For my birthday, I kept my children home from school.

We went for a walk in the woods together.

It was quite nice.

Rapunzel stopped by. She was passing through, on her way from one home to another. I sewed her a couple years ago. She was wanting a spa retreat to spruce up her hair and wash off some spots. Iris took her out adventuring in the Waterville woods.

Rapunzel lies on her belly to watch the ice freezing below the little bridge.

A doll is quite nice, but a little brother is even nicer.

Iris finds Rapunzel a tower.

When the mud freezes, it squirts up strange little icicles.

They lift rocks and soil, twigs and leaves, as they twist and twine themselves into horned spires.

Trick-or-treating is fun. You get to walk around the neighborhood in the dark while wearing a disguise, knock on strange doors & peek inside different houses, smelling new smells and seeing small glimpses of people’s life, all the while getting interesting things that come all wrapped up in tiny, crinkly, shiny packages. Candy. But what is one supposed to DO with candy? In theory, it’s edible. I mean, certainly it’s ingestible. So are play-dough, newspaper, tempera paint, bits of wool, and the occasional small pebble. But to that end, I would prefer we not have too much.

And this is where the Candy Faerie comes in. After Halloween, all candy is donated to the Candy Faerie. She thrives on candy! So we build a house of candy to lure her in. Oh, how she loves candy houses! The Candy Faerie, you might want to know, is good friends with the Tooth Faerie. It seems an unlikely partnership, but it is true. The Candy Faerie eats candy and thus, it logically follows, the Tooth Faerie eats teeth. Yum.

“Does the Tooth Faerie ever eat the teeth right out of your mouth?” Iris asked a couple years ago, when we first started gifting the Candy Faerie and discussing useful household faeries in general.

“Yes,” I said. “When you eat the Candy Faerie’s candy, the Tooth Faerie eats your teeth right out of your mouth.”

Iris is more interested in dissecting, smashing, and building with candy than eating it. She likes her teeth.

Time it was
and what a—

—time it was
it was—

—a time of innocence,
a time of confidences.

Long ago
it must be—

I have a photograph.

I have a photograph.

And what a

time it was.

It was
a time of innocence.

A time of confidences—
long ago.

It must be
I have a photograph.
Preserve your memories.
They’re all that’s left you.

 
Old friends
Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of the high shoes
Of the old friends

Old friends
Winter companions
The old men
Lost in their overcoats
Waiting for the sunset
The sounds of the city
Sifting through the trees
Settle like dust
On the shoulders
Of the old friends

Can you imagine us years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange to be seventy

Old friends
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fear…

Time it was
and what a
time it was
it was
a time of innocence
a time of confidences.

Long ago
it must be
I have a photograph
preserve your memories
they’re all that’s left you.

          —Simon & Garfunkel / Lyrics by Paul Simon

There is a little garden grotto at the elementary school.

“It looks like the Virgin Mary used to live here,” I said when I first noticed it.

The woman I was walking with told me that the building had once been a convent.

Apparently, the Quebec used to be quite littered with them.

“You have to take a picture of this leaf,” said Iris, over and over.

“Did you take one? Did you take a picture of the leaf?”

Mom & Dad & Dan were going to visit. Mom ended up having to get a lump removed from her lip.

We miss her very much.

*   *   *

We show Dad & Dan the trail to the island.

When we get there, Dan realizes there is a lot of work to be done to secure the island from invading forces.

They get off to work in the usual manner.

Dan does some warm up exercises to prepare for hard labor.

Iris gathers material.

Dad needs some rest.

Akiva makes sure no one is sneaking up from behind.

Dan surveys the engineering.

Iris works on construction.

Dan works on construction.

Tired from all the construction, Dad needs a nap.

“There is an island,” they said, the people who have lived here all their lives. “Once you find the trail, it is about 20 minutes away. The trail starts at the end of the road.”

So I looked. I looked in all the possible places a trail could be. I walked where I thought there should have been a trail, were there a trail to have. I saw signs that there once was possibly a trail. Literally, signs. Metal signs. Impossible to get to. But they said there was a trail, and they said there was an island.

Roxanne showed us the long way in, over not too far from the school, which we’ve been using. And today, we went down to the island for the first time. First you have to get to the end of where the foot trail is and look over the cliff. Then you just go straight down! Plop! It’s that simple. Getting up is another story.

Here we look at the river from the island.

Trees grow on the island.

Neatly folded stratigraphic rocks decorate the fringes of this little spot of land.

Oh, no! The island is inhabited by a fierce tribe of weekday campers!

“Oh! Great, stout stick! Give me power against these litterbugs!”

With great agility, Akiva fends them off with his stick. 

The campers flee, leaving behind tarps and ropes and trash. Akiva surveys his newly conquered island.

Curved stones form thrones at the edge of the land. We will be sure to return with the rest of our people.