Thursday, May 9th, 2024

Goofing on the Violin

Monday, May 6th, 2024

Akiva cuts a downed willow branch to add some substance to a bridge-that-ought-to-be.

 

 

 

I photograph the obligatory hug at the grandparent trees.

Compare it to this photo: 12 July 2018

 

 

 

Iris gently bonks noses with Brook.

 

 

 

Then she bonks not so gently!

 

 

 

Akiva throws a rope to climb a tree.

 

 

 

He ascends a bitβ€”

 

 

 

but cannot ascend the biggest tree in the woods very far with a six-foot rope.

 

Saturday, April 20th, 2024

Park Bellevue, Waterville

Akiva takes his scooter down to the skate park.

 

 

 

He hops over the jumps

 

 

 

and off the jumps

 

 

 

and on the rails.

 

 

 

Then, without the scooter, across the playground

 

 

 

and up the slide.

 

 

 

Iris and Brook go down the slide.

 

 

 

After a brief lecture on how to walk the x-wave,

 

 

 

Brook goes up,

 

 

 

across,

 

 

 

and down.

 

 

 

All together now! Up,

 

 

 

across,

 

 

 

across,

 

 

 

across,

 

 

 

across,

 

 

 

get down!

 

Friday, April 12th, 2024

Rummy Cube

Now that we have eclipse glasses, we can wear them any time we like.

 

 

 

For example, some people find them good to wear while playing board games after dinner.

 

 

 

Some people disagree about the utility of eclipse glasses for after-dinner games.

 

 

 

Able to see what she is doing, Iris contemplates her final tile

and wins the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

Writing is exhausting.

Monday, April 8th, 2024

Our Eclipse

 

Ari came to visit for the eclipse.

We had some time to pass before the earth and moon were in their proper places

relative to the sun.

 

 

 

Ari brought a filter that she’d bought for her camera. She set it all up on a tripod.

I gave her an old black shirt to use as a photographer’s cloth.

As she photographed the sun, I photographed my family.

 

 

 

Ari says she didn’t get any good photographs. Neither did I. Nor did I try very hard.

Ari tried exactly as hard as a $15 filter can try.

Fortunately, there are squillions of people out there with better cameras and fancier filters than we have

who got decent photos of the hole in the sun.

There are at least an equal number of people out there who turned on the AI to paint some donut-sun photos.

 

This photo was taken at 100% coverage without a filter and (unfortunately) without the tripod.

 

Saturday, April 6th, 2024

The Last Snowball

Sunday, March 31st, 2024

Signs of Spring

 

We have no neighbors living in the new house behind ours yet, so Akiva practices batting in the back yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iris brings the cat out for an airing.

 

 

 

 

Monday, March 18th, 2024

Homeschool

The children sit at the table working on math.

These two photographs make it look more simple and peaceful than it ever is.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, March 11th, 2024

Another Brick in the Wall

Akiva remembered the time I bricked up the doorway.

That was back when the current master bedroom was still the playroom.

The children could come and go as they pleased, but for me it was a squeeze.

“I want to do it again,” he said.

“But we have to have a bigger door,” I replied.

We made the door bigger, but still it was not big enough.

I prefer adult-sized doors.

 

 

The wall came down later in the day.