caught up

Between travels, visits, garden planting, between baby sitting, schmoozing with folks, cooking, cleaning, writing, publishing Like a Swallow, between all those things and so many more, I ran out of time this past half-year. For instance, I did not put together photo books of trips taken. I did not start in on my new book project. I did not do a whole lot of things that I needed to finish up this summer. 

But today I plunged into most if not all that. I worked like an energizer bunny churning out pages of photo book material until all that was put to rest. Done.

One may well ask -- why bother with photo books? Ocean is like a photo book! Anyone who wants to look back on a trip where I would have been present with my camera need only flip back to those blog pages.

Well yes and no and maybe. The books are mostly for the kids, though I admit to liking them as well. They tell a very limited story and they keep things in order: there is a beginning, there is an end. Ocean is harder to read. Too, Ocean may not last. I've done nothing to assure its longevity. At some point blogger will fizzle, Flickr will disintegrate. The internet will have moved on. The books, on the other hand, will stay. Or at least my own copies will be there on the shelf to leaf through on a cool autumnal day.

Speaking of cool autumnal days, we are having one right now!

Yep, breakfast at the kitchen table!

Apart from finishing up photo book projects, I spend a while (on Zoom) with my two friends who live in warmer climes. I tell them my furnace is on. They shiver vicariously. We have a grand afternoon catching up!

There's more! I have an evening dinner out with the young family. This is something that Sparrow has especially wanted -- more gogs time. 

Sure, it's just one evening meal, but still, it's at the Thirsty Goat -- a place they love, and we have a wonderful time eating, and being happy that it's Friday, and that we have another week in our pockets, and everyone is feeling just fine!

(she borrows my scarf and immediately looks ten years older)

(He's drawing!)

(food, of the pub type: they eat it all, I eat it all...)

It's too cold to eat outside, but we do hang out for a few minutes after dinner, at the fire pit.

The rainbow kids, ready for whatever season comes next! 

(On the way out, those tempting machines...)

I drive home deeply satisfied. A day of accomplishments. Of happy moments around the table, of love.