The end of the year insanity began with States in Cross Country. Here’s Eli receiving the baton in the 4 x 800 m. relay

Good thing my blog allows me to write posts then schedule them out into the future!   It has been insanely busy.  Here’s a smattering of the early June busy-ness!

The kid in mid-stride, airborne! The team was happy to not finish last at States, as the fast runners were doing other races and not the relays.

And Eli passing TWO other teams/kids in the final lap!

Then the Track and Field team end-of-season picnic and awards at a waterfront park in Rockport, Maine.

Eli with teammates Melissa K. and her sister Emily K.

Then there’s the garden. I need to see if I can get the weed whacker working (ugh, I am NOT mechanical), but here I hacked out the dead rugosa rose stuff. Fortunately, there are a lot of “runners” that are growing well.

And here’s my hilarious helper, tethered to the pine tree so he can wander but not wander off!

And my beloveds, Sven (the gnome)  and Phineas (the phlamingo):

Whimsy in your life is a good thing. Thanks so much to Joshua and Ashley for the best mother’s day gift EVER! I keep moving the pair about. TOTALLY LOVE THIS!

Then on the final day of school, after Eli’s last exam, we attended a memorial service for one of his Cross Country teammates, Forest P., who died a week ago from a brain tumor at the age of 18.  His parents got him a tutor, though, and he was able to graduate along with his class (though of course he was way too ill to attend the ceremony, he died just a few days after).   His father wanted the teammates to come do his practice run route near their home where the reception after was held.  When Forest and a friend would come in (usually within 10 feet of each other), everyone would shout “Run, Forest, run!”  so we did.  Sigh.  So impossibly sad:

Members of the team including the coach head out to run for Forest–kids are to the right of the lady in the rose suit

And Friday night was the delayed Wrestling potluck and awards. Eli received a new award, the Chris Remsen award named after a legendary Camden high school athlete. Given the description, I’d call it an all-around best award: best athlete, scholar and teammate. [We postponed the dinner/awards because asst. coach True’s house burned down two nights before the original date.  Luckily though they lost their dog, they and infant son are fine.]

the 2013-14 Camden Hills Regional High School Wrestling team, champions yet again

Let the summer begin…it looks to be as busy for Eli and me as this past week!

Happy Mother’s Day 2014!

What a WONDERFUL day!  Hubby surprised me with a lovely card signed by all the kids and a hand-screened kitchen towel of lupine on snowy white cotton.   He said it wasn’t for the kitchen because getting something for the kitchen for mother’s day wasn’t cool, that we could use it maybe in our bathroom.  But I decided kitchen is GOOD and hung it from an old hay fork pully, (how does one spell that?) and it is cheering up the kitchen.  And on Saturday I dropped in to Megunticook Market to get something, say hi to Joshua, and he offered to cook dinner!  WOOT!

Here’s our very own sous-chef plating up our chicken and cashew lo mein. SLURP! It’s always a challenge to cook in a different environment with different layout and pans, but he did great. Except for our two-watt stove. We really need a range that can heat a pan hot enough to sear! It’s on the growing “to do” list!

Then, to my astonishment, in ADDITION, he said he and Ashley had a gift.  A gift besides the meal?   So I was told to come outside and close my eyes.   DELIGHT!  Hilarity!   A promise I’d made to myself fulfilled by my oldest son!   I’ve sworn for years I wanted a Travelocity roaming Gnome and a tacky pink flamingo.  Sometimes the gnome would lead the flamingo, sometimes vice versa.

The gnome and Flamingo in their first perch

But we need to NAME THEM!  I think the gnome may be Sven the Svelte (since he so obviously is not), but the flamingo?  Someone suggested Nathan Lane’s character in Bird Cage / La Cage aux Folles, but Albert is sort of ehn.  Hank Azaria’s charater’s name, Agador is a possibility.   So what do all of you think?   We totally need FUN names.  A bit of swish might be good.

And the family portrait with Mom.  We did this photo two years ago, but this year the black flies were more annoying!   Gosh how they have changed!

Mother’s Day 2014

Mother’s Day 2012–two years ago

LIFE IS GOOD!   And do suggest names for the gnome and flamingo!

What a glorious sight!  Hubby said look at the sunset, so I dashed for the camera, went out on to our COLD and breezy porch (current air temp is 50 but feels about 42!)to take pics, then turned around and saw this

Sunset to the west, rainbow from end to end over Hope and the midcoast to the East.  The rainbow was so large I couldn’t fit it all in one photo!

So here are left and right:

Rainbow…left side (northeast)

Rainbow, right, southeast

Makes me want to pull out the paints!

Sunset, west (duh!)

I’ve been busy (what else is new), this time writing an article on  the bane of my quilty existence, for Machine Quilting Unlimited, but don’t know if it’s OK to tell you the subject, so I will refrain for the moment!

Eli’s track season is in full swing–here is the last meet.  At least we went prepared this time:  long sleeved shirt, fleece lines vest, winter down jacket, gloves, hat with earflaps and stadium blanket.  And needed it.  By the time we left the field it was 39, with wind chill about freezing or below!  How the kids could function in tanks and shorts is beyond me!

Eli at the end of the 400 metre, ran it in about 58 seconds which, given the cold, was pretty good!

Javelins in the ground

A mistake of a photo, but I kinda like it….would abstract well into a quilt….

Not the best photo, but it is rare that I actually get Eli and the javelin in the same photo! Though it looks light, it was pretty late in the afternoon and using the Sport setting doesn’t always work well that late in the day, but I need to remember to re-set the camera to sport and TRY! 

And Eli was the first leg on the 4×400, which of course is the last event of every meet which means we stand around for hours in the cold!

Getting ready for the 4×400

And more of the sunset, because who can resist those colors?   I’ll share more about my Amaryllis before too long!

The view from the end of the front porch, looking west

What a SKY!

Well, I can tell I’ve been really busy when I realize how long it has been since I’ve blogged!   Maine’s Wrestling State tournaments were last weekend, and we are Class B. I am thrilled to say that Eli wrestled the best he has ever wrestled and came in Third!  AND–massively huge and loud DRUM ROLL Please!   The CAMDEN HILLS WRESTLING TEAM, well over half of which is Freshman and Sophomores (though Varsity is mostly Soph-Jr-Sr), WON STATES FOR THE THIRD TIME IN A ROW!   (and you betcha I’m shouting!) For such a young team to do so well is just amazing.  As usual, the rest of the state hates Camden, mostly because we keep winning.  Everyone said we couldn’t win last year, but they squeaked through with a 3-point victory.  This year it was a 24 point margin!   And for Eli to do so well as a Sophomore!   WOOT! More below…

Camden Hills Wrestling gets a THREE-Peat, winning Class B Maine State Wrestling Championship! Well done lady and gentlemen!

There has also been snow, more snow, more snow, and more snow coming.

The view heading out with the dog this morning, looking north.

And on the way back up the driveway. Our house faces north, facing the prevailing winds, so not much left on this side of the roof. It is hard because of drifts to guess how much snow we’ve got, but I’m guessing an average of about 18 inches. At least it is warm–we’re up to 30 degrees!

And I’ve been busy quilting, again, something I’m not at liberty to share until after jurying some time this summer.  Sigh.  It just pains me not to show in progress.  Maybe I’ll take a photo of a heap of pre-fused fabric just to be a wicked tease?  Anyway, here’s my week in pictures.

Eli pins a kid from Fryeburg (lovely town on the western border of the State) to get into the Consolation Finals (meaning he would place 3 or 4).

It seems all of us parents have good-luck things we do. I wear a C. Hills fleece vest to all his sports events, and I take photos of Eli warming up and getting ready for his next match. Most are totally worthy of being deleted–I just need to take the photo to have good juju! But here’s one of the kids and coaches on the sidelines (with the Belfast coach on the left).

Eli wrestled Belfast’s (neighboring town) Michael Mcfadden for 3rd/4th. Eli (and many of the rest of us) are pretty sure that he had Michael pinned, but the ref didn’t call it.

The customary shake before the ref raises Eli’s hand for the win. Still, Eli won by Major Decision (more than 8 points, I think final score was 15-4). Michael is a class act–told Eli he was glad his last high school match was against Eli. I didn’t get a chance to shake his hand at the meet so I Facebook messaged him (he and Eli are FB friends), to say congrats and he said the same thing to me. Let’s all wish Michael the best of life!

And on the podium–Eli doesn’t often smile this big even when he’s done well, so I’m really happy to see him SMILE!

As for the other part of the week: Shadows on snow this morning. I need to do some “Winter” quilts…. I just love the season! So crisp and bright and beautiful!

And the giggle moment, Pigwidgeon in snow after morning walkies. He could still walk it (not too deep, path not shoveled at the time), but definitely belly marks in the snow.

One of the things I love about winter is seeing critter tracks in the snow. Of course, these are likely mouse prints on our deck…which means we probably have at least one or a few additional residents. Hmmm…..

And more tracks on the snow heap in the corner between the kitchen/Eli’s bedroom and the master bedroom. I *think* they may be getting in the vent that is below the water spigot. Will deal with that in warmer weather!

Tomorrow we head off to All-States Wrestling Championship.  This is a first in Maine.  There are three “Classes” of schools (based mostly on size, though the logic of who is which class and how big the schools are and how a school can be Class A in one sport and Class B in another defies comprehension).  Some years, the top two or three in one class could easily beat the champion in another class.   But in the past the State Champion for each class would go to the New England Championships.  This year there will be a “king of the mountain” wrestle-off of the top four finishers in each weight class in all three classes.  Eli is a  long shot to qualify for New Englands, but it should be a good tournament with the best wrestlers in the state.  And on Friday, Eli finally gets WAFFLES for breakfast!  It’s been a long season without our Sunday treat!

About a month or so ago, Eli came in from the yard and said “Mom, what bird would be all white with brown spots?”  The only bird I could think of was a snowy owl, but we are way too far South of their normal range, so I dug out my Peterson guide and went through the entire thing.  The only all-white bird with brown spots was the owl.  Asked Eli: what shape head and beak?  “I don’t know, it was flying away from me.”  Then a few days later on NPR there was a report of many Snowy Owl sightings in Maine this winter…. and we had one in our yard, and I had missed it.

Snowy Owl at Clarry Hill, Union, Maine

Then my friend Kathy told me she had SEEN the snowy owls at Clarry Ridge in Union, about 12 miles from our house, and told me how to get up to the ridge, which by the way is freakin’ unbelievably gorgeous blueberry barrens with a 360 view that goes for miles and miles and miles.  So after a wonderful lunch with Gail and Louisa at Boynton McKay in town, I decided to explore and hope for the best.

The blueberry barrens are this incredible russet color in autumn and winter. There is SO a blueberry barrens quilt in my future. And maybe dyeing fabric. Soon.  We are lucky to look out from our house (about 8 miles as the crow flies from here) and see barrens on the hill opposite.

Clarry Hill is apparently part of the Medomak Nature Preserve , and it is in the middle of a hilltop of blueberry barrens.  I wasn’t a hundred yards up the path that I was taking pictures of the late afternoon light picking up the incredible colors of the barrens:

How GLORIOUS is this color? Looking to the west-northwest to Appleton and Union.  I want to dye fabric these colors…..

It was so glorious I didn’t mind that I didn’t see an owl.  Then on my way back to the car I saw a woman with binoculars scanning and she had a camera hanging around her neck, too, so I asked her if she was there for the owl.  And she pointed one out to me…at that point s/he (the owl) was behind me to the left:

See that white spot in the tree? That’s my first view of the snowy owl! Gotta go log that into the margins of my Roger Tory Petersen guide!

I took several photos, had a lovely chat with Hilda L. from South Hope, then headed back to the car after taking MORE photos of the blueberry barrens.  Talk about wanting to head straight to the dye-pots!   Anyway, I get in the car and start backing out when out of the corner of my eye I see movement:  a snowy owl (Hilda told me there are at least two and possibly three up there) landed in the tree just up from the parking spot!  So I took a bunch of photos, then moved down the drive a bit and took MORE photos.  And was lucky to snap the owl stretching his/her wings a couple of times!

From the small parking area (on bare rock at the end of a short dirt road), I caught sight of the owl. I had to use digital as well as optical zoom so these aren’t terribly high res photos, but WHO CARES?

I sat there long enough that the owl started moving its wings–just getting comfortable I guess as it didn’t take off. I LOVE having digital instead of film because I can take a bazillion photos and luck into a couple like these!

How AWESOME are those wings?

I inched down the dirt road a bit to see if I could get an angle for a shot that didn’t have twigs between me and the bird.  Here’s the view from the care before zooming:

From the road looking up the hill with the lens at wide angle setting. Isn’t Maine beautiful?

More flapping…I LOVE seeing the wings!

And just a bit more flapping…look at his floofy legs!

And I’ll confess to a little photoshop to lighten the shadows on this one. The owl was backlit by the setting sun, so I lightened the shadows.

This has been a glorious day:  order for a pattern this morning, some artwork and art lessons, lunch with friends, Joshua calls me and wants to see me because he got a haircut (photo on Facebook timeline), I see Ashley (his girlfriend) because she works where we went to lunch and when I went to pay she hands my card back to me and says no, I took care of it (THANK YOU  you sweet thing, you totally do not need to do that!), ran a couple errands, saw the owl, got great photos, then get home to a pair of sandals I ordered from Zappos (they are green, how could I resist) AND a new duvet cover—we’ve had one new duvet cover in about the past 15 years, so I figure we’re due, and it was on sale, and I love it and it totally cheers up the bedroom.  So I am HAPPY!   Here’s to you being happy, too!  Life is GOOD!