The Inman Park Festival

After spending a few hours at the Morningside Farmers Market this morning, we went to the annual Inman Park Festival, held in the neighborhood where, 15 years ago, Nicolas and I slung hash (as my Grandmother Simone would derisively call our work as waiters), and fell in love. We looked today for the first house I lived in there and it had burned to the ground. But there was no time to be nostalgic. There was a gourmet lunch to be had at Shaun's, an amazing Inman Park restaurant where Nicolas sells his vegetables, and we had an indescribable (though I'll try) parade to watch.

This is an equal opportunity festival - as exhibited by the range of characters we saw on our way to Shaun's. There was a fundamentalist calmly, but unrelentingly, extolling us to read our bibles:And a witch made her way towards our path, where she silently fell in synch. with two red-headed Weasley types in matching sweaters.

Looking at the special festival menu at Shaun's:
We get so excited when the farm is mentioned on a menu! It's in the appetizers - the arugula on flatbread with shaved cheese (it says ricotta but it is usually parmesan) So good:



Full of good food and drink, we ran to find our usual spot to watch the parade (except for years when soccer games have taken precedence -I'm unashamedly happy to be on soccer hiatus) in front of our friend Terry's house. Terry has a security bull horn with which he announces upcoming parade sights. These floats, marching bands and acts beg for some explanation. Though there were some regular old talented high school marching bands, a Chinese dragon, a local Brownie troop and floats about local schools pushing for peace, or going green - these were the only usual parade sights.

The "Marching Abominable" band led the parade. I kept looking at some of these people and imagining what they normally look like, say on their way to work. Don't you love observing a regular guy on the bus and wondering if this(or maybe lounge singing, Civil War reenactment, horror movie directing, or stripping) could be his other life?


At one point, a horn player in front of me, looking anxious about her instrument's weight, slowly let her arm fall, and then, let her body fall, following her horn, face down, to the ground:
Actually, all of the "Abominables" fell into a deep sleep, for several minutes, before they were revived by a few musicians with wands. It was something!

Yes, Jesse, there is, after all, a tooth fairy:



Here is that sweet brownie troop, to bring you back to earth. I was that red-headed Brownie pictured here towards the right, many moons ago in Boston. I remember being at Brownies the day we pulled out the troops from Vietnam. Will these girls be at Brownies on the day we leave Iraq? Lets hope they aren't already Girl-scouts (I walked over the "girl-scout bridge" in some ceremony but never did follow up).






A few peace floats later, we had the Mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin.





And then it was back to colorful, creative, crazy Inman Park Festival business as usual. If you have time, you really should click on these below and take a closer look:
As I said, equal opportunity prevailed. The kids got frisbees from a Presbyterian church, "go-green" disks, candy from the politicians (lots of those), and the pieces of wooden boards that the Karate school split with their hands in front of them.

Thankfully, they didn't notice the condoms that were thrown to we grown folks from the Planned Parenthood car (or they might have thought they were gum or a lollypop and tried eating them ;).

There was so much more - roller derby girls, Trees Atlanta, who conserve and plant trees), sequined, high-heeled show girls, and the young "in-training abominable marching band", Harry Potter fans... But it is time to sleep now, as tomorrow is another day of play away from our simple surroundings - this time at a Slow Food Event at a farm.

Jumping in the rain, Frickle, and a new hobby

Lately, there have been several storms in the afternoons. It can be beautifully sunny, no sign of anything coming, and our dog Tuki will sense the possibilities and start shaking. This is followed, suddenly, by big, southern style (I never experienced it like this in the north) thunder and lightning. But for the past few days, after the thunder and lightning, there has been a time of rain - safe, wet, slippery, pattering rain. Time for jumping on the trampoline with your brother for an hour kind of rain.

In other news, we have a new cat. The last time I loved a cat (her name was Celimene - spoken with a French accent) I loved her so hard that when she finally died, after almost dying three times and being nursed back to health, I thought I'd shut down any cat longing for good. Plus, I don't love all cats. She was special. She would sit on my shoulder while I picked flowers and vegetables.

The other cats that I really loved were a brother and sister pair that my mother owned named Frik and Frac (also known as Frickle and Fracas). They, like Celimene, were Calicos.

So yesterday, when a small calico showed up on our side porch, looking exactly like Frickle and without a collar, it took me only two minutes to agree- yes, let's care for him, as an outdoor cat. Today we bought cat food and fed him. The kids made him a cozy box home. On Mon. we'll take him to the vet. Gillen already loves him so much that right now he is crying because it is raining and Frickle (G calls him Freckle) is out there, somewhere, not coming when he calls (as he has been, surviving on his own for months before we met him). GIllen has become his Little Prince. He has fed him and cared for him, just a bit, and now this kitten could break his heart. What are we going to do about a cat when we go to Australia. : 0

Luckily, there is some distraction from this new infatuation. We are almost finished reading _Deathly Hallows_ and Gillen has brought a new hobby into our lives - embroidery. I had been wanting to do it for a while, influenced by my talented seamstress friend Helen, by soule mama and by the book Kids' Embroidery, by Kristin Nicholas. But it was a conference funshop called "clothing tattoo" that got Gillen excited about it. We discovered that you can get iron-on transfers that disappear after a wash, to enable him to do really cool "tattoos". He has made a skull and bones and a beautiful, free-form leaf. I'll be embroidering "Zoe" and pandas on tiny clothing while watching soccer games this weekend.

The "Requiem for a wizard" experience

I lifted this picture from my friend Kelli's blog. I have not seen the cover myself. We went to the greatest party last night at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur but didn't want to wait in the long line at the end of the night to pick up our book. I knew I had the one (without a cover) at home and we will go there for the _Farmer Boy_ book club on Thurs. and can pick up our copy then.

But we did get to visit Hogwart's and Diagon Alley at the amazingly decked-out store. Both boys took written multiple-choice quizzes that they gave to a woman with an owl on her shoulder ("Hegwog", Hegwig's sister) to interpret and were then each given their own patronus. Gillen's is a phoenix and Jesse's is a dragon. After being ushered back to "Gringott's" by a huge, friendly "Hagrid", they were given a handful of sickles and galleons with which to shop at the assorted stores. They concocted potions out of glitter, spices, feathers and herbs at the potions store, bought butter-beer, fake blood, an oozing (marshmallow) eyeball, and an acid pop (colorful lollypop) at the Weasley Brothers' Joke Shop, had their futures prophesized by an appropriately googly-eyed Professor Trelawny, and were told what house we were in by the sorting hat (we each were in a different house, none in Slytherin)

We also ate some great "brown sugaah vanilla" ice cream at Jake's - the homemade ice cream parlor that is inside Little Shop of Stories, lots of chocolate covered pretzels (chocolate frogs) and we shared a black licorice wand.

But the highlight was the Dumbledore-like robed and hatted magician who wowed us with his "spells". Jesse compared him to Chris Angel (his magician hero) - he was that good. He even made a sickle (piece of construction paper) that was handed to him by one the spectators, float! I have no idea how he did it. Later we are going to take out our magic set and start practicing. We were very inspired. But first, we have to finish Book Six!

Here is some information about what various bookstores had planned last night, including Little Shop of Stories. Do you remember anything like this about a book, that your parents were as excited about as you, when we were younger? It's been so cool. Once this series is over, can another book follow the act? It's something to strive for. I do have an idea...

Beautiful vegetables to come soon.