The Lexington Rain Forest

We've been living in a rain forest. I keep saying this, and everyone kind of looks at me and chuckles. But consider this:

"Rain forests get rainfall nearly everyday and generally do not have a dry season. Rain forests can get up to 60-70 inches of rain a year. The temperatures of the rain forest are usually between 75-80 degrees year round. "

Ignoring the fact that Lexington doesn't maintain those temperatures year round (I can ignore the ten degree winters for the moment), we are meeting those conditions. We've had over 6 inches of rain each month this summer (that's a yearly average of 72 inches!), and it sure seems like we've had rain nearly every day. And everything is just wet, wet, wet.

I've even noticed an incredibly amount of fungus growth, especially up at the lake. We've seen some really interesting mushrooms, many of them three or four inches in diameter, which is pretty unusual for this area.

But yesterday we found a fungus that really proves my case. First of all, look at how beautiful it is. It seems very exotic to these parts.



Now, look at how big this thing actually is.


We have fungi the size of small dogs growing in our lawns!!! I rest my case.

That Lake's Chilly!

A Rare Treat

This past weekend during my brother Lee's visit, the weather was pretty lousy. But one reason I like the lake is that aside from pouring rain, the weather is usually good for some activity. Really windy is good for sailing, hot is good for swimming and playing in the water, cool is good for tennis or hiking, and calm and rainy is always good for a paddle.


We took advantage of calm and rainy to paddle out to Windswept Island.

It is one of my favorite spots. It's the kind of place you would go to if you had a great tragedy in your life and wanted to take a year in seclusion and do nothing but read Russian novels. The cabin on Windswept has always been, well, not much more than a shack. To my surprise someone has renovated it into a beautiful little house with a spectacular deck around.

On the way back, we saw four diving birds in the distance. They looked like loons but the coloring wasn't right. As we got close to them, we saw it was indeed a mother loon and three immatures. They were absolutely beautiful. Two of them came up for air within ten feet of my kayak, but skittishly dove under again immediately. This is unfortunately the best picture I got.


It was a rare treat, and one reason I love being out in a kayak as opposed to a motor boat.

The Caswell Clan

The Caswell Grandkids (18 mos - 13 yrs old)
Alex, Eric, Jack, Ryan (back row)
Liam, Cas, Lee, Clara, Lainie (front row)
Koda

The Entire Clan

The Gameboy

My nephews are allowed one hour of videogames (either Gameboy or Wii) on non-school days. This normally means they are up early to get their hour in before breakfast. Lee was up early too, so she could watch over Jack's shoulder every morning. Jack was great about explaining the game to her.


She did say to me after we got home, 'Mommy, I think Jack needs a new game because it got kind of boring for me."

Animal Noises

So Clara's been studying, and I think she's done herself proud.

Calvin & Hobbes

Lee will often take down a Calvin & Hobbes book and look at the pictures. Despite not being able to read, she thinks the cartoons are absolutely hilarious. "Look, Mom, this one's really funny!"

On Supervision (or the lack thereof)

My aunt Marge, who was born in 1921, told me a story last weekend. She said that she was about Lee's age, so about four or so, and she was with her younger sister Lizzie, who was about Clara's age, so around a year and a half. They were outside the house the family rented at the time, and they were down by the edge of the pond. They both had sticks and were poking in the water. All of a sudden Lizzie flipped over into the pond. Marge didn't know what to do, so she screamed and screamed until their older brother came out and pulled Lizzie from the water. He brought her inside and their mom and dad "worked on her," which I assume meant that they resuscitated her. When it was all over, Marge got spanked because she was the older one and was therefore responsible.

To back this up, my mom then told a story about when she was about eight and her younger sister Ethel was about six. They were running around inside their big barn, and they were following a circuit that involved jumping through an old window. The upper part of the window fell onto Ethel and cut her leg down to the bone, despite the fact that she was wearing heavy snow pants because it was the middle of winter. She has a terrible scar to this day. It was so bad that they took her to a doctor, a rare occurrence for my mother's family. My mother said that she was spanked afterwards because she was the older one.

Today, Lee was walking along the top of the stone wall in front of our house, something she does from time to time. The wall is set back almost fifteen feet from the road, and she stays right on top of it. She knows not to go near the road. I had walked back to the garage to get the garbage, and as I approached the road I saw that Lee was down near the other end of the wall. A car was driving by slowly, and he gave me a look and pointed to Lee accusingly as if I were the most negligent parent he'd ever seen. I couldn't believe it. Parents nowadays are afraid to leave their child unsupervised for even a minute. We leave in constant fear of our children hurting themselves or being hurt. Unfortunately I think the end result is that part of childhood has been lost.

Blueberry Picking

Today we went blueberry picking very early in the morning. It was fantastic. I picked six quarts of blueberries, Lee picked two, and Clara ate a bunch. We all had a great time, and I was very glad I hadn't put Lee in camp this summer so that we could do just this sort of thing on the spur of the moment.

A Victory of Sorts

Last night Clara threw up three times. Not a lot, but enough that she cried and woke us up, and we changed her and changed the sheets, and worked on getting her back to sleep for the next hour. One of the times Lee also woke up and promptly went into the bathroom and threw up as well, which was either a physical reaction to seeing Clara vomit or a pretty good try at getting the same attention Clara was getting (although realistically I didn't think she could go THAT far). We theorized that Clara had eaten too much sand at the beach (we were unable to keep her little paws less than completely covered in sand while she merrily ran around the beach eating bits of dinner). Or maybe it was a stomach bug, but who gets a stomach bug in July?

So this morning when she woke up (later than usual but chipper and hungry), I fed her a waffle, some banana, and some milk, and then rushed her into the car. About a mile from home I heard Lee say "Mommy, Clara's throwing up!" I looked in the rear view mirror and couldn't believe the mess. We were idling at a traffic light and there was nothing I could do except wait for Lee to follow suit, because she was looking like she was going to have a repeat performance from the previous night as well.

I opened Lee's window and said "Lee, look out the window, breathe the fresh air, and DO NOT look at Clara." I drove home (a much longer mile on the way) listening to Lee and Clara both whimpering, and chanting to Lee "DO NOT look at Clara." But we made it home without Lee vomiting as well.

Despite the cleanup job ahead of me, I was actually quite pleased with the result. A victory of sorts.

Blastoff!

It's a bit hard to tell from the audio, but Lee is counting down from 10 and Clara is chiming in with something resembling numbers (about every other one is "do!"), and then they both say "BLASTOFF" before taking off down the driveway.




Sometimes Lee pushes Clara, sometimes the other way around, and sometimes when Lee doesn't want to participate, Clara attempts to push an empty car, which usually ends up off the side of the driveway among the plants.

The Thrill of Waves

I had to add a comment to this picture because, as Bridges correctly pointed out, there is not a hint of a wave to be seen. I guess that's partly what's so cool - these were little teeny tiny waves coming into the beach, but Lee thought they were just fabulous. This picture was, obviously, taken between waves and cropped a bit close.

A Speaking Milestone

This week Clara put two words together for the first time. Three times yesterday she said "Milk, please" (or "please, milk" for variety). And she did it again today. She's really starting to talk!

More Pics from the 4th

Bruce and his son Ben

Eric

Glamorous Deb

B and his girls

Sparklin' Ryan

Kids on the boat

Sunset

Bruce hangin' with the boys

Eric & Jack

Jump!

But whatever you do, don't put that face in!

Eagle Cliffs

This July 4^th weekend we had a big crowd at the lake, including three of my siblings with their families, my aunt and uncle, and my cousin and his family. In total, we had fifteen adults and ten kids aged from 18 months to 13 years.

We had a fantastic few days with no squabbling whatsoever among the kids (and no squabbling among the adults either!). There was swimming, tubing, rides in the motorboat, Wimbledon, a bean bag game that resembled horseshoes, cribbage, paddling, hiking, and a fair amount of drinking (adults of beer and wine, kids of soda).

Here are some pictures from our hike up to Eagle Cliffs on Red Hill, which offers great views of Squam Lake.

My Dad came along with us. My Dad will be 77 this summer, and he’s really in great shape aside from his joints breaking down from years of physical activity. My Dad’s always done a lot of hiking, and he took us as kids, and I’m sure he slowed down quite a bit for us when we were younger. I remember the first time I kept up with him easily, and it doesn’t seem all that long ago. Then there were a few years where we hiked together comfortably (although not all that often given my proximity to NH during those years). And I remember the first time that he really slowed me down. His knees just aren’t good anymore, and the tough rocky terrain of New England is hard for him, especially going downhill. Your balance deteriorates as you get older, and he’s just not as steady and sure-footed as he once was. But this year, Bridges was carrying Clara (and allowing her to walk now and again) and my cousin’s wife was carrying her 30+ pound two-year-old (and allowing him to walk now and again), and so my Dad very comfortable hiked at the rear with us, while the older kids (including Lee) raced on up ahead. It worked out really well. It’s kind of funny how things come full circle.

Blue Girl Group

June Recap

Wow, I didn't post much in June. Here are some June highlights (not necessarily in chronological order):

• Clara walking around saying "happy, happy, happy..." Really. She is a different kid since her surgery. I could go into a lot of description but that about sums it up.
  
• Over six inches of rain during the month. Not from soaking spring rains, but from one violent thunderstorm after another that felt apocalyptic to me (but to Bridges felt like, well, thunderstorms). This was actually great because we haven't had to do any watering of our new plantings the entire month. However the weeds love it too, and there's so much humidity rising off the ground it feels like we're living in a rain forest.
• After-dinner weeding parties where Lee monitors how many M&M's each of is has earned and compliment us on "doing good work."
  
• More water in the basement (see six inches of rain above).
  
• Lots of trouble with with Lee's sleeping. I'll post separately on this.
  
• The start of the season at Lindentree Farm. It was a wonderful strawberry season.
• A weekend in New Castle which involved getting a load of plants from my mother-in-law's garden, a breakfast out with just the two of us, lots of strawberry picking, and some nice relaxing walks on the river.
  
• A few initial trips to The Res and the town pool. I'll have to do separate posts about these mainstays of our summer.
  
• The beginning of our membership in Chestnut Hills Farm, a meat CSA. Yummy!
• The re-test of my thyroid (which was extremely low last fall). It came back normal, which I attribute partially to my commitment to regular Bikram yoga.
  
• A quiet weekend at the lake where we got out for a beautiful (if a bit drizzly) early morning paddle over to Steamboat Island.
• The rodent wars. The tally at the end of the month was 7 chipmunks, 3 mice, 2 voles, and 1 squirrel. Yet we fear they are winning.
  
• Concern over the knocking down of houses in our neighborhood. They've knocked down fives houses in our immediate neighborhood in the past year. The houses that go up are 5000+ sq ft. Who needs all that space?!?