Catching Up - Again

Eliza and William in Belfast

Catching up not really possible...a week with Eliza, Michael and William here in Maine.  A week in Greenfield with Eliza and William.  A week at Cold River Camp with John and the Merritt/Langhans'.  A camera that under exposed all the pictures.

William at 85 Harrison Ave, Greenfield

The complete grandmother-- body and soul.  "Gaga" loves "Wilkie" and he loves her back.  Being around a nineteen month old changes everything but we had a very good week in Greenfield while Michael was in Maine teaching at the Maine Media Workshops.  William spent three days at his day care while I gallivanted around western Massachusetts and on the Saturday off we went to New Hampshire. 

In the meantime, John had a nice week in Maine eating the luscious raspberries on whose behalf we have been waging war on japanese beetles.  We seem to have been the victors in the struggle.

Despite my feeling that I had no time for myself recently I did manage to read a good number of books.  In my quest to read all of  Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, I listened to Asta's Book and reread A Sight for Sore Eyes".  That means I have read or reread 19 of her books (not counting any Inspector Wexford) and have about the same number left to read.  Rendell started publishing in 1965 and is going strong.  She has published a novel under each of her names in 2012 and a Wexford in 2011.


I also finished, finally, Dicken's Our Mutual Friend.  Thus far I have read eight of Dicken's major novels and have six to go.  I read three Susan Hill Simon Serailleur mysteries, and  Karin Slaughter's Fractured.  Climate seems to have a big effect on whether I like a book-- Karin Slaughter writes about Atlanta and her characters are always dripping sweat and chafing miserably in the heat.  Susan Hill's books are set in England where it is usually cold and rainy and I feel much more comfortable.

William was the youngest camper but not by much.  The camp was full of three generation families and that meant lots of children-- there was a just two, a nearly two and a four year old and lots and lots older.  I wanted desperately to hike the Baldface Circle but it was hot and humid every day and the 3-4 mile hikes we did seemed like plenty to me.  The Maine Chapter of the AMC plans a fall weekend at CRC and I will have a much better chance of making the hike in cooler weather.  John did it and was the oldest of the group--- he had no problem.

The hike I did not take

My hikes with Eliza and family were the Deer Hills, Mt. Crag, Blueberry, Black Top, Sabattus and the Deer Hill Spring.  CRC is unsettling to me-- Our first year there was 1982-- 30 years ago--  Eliza was not quite one, I was young and relatively slender.   Admittedly the chamber pots with which we were supplied in the first couple of years have disappeared, as have the old fashioned bowl and pitcher washing sets, but otherwise CRC has changed little in the intervening years-- the lodge, the dining hall, the bathrooms, and the cabins are much the same.  Now I am stout and matronly and fit nicely into the group of grandmothers sitting on the porch knitting-- the passage of years is tough to take.

Perhaps it was a desperate grab for youth that made me participate in a contest to guess the number of items in this candy jar.  My guess of 213 was the nearest to the correct count of 217 and the booty was mine.  Another highlight of the week-- thankfully there are no pictures-- were my several trips down the rock slides in the Cold River.  I had done it years ago but the river is aptly named and I was certain that my days of sliding were long gone-- seized by reckless impulse, however,I plopped in with my clothes on and had a wonderful half hour.

William's idea of a toy is an iPhone, an iPad, an iPod, a camera or my headlight-- any of which he invariably prefers to the kind of toy tractor visibly neglected on the porch behind him.  Of great interest to me is that he clearly understands the different purposes for which those items are used-- never confuses a camera with a phone for example, or a phone with a remote.  He can activate the iPad, swipe to unlock and select a game icon flawlessly-- and he knows how to go to the Netflix icon and watch a video to his taste.  Scary.