Suddenly Summer

Summer arrived out of nowhere yesterday, when temperatures jumped from the 50s to the 80s. That's one funny thing about Vermont: the transition from winter to summer takes place all of a sudden, without much of the traditional springtime. The kids celebrated by putting on their swimsuits and running through the sprinkler.



Fortunately (or unfortunately) I stopped the video right before Gavin dispensed with his swimsuit altogether. So much more fun to celebrate summer by running around the yard naked!

Austin spent the morning clearing brush and the afternoon spreading crushed slate around the ground in the carriage house so we can use it as a garage. A guy came last week with a mini-excavator and some loads of slate to help create the driveway. Now Sam isn't the only road builder in the family! Austin is justifiably proud of his road and his parking space. Next thing we'll see is a basketball hoop up there on the wall. Though I think we'll have to find a door for the hayloft or they will be chasing a lot of balls upstairs.

While we were finishing up with the slate the kids were doing a "science experiment" with mud.

They were so filthy (and we were so sweaty) we decided to go out back to wade in the river. It's still a little cold yet to try the swimming hole -- the water still feels like snow runoff! Brrrr!

Gavin's quote of the day: "Mom, I hope we get to have summertime tomorrow, too!"

Hard at Work!

How much wood would a wood chopper chop if the wood chopper had a STRONG BACK and an EIGHT-POUND MAUL?

Answer: one whole cherry tree that stood in the way of his new driveway to the back of the carriage house. Now all these logs are ready to go into the basement for next winter, and the wood chopper is ready to down some serious Advil.

Help Needed!

My sister Christina needs your help with an English paper! Last summer, after her fiance Chad died in a car accident, she started keeping a journal. Now she's enrolled in an English class at Montana State and she's writing a paper on the experience of journaling. If you keep any kind of a journal (and I think a blog counts!) please send Christina your thoughts on these questions:

What kinds of journals do you keep and do you keep more than one?

What do you find to be the most beneficial aspect of keeping a journal?

What are some of your favorite journal writers?

How do you think the journal has evolved in the past 20 years?

She can be reached at christinabeana2000@yahoo.com. Thanks so much for your help!

Easter Eggs

There was some serious Easter Egg Creativity going on at our house last night!

Oxford

Last week I went to England to give a paper at Worcester College, Oxford. This is what the college looks like.

On the right end of this building is the dining hall. I wish I'd had the guts to take a picture of the inside. It was just like Hogwarts -- a tall, narrow room with long rows of tables that had wooden benches to sit on (the only real chairs were for the "College Fellows" -- the Oxford professors who sat at a table at the head of the room.) The food was wonderful, though it was brought to us by real people, not house elves.

I presented my paper in a conference room with stone walls and glass doors looking out over a quiet river, with geese, ducks, and weeping willow trees. (No whomping willows, as far as I could tell.) The trees and spring flowers were all in bloom. It was the perfect setting to talk about parish church architecture -- really, the perfect setting to talk about just about anything!