Adriana's piano!

We're finally getting Adriana's piano tomorrow, hip, hip, hooray! I love listening to her play, she's really just beginning, but the process is so exciting to me... I love the fact she can read music (well, you know, on those easy tunes any way), that she self-corrects, and that she can pick out so many tunes by ear... If you haven't noticed, I'm fairly fond of the wee one.. I like her keyboard, but a piano it surely isn't... so it will be fabulous for her to learn on.

We're getting the piano from her god-mother, my dear friend, Naomi, it is her moms and they both decided it would be great for Adriana to have it to learn on, to play, and to enjoy. How very sweet of them, what a lovely gift... to us all... (Of course, I'm envisioning her playing Christmas carols on it year-round, think we'll have to set the ground rules early!)

My mum was up this past weekend, and I had to apologize to her that I was so nasty about not wanting to take piano lessons, boy I wish I had now... wonder if Joe at the Conservatory wants to teach mom as well... hmmmm....

my favorite day

October 14th is my favorite day, it's the day my beautiful daughter was born... Eight years ago today, we welcomed this lovely child who fills our house with so much love... Adriana is such a joy, she brings us so much happiness, fills our lives with music, keeps us on our toes ('how do you spell onomatopoeia?'), and makes us laugh so hard... We had no idea eight years ago how wonderful our family would be...

Adriana, I love you... I wish you a wonderful year, thank you for all you bring into our home... xxxx

Alynn & Matt

Congratulations! We wish you a lifetime of love...

butterflies

walking Lucy this morning on Seagull Beach, I saw a beautiful Monarch butterfly. He was feeding on the Seaside Goldenrod to build his strength for the long journey to Mexico... He was bright and beautiful, and such a lovely start to the day... and then I saw a brilliant, yellow butterfly, and was mesmerized for the instant he allowed me to be, before zipping off on his way...

I looked in my Butterflies Across Cape Cod book, by Mark Mello and Tor Hansen, (which I got at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History by the way) and found that I had seen a Cloudless Sulphur, fantastic!!!

*disclaimer - I use the word 'he' in the most innocuous sense of the word, they may have been she's... and I found the photo on Wikipedia from the St. Louis Zoo, so thanks for the great image! I was without camera this morning, but would have been without a photo even if I hadn't been!!!

last day of summer...

The last day of summer, my word how the time flies... It was a good weekend, yesterday Stuart (my nephew) & Christin had a baby, Dade Brian, so I guess I'm now a Grand-Aunt... (better than my sisters title, or my mums for that matter!) All are happy & healthy, can't wait to meet him, but it being this time of year he might be weeks old rather than days sadly... Congrats to you all, welcome to the world, Dade, we're glad you're here!

Adriana & I spent the last day of summer doing experimental spin-art - we tried different types of paints, we used our fingers in the designs, we dragged toothpicks through the spinning tapestries... We sat in the grass in the backyard, and were both covered with paint by the time we were done! We laughed so much, and enjoyed the sunshine and each other, a couple of hours very well spent, it was a great time... She's a little upset that we didn't go for a family bike ride in Nickerson like last year, to celebrate the end of summer, but perhaps we can celebrate the beginning of fall that way! She is definitely a fan of rituals, I need to be careful of what we do, because I know her, and know that she will want to do it exactly the same way year after year... (personally I'll start planning next year's plein air spinning, Adriana had suggested using her toes to make designs... hmmmm....)

While we were creating, after I'd taken out my camera because the designs left behind were too fabulous not to record, she told me about a movie they'd seen in school last week about light & shadows... She said a woman on the movie had a camera just like mine, "except she put film in it, can you believe it? Film", she said her eyes huge and round, amazed. I laughed out loud. Appears my baby, this gorgeous child of my own creation, doesn't know I used to shoot with film... How amazing... Seems I'm going to have to have "the talk" with her, the one where I tell her that her first bedroom, the one we brought her home from the hospital to, used to be my darkroom, where I used to develop and print, my film. Or maybe I should wait...

Mirasol's

so we're not supposed to tell of our faults and foibles... but I'm an artist, I share many things perhaps I shouldn't!! So I preface by the fact it's school season, I'm still photographing seniors by the dozen, and one of the thousands of students I've photographed in the last week or so gave me a quite nasty little bug, so I'm not exactly myself... (although Ray told me I was 'perky' today, so I must be nearly better! I was horrified at the thought that I hadn't been perky for the past few days to all of those I was photographing, he assured me I was indeed perky for them, just not him... phew!!) One of the schools I photograph is in Dartmouth, and last year we discovered this fabulous cafe there, Mirasol's. I had this curried lentil soup that was so divine, I wouldn't even consider eating anywhere else in the area on the off chance they may have it as a special! So yesterday, when we finished photographing the school for the day, we went there (no lentil soup, but a nice black bean quesadilla), had a lovely lunch and went home. I was physically exhausted, well that's my excuse anyway, and was on the Cape before I realized I'd left my purse there! Over $100. cash in my wallet, as well as my phone and all of those other things one has in their purse, on top of the fact it's my gorgeous photo bag of my babe, Adriana's beautiful face looks at me... yikes... So I called. And not only are they environmentally friendly, with straws made out of corn, completely biodegradable, and disposable silverware that is too, they are fabulously friendly too... "yeah we've got it" they told me, and when we finished at school today, there it was waiting for me, all contents intact... What a wonderful place. I highly recommend it!

(oh, today it was a white bean chili, delicious, but still no lentil soup, we've got a make-up day next month, so fingers crossed!! Otherwise I guess I'll wait another year...)

me as a song?

I photographed a high school senior on the beach on Friday, he was a charming young man, and as we were talking, he told me his homework from one of his classes was to find a song that described him. He had to find it by Monday. So I took that assignment too... Of course, the songs I love (quirky as some of them are!) don't fit who I think I am... Safety Dance? Behind Blue Eyes? (maybe in my teenage angst days) The Blower's Daughter? Blowing in the Wind? a Dead tune perhaps? Cassidy? I Know You Rider? No. no. no. What a tough thing... I went through my repertoire of really quirky tunes, Red River Valley, Oklahoma, Lemon Tree yikes, I know, tmi!!! My musical interests are so varied, (and so awful according to my husband), that even in just going through them in my head I was a little frightened by my own self!!! I decided upon "Imagine" by John Lennon, not original, not some fabulous obscure tune, nothing crazy and artistic... I was fairly disappointed with my choice even... "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one..."
So, I handed in my assignment on time, but I'll keep searching...

Feel free to add a song which you feel describes you, I'd be interested to know...