Have been insanely busy for the past two weeks or so with this and that, but I’ll start with the best first:  Eli’s wrestling season has begun!   A week ago the team attended a 6-team pre-season meet and WON despite some early-season wobbles by some team members.  Eli is, for the first time, losing a bit of weight which is commonplace in wrestling.  Fortunately, this is carefully monitored by the governing body and the school:  you weight in a couple weeks before the season, you are limited to losing only a small percentage of your body weight, and you cannot lose it too fast (or you can’t wrestle), and total body fat percentage cannot go to low.  So fear not, folks!  Anyway, Eli is wrestling at 145 pound weight class.

Eli, back to camera, begins getting ready mentally by pacing the sidelines. I get ready mentally by taking a “good juju” photo of him pacing.

The team begins warm-ups.

Eli practicing at warm-ups with Connor (Eli is facing the camera)

Eli’s (in red) first match. Notice the ref smacking the mat to indicate he has pinned his opponent and won.

Second match, against Massabesic. Pinned!

Eli: third match: pin! Are you noticing a trend here?

Then this weekend, while I was doing a fundraiser at the concessions stand at the high school (so the Cross Country and Track and Field teams can buy two EZ-Up tents), was the first official meet of the season.  Eli wrestled both at his own weight class and up one, at 152-lbs.   He had five matches.  He won one by forfeit (no opponent in the weight class on the other team).  Eli won three on points and one by a pin.  The above are all pins.  When you pin someone’s shoulders for a full second (which lasts a lot longer than you’d think, and especially if someone is wiggling their shoulders on and off the mat a lot), the match ends and you win.  Otherwise there are three periods of two minutes each.  You get various points for take downs, escapes, back points, and so on.   If you win on points, you have wrestled all three full periods (with delays for nosebleeds, stalemates, throwing up –when someone puts a REALLY tight waist on, and so on).

Eli’s fifth and final match was against the kid from local rival Belfast, a town about 30 minutes north of Camden Hills.  Said kid placed third at States last year.   At the end of regulation (the third period) it was tied at 5-5.  In DOUBLE OVERTIME ELI WON 9-5!!!!!!   WOW!   So he is still undefeated.  We are looking forward to the season, tho I’ll admit Eli is already looking forward to eating as much as he wants once the season is over in March!  Yes, I am an unabashedly Proud Mama!   (And he’s Honor Roll, too!)

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!

Let there be LIME green! Keep reading for more on my August so far….

Hi all…I’m back from two weeks in California, most of it teaching, a little of it travel (and several blogposts coming on that–I PROMISE there really will be quilting and art here, eventually!).  But that seems distant memory because as soon as I got home and unpacked, it was “fix it” month!  This seems to be my cycle:  teaching starts up as soon as the snow melts, then I’m off for August and September before more teaching.  This year is the same, and I’ve been crazy busy with the garden and assorted long-postponed household chores.

First on my list was PAINT THE UGLY DOORS to the house.  Our house is a ranch style, with a dark green roof (just fine) and DARK chocolate brown paint and trim.  UGH.  Talk about a hulking presence.  So eventually it will be painted a lovely dove gray with white trim like the garage we built last fall.   But it doesn’t need painting, so I’m starting with the doors:

The formerly dark brown (lower right corner) door is primed and ready to be painted!

John, our carpenter/builder, is here today installing the new doorknobs–what a concept, a doorknob my arthritic hand can actually turn!   As soon as he is done, I’ll show the “finished” door! The one above is to the entry/kitchen.  Of course I forgot to take a photo of the dark ugly thing before I began priming, but in the lower right corner behind the stepstool, you can see the original very dark paint.  Not a bad color, just not all over the house!

Then I turned my attention to the laundry closet.  I loathe our machines:  old, scratched, mismatched, and one is in that vile almond that I also really don’t like.  Give me WHITE!  But until they die, we’re stuck.   The fridge died earlier this spring, so we’re hoping these last another year, then maybe……   in the meantime, I wanted to spruce up the closet.  The “white” paint was a dingy, gray white and scuffed.  The shelves are wood, installed by the previous owner.  If he had just left them natural and put a finish on them they would’ve been nice.  But like all the rest of the woodwork in this house, he mucked it up with a “Fruitwood” stain that puts this grayish pall over the wood.  Sigh.  Ick.  (You can see the wood in the entry in the photo of the door).  So here’s the closet during the priming phase:

Green painters tape to seal off the areas that will remain white, Margarita/Lime green in the pan

Then partly painted (LOL…I had typed PARTY painted, that could work too):

Cutting in with the green, first coat. Took THREE coats to cover.  And those smudges are UNDER the primer.  Have no idea what the plumber got on there when they installed the burst-proof hoses.

and, from the other angle, DONE!

One of the first things I did when we moved in two years ago was install the closet rod over the washer and dryer. LOVE being able to pop stuff in the dryer for 10 minutes to get the wrinkles out, then hang to dry. Longer life on the clothes with less ironing. WOOT!

And some day we will have high efficiency washer and dryer where the clothes don’t feel like they  need to be put in the spin cycle when they are  allegedly done.  And the appliances will be crisp, clean WHITE!