One of the lovely things about kids’ fall sports is being outside in a Maine Autumn.  As I type, I am watching an ever-so-pale pink on the  clouds underlit by the late sunrise (it is 6:56 a.m.) drifting across the distant hills, which range from deep pine to russet, gold, mahogany, bright green (the willows along the drive), deep umber on the trunks of trees that have lot their leaves already, and the burnt crimson of the blueberry barrens on the next hill over.   Going to Eli’s cross country meets is just as glorious, and we’ve had not-rainy weather the entire season!

Part of the trail at Camden Hills Regional High School; Eli is in red. 

Eli had a bumpy start to his season, coming down with a flu just a couple weeks in to school.  That affected his breathing and therefore his running, but he finally had a race with which he was happy last weekend at Homecoming.

The starting gun has just fired, and Ben Trapani. Caleb Love-Webb and Eli are in the lead for Camden (the three in red at the left).

Senior Ben Trapani is poised to come in near the top in the state this year.  I remember when Eli was in 6th grade and Ben in 8th and we would watch him at track meets, a full lap ahead of the field.  Not much has changed in four years, except that he is bigger, stronger, and even more of a fine young man; well, I would say that his confidence in himself and his running has grown, and it is good to see because it is confidence well-placed.   Will sure miss him after he graduates, but his younger sister Emma, a Freshman, is already at the head of the pack in the girls’ races!   Caleb is a Freshman, and is now the second-fastest on the team, something Eli predicted before the season began.

Caleb (left) and Eli (just behind him) coming round the bend side by side after about 1.5 km of the 5k race.

I see in Caleb the same focus and drive that I see in Eli, so it’s going to be a good few years for the boys.  And Eli, though not a typical runner’s build, is determined and fast as ever.

Eli coming around the back side of the second field at the high school. There is a spot where you can get the into-the-woods view then move about 30 feet to see the kids come around the loop to this spot.

Eli has an incredible drive to compete and win, and it comes out at the end of every race.   He can run down kids like you wouldn’t believe if they are anywhere near close.  Here  he’s putting it into overdrive:

How can that kid be so strong? He clearly gets his physical prowess from his dad!

And checking his time after crossing the finish line:

Better! Next up, the very hilly, challenging course for KVAC (Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference) race at Cony High School in Augusta, followed by Eastern Regionals in Belfast and states at Cumberland the following weekends.

What a concept… I actually am making a small art quilt!   I’ve been slamming busy as usual, and this time it is in the “oh I should make just one more new sample for Quilt Festival/teaching” mode!   On Saturday morning, I’m talking about thread-coloring, so decided to make a new piece, a lily.  Here it is in progress:

Pink lily, in progress

I’ve managed to quilt the pink, so this afternoon I’ll start in on the foliage.  I’ve used six or seven different pinks/reds.  As you can gather by the reference photo, it is  about 14 x 20 ish, but will be seriously cropped.  The current proportions/composition need fine-tuning, but decided I’d quilt first and chop second (probably at least an inch on all sides, more on the sides).

It is also glorious color time in Maine.  This was the wooded acres behind our house at sunrise this morning:

This morning at 6:35 a.m., lit by the rising sun

And I’ve got a new chair that doesn’t make my creaky bones ache;  clearly, the cats approve!  I’ve started putting the back cushion down and covering it to avoid them destroying the back cushion by cat-squishing it!

The cats like the new chair…all FOUR of them on the turned-down back cushion!

And a glorious sunset the other evening…. one of the most glorious in quite a while.

Sunset Friday at the high school in Rockport, Maine…GLORIOUS!

Off to enjoy autumn!

The essence of Cross Country: running through the Maine woods, here near the Medomak middle and high school fields. That is, of course, Eli!

Well, if truth be told, the photos that follow are of the third official meet of the season!  I’ve been a bit distracted with the debut of the video and the bloghop, but wanted to keep up with life in general in the midst of all the quiltyness!   This last meet was particularly spectacular, both the day and the results.  Over the   years, the Camden Hills Girls’ Cross Country team has been a powerhouse in the state, among the top teams.   The boys have had some stellar runners, but have never been competitive.  In Coach Becky Flanagan’s seven years, while the girls have even had undefeated regular seasons, the boys’ hadn’t won a meet.  Until YESTERDAY!

Reason to celebrate: both Camden Hills Girls AND Camden Hills Boys WIN at Medomak!

Now that I’ve given away the punch line first, here’s a few photos from the boys’ race and the awards:

Looking towards the starting line as the gun sounds for the boys’ race.  A few of the trees are turning already, and the sun is low in the sky by now, about 4:45 p.m.

As the leaders went past me at the start, in the order nearly where they ended up at the end of the race: Ben T. (senior) in the lead, Caleb (freshman) and Eli (sophomore) all in red. Ben W. isn’t in this picture, but he was able to avoid getting boxed in on the course and finished in the top ten for the first time this season!

Eli didn’t run last week because of his illness earlier in the week, and the cough was still bothering him in this meet. Not the best photo, but it shows the kid’s determination and grit.

And pushing all the way to the chute and the finish line, next to the tent.

Coach Becky taking a picture of first place girls’ team

The boys’ individual medal winners (it was Medomak’s homecoming weekend, hence the medals), with Eli in 7th, Caleb in 4th, and Ben T. with a commanding lead for first. It was another good day for the Trapani family, as his sister Emma, a freshman, won the girls’ race!

A FIRST! The boys team WINS…smiles for sure! And look at that early autumn sun setting through the trees. Maine is so wonderful!

I just wanted to say to each and every one of the kids on the team:  every single one of you inspires me!  Thank you so much for letting me, the total non-athlete, be a part of your season, cheering from the sidelines.  Ben T’s insurmountable leads, Caleb’s lightning speed as he joined the team this year, Eli’s seemingly bottomless reservoir of determination and hard work, Ben W’s steady, strong racing.  But it isn’t just the fastest runners who are graced with the physical ability to run fast that I admire.   Crockett and Josh turned in performances of determination and guts in the past two meets.  Nick D. may be the last of our team to cross the finish line, but his heart is huge:  he DOES cross the finish line, he supports the team, he’s out there DOING IT.

Each and every member of the team, boys and girls, no matter where you place, you are doing something every practice, every meet, that teaches you things you will use for the rest of your life.  Your results depend on YOU and no one else–and what matters most is what you put into it, what you get out of it, not the minutes on the clock as you cross the finish line or who finished before or after you.  What matters most is that you are learning that you can depend on YOU to succeed.  Well done!  Thank you to Becky for years of coaching and work with the team, thanks to all the kids.  You inspire me!

Well, life continues busy at Casa Smith.   I’ve finished and sent off the last of three articles commissioned and written in the past 9 weeks, got the quilt done (will share in a couple of days I hope), and watched many miles of track and sundry field events.  Today was the KVACs, the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference meet and will be followed next weekend by States.   Astonishingly, Eli qualified as a Freshman–in a race (300 metre hurdles) he had only run twice in his life!   He was also put onto the 4×400 relay team!   And thankfully, the week of ceaseless rain finally ceased and it was glorious Maine today:  upper 60s, sunny and clear in Bath, where the meet was held.

Here’s Eli in the 300 hurdles–he finished about in the middle of the group of boys running in Class B–not bad considering he’d never jumped a hurdle before this season!  If he can work on his form, he has a chance in this event next year!

Eli clears his last hurdle (literally) in the 300 metre hurdles. He finished in (I think) 50 seconds. Pretty good for a Freshman who had never run hurdles before early May!

Eli is also fast fast enough that since he had not qualified in any other events, the team put him on the 4×400 relay as he was faster than some of the other boys who had run it during the regular season.  He may have turned in the fastest lap for the team–in part because the anchor, Ben Trapani, WON (!!!!) both his 800 and 1600 metre races!  Way to go Ben!   The 4 x 400 is the LAST event–the kids arrived at the meet at about 8 am, and their race ended just before 7 pm!  LONG day!

During the llllooonnnggg wait, I managed to sketch some kids and one adult waiting on a bench:  the first sketching I’ve had time to do in nearly two months!

A VERY quick sketch–less than 10 minutes–of some kids and one adult on a bench late in the afternoon

Here’s Eli in the far outside lane on the first leg of the 4 x 400 relay:

Eli on the last 50 metres of his lap, the first of the relay

Eli ran the first leg in about 57 seconds and the team finished at 4:00:75 to place 7th!  YES, the Camden BOYS placed at KVAC’s!  Here they are having just been handed their ribbons:

The boys– L to R Mark M., Adam, Eli and Ben T–look at their ribbons

and all the teams:

On the podium.  Eli is third from the right.

What is astonishing is that Eli is a Freshman, Ben T. is a Junior, and the other two boys are sophomores:  what a young team to do so well!  Most of the other teams are older, so kudos to them!

And astonishingly, Eli has now qualified for States in all three of his sports as a Freshman.  Absolutely amazing!   I’ll be back soon, and now that the deadlines of the past two months are met, hope to return to a more regular blogging schedule.  I’m also traveling to North Carolina to teach in 2 weeks and then to Southern California in early July!   Hope I get to meet some of you.  Now it’s late and time to collapse on the sofa before the week begins anew!

Last night we heard a sound in the driveway that wasn’t wind.  Alex!   We wondered how he would manage with his plow.  Well, he didn’t.  He called in his big guns:

Alex to the rescue—with the frontloader. So nice to have a neighbor-plow guy-town road commissioner with BIG stuff in addition to the big plow on his big pickup truck! Love this photo because it shows how hard the wind is still blowing, lifting snow out of the bucket. And notice that vast mound between the edge of the porch and the driveway….

I just stood in the kitchen looking out the window and laughed!    The “plow” pile grew so huge the big bucket on the frontloader (or is that a backhoe?  or two-in-one?) couldn’t reach over the top!

He’s actually driving UP the plow pile to try to dump over to the back side.

And bless that man.  Remember that DEEP drift (about 3 1/2 feet deep) between the front door and the driveway in the first photo?):  Lookit what that nice man did….

Alex came in with the wide bucket empty, set it down gently about 4 feet from the edge of the deck, and then dragged all that snow back out to the center, then scooped it up to dump on the ginormous pile. That meant LOTS less shoveling for us! When the snow melts its gonna be a serious mudfest getting over to the garage!

Made us a wide clearing so we wouldn’t have to shovel as much.  DEFINITELY buying a snow blower before next winter!

This was the view out our bathroom window this morning.  Notice how high the drift is by the entry windows on the left.

And looking back at the house. The photo above was taken from the window on the far left. I was standing just uphill of the ginormous snow pile for this photo.

It was a glorious crisp morning! I love the strong shadows and the blueness of the snow and the wind-carved ridges in the snow.

Love those wind carvings so much I kept taking pictures. As I tell my students, there is quilt inspiration everywhere!

Eli spotted this cool overhang: yes, that is a “corner” of snow hanging on the uphill side from the wind!

Eli scraped the snow away under his feet to stand on the ground next to the drift from what blew over the roof. He’s almost 5’10” tall. Love how the wind whips a channel next to the house. We saw little tiny critter tracks in the snow near there.

Eli, Me with Widgeon, and Paul. We got the gas grill back up on the porch, then set the camera on timer. For once I was going to get into the picture, too, as we aren’t likely to see anything like this again for eons. I mean…snow as tall as the eaves?  It may be routine in the mid-west, but not in Maine!

Eli hoists the King of the Mountain, as said king’s leggies are too short to get him up to the top of the hill!  Eli also needs to go back up there and retrieve the shovel he left up top!

And the storm clouds have cleared and we have that GLORIOUS view back. Yes, the towns of Freedom and Liberty are off in the distance as we stand in Hope! I LOVE MAINE!

And yes, I really DO have art and quilting to share…stay tuned!  First post is tomorrow.

And a PS:  our neighbor is wonderful, but plowing is part of his business!  He gets paid for plowing, but he does it well and responsibly and promptly every snowfall.  It can snow overnight, and when we get up at 6 am the driveway is already plowed most often!  Lots of folks here in Maine have 2 and 3 jobs, including seasonal ones.  The landscaping folks work the earth when it is visible, and plow in winter, for example.  And MANY people buy a plow for their truck and then earn extra money plowing in their neighborhood.   It’s the way life is here in Maine, and I expect in most of the northern tier of the US where snow is prevalent.