Picture of Papa

I was thinking about this photograph the other day. I took it when I was out in UT this last summer. What with Dad's repeated mini-strokes (on top of the massive brain hemorrhage several years ago) and his continuing serious health problems, this picture sort of seems to symbolize how I feel about our relationship: he isn't quite gone, but he's about to be. But it's a beautiful picture.

A Couple of Sketches From October

I'm still entranced by trees. Big surprise, I suppose.

This was in a field near my house, in the morning. I had the place to myself, and the sun was coming up, and the tree was backlit... and it was pretty much magical.

Ta-da!
In person, I think I like the ink drawing better, but uploaded, the pencil is looking better. Interesting.

Tickles, Please

The four-year-old likes to be tickled. As is my policy, I always stop when he says "stop." It sometimes takes kids a while to get used to this-- they are used to tickling continuing, and most of them are fine with that-- but most catch on pretty quickly that if they really do want me to keep going, they just say "tickle me again!" and I will happily oblige. This boy has that one down pat.

One day as we were both standing in the kitchen, I asked if I could tickle him, and he said, "No!" Then he ran over to the dog's chair, laid on his back, and said, "NOW tickle me!" and I did.

A week ago Saturday, I walked in his house as his family was leaving for vacation (for which I have been house-and-dog-sitting). My young friend looked at me reprovingly and said, "'Neelya, when you come, you always tickle me."

I thought about how careful I had been about permission, and how, in fact, these days he usually asks first. I decided to point this out. "You usually ask to be tickled." He didn't really respond. Then the other shoe dropped. "Did you want me to tickle you now?"

"Yes!"

(So I did.)

More Flowers

I took these earlier this year. The first is from the lake near(ish...) my home in Maryland; the other is within a couple of blocks of my sister's house in Utah.

Aren't the bumblebees cool?

Cement Truck Sandwich Recipe

[I was trying to encourage a young friend, S^2, to do his homework. One of his options was to write a sandwich recipe; I offered to write two* while he wrote one (he didn't take me up on it, but he did suppress a smile or two when I read him this one). His mother and I began brainstorming silly things you could put in a sandwich. She suggested a truck, which I liked, but then I was stumped on what kind of truck, and she suggested a cement truck-- and I was off and running.]

First, you have to get VERY big bread for your sandwich. You will have to ask a giant bakery for help. **Perhaps, if you cannot find one, you can use some cement from your cement truck to help build one. Next, cement does not have very much flavor, so you will have to get one ton of onions and one ton of pickles for flavoring. Finally, you have to find someone who is willing to eat the sandwich. You should ask someone very large, like the BFG or a tyrannasaurus rex or an entire school of children. Also, you should probably contact a news organization because they will probably be very interested in your cement truck sandwich.

THE END.

*The other one was boring, which is why I didn't write it here.
** Don't ask me why I feel a need to tell you this, but I added this sentence today because S^2's mother asked me how one would find a giant bakery.

Spring Break day trip to the beach

It was so... dang... cold! I checked the weather before I left; it said it would be in the 50's and sunny. It was not sunny. It was cloudy. But it was very, very beautiful!

The bad weather made the waves quite large, for this neck of the woods, and you could feel the ground shake as they crashed only a few yards away. It was hard not to watch-- until I got too cold to notice; that was when I knew I had to go inside.

 My feet were there!

I don't think it is possible to convey the utter magic-- the awesome, indescribable wonder-- that I feel whenever I get to go to the beach. Even though my poor feet were freezing right off, even though I was only there for one hour before I was too cold to enjoy anything any more, I still felt glad I had made the effort to go.

Tulips and I-don't-know-what

I'm just having so much fun with this macro lens. I'll put up a couple from my trip to the beach, next.