Apple Day!

Eleven years old, this tradition!  These three girls have been at every Apple Day, if you include the first one when they were all in utero. 

The sun always shines on Apple Day.  As Melinda pointed out, that may have something to do with our selective scheduling based on the forecast.  Or it may just be the universe smiling on us.

Eddy's fruit farm is nothing fancy.  Just row upon row of apple trees and grapevines, with open space here and there and surrounded by trees.  It is simple, and simply beautiful.  The only activity going on?  Picking apples.  And people flock to it, and wander in the sunshine and pick apples and eat them and laugh and play and take idyllic photos. I am not saying we are unique in our Apple Day tradition!  But that does not diminish my love for it. And we are among the few who add "tailgating" to the experience, treating ourselves to donuts and coffee and snacks in the sunshine and letting the day linger.  This year the coffee was iced thanks to the crazy-warm temperatures and we set up our chairs in the shade of our hatchbacks and soaked it all up for a good hour. A soft breeze came up as the late afternoon light slanted down on us and I was overcome with gratitude for nature and weekends and apples and friends. 

 Other happenings this week: 

Speaking of amazing, universe-smiling weather-- our little Forest Hills Riders have had glorious afternoons for riding every day so far.  We've had four "practices" so far and I was just so pleased on our most recent foray to see the girls really warming up to the experience.  They are chatting amongst themselves as they ride, confidently heading along their route-- and stopping to enjoy nature along the way.  Perfection.  We spent quite a bit of time this week with these ducks, who were enthusiastically named and renamed by our crew.  Our favorite was Chocolate Milk, the one you see headed towards us in this photo.

The girls also discovered several patches of Touch-me-nots and there was so much squealing and hand waving as they popped open the seed pods...

On Wednesday Nat and I soaked up the September light on an evening date to Holden Arboretum, using our after-hours member's privileges to explore new paths in the peaceful evening.

It was lovely.  We will be doing this again-- many more paths to discover!

Thursday Jack participated in his first Invitational meet.  SO many people in one spot!  Felt quite strange and exciting.  There were at least 6 schools running, some of them with huge teams.  I was proud of our boy for staying near the middle of the pack and even pushing himself to pass a few runners at the end.  He did his two miles in 14:43, which is over a 5 minutes improvement from his baseline run this season.  It's so fun to watch your child learn and improve.

Fun with pets!  These two terrible photos show the little drama that has played out over the past few days.  Sunny got a new toy, a little ball with feathers and a bird head that tweets quite enthusiastically when batted.  She loves it madly.      

                                                 

So does the dog, it turns out.  This is her carefully guarding this tiny little toy as the cat bides her time and waits to get it back.  I just love these two animals together.  They are constantly amusing. 

Friday Boulecard had a drive-thru/ walk up parade, complete with ice cream, goodie bags, and the chance to see our terrific teachers and staff in person.  

Dragged Jack along and he spent a bit of time wandering and gazing on his own.  Walking down memory lane, pehaps? 

Equinox

I think I am done counting days.  The pandemic continues and there continue to be changes and updates, and there continues to be fear and worry and plenty of bad news in the world, and we continue to adapt and seek ways to thrive.  But I think at this point this is just called life.   I fully plan to continue to chronicle it all for you, and these posts and our way of life will undoubtedly continue to be colored by the spectre of Covid for many many days to come.  They just won't be numbered.

Mid September has brought a spate of sunshine and cool temperatures and we've taken advantage of the last of the long days here at the tail end of summer.

Visited a field of sunflowers with Gram.  

And Ivy officially inherited Andrew, my beloved childhood doll.

Ivy and friends have kicked off the inaugural season of the Forest Hills Riders. The girls ride 4 miles 2 times a week and it is officially a tradition to run down (and then walk back up) the sledding hill.  I am so grateful for my new schedule that allows me to be home right after school and be the parent in charge for these outings.  For the next few weeks our riding days are on my "work from home" days which makes it even easier.  I am soaking up my short commute and extra time with Ivy (Jack keeps to himself in his room for virtual school, and does not really need/ want my help, it turns out).  We return to in-person instruction in Solon on October 5th, which is great news as it means the virus is trending down successfully in our county.  But it still feels jarring and scary to think about being exposed to all those new people, and to have to relearn our jobs all over again, mere moments after we acheived proficiency with full remote....  The good news?  Even with teaching in person I'll be able to get home in time to ride with these girls. 

Nat and I have enjoyed lake sunsets three times and this view just never gets old. 

We visited Whiskey Island for the first time in a while and I always forget what a great spot it is.  On this night we had the park to ourselves and the light and air were soft and cool and our dog was so happy and all was right with the world. 

We have partially revived the Boss Dog Run Club!  Not officially, and only up to three of us so far-- but gosh it is great to spend time with my sweet running friends again. 

More beach!  This time with Jack!

Our weekend brought a laid back Saturday and an "Adventure Sunday"-- the best combination.

We spent Saturday morning helping our friends do some landscaping at their rental property and then hosted all the girls while they finished up.  Our favorite trio played with total engagement for a good 4 hours in the backyard.  Much of that time was spent re-creating their own version of the show "Alone," where they attempted to build a shelter and survive in our old stick-nest in the backyard, with nothing more than platefuls of nutritious lunch and an entire box of matches. 

We also put up our tent to air it out in the hopes of *maybe* doing a weekend of camping this fall. The girls promptly moved in there for the rest of the day.  As close to "inside time" as they will be getting with each other for a while now that school has started up.  We all dread the oncoming winter and the isolation it is going to bring from our loved ones, since we are all now out of our summer "bubble" and we'll have to keep space to keep them safe.  Necessary, but so sad. So!  Soaking up days like this one, where the weather allows safe socializing and time together outside.  There's always Zoom for January.

In national news-- and along the lines of despair for the future-- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg died on Thursday.  So for those of you not following politics at the moment-- this is pretty much the death knell for democracy. Ginsberg, a tiny powerhouse who literally gave her life fighting for gender equality and rights for us all, also kept the Court from leaning entirely right.  The timing of her death opens the door for Trump to get ANOTHER Supreme Court pick and you know he'll pick the absolute worst person for the job and there will go any interpretation of the Constitution that does not involve complete subjugation of women and elimination of rights and protections for minorities. I would not put it past Trump's Court to amend the constitution in favor or full dictatorship at this point. 

It is a terrifying time to be an American.

Our only hope lies in getting 4 or more Republican Senators to stand with Democrats and block Trump's nominee- much like how ALL of them blocked Obama from picking a new Justice 248 days before the election!  Crazy that the whims of 4 overly-powerful rich white people are all that stand between us and the end of democracy. 

That and the outcome of the November 3rd election.  So instead of succumbing to despair, we got out and delivered "Go out and vote, dammit!" door hangers for the Heights 4 Biden group.  Have to do something. 

We also took a deep breath and went on with our weekend, because its pretty much a moral obligation to enjoy the kind of weather we had.  Also if the end of America as we know it is nigh, we'd best go enjoy what's left of these good times.

What better place to do that than the African Safari Wildlife Park?  

How can you not have a great day when you get to have bison stick their giant heads into your car?

And a wide variety of deer.

And Llamas (who also spit at alpacas who get in their way)...

...and shaggy cows.

Joy abounded.

So did bison drool. 

And touching a giraffe is magical.

We splurged on the "feed all the animals" package for the walking zoo too, and it was totally worth it.  

Giant tortoises move pretty fast for lettuce, it turns out, and they are a little intimidating when they come at you from all sides...

A whole corral-full of bunnies?  Why yes, thank you!! We now want to add a giant lop to our menagerie. 

And the budgies were fantastic, swarmign to us when we stepped in the aviary, then keeping us company as we walked, sitting on the "budgie sticks" (popsicle sticks with a dop of suet on the end)...

Also there was this scrawny peacock who was my favorite. 

I am so grateful that my children love animals.  They have soft hearts underneath all the tween whining and teen apathy, and those hearts were on full display on Sunday.  Worth the drive and the cost of admission, that's for sure. 

Our mindset in the midst of this new world we live in seems to be that weekends don't end on Sunday.  Sometimes on Monday night you go watch the sunset and find sea glass with your honey.  You turn towards the glittering, pastel light in the midst of darkness and hold on to at the world turns.  The equinox has come and gone and the light outside is starting to fade.  We'll just have to find the light within us to get us through.