Akiva loves to play with his cars on the back of the couch in front of the north window in the library.
He explains to me that it is because this couch has roads.
Whatever these cars are up to, I suspect that it is something that should definitely not be done on a road.
CRASH! BAM!
it would be a good thing to practice floating on his belly.
I
In the Trees
II
Throwing Rocks
III
River Sitting
IV
Woodland Napping
To celebrate the arrival of the Pestalotiopsis monster into the family, we had a tea party.
Iris brought Peggy, Napua, and Rethabile.
Akiva brought Hymie, Pest (who sometimes accidentally sits on his tail), and the Lego Monster.
Pest was not at all happy with mere tea, so Akiva cooked him up a big skillet of stuff.
…waiting for the stuff to finish cooking…
…almost done now!
Hymie & the girls drank tea.
Pest had a bit of everything.
We didn’t serve the Lego Monster because he only eats people and we don’t serve people at tea!
This year’s rabbit pasture—
Minnie Bun the Giant Rabbit is a wonderful mama—
The view from the balcony at sunset—
Minnie the Giant Rabbit’s first litter of bun-buns was born on April 10th.
There were eight. Iris does not pick favorites:
she puts them all into the doll sling and takes them out for a walk.
Fortunately, rabbits like snuggling.
Later, we take a walk without the rabbits. We go to the little creek that flows from the old Val-Esterie property past the water treatment plant and into the Coaticook River. Two Little People mamas come with us. For some reason, they have twine around their necks. I think they were going to go swimming. Standing at the edge of the creek, Akiva holds the end of one piece of twine and twirls the mama round and round as one would twirl a sling with a rock in it. Like a rock shot from a sling, the toy flies through the air, never to be seen again. At least not by us. Somewhere down by the creek there is a little blue Little People mama with blonde hair waiting to be found. Akiva is distraught.
On the way home we stop at the school playground.
Akiva swings high like a rock in a sling.
And like a rock shot from a sling, he flies high over the trees, through the clouds, back home.
The best thing about vintage Fisher Price Little People is all the people and the accessories.
We got rid of most everything else.
In this case, I am not exactly certain what is going on—
something involving some goats and some people in blue police-style hats. They might be farmers.
There are a lot of other people, too— tho none of them seem to lively at the moment—
and an up-turned television, currently being used as a trough.
The fields are well groomed.
The machines are well maintained.
It looks pretty peaceful. I will try to remember it that way.
We went to the Car(r) Cemetery. Whole car(r) families are buried there.
We found Father and Mother Car(r)—
Their ancestor, Parker Car(r), who seems to have lived a very sedentary lifestyle—
And Parker’s wife, Sarah—
And Ernest A. Car(r), who was always serviced by the most honest of mechanics—
We also found Mary, whoever she was— a wagon, perhaps.
Many people doubt that cars have funerals, but I have proof.
Here, for example, is the funeral of a maroon 2005 Prius, as documented by my brother, Dan Shanahan.
For Iris’s birthday, she decided she wanted to eat carrot cake on top of Mount Ham. So we did. If mount Ham was good enough for me, then it was good enough for her. Carrot cake was what the rabbits voted for, but we didn’t bring rabbits. At the last minute, Iris also decided to bring a friend. Fortunately, there was a very good one available for last-minute birthday parties on mountain summits.
Hymie and Napua came with us for the purpose of taking photos. Hymie is all fixed up so he could attend the doll party in good form. The biggest difference, aside from the fact that his fabric is now perfect, is that his mouth is about 1/8th of an inch narrower. It’s quite noticeable if you know him! Napua is Megan reincarnated. She includes all of Megan’s stuffing plus some, and her head is configured over Megan’s old head. But really, nothing is the same aside from the fact that Iris still has three dolls instead of four. You wouldn’t recognize her in any way shape or form, but they say that reincarnation is like that.
While Amaëlle took time to finish her cake (she is especially good at savoring), Martin hiked to the other high point on the peak. Once Akiva saw that his papa was all alone, he wanted to go, too! Do you see that tiny blue spot to the left of the slightly larger red spot, just to the right of what appears to be a ham radio tower on the peak?** That’s Akiva! He went all the way over there all by himself.
**It is not actually a ham radio tower: it is the profile of the enormous crucifix where they tortured the last of the wild mountain giants.
