Monday, March 17, 2014

Holi - A Hindu Celebration of Color

I took the boys to a celebration of Spring on Saturday.  The Hindu holiday of Holi.  It was an  amazing experience to be sure.  Bright powder pigment - a rainbow of color - is smeared, tossed, and dumped onto other folks, a ceremony of joyful fun to celebrate the return of Spring in all it's colorful glory.  The boys had a blast.  I admit I was hesitant at first, but if you are there, you inevitably get pulled into the celebration.   All of us needed triple showers in the end, and Anders white t-shirt is no longer white...and neither is Kuba's hair.   You can see Anders, Kuba and I in the pink boxes in the aerial shot.  This shot is before I got "into it," and before I took Kuba's hat off.  I should've left it on!
      
 

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Rube Goldberg


    Never enough, never tired of watching closely. 

Water and Ice








  
  

 

This winter has been water and ice.  Mostly ice.  It's March 11 and we are expecting another 20 inches of snow tomorrow, soon to be more water - or ice.  Lake Champlain is frozen from Vermont all the way to New York.  It hasn't done this since 2007.  99% solid ice.  And Lake Champlain is the 6th largest lake in the United States.  That means it's been mighty cold.   

It's been treacherous walking, exciting to look at, and impossible to wait out.  Spring is here in about 9 days and we are not even close to the great thaw.  Our barn door is frozen open, and stray cats have come to howl there.  Racoons have devoured one chicken - our Emily gone on a late night, dinner to a family of four masked looters.  The chickens are finally brave enough to come out and skid across the crusty snow.  Our driveway gate is frozen in place.  Ice everywhere.   

The boys have skied a lot, sled down sheer ice hills, and carefully picked their way down icy sidewalks while I have been thinking our luck will surely run out before an elbow or wrist is broken in a fall.  We have a household bet going on the date our driveway (which is covered in 6 inches of ice still, maybe more) will finally be free of its last trace of ice.  I put a bet in for the end of April.   Everyone put a dollar in the jar - all of us hoping to lose.  And despite this unusual science experiment of a winter, we have noticed the beauty.  Ice is remarkably beautiful.   Even so, we have had enough and are ready now for the return of the equally  beautiful and much warmer green. 






Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Famous




We had an amazing conversation the other day, Kuba and I.  We were driving somewhere....maybe to my mom's house and our conversation rolled onto the topic of being famous.  Don't ask me how we ended up there. I asked Kuba if he was going to be famous for something, what might he be famous for?  He thought very carefully for a moment and then said,  "Definitely my drawings, or my sketchbook." 
And then a nano second later he recanted, saying "NO, NO!  That's not it!!!   
I know what I would be famous for.....my love!!!!!     
I would be famous for my L O V E!!!! 
Yes, that's what I'll be famous for.