Nope. I haven’t been writing. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve finally gotten a bit of summer weather (that means it hasn’t been raining every single day), and between that, the last days of summer school vacation, and Gryfe, a heck of a lot more than blog writing has NOT been happening around here. Either I have lost the will to be productive, or I am having that will sucked out of me by a combination of sunshine, puppy schedule demands, kid demands, and no particular due dates.
I guess I thrive on due dates?
So, instead of writing, or working, or painting the house, here’s what we have been doing:
- Hosted a Greek Gods themed birthday party for Hyla, including a Mount Olympus cake:
- Took the pup to Woodman’s in Essex, MA so he could watch us eat lobsters; and then took him for a stroll on Rockport’s Bearskin neck where he could be admired by the throngs, and could learn that kind shopkeepers put bowls of water out in front of their shops for overly admired and overheated dogs.
- Gone down to the river several times to play:
- Watched Gryfe chew on everything he can get his teeth on, and spend a lot of time retrieving things from his mouth that he should NOT chew on (note for the future: Crocs look, feel, and taste an awful lot like puppy chew toys):
- Cooked a few wonderful dishes from Fuschia Dunlop’s fantastic Revoluntionary Chinese Cookbook (oh yum).
- Picked two bushels of basil at Killdeer farm and filled our freezer with pesto, and just plain chopped basil mixed with olive oil – to be saved for long, cold, winter evenings. And learned that the pine nuts we use in America are not the real thing – they’re Asian pine nuts, which apparently have little in common with those used in Italy and France.
- Read books (Hyla’s current is the 2nd book in the Warriors series; I’m reading Brideshead Revisited for the first time, after rewatching the excellent BBC series and seeing the unexcellent new major studio release version; Michael is reading about the history of lobotomies – no really).
- Spent an inordinate amount of time saying “No!” in a deep, authoritative voice. Boy, that’s getting tiring.
- Taken many many many walks, including a somewhat disappointing Valley Quest walk yesterday. The walk itself was nice, but the Quest box was not to be found! No fair.
- Cleaned up puppy accidents in the house (but not that many, thankfully).
- Gotten creative with devising puppy toys and games (note for the future: when desperate for a distracting toy, an ice cube works like a charm).
- Watched the first two discs of Season 4 of House (horray!).
- Added more perennials to my front gardens, thanks to the generosity of my friend Lydia, who was cleaning out her remarkable gardens.
- Met up with friends for lunch.
- Tried to savor the remaining warm days without freaking out that Hyla is starting FOURTH grade next week.
Grongar 