Looks like summer

Again I have not much more to share than pictures. We've spent two days working in the gardens again, plus some reading and some games and some usual, usual stuff. In the garden we raised our vegetable gardens further, added more dirt, marked them off by the square foot, and planted them. That took some of yesterday and much of this afternoon. In other news I worked the book sale this morning (and came home with nothing remarkable) and we went to the Dexter Ice Cream Social after, where Calvin enjoyed the bounce house, the ponies, the ice cream, and we all enjoyed a hay ride. I love our little village. And we have a new vintage/antiques store. We stopped in on our way to the car after the social (and before we got home and gardened in the 90 degree heat) and Calvin was having such a great time admiring all the stuff (where did he learn to do that???) that the owner told us to be sure and bring him back because "he might have the gene," by which I assume he is referring to a retro-loving gene, but I'm not entirely sure.

There wasn't much else to the day, but the evening held a visit from gram and grandpa (who seem to know automatically when we will be exhausted from yard/house work and need not only food but also good company) and an inaugural run for the fire pit. It works. It even makes s'mores.

Beware the s'more monster. He has a chocolate face and beady eyes and because we're up late he's not getting enough sleep. That, after all, is what summer is for.

And the garden is almost done, although we still have more room. We are still on a squash and broad leaf planting break thanks to the squash bugs that got us two years ago (everything I've read said wait three years before trying again), but we've filled our plots with a variety of tomatoes, some peppers (purple peppers!), broccoli, cauliflower, chard, eggplant, and beans. Tomorrow we're headed out to chose other (or more of the same) for the remaining plots. This is our first year with square foot gardening, which you can see we are not following squarely, since you are not supposed to have the same food in abutting squares and our tomatoes are abutting all over the place, but it's a learning process, and we're going to learn this year just how important that spacing really is (although the trial and error method is a bad one here since results depend on other outside variables). Here's hoping for good crops this year.

Antiquarian book fair

When we woke up this morning our backyard was practically under water. Surprise, surprise. The storm that flooded it (again) had woken us up in the middle of the night, giving us fair warning of what to expect, not that this spring's tendencies hadn't already done that. We have not seen the conduits in the neighborhood pond (drainage basin) for over a week now, the water level is so high. But in the wake of last night's storm was a brief respite, and our morning dawned clear and bright and warm.

Today was the Antiquarian Book Fair in Ann Arbor. It's been on our calendar for over a month now, an event we've been looking forward to, a chance to see, touch, and smell such books as we will probably never own, but love to hanker for. We leafed gently through a first edition Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Calvin found several early editions of other books from that series. Being an antiquarian book fair, not a library used book sale, we didn't expect to come home with armloads of great finds, but going seemed like a great way to share our love and respect for books with Calvin. He was the only child there and I think the ticket sellers were a little surprised, if not worried, by his attendance, but he was careful,, respectful the whole time, and clearly interested in the books. He asked several sellers if they had books by L. Frank Baum, and identified with genuine excitement, and to the surprise of many, such books as the Iliad and Arabian Nights. We can think of no better way to teach him the value and importance of things than to fully include him in our own enjoyment of them. And we did come home with a handful of pleasing finds, including the aforementioned Arabian Nights book, two d'Aualaire books (George Washington and Benjamin Franklin), and a 1950s edition of Winnie Ille Pu, or Winnie the Pooh in latin.

There was an additional joy to the morning, even aside from beautiful old books and beautiful weather, in visiting old haunts. The fair was set up in the Michigan Union Ballroom, the very place where Jon and I met, and later got married, so many years ago. The morning was warm with a gentle breeze, the sun bright, and, with many of the students gone for the summer, campus was quiet and clean. I realized this morning that, other than to attend Art Fair, when the campus is almost unrecognizable anyway, we have not taken Calvin to these places that are such giants in our past.

Now that the main University semesters are out for the summer the campus is quieter and more easily traversed, and while somewhere in the back of my mind I've been waiting for this before taking Calvin to the art and history museums, I'd forgotten to be aware that my chance had come. Now here it is. Seeing him on campus between the buildings that loom so largely through my past made him seem so much smaller to me, and this was only over by the Union, not on the main campus greens where I spent most of my waking, or walking, hours. Like taking him to the book fair, spending time on campus seems like a great way to share with him our value for that part of life, for continued learning, and learning, and learning. I feel fortunate to have the university, and all the opportunities it provides, so close by.

So we'll be back, although not likely this week. Since going to campus and visiting the buildings there means walking, the rain that is predicted for much of this week again is likely to put off our return for a while.

waterfowl

It was sunny this morning. Chilly, but sunny. We got an early start because I had to be at the library early in order to work the monthly book sale. I love monthly book sale day. I love talking to other book lovers and I enjoy stretching my organizational skills outside of the home, not to mention I love to shop. But while I was looking for a good copy of the Parlement of Foules, the boys were off looking for other kinds of fowl with our county parks and recreation nature guide. Rain boots, borrowed binoculars, and some winter gear was all they needed. The program was about waterfowl, and they found swans, several varieties of ducks, and even sandhill cranes. I'm feeling jealous. We hear the sandhills in our neighborhood all the time, but have only caught glimpses of them overhead, so this was a treat. I gather that they had a wonderful time, and Calvin keeps telling me that the "red head" duck was his favorite. Jon was most blown away by the powerful and expensive scopes some of the participants brought, and were willing to share with our interested son. And as the program came to a close our wonderful nature guide asked the participants if anyone would like to follow her over to a pond in Ann Arbor for more viewing, an offer which Jon and Calvin readily took her up on. I know Calvin had a great time, and I know he was greatly interested in the birds at the lake, but I understand he may have been a little side tracked by getting to walk over the railroad tracks to get to the second location. It's hard to tell.

Home for the Holidays

Home for the Holidays is the name of Dexter's annual holiday festival which seems to happen on the first Saturday in December. We've attended three years in a row now, making it a regular part of our holiday traditions, and we've enjoyed it more each time, which is probably directly proportional to the age of our youngster.

Home for the Holidays give every child four chances to be confused by the ever-present nature of Santa, starting at breakfast with the Lighthouse Cafe Santa,

then the downtown gazebo Santa,

then the museum santa,

and lastly at lunch with the Koney Island Santa (which we didn't visit). That man is busy.

Ice sculptures in the park,

Cookies and crafts at the Girl Scouts' Bazaar,

Townie Party

Look at me journaling in real time. Unbelievable! With the Art Fairs looming just around the proverbial corner the Townie Party was here again and so, being the lifelong townies that we are, we attended. Six years ago we attended the very first Townie Party which consisted, we think we remember correctly, of a few craft booths for the kids, some live music, and maybe an ice cream vendor, all comfortably housed on the part of Ingalls Mall between the alumni building, the MLB, the fountain, and Washington. I don't remember any streets being closed.

We went again right after Calvin was born when it was in its third year and I remember it being only modestly bigger and we hadn't been back since, so you can imagine our surprise upon turning onto North University and finding the street closed and lined with tents while the entirety of Ingalls Mall between North U and Washington was swarming with people, vendors, and art. In its sixth year the Townie Party has really come into its own.

We walked by all the food vendors at first (a very difficult thing to do with Tios staring us right in the eye) and strolled through the Mall meeting with local businesses, politicians, and art councils along the way; the Boy Choir of Ann Arbor and Wild Swan were there, to name two of our favorites, and we also ran into some of our favorite musicians and friends from our more involved (read: pre-baby) years. We also spent some time chatting with the Dexter Chamber of Commerce (after which they dubbed us "that Dexter Family" and referred to us as such whenever we passed them again, a nice compliment to the older couple on my morning run route who has dubbed me "the Dexter girl" after seeing me run into town so often). The space which used to be the whole of the fair was dedicated to the display and sale of school-aged kids' artwork, row after row of booths that ranged from the over-indulgent to the surprisingly talented, all of which was really overpriced (it wouldn't be an Art Fair if it wasn't, would it now).

Calvin's favorite part, as I'm sure you can tell from the pictures, was the craft booth, which has been an integral part of the Party since its inception six years ago. He also collected a number of stickers from the row of obliging businesses and institutions along our way back to the Tios tent for dinner, which we ate while sitting on the steps of Hill Auditorium. In some ways it was like returning home (to campus, that is), and there was something very special about dinner at the foot of the giant from our past. Other than the music, which was painfully too loud and thankfully closer to the beer garden than to Hill, the Townie Party receives an A+ from us.