Off to Camp

 

On Sunday Jane and Erik went off to camp. To get Jane to her camp, we drove a very pretty route through Vermont and stopped at this scenic view.

 

In the distance you can see a huge power dam.

 

 

At another rest area we met this moose head...

 

We didn't get lost too much and eventually we actually made it to Jane's camp. She got assigned into the coyote cabin. Not sure what to think of that. A cool thing is that one of her class mates from her school was at the exact same camp and they didn't even know that they both were going.

 

After we dropped off Jane, Kate and I slowly made our way back home, stopping for anything that interested us. We both liked this covered bridge.

 

And even although we weren't even geocaching (still haven't found my GPS), we still looked for a geocache, just in case. We didn't find any, even although we have found many on other covered bridges, they seem to be popular geocaching hiding spots.

 

 

It is always nice to look at the water and rocks under the covered bridges.

 

This was the first time ever I saw mailboxes on a covered bridge. What a super cool mailbox location! Maybe we should move there, just to have a mailbox like that!

 

Kate is pointing out interesting architectural details.

 

 

Next stop was the tiniest library we had ever seen. Too bad it wasn't open on Sunday, so we couldn't actually go inside.

 

Now we found ourselves in Littleton where we wanted to eat lasagna, since last Sunday was National Lasagna Day (yeah, I didn't know that either, but Kate had found it somewhere online, so it has to be true)

We didn't found lasagna, but we did find another piano project.

 

Kate had fun playing on it.

 

And even although no stores were open anymore since it was later on Sunday now, we totally enjoyed ourselves by windowshopping. Very creative wooden doll houses in this store.

 

 

 

Since we couldn't find any lasagna, we had pizza instead, since that is Italian too, right, so it's almost the same.

 

Lovely Hike

The weather was nice, we had done too much indoors stuff, so I convinced Erik we should go on a hike together. He wanted to try out the new camera, so all the pictures in this post are made by him, apart from the ones where he is featured.

This bridge does not really seem to go anywhere, but I think it is used for snowmobiles in the winter and maybe 4wheelers at this time of the year.

 

I am not used to finding pictures of myself on my camera, it was nice to have Erik take some.

 

He liked the flowers, here are some black eyed Susans.

 

And a daisy.

 

No idea what this purple flower is, but it looks pretty.

 

This was our destination for the day, the local ex-beaver-pond which is now more and more of a marsh instead of a pond.

 

Interesting looking rock, not sure what it is either.

 

Erik on that bridge in the first picture.

 

Me too, even if the bridge doesn't seem to have made it into the picture.

 

Not sure what is going on with this plant. See how the stem has a thickening and then it gets normal again. Maybe caused by some insect?

 

Some more silly pictures of Erik on the big blocks at the entrance to the trail.

 

We had a great time hiking!

 

Today we did a similar hike again, only we went farther and the grass was still wet from the rain. Not to mention that my camera was out of batteries, so we didn't take it.

There was much whining and gnashing of teeth, especially when the bottom of Erik's pants got wet and he was wet and cold and miserable and everything was wrong and nothing was right.

Let's hope next hike will be better, more like the lovely one from the pictures, instead of the not-perfect one today ^^

Random Snippets

Sylvia is doing a dance camp (same as Dawn, only in a younger group) and thoroughly enjoying it. Tap dance is her favorite. "I like how you have to use your brain and it is really hard, but also really easy at the same time!'

We made a quick but productive farmer's market stop today, which solved all my today's "It is 5:15pm and I have no idea what to make for dinner" problems.

 

We FINALLY have a local place where you can buy falafel sandwiches. At the farmer's market, so we might have to live without them for the winter. For now we are really enjoying them!

We still have 19 pianos to find before the end of the month, I hope we will be able to make our goal of finding all 50. Today was Very Rainy, so not a good piano hunting day.

 

I found a new easy chair at our thrift store today and Sylvia is so happy with it that she insisted on sleeping in it. Didn't seem very comfortable to me for night time sleep, but she is sleeping, so I guess it works. Or maybe dance tired her out so much that she would sleep anywhere.

Cees and Tim are visiting the Netherlands, they should be arriving there around this time.

 

Last week goal was to make crepes and I actually managed to make them and now can put them on my 'easy sweet or savory treat' list. This week's goal is to make Eggplant Parmesan or whatever you call it, so I got an eggplant at the farmer's market today. Let's see whether I actually managed to prepare it.

I am addicted to the fresh carrots we get at the farmer's market, they are just PERFECT. My most blissful moments are when I have a good book and some of those carrots to eat and can do so outdoors on MY deck.

Argh, it is almost midnight, when did that happen? Time for bed!

Happy Birthday, Jane!

 

Lots of presents, including tickets to 'The King and I'.

 

 

She decided she didn't want a cake, but wanted tiramisu instead.

 

Great choice!

They are Back!!!

Sylvia and Kate had a great time at camp. They came back with many stories and very bubbly and happy.

 

Sylvia is wearing her new quilt and it is on her bed now, hopefully helping her to fall asleep. She still is on a camp high, so it might take a while for her to sleep.

 

Kate already went off on a sleepover, since who wants to sleep at home during the summer vacation?

 

This week no one is off to overnight camp, but we have quite a lot of local driving in circles.

Garden Gnome

We found a cute garden gnome at the thrift store and it's happily living in our flower garden. It has a stack of presents next to it, so Sylvia is convinced it's a Christmas Gnome and will keep track of which flowers are naughty or nice...

 

Did some lawn mowing today but it really is too bloody hot to do much!

Cricket Coolness or How Hot Summer Nights Can Be Full of Surprises

It was a hot and steamy night. Way too hot to sleep, at least in my bedroom. This gave me the brilliant idea that I would go sleep outdoors instead.

 

Installed myself on the deck with a sleeping pad right next to one of our solar lights so that I could read in 'bed'. It didn't take long before I was joined by a huge cricket who clearly liked the solar light as much as I did. Even although I enjoyed his beauty, I told him he should go somewhere else because this was MY bed.

 

Not that he listened to me, so I ended up reluctantly moving my pillow a bit farther away from the light and that convinced him to move off the pillow.

 

The temperature was much more comfortable outdoors and the stars were fabulous and the night sounds were soothing, but somehow I still couldn't fall asleep. After counting sheep for a while and pondering the merits of my nice comfortable bed, I decided that maybe I should sleep indoors after all. It shows flexibility to be able to change one's mind, right?

 

But not yet. I was enjoying my experience too much to give it up easily and the universe rewarded me with a falling star.
I stayed for a while waiting for another one, but the show seemed to be over, so I moved all my stuff into the house and wanted to do a few things before I actually went to bed since I wasn't particularly sleepy anymore.

 

I went into my garage where I got greeted by two bats flying around right inside my garage, eating all the insects that must gather there at night. Very cool!

But in the end I did sleep in my soft and fluffy bed and that was just fine.