i have been away from the blog for far too long… here’s a sneak preview of all the stories i have to tell… um, sometime soon. right now all i have time for (still) is photos, so sit back and scroll through a rainbow blur representing the second half of my summer!
rainbow boy holding my end of summer program bouquet. summer program at our living school was a blast and, if i do say so myself, a resounding success.
pink: sunset on our camping trip with local adopted family; rhodochrosite or rose quartz (i think…?) on our trip to oklahoma to visit rich’s family (during which his dad, bob, completely reversed all the damage done by my boring 9th grade earth science teacher, and i fell in love with rocks once again, just like when i was a kid.)
red: snippets from my first ever trip to the siletz tribe powwow, more camping footage (see ninja below), hummingbirds, and cherry picking with my love.
red-orange: carnelian magic
orange: more hummingbirds, cherry sap glistening in the sunshine, a plastic t-rex, more rocks, flowers from the farm tour i took the ols kids on, and an oklahoma sunset.
yellow: little birds flitting about my garden, more powwow, and giant pile of bob-corn (rich learned his jedi popcorn making skills from his dad, thank goodness.)
green: quinn returning snails to the siletz river, lots more rocks (one i don’t know, and some petrified wood), lots of bugs (including species not seen in oregon whatsoever! yay for oklahoma and all its wild wonders!) and the oklahoma garden of bob (watermelons and okra!)
green-ish: how i spent as many camping moments as possible: under a pile of babies.
blue: chrysacolla (i think), sodalite (maybe), more powwow and my favorite seven year old on the bay.
purple: more treasures of every variety.
brown: rocks and my oklahoma turtle friend (who apparently thought i looked safe to hide behind).
gray: fossils, rocks, the ocean on a gray day, and more powwow.
white: ammonite, and dragonfly on a white rock.
a splash of color on monday
a photo study documenting the colors of the spectrum: the balance points between light reflected and light absorbed
So glad to see your post in my inbox! I was just spontaneously talking about you (and Quinn) to Andy yesterday, relating a few things you’ve shared that came to mind when I was talking to him, as examples of honoring kids’ choices in what to do (re: school) and how even when they have “no interest” in certain disciplines or skills and avoid participating, they seem to grow toward many of the things you might have wanted or pushed, anyway (I mentioned the fly-tying session and Quinn’s desire to preserve the details, and other times he had to rely on you for writing & recording important things, and his growing awareness of how writing proficiently could be desirable and useful–so he can do his own note-taking and gain the freedom he observes some other students have when they can write proficiently; his observation about how “for proficient readers, every word is a sight word!”) Was realizing how longs it’s been, and that I miss you a lot. (I started crying as I was scrolling through your blog post, too.)
Guess who shares your love of rocks?…..Noel! (big surprise, eh?) There is a highway exit with a particular lot of rocks and I sometimes contrive to take the highway in town (could easily avoid this and typically do) just so I can get off at the very next exit and drive the big curve with all the rocks down the mountain slope. He has a “museum” in our living room with rocks and (drawings of) dinosaur bones. And a rock that he’s “pretty sure” is a dinosaur egg even though it wasn’t very deep in our backyard. He wrapped up all his favorite insides of broken rocks and gave them as a gift at a little girl’s birthday party. He told me that his next independent study is going to be on rocks (though I think he’s forgotten that plan in favor of dinosaurs…)
I’m glad to learn a bit about your summer fun, to see so many stunning photos of it, and to know that you guys made the trip to Oklahoma!!
I’m going to make a special request for you to tell me about the bob-corn sometime (my dad’s midwestern roots ensured that I am pretty skilled in popcorn-making and also have a serious love of the stuff, so I’m always interested in what others do. And that was a handsome photograph!)
Congratulations on a successful summer program at Our Living School. (I think remember you mentioning you had a set of triplets enrolled!) That’s a really gorgeous bouquet. Such a nice gift, just my taste exactly. Thanks for sharing and I send my love.
A kick butt rainbow!! You do look nice under a pile of babies!! Can’t wait to hear more about Oklahoma, popcorn, school, and life this summer. I was hoping for a picture of bucket head buddies!!
marybeth! i loved this post so much i’ve come back three times to look at your gorgeous colors. what a rich summer you’ve had, thank you for sharing it, i feel like i soaked a bit of it in too! what handsome insects from OK…that big eyed black darling is my favorite…and kudos to the dragonfly action shots! i’ve read your newest post too, and i love hearing how quinn is flourishing. fern actually used ‘dumbfounded’ the other day too…such a big word tumbling out of such a tiny mouth! much love to you mb, happy fall!