Summer Starlet

What to do when you get off a plane

....swim in the sea, that very day:

Though that may look like a 5 year old, it is in fact Lena:
If you can see the greenish line encircling this area of the beach, it is a type of net-barrier to keep out jellyfish when there is a problem (which is rather common).


And start the morning off today with fresh chocolate croissants from our bakery:
Estelle slept from 10 pm to 9:30 this morning, no problems at all.
Lena, on the other hand........ well, it could have been worse!

Vive La France!

After this....(don't be deceived, it looked like this for one hour. The rest was sheer hell. Shouda gone with the Benadryl. Dang)There was this:


Hallelujah. To bed.

Uncle Cedric's House

Thursday we left New Hampshire and made our way back to VT. We stopped off at Cedric's for fun in the sun.
Yet another Swing! Estelle is big enough now to really have a good ride on Cedric's rope swing near his driveway.

Free as a bird.....
Going for a ride
Picking peas
Picking and eating warm wild blueberriesDown at the pond, the fun begins:
Surveying the lay of the land
Jumping off the dock to cousin CalvinCalvin catches a frog to show to Estelle

Digging in the sand


Finished castles:
Notice the nice reflection of their house-
A few tunes


After ice cream and blueberry pie (Estelle's!), it was playtime with Cousin Cal:
Then off we went to Cabot Plains, an area above their home that I had never been to:
With beautiful views of many mountain ranges, it was a spectacular place to be at sunset on a warm July evening. Here's Estelle gathering the State Flower, red clover:

Always like to visit the cemetery....
Susan walked up and joined up with Charlie, their new dog whom the girls really enjoyed:
What better place for your final rest?


What a wonderful, lovely time we had. We drove home to Glover as darkness fell, bellies full of food and minds full of beautiful images, like this one:
Thank you Cabot and Cedric & Co!

Live Free or Die

Vermont may be the Green Mountain State, but The Granite State (NH) is "live free or die". That's what we've been up to these past few days.....
Lena has fun in a clothes hamper. Both girls demonstrate somersaults.
Homemade playdough
Swimming without arm-floats (with a grown-up right next to her of course).

Jumping off the ladder.....(yes I know that looks just like me but it is in fact Lisa).
Picking fresh green beans in a bountiful garden....

Making a blueberry pie with berries we picked ourselves!
Piecrust made from scratch (good old Crisco!)
Using my mother's rolling pin which has made A LOT of pie crusts. Like, A LOT.
Blueberry jam - watching the whole process start to finish:
Let's have a little quiz: who can put these photos in the right order?
Photo A

Photo B
Photo C
Photo D
Photo E
Photo F
Please email your guesses with the order of the photos and I'll announce the winner(s) next time.
Meanwhile, above, looking at photos - living free! But below, the "or die" part- here is Estelle listening to the news that Lola, my sister Martha's cat whom you have seen pictured recently on this blog, was hit by a car and killed....
Back to happy thoughts: more living free: Sunday night fiddle concert on the town green:

Above: Lena in some sort of wierd NH mating ritual with another toddler, baring her belly. Below, magic carpet ride in the land of the free...
More living free, dancing in front of the gazebo....

A little French/Nicoise charm: Lisa makes "socca" (chick pea flour savoury crepe) with flour she bought whilst visiting me:
Playdough rules
Plunking out freedom on the ivories:
Playmobile NEVER dies! These toys date back almost 30 years!
What a fabulous stretch of days here in New Boston, NH - we have been in the pool everyday except one - and the first 3 days we spent a LOT of time in the pool. Visiting Aunt Estelle, hosting Mary, Terrence, Noah and Miranda.
Story hour this morning at the library, picking berries, playgrounds with swings (no photos sorry - not that anyone needs yet another shot of my kids on a swingset), swimming and swimming and swimming, videos of Charlotte's web, Winnie the Pooh and The Red Balloon. Pink Playdough, Playmobile, Duplo Train, mousquitos, an old-time storyteller.....we SURE have packed it all in! THANK YOU Lisa and Dan and Mom!