Kyla and Andrew Sittin' in a Tree....

...Yes, it's official. Kyla has a Real Boyfriend. We met in person at the Woodbridge Center Mall last night.


Here is the happy couple:



....and here is the happy couple kissing:















...and here is Cade's reaction:




Kind of how I felt, overall. It's disconcerting. Kyla is 16, and is Dating a Boy. (He's 18, so I guess he isn't really a Boy.) Brings up all kinds of interesting new perspectives.

In other news, Friday was Crazy Hair Day at Cade's school. Here he is:

Adventure Aquarium

Spent Sunday, Cade's birthday, at the Camden Adventure Aquarium. They have some pretty neat stuff...not the least of which is the underwater view of the hippo tank...

And here it is, your moment of zen...(apologies to The Daily Show)

Birthdays, we gots birthdays...

My children chose to be born with only three days between them (plus eight years). Kyla's birthday is March 29, and she just turned 16. Cade's birthday is April 1 and he just turned eight. Here he is at his party yesterday (at the karate school he attends) with ice cream cake on his face; that is Gavin in the yellow shirt next to him.

We spent the day today, at Cade's request, at the Camden Aquarium (aka Adventure Aquarium). More about that next time.


Jellyfish....

I have a camera!

Hooray! I now am the proud owner of a point and shoot (though it seems much more complicated than that) digital camera, a Canon PowerShot A540 to be specific. Now to figure out all the myriad settings and bells-n-whistles...


I am going to like the Macro function.

Now it's REALLY over...or is it?

The year is over, that is. Fall should be over, but we are predicted to have a high of 71 degrees tomorrow. January 6th! Global warming? El Nino? Fluctuating jet stream? All of the above?

Well, we had an unexpected death at the end of November. Our kitty, Smudge, 5 yrs old or less, was found dead on the floor one morning after I returned from a walk. The oddest thing. He was fine when I left. He was a tad on the large side, so perhaps that is what did it. Or the excitement of the bird feeders hanging outside the window and the squirrels that would sit on the window ledge, nose to nose with Smudge through the glass...maybe that was just too much for him.

Cade misses his kitty friend....

Where did summer go...?

It's hard to believe it's over.

Well, not really over, we will still have warm days for a couple of months, but summer officially ends (at least for the kids) next Tuesday, upon the return to school. Cade is going into 2nd grade, and Kyla is going into 10th! (and you wanna know a secret??? She has a boyfriend!!!)

A lot has been going on here in my little world...I moved to a wee little place in Chalfont, just me and Cade (with room for Kyla when she visits). It was a barn, had horses in it years ago. Now it's a sweet little place that has 3 small bedrooms, a shared living/dining area and kitchen (formerly the foaling stall). And the bathroom was the tackroom...Don helped get it fixed up (actually he did all the work) and now it's shades of sage green and Cade's room is a tropical blue worthy of the Caribbean. The cat and birds have adjusted. Has acres of woods behind (slated for the 202 bypass, but that has been in the works for 20 years, so I'm not worried yet) and I can hear owls at night and mysterious sounds by day.

Cade can stay in the same school now. He was being redistricted when we were at the old place.

I am enjoying settling in. Nesting, almost...

An idyllic afternoon

Cade had a playdate with his friend Christopher today. I took the opportunity to go for a walk-not the usual 5 miles per hr speed-walking, but a contemplative and meditative stroll through the Covered Bridge Park near where we live. Yes, a real covered bridge.

I discovered this park before moving to New Britain from New Hope. At first I was deceived, thinking it was your typical playground and picnic type park...but if you walk through the woods behind the playground, you come to a large open field that is used for soccer. More woods on the other side bring you out to a wide open vista, framed to the right by an old farm with a red barn and a windmill, an open field of unmown grass and flowers, and a hill across the field that once crested reveals its secret-a lake. It's actually a reservoir, and the high banks with trails on the top are the dam.

Starting today's walk by the bridge, I followed the creek to a favorite sitting spot where the water burbles and chortles its way over some rocks. A fish laboriously flopped upstream through the shallows. A fin broke the surface, waving slowly through the air for a moment or two.


Snow-like fungus


Then across the field of unmown waist-high grass and up the steep hill to be treated to the panoramic view of the reservoir spread before me at the crest. Daises by the thousands, little yellow flowers, Queen Anne's Lace on the way. Bees were doing their dance. I lifted up a piece of wood hoping to spot an early salamander and found a large black spider huddled in its tunnel.

Headed back a different way, through the woods to the soccer field (deserted). Then back through another strip of woods to the playground, bright yellow plastic slides and a red concrete pipe that Cade loves to hide in.

I headed back home feeling as though I had just done a mini meditation retreat.