RAIN

The ghost tree, an ancient dead giant of an oak in our front pasture, is the huge queen, dark with saturation this evening. Like everything else, it has soaked up the heavy rains and day long moisture. The forest beyond is fat and dense. The resurrection ferns make all the oak limbs look plumped out in vivid green.

 We have had a very dry season this spring, crunchy grass underfoot and the cars covered in dust. Every day watering is the norm if we want to keep anything growing in the gardens. So we are all celebrating; frogs are in full throat and we sit out on the front porch before supper watching the hummingbirds come out from their nests to the feeders. Neighbors are on their way to fish in the pond. We can almost see everything growing. Rain is magical to growth. In this rural enclave we always talk about our tomatoes and when will it rain?

We love the beginning of rainy season. It is so crucial to our lives. And yet, for us who are so heliotropic, a rainy day has its challenges. Today I hunkered down in my studio with grandson Quincy,7, and friend Abby, 10. They had many projects in mind. I am trying to finish up the binding on my latest quilt and the kids are working on various projects. I ask them to help me sort out the various bins of art materials (markers here, glue stuff there, make a bin for the paints, etc.) Two hours later, we have everything in order, ready for the summer art camp. Quincy is in love with the finger puppets he has made in the last couple of days, and I must say, they really are very cute! Abby has made a number of wonderful stickers.

Later, after Abby and Quincy have gone home, I relish the quiet and the chance to attend to my own tasks and look at the edge of the woods shrouded in mist from the intermittent rain. There are so many things to worry about, and I do, but here there are so many parts of the natural world that just make me draw in a long breath of happiness.

The Generative Age

For a few weeks I have been consumed with family and community, no time to write. This evening, however, I am happy with having my grandson, Quincy, happily in bed after a choose your own adventure story about the Amazon we read together. He takes it entirely in stride to have a grandmother who has actually been to the Amazon a number of times. We discuss the pink toed tarantulas and the howler monkeys I encountered. A seven year old is such a great audience! Most others are not at all interested.

Yesterday we went to a graduation party for three of my all time favorite people who were graduating from college, all of them the brightest and best. I have known these young women since they were very young, my posse, as we call them. For many years after I was their elementary school teacher they visited us every summer, some years more often. Before they were drivers their parents brought them. Then they came on their own. But, whatever age they were, I respected them, loved them, made quilts for each of them and had a wonderful time in lazy days full of talk, good books, games, great food and ranging in the fields and swamps that we have.

They hosted a wonderful graduation pot luck party; everyone who had been important in their lives were there- ancient grandparents, parents, siblings, family friends, boyfriends, the best college adviser (my sister!). I have found myself thinking a lot about these amazing young women and where they'll go.

The young people I saw yesterday at their graduation are the stars of our national education system. They will go on to huge success.

Other kids in our community are not tasked with such responsibility, nor have they had that brass ring to strive for.

It is my mission to  mulch the minds of the community kids I work with. They need information, experience, good books, far ranging math, questioning. (NOT FCAT)

So, I am thinking everyday about the week long camp (thirty kids!) we will have here after school ends. Our gift to the community, everything free, these kids will have the chance to learn cooking, eat wonderful food, learn swimming skills, and spend as much time as they want with clay, painting, sculpture, nature studies. Parents who come will learn far more. I think this camp week will be hard for me as the energy generator. But we want to do it!

As I have discovered, there is more talk than action. I am disappointed with our politicians and community activists who can't keep their zippers up, can't keep their hands out of the till etc.

But still, I am a believer in the good that the good folks can do. All I have to do to affirm this for me is to know the teachers and staff at our local elementary school and see one kid, my grandchild, focus on learning what I am teaching.

Hey Mom!

When I call my oldest son, he always responds with "Hey Mom!". He's the only one of our three kids who calls me mom. And, in a tiny way, I find that quite wonderful. Yes, I know the others know I am their mom, and from birth it happened that our kids called us by our first names.

So, who's mom on this Mothers Day? I am proud of my three kids and eight grandkids. Being a mom has been one of my life's four great pleasures. (Spouse, mom, good work, friends- in that order)

My parents and my husband's parents were so effete and above it they eschewed mothers day as being a commercial Hallmark occasion so we never celebrated it. Times change. I think that mothers day is charming and a great time to celebrate our families!

My mom is dead so I do not have to think of flowers or cards ; I just think of her as I do every day, sometimes wondering what she would do or think or remembering her amazing literary knowledge she so generously shared with her kids until she died at 92.

I think of our newest Mom, the mother of twins, my beautiful daughter-in-law who this year wears the crown of our Mom-of-the-Year!

My daughter, single mom, has raised an amazing kid. Her partner (who could not call her Mom also?) has had great input.

So, tomorrow, our local family will celebrate Mothers Day together. Americans all, we are of different colors, religions, origins, gay or straight. We'll have a potluck by the pool, lots of kids will be there.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

Gay Marriage!

It's about time! Having our president affirm the rights for gays and lesbians to marry is just what he should do. These things are not just about politics; it is the right thing to do moving our society forward to have equal rights for all.
Lots of us have gays and lesbians in our circle of family and friends and we know they are just regular folks, working, raising families, loving each other. They should be able to have the same rights as heterosexual folks. We also have heterosexual folks in our families who are not married but are partners who often are raising kids together. All of these people, married or not, are worthy of respect and rights.
We need to be an inclusive society. So many of our families today include people of all colors and ethnicity. And now, we can get those loved ones who are gay or lesbian or transgender out of the closet.
We are all human!
We all have a fear of the unknown, and we have fears about our darkest secrets. Sexuality is a continuum and in every one of us there is doubt about how we measure up as masculine, feminine or maybe something else. It is a comfort to have a minister or politician or shaman tell us what to think and how to behave.
With Obama's sanction of gay marriage, the dialog can begin.

Bounty of the Garden

This is just one corner of this fenced vegetable garden. All you can see here are beans and cukes (with zinnias for the feng shway). Each evening we have the choice from ten or more tasty vegetables: eggplants, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, collards, kale, chard, mitzuma, salad greens, onions, peapods and broccoli.

My best crop is the tomatoes! This year I planted all ten tomato plants in large containers with the bottoms cut out. This way, the cut worms don't invade, and so far, there are no tomato horn worms. Each morning when I visit this incredible place there are ripe tomatoes- all heirlooms, and huge! The black krims are dark Harvard crimson, so juicy and sweet there is no comparison to what you get in the markets. There are striped tomatoes, yellows, tiny ones, funny looking ones - all wonderful!

I search under the leaves for ripe cucumbers and find dozens! I think about making pickles. The green beans are way ahead of me though I pick daily. Pickled beans? There must be fifty eggplants waiting to be picked. How many recipes are there for eggplant? Peppers are yet to come.

Growing your own food is just the best! It compares to growing kids when you go from all potential to maybe a great harvest. But growing a garden is much less fraught. You can dig down those unfortunate vegetables that never did anything; not something you could do with a kid.

All the critters here are celebrating the spring harvest. Bob and Emily, the resident sand hill cranes spend most of every day in the yard looking for grubs and worms, purring and hoping I will leave the garden gate open. The deer are enjoying the tips of the rose bushes, the new citrus and the camellias. The squirrels are enjoying digging up the seeds I plant. Raccoons are eyeing the grape arbor and marking their calendar to attack just at the point the grapes will be ripe enough to make jelly.

Last evening we sat on the front porch after the rain watching the rainbow emerge. At the end of it were Bob and Emily, oblivious to their good fortune of living in paradise.

Super Mom

We returned today from a week's visit to see our youngest grandchildren, the twins! On the plane there were a number of babies, no twins, and I thought what a piece of cake it is to have only one.

 Our luggage was full of sweaters still fragrant with baby smells, and already we miss them so much!

What a week! These little guys have not even yet met their formal due date, but they are plump and gaining weight before our eyes, and each day we were there there were new milestones of development.

What we did was to be the competent old couple who did support duty. The dad, our son, was in the busiest period of his work life, negotiating the budget late into the nights for the state of Connecticut, so we were needed. Of course the most important thing was the feeding of these two greedy little physical beings. Super mom is breastfeeding!

One baby takes over the house. Two of them! Yikes! The living room is feeding central with a crib, changing station, and piles of tiny garments, diapers, and small cloths and blankets. Rarely are they ever sleeping at the same time: they are squirming and making constant small rooting noises, farting and belching.

And they are so appealing! A girl and a boy, they look quite different from each other, extremely cute. I spent hours just gazing at them.

But then, there was the laundry and the regular household stuff to do. Shopping, cooking for the lactating super mom, and best of all, just holding them, my heart full of babies and their fragrant milky smell. I have always known that children are the enemies of concentration, twins even more so.

Their mom is amazing! Right off the bat, she's confident and competent and accepts our help so graciously. Somehow, she finds time to read to each baby every day and find good humor in such homely things as bath time.

We are tired after being on such duty for a week. I would not trade that experience for anything. (What will these kids think of us when we are ninety?)