer in two sections but don't have the right program to attach the different parts together. Or I do and don't know it - always a possibility. I love kids' art and my son's garden.

Abundant day

Gillen and Nicolas came home this morning with three Bass this time. With so much going on today, they were put in the fridge for another night. We spent most of the day at the annual Hummingbird festival, held every year on Gillen's birthday weekend, at a local plantation.

We brought Gillen's friend Aaron with us, money for fun treats like shaved ice with syrups, moonwalks, homemade ice cream made in a giant motor powered churn, a gift for Nicolas' mother, Helen, whose birthday is today, and of course - more plants. I also brought my camera, so there are an abundance of photos and they were uploaded in a much bigger size than I intended and take up an abundance of room! And I didn't even get to the ones from dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant for Helen's birthday tonight.



















The shaved ice man is Ed, the man who lived in our hundred year old house before we did. He repaired it, added stairs and a second story and built a deck and a side porch. He is the reason our house is so cool. He and his wife (whose landscaping and frog pond are what made me want this home) are also from Mass. and that may be the reason that we could afford it. He now runs an ice cream shop that he created out of a train caboose. The Caboose is being used in the filming of a movie with Luke Perry and LeAnne Rimes, called Good intentions, later this week.















Ewes Full Acres was there, run by an amazingly energetic and talented woman we've known for years who spins virgin wool collected from her own sheep. She had a huge array of variegated, hand painted colors. I bought some called grape hyacinth, that is a mixture of purple and green. Gillen's variegated green syrup tongue may have inspired my choice.

This is a goat from the animal petting area; no wool was spun from this guy. But he was quite the model.












Gillen was given a Butterfly Bush by a nursery owner who was impressed by his knowledge of the plants. How generous. Once home, he and Aaron immediately planted both this one and the ones Gillen had bought. Gillen always gets enthusiastic volunteers for the shovelling. Yesterday, another friend, Andrew, shovelled the burial hole for the neighbor-dog-slane turkey chick. Today, Gillen watched Aaron shovelling a hole for the Butterfly Bush. The butterflies already found the blooms before it was even planted. Hummingbirds soon followed. Life in the country, today, has been abundantly good.

A decade since Gillen was born

My oldest son is ten years old today. wow. He is still the passionate, loving, intense little individual he was on that first day, when after three days of labor, two weeks after my due date, he was finally forced to come out of the womb by c-section. On an apgar score birth report they gave us it says that he had a "lusty cry". He still shows that lust for life - whether running in 100 degree weather with a soccer ball, caring for his garden, cannon-balling into the pool, making grandiose plans or giggling us all into uncontrollable laughter.

I am so glad that he chose us to to be his parents.

I am also glad that he decided this year that he didn't want a party. I can't imagine keeping lots of people cool today in this heat. We're too busy keeping turkey chicks cool. A neighbor dog got one out of the case earlier. There are now three chicks buried in Gillen's garden.

We are celebrating Gillen with his favorite things. There are three different kinds of watermelon here from the farm. We'll barbecue some ribs made with grass-fed meat raised by local farmer friends. We had a fruit tart that he picked out from a European bakery (first time I didn't make the cake) and he has a new good friend from soccer here for the day who loves nature, animals,swimming and fishing as much as Gillen.

Ten is still so young and innocent. At least it is on Gillen. At least this first day of it. : > )


It is also the anniversary of Gillen's bird garden, which he started after going to the hummingbird festival with some friends on his birthday last year. He and Shannon planted four little plants (first picture). It's hard to tell from the dog-day of summer wilting affect, but this garden has grown ten-fold, as has Gillen.