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!

Prologue Alert:  I’ll be lecturing for the Silver City Quilt Guild in Taunton, Mass., on Monday evening, then lecturing for the Maple Leaf quilters in Rutland, VT, on Tuesday and teaching Hawaiian applique on Wednesday.  Hope to see some of you there!  Now on to the regular blog:

The S-word stuff returned in a snit of “no I won’t go” Friday afternoon.

Goodness gracious!  First a comment about the weather:  no.  No.  NO NO NO.  NO!!!!!!!  You see when I went up the driveway yesterday, midday, we were down to a few patches of snow on the north side of the woods (ergo always in the shade).  By late afternoon, it looked like this:

Opened the dining room window (no screens up yet) to take this photo this morning at about 6:30. Say WHAT? (what I really said is not suitable for printing on a public blog LOL).  Yes, those whitespots are still itty bitty SNOWFLAKES.  Snarl!

The weather forecasters said snow first, then rain.  Right…that means the snow gets melted by the rain.  So what is THIS that I see out the dining room window this morning?   NO!

And yes, in April at least SNOW is a four letter word.  It is lovely in November, December, January, February, we tolerate it in March because that’s what it does in Maine.  On April 13th?  NO!  Now, on to quilting.

As my loyal readers will have noticed, I haven’t said much lately.  Can you say busy?  I have four things going, all kinda big and hugely big (at least for me) going, and they are due just about every two weeks from April 8 to June 1, plus add in teaching in Maine in March, Massachusetts and VT this coming week, North Carolina in mid June, and three guilds in Southern California in early to mid July, and I’m basically flat-out busy from now until July 20th!  This is good, as I have precious little on the schedule for next year and the year after, so if your guilds want a quilt teacher, my motto (said with a giggle) remains Have paycheck, will travel!  (Does anyone besides me remember the tag line from that 1960s TV show Palladin, Have Gun, Will Travel?  Daddy loved it.)

So this is what my studio–which is usually kinda tidy because I can’t function in a mess–currently looks like:

Please add the large suitcase with quilts and the small suitcase with clothes to this heap for teaching in Mass/VT next week.

The sewing machine table…with about four things going on on top of it, none of which is sewing (at the moment).  Usually the only thing on these tables is the thread in use and my Machingers gloves!

The work table and ironing board. It looks relatively clear on this side because I’m working over at the iron, but the big suitcase was on the floor over there (filled with stuff for next week).  Again, usually clear with the drop-leaf down unless a work is in process.  Clutter bugs me!

Chaos.  Busy.  And drat it all, I’m not permitted to tell you about it, at least not yet!   But it’s all good stuff, it’s got me working and creating and teaching and all that, but gosh I wish I could share the details.

The third sports season has begun. The airborne kid in red shorts is Eli doing the triple jump. And as always, someone stands up right in front of me….

And (drum roll), Track and Field Season has begun for Eli.   The first meet was Thursday at Belfast, and as usual, it was COLD.  The breeze comes in off the harbor.  The upper 40 degree temps wouldn’t have been bad except for that wind. If I had had a sleeping bag, I would have been sitting in it on the stands!   Eli had one race (great last leg, so-so first 3 1/2 laps) but was so cold he couldn’t get going.  Did fairly well at javelin despite minimal practice times–the fields have been too sloppy for the discus, shotput and javelin because they’d splash when they land.  Sigh.   Did well on his triple jump (again without much practice due to field conditions).  But he’s psyched, and that’s good!  Now I’m off to a full day of quilt guild meetings.  Hope to share pics from teaching in Florida and up in Skowhegan, Maine, soon…..

And a PS…WOW.  Just looked at my blog sitemeter, and it tells me I’ve had 250,127 visitors from 190 countries over the years!   That’s more like total visits not individual visitors, but wow!  Thank you all for reading!

My son’s music, to be precise!   If you click on this (once the tab opens click on the orange arrow to play) you can listen while you read (and yes, it does seem like the blink of an eye since he was born).  Or this, The Piano Song.  But first….

My road to the hot place is clearly better paved yet again!  At least I have a good excuse:  great opportunities–which I am not allowed to blab about yet–seem to have been falling out of the sky at me in mid to late March.  I have FIVE “now or sooner” deadlines–well almost:  April 8, April 26, May 1, May 15 and June 1, plus another for early August, not to mention teaching stuff for Quilt Festival Houston in Fall and travel teaching jobs to Mass/Vt, North Carolina and southern California between now and early July!  That’s a LOT of good luck falling out of the sky, involving a lot of work, writing, preparation, travel and quilting.  Quickly.  So instead of blogging I’ve been working.  A lot. Sorta bad me for not blogging!  The pressure is a bit eased today as I have sent off what needed to be sent for April  8th yesterday evening, and with almost all of April to complete the next two items, I am feeling less  under the gun.  I can’t wait until I can tell you all about it… likely in summer and again in autumn!

Now for the music:

Our son, Joshua (of the quilt, here), is a wonderful musician.  He has had the music in his head since at least 4th grade (age 10), and has been writing his own music for a number of years.  He asked if I would share his songs with you–how cool is that?   He loves heavy metal, and writes what I call “crunchy” (sometimes head-banger) songs, but I have actually come to enjoy them– Gravedigger starts crunchy and gets really cool.   And most surprisingly given this affection for heavy metal, he writes the most beautiful quiet songs!  I hope to some day make  some teaching videos–both free short clips and a longer video to go with that book on bindings and edge-finishes that I never seem to get written–and he has already said I may use his music in my teaching videos!

There is a cool site called SoundCloud where musicians can upload their songs, Joshua (a.k.a. Joshwah) among them.  Here is the link to Joshua’s SoundCloud page.   Joshua also has a good sense of humor.  He has written enough songs to make two CDs (well, he burned two for me! not available for sale at this point):  Shear Madness (with face of sheep) and Pandamonium (with a panda).  Love it when someone makes Mama laugh!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Thunder Song—there is definitely a quilt in there.  One of these days if/when I get some down time, I need to plug my iPod into the dock in my studio and blast this out loud, get in the zone, and start creating!

And he’s been doing some really interesting things with audio clips, then composing music to go with them.  Here is V for Vendetta.

Joshua has taken guitar lessons, but is self-taught on the bass, acoustic, keyboard, and drum machine.  Basically, if it has strings, he can figure out how to play it. He performs and records all instruments himself.  Amazing–it took me about 8 years of piano lessons before I could pick out Mary Had a Little Lamb by ear.  The music gene clearly went from Mama directly to Joshua, skipping me!  Hope you enjoy this musical interlude!

Seven out of 14 of last year’s varsity wrestlers graduated.  The average age of this year’s varsity team is 15—very young for a high school team.  We had two seniors, two juniors (one of whom began wrestling in November), nine sophomores (one new to wrestling) and one Freshman (Eli) on the varsity team.  At the beginning of the season, Camden seemed poised to have a “rebuilding” year and not be the usual powerhouse team in the state. Prognosticators said Camden would likely end the season at 12th, not the usual 1 or 2 spot.   Apparently, no one told the boys and girl of the team.

Camden Hills Wrestling Team 2012-13, State Champions, and new friend and adopted teammate Michael Alvarez (State Champion at 152) of Morse in Bath, Maine–read below to find out why he’s so wonderful.

Twelve of them, including the two boys new to wrestling, qualified for STATES!  The team was undefeated in dual meets at 25-0.  They won the Class B title at the all-schools (class A, B) Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.  They won Eastern Regionals.  At this point, the sports pundits revised their thinking and said Camden would likely finish third, possibly second but not first.  Once again, no one told the kids.  In a nail-biter finish, Camden beat Fryeburg Academy to win the State Championship 131.5 to 128.5 points…by a mere three points!  As coach Patrick Kelly pointed out to the local newspaper, EACH and EVERY kid who wrestled helped win (or not give away) critical points.  It was truly a team effort, capped with two State Champions, two runners up, two at third, one at fourth and an ELATED group of kids, coaches, parents and wrestling alums.

The coaches and this year’s graduation seniors, from L to R: Paul Smith and Perry Goodspeed (assistant coaches), Calan Bragg (132-lb and newly minted State Champion), Tia Silverio (Team Manager), Coleman Powers (154-lb and newly minted State Champion), Coach Patrick Kelly and Asst. Coach True Bragg (cousin to Calan)

It is now 4-5 days since the kids won, and I think we are all still floating on air.  I’ll share a bit about each of the boys who came home with a medal, a bit about Eli, and tell you about Michael.  I don’t think I’ve EVER heard of a team cheering so wildly for another team’s kid to win!

Eli had an amazing year, not only being ON the varsity team as a Freshman, but in making it to States.  He is the same weight as Coleman, but Coleman as a senior got to choose which weight class he wanted to wrestle (and frankly he could beat Eli easily so was a stronger component of the team in terms of contributing to team points).  That meant Eli had to wrestle up a weight class–and let me tell you wrestling against someone 7+  pounds heavier and older is a challenge.  Nonetheless, Eli did really well.  If they had places below 4th, Eli would have come in 5th or 6th at States–as a Freshman!  WOW!

Eli is in back and in control as he takes his opponent down to the mat to attempt to pin him.

Eli has control of his opponent’s arm, which allows him to turn him over and (in a few moments after this picture) pin him for the win.

And  proud papa Paul (and asst. coach) with Eli holding the team’s trophy for the State Championship:

Paul and Eli enjoying the team’s victory.

The team’s success came with  every single point scored or not given up to second place Freyburg Academy, including wins and scores from the boys who didn’t medal.  Those who did medal, brought extra critical points. Sophomore John Underhill had a couple of matches where he absolutely dominated:

John Underhill is very close to pinning this kid in an earlier match in the day. John came in fourth–well done!

John is getting close to another pin

Sophomore Jared Gilbert came through and won 3rd in the consolation finals:

The ref is checking as Jared presses his opponent into the mat

It is so nice to get the “hand up”! And I’ve finally, after years of trying, figured out when to snap so I actually get the shot in the nano-second the hand is UP! Jared WINS. You can see on the scoreboard that he won by a pin, because the clock has stopped with time in the second (of three) periods. Good job!

Sophomore Chriss Weiss (we’re so glad you’re back in Camden!) took another 3rd for Camden in a talent-laden weight class (126 lb).

Typical Chris: on top, in control, and ready to roll-em over.

Chris is just seconds away from the ref calling the pin and taking third! He needs to get the Mountain Valley boy’s left shoulder down, and it’s done.

James Archer (113 lb) and Connor Winchenbach (138 lb) came in second in the Finals against tough opponents.

The ref slams the mat in the “Pinned!” gesture in an early match. From this shot, you can see that the boy on the bottom has his shoulders flat on the mat…done for!

In the finals match, Connor wrestled one of the best wrestlers in the state, senior Daniel DelGallo from Gardiner. DelGallo is now a three-time state champion, but Connor wasn’t going to make his trip to the top of the stand easy! That’s Connor in front, yanking DelGallo off his feet.

Sophomore James Archer wrestled another State Champion, Fryeburg senior Connor Sheehan, in the finals.  Sheehan won his third state title and James came in second.

James Archer in an earlier match controls his opponent.

James gets the pin (with Eli shouting in the background)

Seniors Calan Bragg and Coleman Powers won their first State titles and absolutely decimated the competition.  Luckily, I got some great shots of them.  Glad I finally figured out how to get the shots before the season was over!

Calan Bragg is working his opponent down, but the Ellsworth boy is arching his back (it’s called bridging) to keep his sholders off the mat. The referee on the left is one of our favorites…a really nice guy who is fair and takes time to instruct the kids in the sport as he refs a match.

Calan flips his opponent over and is bringing him down to the mat.

Calan keeps working, getting him closer. Wrestling is a sport of mental as well as physical toughness. Determination pays off!

Coleman is SO darn fast that I have a hard time getting photos of him–he’s usually a blur! The first photo is from an earlier match in the tournament, the others during his Championship Finals.

Can you say “dramatic move”…. unbelievable! And the wrestler must control the opponent all the way down so that he lands safely (although sometimes hard) on the mat.

Coleman getting ready to crank his opponent over onto his back!

Coleman takes down his Freyburg opponent in the Finals. Coleman pinned him in 53 seconds in the first round.

But even with all that excellence, the win for the team title was NOT in the bag.  We were leading Fryeburg by only a few points.  Fryeburg had two more boys in the finals.  If both won, they would win the State title for their team.  If one came in second, Camden would win by a slender three points. The second boy won.  The first of the two Fryeburg boys was in the 152 pound weight class up against Michael Alvarez of Morse (Bath, Maine).  At the KVAC tournament several weeks ago, Eli pointed him out as they were in the same weight class and told me:  see him, he’s the one that’s gonna win states.  Can I say how ELATED WE ALL ARE that he DID!

The Camden team, parents, and supporters were watching the VERY close match, which changed lead a couple of times, screaming and cheering loudly.  Michael won by a narrow margin on points at the end of the third period, and the Camden crowd went crazy!  I think every kid on the team and half the parents sought him out to congratulate and thank him.  The kids even invited him to join us for a team “victory” photo with the trophy, and he did.  Here he is kneeling down in front to join the team as they all give him a round of applause and Coach Goodspeed shakes his hand.  And it turns out he’s a really nice kid, too!

In blue (kneeling in front on right, shaking hands with G), Michael Alvarez of Morse school in Bath. Congratulations, Michael on your State Championship and the best of luck at New Englands!

So as you might guess by this massive post, we are all SO HAPPY and still floating on air.  The kids were amazing–all of them, including the JV members of the team who helped their teammates during the season.  The coaches did an amazing job bringing out the best in this young squad.  Looking forward to next year–so proud of all of them!

Next, we will return to actual quilting in Hope, Maine!

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.