About once a month we head to my parents home for the weekend so that I can meet with friends for book club. Book club is a great excuse to get over there, but even without the excuse I probably would go over because it is such a nice change of pace. In the summer the trip is especially nice as we can go above deck on the ferry. Today on our return trip there were some kids - somewhere on the bow of the ferry blowing bubbles into the wind, sending bubbles back to where we were sitting. Thank you kids for keeping my kids entertained!
My family has some acreage with plenty of open space and a stream running through it. A decade or so ago the stream (The Creek) was designated as a "salmon stream". This means the habitat should remain as natural as possible so that the salmon will return to spawn. If we were super adventurous we could follow the stream from the sound to the lake where it originates - a distance of 3-4 miles but I'll save that for when the kids are older.
For now we are satisfied with playing in parts of the creek closer to home. Part of the forest bordering the creek is second growth forest, full of nurse logs, hemlock, mossy rocks, rocky stream beds, salal bush and ferns. These second and old growth forests (few and far between these days) are so cool and lush. Its the perfect playground for kids as well as animals.
Then there was book club....this club was started nine years ago, in a bar with three members; Heidi, Jennifer and I (our first book "Bridge over the Dhrina") 7 more have joined our ranks over the years. Friday's meeting was a little unlike others in that one of our "founding members" is moving to Colorado next month. So instead of talking about the book (which we are pretty diciplined about) we had other stuff to talk about. One of those things is the 17 babes born during those 9 years and 2 more on the way. Also, Jennifer left us with her list of the books we've read - 96 in all. YIKES! Its been fun and hope there are many years to come.
A visit with Nana after the farmers market on Saturday. Nana has been laid up for a month with a back injury and some unexplicable side effects as a result of the meds she was given. We need to get her out of the rehab center soon and our health care system is in dire need of attention. Qualified and caring people please apply! M was so sleepy and Nana was so happy to have her latest great-granddaugher (with 84 years in between them warming her hip in that sterile place.
After naps and one tomato plant purchasing errand we stopped off at a favorite driftwood beach were bigger kids had left their fort for littler kids to play in.
This was the calm after the storm created by B putting her hand into the red ant nest. She just wanted to pick up an and. She screamed probably more from seeing the ants crawling all over her hand than from the bites (they don't hurt) but it was traumatic nonetheless.
Hope you had a super weekend.
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