Quiet Days

The weather is turning to the delightful coolness of a Maryland Autumn, and the blue skies have been a happy sight for most of the days this week. There are trees touched with brilliant colors and the portent of a pleasant new season fills me with anticipation for pots of soup, scented candles and homemade bread. I love to leave the windows open to air out the stuffiness of the humid summer, and the fresh breezes feel a bit chilly, so the fun of cuddling under a blanket to knit or read is also back from the other side of the world.

Evan and I are finding a new rhythm as we putter around in the quietness until Eric gets home. I can honestly say that my little white house with the red door feels quite spacious now with only 3 of us rattling around. There are whole areas that go largely unused for days, and that has just never happened before.

And so we go into the tucking-in time of year, the rest after all the activity of the summer. There's still a flurry of work to be done as I clean up the garden and try to move some plants before it gets too cold, and there's always the nesting to do-the cleaning out and sprucing up before the windows get closed and life moves inside. But then comes a kind of grey quiet that can only be winter. Before then, I hope to fill my lungs with every breath of fresh air and my eyes with every bit of blue I can.

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California Adventure

My friend Gwen invited us to come visit her family's cabin in California. I have a soft spot for family cabins in the woods, so I was pleased to be invited and many months ago, I made a plan with her to actually go. Labor Day weekend was the time and King's Canyon was the place. Eric went with me and we left Evan with wonderful friends who took great care of him.

Here is what we did:

• Flew into LA. I know, but it was waaayy cheaper. Next time we'll fly into the Bay Area. 
• Drove up through the traffic and the Grapevine and the Great Valley to Le Grand, CA, and the charming, old, heritage-laden house where Gwen lives with her incredibly cool husband, Arlis. 
• Had a fabulous dinner, made by our hosts. 
• Walked around the town of Le Grand and was amazed and delighted by the lasting imprint of Gwen's family on the place. 
• Slept blissfully in the pleasant, cool, valley night air. 
• Went to Fresno to teach a class to an AWESOME group of knitters at Sheeper Than Therapy. 
• Drove up the foothills of the Sierra Nevada to Wilsonia, CA, which is the best-ever little neighborhood of cabins right inside King's Canyon National Park. It has an interesting story that you can read about here and here. 
• Hiked, gawked at giant pinecones, giant trees, giant rocks and amazing views. 
• Played games. 
• Ate fabulous meals. 
• Played more games. 
• Hiked more. 
• Talked and talked with G and A. 
• Hiked and played games and ate. (s'mores made with the little wrapped squares of Ghiardelli chocolate!!!!)
• Took about 500 photos
• Drove back to LA and flew home, having hardly believed I was actually in such a beautiful place. 

But you know I have proof. So here you go. These and a few others are also on Facebook. More photos to come. 

Gwen and Arlis--thank you from our hearts-this trip was very special!

King's Canyon. Amazing. 

In Black and White or Color. It's just gorgeous with
soaring canyon walls and great granite monoliths and domes. 

Me, enjoying feeling Hobbit-like. 

The Cabin

Arlis looks out coolly out on the view from a cool
fire lookout tower. 

Giant Sequoia with a characteristic split
at the bottom that is big enough inside for Eric
and I to live.  Seriously. 

I'm a little crazy about this cabin. 

The boys finished their hike a bit early and waited
patiently for us. 

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Where In the World??

All this week since I got home I've heard the comment over and over, "Wow, you sure have been traveling a lot." It's a theme and I can't deny it. I have been gone a lot, ever since June. Because I'm blessed, my life here still held together. The only child has found safe places to feel like home, the animals have friends who care, and all is well. But I am going to write about it again, so feel free to move on and wait till I start writing about life in Maryland once again.

After the big Europe trip I was home about a week and flew off to Chicago for a teaching gig, then a week and a half after that, went to Utah for the big Leave-the-daughter-at-College trip, then 2 days after that, Eric and I flew to California for a long-planned trip for just the two of us. So that adds up to 17 more days in August/Sept. away from home. All good, and I'm grateful.

The thing is that I love travel. I love the simplification of living out of a suitcase because when I'm home, I just collect stuff and then have the stress of too many choices. In Europe I wore the same 6 things for 3 weeks and it was great. Thinking about that tempts me to empty my closet...

I love the newness of every day when I travel. Routine is not my best thing, in fact I always feel a little actual depression when faced with the same place and the same stuff to do every day. So traveling works for my psyche.

But travel is not real life. At least not my current real life. Maybe someday it can be a full-time thing for me as it is for some people, but right now, home is where my most important work still is found. Right now I feel a little disconnected from that everyday life.

So it's good and right to be home. As good as it was to travel and see more places and collect a few more magnets as evidence. And take more photos as further evidence.

Lots of meaningful things happened. A few hard things happened. Mostly wonderful things happened.  As I mentioned before, the reason my body is tired (and that I might seem a little stuck right now) is because my mind is still racing a little bit to process everything I've done, from helping plan and lead a major youth activity for 150 kids to experiencing the Continent, to supporting my daughter's decision to attend college 2500 miles away, to spending some lovely time with friends. It was all pretty intense and time has just sort of frozen. The things back in June seem both eons ago and yet very immediate. In between I got a new calling and have now jumped in with both feet to help lead our youth organization while the gal in charge is off traveling herself. And it's all jumping around in my mind like movie trailers-bits from this trip, impressions and feelings from that. It's a fun problem to have and I'm not complaining, just going through a little re-entry gravity sickness. Bear with me.

The photos of California are coming soon, because it was spectacular. I'll treasure that trip for a long time. The albums of Grandma's birthday and Europe are in production and hopefully will be done soon.
And now, to guide my re-entry, I have lots of work to do. Knitting designs to submit, photo shoots to proof, a new website to design, and all that good stuff. I have a wonderful life right here and I'm looking forward to getting back into it.

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Caught Napping

I feel to say Phew. For the first time since April, there is nothing big on my calendar for a long, long time. I'm back to normal life, whatever that is.

Every single thing I've been doing since then has been really awesome. But it must mean something that after I got the only child off to school this morning and ticked a few things off my to-do list and figured out dinner, I put on my calendar and list to take a nap. No guilt. I was already slowing down after 4 hours of the day gone by.  I gave myself an hour to sleep. I woke up after 3 hours. Didn't even hear my timer. It was such a deep sleep that I felt like I was coming out of anesthesia when I decided I must get myself going. As in my limbs felt heavy. As in I couldn't grasp anything in my hands and felt like I was wrapped in a sleeping bag.  Anyway, I think that means my body is letting down after being on alert for so long. The same thing happened on Saturday. I thought I'd take a teeny little nap and woke up in a fog a LONG time later. I must need the rest.

But it is time to get going again.  It's a beautiful day today. I want to go for a walk and listen to my book. I want to work on some projects and bask in my lovely clean house (I mucked it out big time so I could help to host a shower for my pal who is expecting twins). I already ate a good breakfast and practiced piano and made up the treat list for seminary and wrote my kids a nice long email, and so in lots of ways, it's already been a productive day. And if my nap helps me to do all the stuff I still have yet to get through (such as a rec-league lacrosse game for the only child that starts at 9:00 PM!!??), then I guess that was productive, too.

I still have a lot to digest and think about from my 5 months of big things, and some of the jobs are not yet fully done, and I have some bridges to try and rebuild and some traditions to try and preserve and 4 children out of the nest to support while I still finish raising the last. Yes, the nap was a good thing. That's a lot for any brain to try and juggle. Life never actually gets easier, it just shifts and changes and morphs from one kind of challenge to another, sometimes so sneakily that you don't even notice.

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Summing Up

Okay, it's been almost 2 months since we got home, but I'm still all aglow that I go to go abroad this summer. So, bear with me for one last post.  I want to gather my thoughts about how this trip to Europe has influenced me. Let's face it, when considering the realities of life, I might never get back. Who really knows? Thus, I want to make this experience count.

I'm so grateful I got to see both how big and diverse and also how small and human the world is. People everywhere have the same basic motivations: love, security, survival, relationships, etc, and I did not feel like a stranger as I traveled. I don't know if that's me, or if it's the dilution and homogenization of culture or what, but I felt completely comfortable, even the few times when the language went over my head.

I found the land familiar yet new and fresh at the same time, mostly because of the latitude difference that caused wonderfully late nights and allowed for flowers I've only ever dreamed of to bloom in wild effusion. It is beautiful there, and the cultural nuances of buildings, landscaping, cars, fashion, and food made it a total adventure for me.

So, what did I notice most? What will stay with me? What do I keep thinking about over and over? Here are the bullets for now:

• The chocolate and cheese and bread. And Schoko-meusli every morning for crying out loud. I am missing it, but I'm not quite ready to pay 20 dollars for a box (with the shipping). It, for now, will have to remain a fond memory until I test out a recipe and try to figure out what Americans have against chocolate in breakfast cereal. What is WRONG with us??? But beyond gushing about that,  I did like the care and appreciation for food there. Some stores are smaller, but there was always plenty to choose from. Food mattered-it didn't seem like a part of life only to be gotten through, but instead it was a part of life to be, literally, savored. That's something I can emulate here. 
• The Bicycles and the walking. Honestly, if there is one thing I might want to someday get political about, it would be shifting our America to be friendlier and more workable for bicycles. I think my town of Columbia really tried to do that when it was born, but I live on the edges of that planned community, and it is either actually dangerous or a pain in the neck for me to be able to use my bike for everyday things like going to the grocery store.  My world is not really even set up for walking. I was just recently at a hotel outside of Chicago and there was all this shopping less than a mile from the hotel and so I decided to walk over and back. People thought I was NUTS even though there was a sidewalk the whole way over. But then, inside the perimeter of the shopping areas, there were no sidewalks. I got honked at because I was walking along roadways.  In Europe, people were out and about everywhere, all the time, in the country, in the city, and everywhere in between. The carless walk- and markt-platz areas of the towns have actually increased commerce in most cities. We really should try more of it. I loved seeing even the old folks riding about on their bicycles. I liked the slower pace, and the fact that on tiny narrow streets, the assumption always is that the walker or the rider has the right of way over the driver.  I can do what I can over here, and Evan and I are talking about a plan to get him riding his bike more so he can have more independence. When I was growing up, my bike was my ticket to, well, anywhere, and I loved that feeling. 
• The resilience and optimism of the European people. Over and over again we were reminded of World War 2. Places where I just walked and bought chocolate or took a million photos were, less than 70 years ago, flattened and utterly destroyed. Europe has rebuilt and reinvented itself in just a couple of generations. Old and new blend and contrast all over the place, and both are valued. The fact that they have, collectively, picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and started all over again thrills and amazes me and fills me with admiration. We've had our hard times over here, but only in isolated instances of natural disasters or cows kicking lanterns have we experienced utter desolation, and it has never been continent-wide. I think we have some lessons to learn about that whole picking up and dusting off thing. I can learn patience when it comes to getting past hard times, and remember the sacrifices of others rather than being selfish. I can remember that I'm part of something bigger than just my own needs. I think there are a million unknown stories of that kind of community and generosity in the world, but there needs to be more. 
• And last but not least, (and probably not actually the last): The world is a cool place and I want to see more of it. 

Thanks for reading along and commenting and being as amazed as I was at my tiny taste of a whole different continent. It was a great experience and I'm glad to have it recorded. Now onto the rest of my crazy summer. 

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Book Review: The Flavia deLuce Novels

by Alan Bradley
These delightful reads, part Matilda, part Agatha Christie, with a little I Capture the Castle thrown in, follow the adventures of precocious 11-year old sleuth Flavia deLuce on her adventures in and around her family's decaying estate of Buckshaw near the town of Bishop's Lacey, somewhere in 1950's England.
I loved all of these books for their crisp language, engaging characters and interesting turns of plot. Each one kept me interested till the very end, and only in a few cases was I able to completely put the clues together.

Great fun!

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