Swamped

I lost track but I think it rained every day last week. I know there were at least three days, maybe four, when the sun never made an appearance.

Our basement flooded. Every step we took in the backyard made squishing sounds. Miriam figured out she could stomp the soggy ground and bubbles would come up from the ground. We lived in our boots and raincoats. We watched the stream levels rise each day until they flooded over their banks. The soil became so soft that it couldn't hold the weight of the trees and we found several flopped over.

 I kept wondering what everybody does when it rained. We wandered around in the woods and played at the park and there was NO one else around. It was kind of awesome.

I started to think it might rain forever. But the sun is back and it has me feeling confused. I liked the more solitary soggy world. I guess this means we have to go back to sharing the park.

Cousins and Cousin

Labor day weekend brought us some great visitors - cousins.

Here are some of the Cummings cousins.

Be amazed - no one was hurt in the making of this photo, despite Reuben's valiant effort to fall off the eagle.

The Meldau cousins

We stopped by a fun toy store and it took Eliza -2 minutes to disappear and reappear as a purple sparkle fairy.

Here's Miriam deputized with a headband as assistant to the purple sparkle fairy.

A Blustering Day

The southern wind
Doth play the trumpet to his purposes,
And by his hollow whistling in the leaves
Foretells a tempest and a blustering day.
(1 Henry IV, 5.1)

We woke this morning to a blustering day. Hurricane Irene is headed our way. On our 7am grocery trip we found the batteries and flash lights were sold out and most of the bottled water. I've heard the rain is supposed to begin around noon.

On Wednesday we had a 5.8 earthquake. I had the interesting experience of hearing about it before it happened. I was on a conference call with my work. The office is located in Charlottesville which was about a hundred miles closer to the epicenter. They started shaking about 30 seconds before DC. I was grateful for the forewarning because it made me certain it was an earthquake instead of a bomb. We had a few things fall off shelves. Most notably my box of postcards. Here's a scene of the damage.

In between disasters we've been having fun. We played in puddles. Miriam turned 13 months and chipped her front tooth when she snuck into the bathroom and crawled-fell into the tub.

We rode the carousel at a nearby park that I have memories of going to as a kid.

Reuben took his zebra ride very seriously.

Summer's Blood

We went blackberry picking first thing Saturday morning. All of us, together, which felt amazing. The air was thick and sweet with the smell of everything at the climax of life. The berries were so ripe they were bursting. I found myself taking deep breathes, trying to take it all in since I know the summer is beginning to ebb away. The nights are getting longer. The violent thunderstorms have started to sweep away the heat. I haven't smelt the chill in the air yet, but I know it won't be long.

But enough about the weather. You're probably here for the kids. They had a great time helping pick and eat.

An excerpt of a poem I was trying to remember while we were out in the patch.

"Blackberry Picking" by Seamus Heaney  Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full,
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.
We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.

And sorry for the long absence. In my last post I mentioned I was sick. Then I got sicker.

Then I got swamped with work. I should be working now. But I wanted to let you, dear family

and friends, know that we are well and love and miss you.

Bugs and More Bugs

Summer is for the bugs and we have plenty around here.

I'm sick. Reuben is sick. Miriam is sick. So Aaron will probably soon be sick. The cold medicine is messing with my head so I'm not going to write too much. My brain is crazy right now.

So enjoy the pictures.

Reuben loves the microscope at the study room. Behold, my future entomologists :)

It's so humid the lens of my camera keeps fogging up. We went on a family nature walk. Reuben found this butterfly.

Miri got a kazoo at her Grammy and Papa's house a couple days ago. She's been kazooing every day since. Her dedication to a daily practice routine is a little nerve racking. Will I, as a parent, be capable of enduring the horrible noise of real musical instrument training? I have my doubts.

The nature center near us has a dug out. I'm not really sure if they technically allow people to climb in it, but nobody stopped us. The kids were thrilled.

I'm reading The Lost City of Z which is about the British explorer, Percy Fawcett, who mapped the Amazon, claimed to have discovered an ancient pyramidal city in the middle of the jungle, then disappeared. (He's the inspiration for the crazy dog guy in UP.) Several search parties have tried to discover his fate only to go missing themselves. The Amazon is a deadly place.

Selecting a book to read about people dying of fevers while I have a raging fever might not be my brightest moment, but it is fascinating. As a bonus it makes the insect life around MD seem wimpy. No blowflies depositing eggs under our skin. No eye licker gnats. No flesh eating bees. No malarial mosquitos. Life is good.

Summer Rainbows

It's hot in DC. But the Smithsonian museums are wonderfully air conditioned, free, and have great spaces to run around in.

The Museum of the American Indian has an especially great entrance if you are under the age of five and feel like dancing around in public view.

Best of all are the huge rays of sunlight the building catches and filters through gigantic prisms. If you find the right spot, you can make yourself into a life size rainbow.

Rainbow Reuben

Rainbow Miriam

Reuben - does this come off?

A big thanks goes out to Aunt Heather for letting us subject her to our DC trek. Reuben wanted to make sure she got a good introduction to each of the faces.

When we aren't in DC, we are our usual crazy selves. This picture is pure Miriam. She put those necklaces on herself. She found them herself too. I didn't even know we owned 2 necklaces.

Miri is agile. She can crawl into the wading pool by herself. Getting out before Reuben realizes she's in there is more of a trick.

One Miriam

Miriam turned one years old on Saturday! Since she's walking and talking and speaking in sentences (her favorite word is "whatsthat!?) it seemed about time. At the same moment, I can't believe my tiny little black haired baby is already a busy blonde haired toddler. It's been an exciting year thanks to this amazing little girl.

Here she is getting ready for her one year old cake. We got her a birthday crown to wear since she is partial to hats. Reuben helped her blow out the candle.

She didn't get very messy eating her cake. She took a bit or two then threw it on the ground. I think it might have had something to do with my forgetting to add the sugar to the icing.

Since Reuben hordes all the stuffed animals in the house, we got Miri her very own little stuffed friend, Gaspard, a small black dog. She's been carrying him around all day so I think they're going to be buddies.

And while she liked her crown, Miriam's favorite attire is still this old straw cowboy hat.

I love her expression in this picture.