{p,f,h,r} September, maybe some of August?

Pretty:

button brush (I think)
button brush (I think)
green berries
Unidentified green berries with pretty red stem

On our Suburban Nomad Day, when I have the car and we do all the errands and outside classes,  K found a beautiful fennel.  She asked if she could make up a lunch around it, so I crossed off the ingredients for a lunch I’d planned, and let her run around the store asking the fish monger and produce workers for advice.  We wound up with a soup based on clam juice, with sauted fennel bulb, and carrot, boiled cod, and garnished with fennel fronds.  With just a  little salt and vinegar to balance out the sweet carrot, it was tasty.  We made it again this week, but added potato and used home made veggie broth from the freezer, which had included the simmered-to-mush stalks of the first fennel.

the beautiful fennel
the beautiful fennel

Funny:

My Dad used to use the hearing protectors at the shooting range, but my kids keep it on the vacuum handle so it’s handy when the clean.  This was K’s first time to use the vacuum, with  Ben in college, chores are sifting down the chain.

K vacuuming while wearing hearing protectors
K vacuuming while wearing hearing protectors

Happy:

Dan’s mom saw this bubble juice on Facebook and asked him to work it up for a family reunion over a year ago.  bubbles have become his hobby.  Whenever I need to run to the health food store for gf foods, I wind up buying some guar gum so he doesn’t run out of bubble juice.

Dan through a bubble
Dan through a bubble

Misty damp days are great for bubbles.

Dan waving a bubble on the sidewalk
Dan waving a bubble on the sidewalk

Hot and humid are OK, if the humid is more pronounced than the hot.

Closeup of Dan waving bubbles
Close up of Dan waving bubbles

On Memorial Day, Dan and K brought the bubbles to Capron Park, where they first bumped into the local newspaper reporter who took their picture.

K waving bubbles in the park
K waving bubbles in the park
more of K waving bubbles in the park
more of K waving bubbles in the park

And then into our neighbors who were headed to the zoo.  Since we own a family pass there, they joined them.  I forgot to ask the neighbors if I could post those photos of their kids, but you can take my word for it, they were smiling a lot.

K the bat
K the bat

Yesterday we walked over the Mechanic’s Pond, and the kids specifically wore their rain boots so they could wade.  (In the yucky duck weed.  But oh well.)

Matt and K wading in the Mechanic's Pond
Matt and K wading in the Mechanic’s Pond

I was bound and determined this year not to forget to order paint.  Last year we only did the Barry Stebbing lessons on colored pencil.  But now I need to get to the office store and buy lots of poster board, we’ve used up all I had on hand.

Matt painting
Matt painting

Real:

All of Ben’s classes start at 8AM, so he has to catch the 6:45 train.  This was his first day, cool enough to need a jacket because of the Canadian front holding hurricane Hermine out at sea.

Ben leaving for his first day of college - as seen through a bubble
Ben leaving for his first day of college – as seen through a bubble

Boy does the house feel funny with both Dan and Ben away until dinner.   I know, he could have been staying on campus.  He is sleeping over at my cousin’s house in Boston tonight so he can go to a Cru meeting without having to take the midnight train home.

I think we’ll survive this kids-grow-up-stuff.

Sniff.