Marshwood is *the* major regional tournament up here, and occurs at the end of the middle school wrestling season, this year the first weekend in April, a week after the Maine state tournament (in which Eli placed second!).  Wrestlers from six states come up to Portland to the Civic Center to wrestle “half-mat” matches of 1-1-1 (minutes per round instead of 2-1-1).  There are seventeen (!!!) matches going at once! The little kids wrestle first– kindergarten through fourth grades.  Then 5/6 and 7/8 wrestle starting about midday.  Unlike the regular season where you wrestle your weight class all season, at this meet you weigh in the night before, and they set up 8-person brackets who are closest in weight.

Eli's first match, photo taken from up in the stands. Here, the start of the first period.

Eli in red...grinding the kid on the bottom into the mat....ref's hand is down to touch them to let them know the period just ended.

Eli's second match: win by major decision (more than 8 points ahead--score was 12-0)--I actually got him with his hand raised! The hand goes up and down I almost NEVER get a photo

Eli made it to the finals by winning two before he lost any matches!!!!! and finished SECOND in his weight class!  He won his first two matches handily, thereby securing a place in the championship round.

The bracket sheet heading in to the final round

There was a long break as consolation round (3rd / 4th place) matches were wrestled.  Then warmups began inside the “cage”–the civic center is used for hockey so there are these tough plexi panels around the goal ends of the stadium.

Some of "our" boys milling around. From left to right (green arrows) Colt from the HAL (Hope Appleton Lincolnville) team, Eli, Ben from Camden-Rockport also, and Coach True.

In the finals, Eli wrestled a boy from Rhode Island who was a couple inches taller.  I had thought based on what I saw that they were evenly matched in strength, but afterwards Eli said the other boy was definitely stronger, which makes Eli’s performance all the more amazing.

Most of the match looked like this: evenly matched, score at 0-0

At one point, it looked like this, but Eli wasn't in enough control long enough to get any points. Drat! In the background in red you can see hubby/asst. coach Paul, coach True, and behind them teammates Ben and Chris (who ended up being Champion in his weight class and then Grand Champion in the 4-weight-class wrestle-off among the champions--this meant Chris had been champion all four years of middle school---way to go Chris!).

Then, just before the last twenty seconds of the final round (when it looked like they would go into overtime for first place)….

Eli had been on top, but the other boy managed to get free. At this point it is 36 seconds left in round three (three red dots on the clock--the one on the right) and score is 0-0. About ten seconds later the other boy escaped/got a reversal and scored 2 points. Not enough time for Eli to score in the remaining 20 seconds, tho he tried mightily!

And the trophies are awarded, Eli heads to shake the hands of his opponents’ coaches as his opponent receives a hard-won trophy and goes to shake hands with Paul and True.

Eli goes to shake hands with the other coaches after receiving his trophy, and the boy who won gets his first place trophy.

WELL DONE, Eli!  and Well DONE to all the wrestlers from our town who decided to go to Marshwood, whether they placed or not.  What counts most is attitude, drive and determination.  Hooray for these kids!

I have a treat for you today:

Oreo in the garden graces the cover and gives you an idea of the fun within the covers of this book.

This little gem of a book features Ann Fahl‘s Oreo quilts (Oreo being her cat whose colors are, you guessed it, the same as the favorite cookie) and a poem written by my friend Jacquie Scuitto to accompany the quilts. There is also a visual “index” at the back with smaller shots of the quilts that includes their size, date, blurb about each quilt, and the page on which that quilt can be found.

Those of us on the QuiltArt and Janome6500 lists are familiar with Jacquie’s wonderful poems (one of which about thread –thank you Jacquie!– graces the dedication page of my book) which are heartwarming and wise.  This little book is a chance for many more to get to know her.

The book begins with a peek at Oreo.

The poem and the quilts take you through Oreo’s days and things to do (bathe, eat, nap, be curious) and visit some of Ann’s other quilts (like the coneflower and iris where Oreo pokes about).

This book is perfect if you love quilts, love cats, love ditties, or all of the above!  The modest price also means that it makes a great gift for anyone who might enjoy cats, quilts or both!  You can purchase the book from Jacquie via an e-mail from her blog www.quiltmuse.blogspot.com (this method uses PayPal—you don’t need a PayPal account, just a credit card for secure online purchasing–scroll to the post dated April 1, 2011) or from Ann via her website .

Sample pages from A Black and White Tale

Just sitting with this little gem makes my stress levels go down—sort of like patting a cat but with less shedding hair!  It’s a wonderful poem to pick up and read and enjoy the quilts again and again!
I’m SO PROUD of Jacquie (and of course I’m biased, she’s my friend!)—congrats to both Jacquie and Ann on a well-conceived, well-done book!

Well, I actually took the photo in late March, but I loved the look through the car window and rain….

Have been really busy with painting the studio floor (which required soaking and scraping up lousy old paint left by the previous owners so the new paint stands a chance of sticking), Eli’s wrestling, Joshua stuff, more moving in stuff, paying bills and all the general nonsense….have many many many things to blog about…just need time…. anyone have any to spare?

PS—the photo is of The Market Basket entryway.  The Market Basket is a somewhat gourmet-ish deli / store / place at the intersection of Route 1 (the Old Atlantic Coast Highway) and Route 90 (which heads due West to Augusta, the state capitol, a town of under 20,000 souls one hour or so to the west).  They have WONDERFUL tuna salad, good  local and imported foodstuffs, and good breads and desserts.

Well…as I head out to the last wrestling meet of the season (Marshwood, a six-state all New England tournament in Portland, Maine), I thought I should get caught up and share LAST week’s results:   Eli placed second in his weight class –that’s all the kids in middle school wrestling in Class B schools (I think they “class” them by size, as larger schools would have a larger bunch of students and theoretically be tougher?).   The kid who beat him–Nate Boucher– is a two-time State Champ (and came in second last year in a 12-11 loss in the finals!), and is number 3 in all New England. I’ll add that the “middle” weight classes are the most competitive ones, with MANY really good young athletes.  Camden-Rockport had six boys in the finals, three of whom placed in the medals:  Eli, Chris Weiss (both got seconds) and Taylor Crosby (fourth).  Well done to them and to the entire team.

The customary congrats to the winner handshake--I love that the old courtesies are still observed in some places!

We are SO  proud of him:  Eli set himself a goal, he worked hard, he achieved it when he won Regionals and made it to States, and exceeded it by not only placing, but placing second!

The top four: Eli had beat all the others on the podium...way to go Eli!

Plus, he thinks now that he knows how Boucher wrestles, he can beat him if he wrestles smart.  Alas and fortunately, Boucher is an 8th grader, so they won’t meet again until high school.

The finals were closer than the 0 (Eli) – 6 (Boucher) score indicated as they started the third period.  There was a lot of back and forth… oh… in Middle school the kids wrestle three periods:  2 minutes, 1 minute, 1 minute. By the end of four minutes, they are totally exhausted it is so intense.

Boucher is on top (the place you want to be) in the 2nd round

Just a few moments later they are up and Eli is driving...

The third period opened with Eli looking grim but determined.  He had prevented a State Champion from pinning him for two full rounds, and was ready to go for it.

3rd round: Boucher is again on top, and Eli's legs are tucked, which means either he's in t rouble (easier to roll) OR he's getting ready to get up (hard to stand up with a squirming strong wrestler on your back)

REVERSAL! Eli gets out and swings around and takes control: Two points!

Eli said that Boucher seemed a bit stunned that Eli was able to get the reversal, but Boucher’s then 4-point lead was too much for Eli to make up in the final fifteen seconds.  Final score:  Boucher 6, Eli 2.  Well done to both wrestlers!   Eli, we are so proud of your determination, drive, courtesy, athletics and academics.  Way to go kiddo!

Mother Nature has a nasty sense of humor! Today is, I checked the calendar, APRIL.  The snow has melted off almost completely.  Twice.  This is what was outside the window this morning:

From the dining room window. Add 2 inches to the snow on the fence since I took this picture two hours ago.....

That is a Nor’easter in progress.  Now I love snow.  Just NOT in April.  Enough already!

The plants are trying to bud. Harrumph. Under snow?

More of the meadow. I promise. It really is under there. If you look closely, you can see the jumbo snowflakes on the left side......

The porch off the kitchen, and Paul's lousy-traction-van before he left....

Plus Paul and Eli are heading to Portland for the ginormous wrestling meet that is six New England states.  They tried to go via Camden, and Paul’s van couldn’t make it up the hill and into downtown Hope.  So they turned around and went west to go via Appleton and up to Augusta.  Will add about 45 minutes (on a good day) but at least they just got off the back road and onto a semi-main road, Route 17.  That is still a 2 lane “highway” but it will be one of the first plowed/kept clear.  UGH.  It has snowed at least two inches since two hours ago…….and it is heavy wet snow.  Maybe I should paint the basement floor again before the power (and lights) go out….

Looking West out the living room at 8 a.m.

I’ll blog about Eli’s wrestling at States last weekend next, then more on my studio, friend Jacquie Scuitto and Ann Fahl’s new book, Deborah’s 12 x 12 book… lots to write, no time!!!!!

PS…here’s the car, mostly dug out from under the 9+ inches of snow on top… it gets hit by lots of wind.  We had over 12 inches on the walkway….

Notice the snow comes halfway up the hubcaps.....