Weekend mosaic: sugar on snow & framing walls
Posted on | April 3, 2006 |
We wake up baffled about the time. As usual, the three of us are a tangle of limbs, warm skin against skin. Bean has taken to nuzzling into the nook between my chin and shoulder when he wakes up, and today he snuggles in and starts humming a little ditty that is tuneless and dreamy. Unlike us, he’s ready to start the day when the first sun rays poke through the shades. He scoots off the bed before we can catch him and runs to greet our houseguest.
We head to Starbucks for coffee this morning with our guest, and then to the little bakery kiosk for warm croissants with ham and swiss cheese. We take the paper sacks to of goodies to the park, where Bean runs after pigeons and tries to climb everything in sight. We take turns eating mouthfuls of flakey pastry and running after him as he goes after his fancy: up the courthouse stairs, after the dog he sees at the other side of the park, or towards the gulls that have gathered for handouts. “Buh, buh, buh” he says pointing at the birds.
After our friend leaves in a flurry of waved goodbyes (waving being Bean’s newest fascination), DH and I slip away to a sugar on snow party at our neighbor’s house while Bean and the babysitter head to the park. At our house we walk hand in hand down through the field with the gnarled apple trees and stalky grasses to the neighbor’s drive. Their dog lopes down to greet us, her ears as soft as rabbit’s fur.
We meet other neighbors over bowls of snow (saved in a cooler from the last snowfall a few weeks ago) with hot syrup poured on top. The syrup turns to taffy and is sticky sweet. Everyone we meet is kind, down-to-earth and genuine: the doctor who keeps sheep, the family down the road with teenage girls dying for baby sitting jobs, the stone mason, the carpenter who also is an avid cyclist. This is what home is like.
After hours of banter we make our way back up the hill, finding time to kiss in the sunny, sawdust filled dining room before embarking on the task of framing yet another wall. It’s hours of measuring, cutting, re-cutting, laughing, kissing, hammering two-by-fours into place, with a stop for Italian sodas and a trip to the general store. Like out of an old movie, it sells everything: ice cream, panty hose, hunting rifles, sandpaper, milk, wine, fishing lures, twinkies, steaks. A good place to know about when the roads are bad.
By six it’s still light out and I pull into the driveway to find Bean digging in the dirt in the front yard. He is so absorbed in his project I barely get a hello. For dinner we share a bowl of chicken soup, Bean using his very own spoon, and somehow the stars are already out.
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13 Responses to “Weekend mosaic: sugar on snow & framing walls”
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April 3rd, 2006 @ 2:09 am
You make me want to live there!
April 3rd, 2006 @ 7:40 am
“somehow the stars are already out” …I love how that ends.
And you look baffled in your banner now. Or scared of the birds. *cue hitchcock music*
April 3rd, 2006 @ 8:06 am
I love that kind of shop with everything in it. There’s a cookware shop near here in Tunbridge Wells that’s so old, wonky and crammed full of everything that it’s like stepping into something out of a Harry Potter book.
April 3rd, 2006 @ 8:14 am
Nah, Liz, not baffled or scared, just watching
April 3rd, 2006 @ 9:01 am
What a terrific post! I love the community that your new home is going to provide ~ how fun to meet like-minded neighbors and even better…..teenaged girls dying to babysit? That is like liquid gold in my book!
That type of general store is my most favorite of all; everytime you visit, there’s something new to see, something you can get that you didn’t even know you needed!!
April 3rd, 2006 @ 9:19 am
You make your life sound so utterly delicious…I hope you’re enjoying every morsel of it while it’s happening.
LOVE the new banner.
April 3rd, 2006 @ 9:58 am
Sounds like a terrific day. I love the new masthead.
April 3rd, 2006 @ 10:33 am
Boy, I hope you are appreciating everything about your life right now. We are so in between everything, hoping to find a teaching position for my husband in some ideal place with seasons and small towns - all there seems to be are hot places in big cities. you are very blessed.
April 3rd, 2006 @ 12:03 pm
oh my… a general store? How charming!!
April 3rd, 2006 @ 12:18 pm
what a day of sweetness…
i love your new banner
but i also have to say
how much i loved the photo
from your old banner…
something about your eyes
hmmm…
k…
starting to sound creepy
and not how i wanted it to come out
so…
i’m going to leave it at that
teehee
April 3rd, 2006 @ 2:36 pm
The new banner is wonderful! Only a little like you’re watching out for the birds…
You have the coolest life, really, and I sense your deep gratitude by the way you write about the big and little things. The way you hold them up and let them catch the light. When I grow up, I want to be more like you.
April 3rd, 2006 @ 5:40 pm
What a lovely sense of peace and contentment your writing evokes for me. It sounds like you had a wonderful weekend.
April 3rd, 2006 @ 11:30 pm
My first visit here, and your writing and great photography make me want to come back.
And this post makes me want to visit New England now