June 2014

Last Week of School

 Last day of Fourth Grade for Jude

Mrs. Hunting-Knight made teaching look so easy! She was a pro!

First Week of Summer

Summer in Portland is not like summers in most places. Yesterday my new neighbor from Austin, Texas saw me walking across the courtyard with Jude and Auggie. The three of us were sopping wet! The boys were in their bathing suits, I should have been! It was pouring cats and dogs and the boys were laughing and having a happy time...as they always do. "Hey Ruth, have these kids been in a swimming pool in this weather!" John asked incredulously. "Yes!" I answered, "An hour of laps every day... rain or shine!" I answered and he just couldn't believe it!

Auggie,  age 7, came in first in today's swim meet! He's swimming laps
for an hour a day! I am amazed!

Jude couldn't compete today because he was in a lacrosse tournament.
These boys are busy!

As for Granny...she just goes with the flow and feels so lucky
to share these precious days with Jude and Auggie.
Here Auggie is learning to use my camera...pretty good!
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Having won the first two games, Jude peals off his protective gear
so he can have some lunch and get ready for more games in the afternoon.

Charlie, Jude's best friend came to watch the games.

Proud Daddy
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City Life in Portland
Last week I hiked the Opal Creek Trail in the Bull Run Wilderness Area

 I sing with "Portland Sings!" and we had a concert in The Old Church last week. 

(Half the group is cut off)

For the summer session we are singing African songs and this is a poem that spilled out of me when I returned home last Tuesday night 

There’s the beat of the feet

And the stars in the sky

The black of the skin

And the whites of the eyes

There’s the melody first

And then so much more

The chirp of some birds

A lion’s roar

The jungle is busy

And our voices are joyous

As we grow a crescendo

with our African chorus

Then ever so slowly

Like the closing of day

Our song slows down

And soon fades away.

I have two beautiful gardens this summer: one is on my tiny deck that sits five floors up above Sandy Boulevard and the other is a ten foot square plot in the Grant Community Garden just a few blocks from my apartment. Both are thriving! Today I dug some potatoes and picked peas, lettuce, kale and a bouquet of sweet peas in the Grant Garden. Living in an apartment is so manageable and stress free!

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My garden starts with the kale, then collards, then carrots, and you don't see

the eggplant, potatoes, peas, basil, lettuce, marigolds, and pole beans! The nasturtiums and twining

with sweet peas just for decoration and fragrance. 10'x10'! It's amazing what one can grow in a very small plot!

At the closing of the day, there's nothing better than a good book. Jude is reading The Hardy Boys!

On my table await Second Nature by Michael Pollan, Alice in Wonderland, which I never read, and This day, Collected and New Sabbath Poems by Wendell Berry. I'm not very excited about any of them, but I am determined to read Alice in Wonderland at the very least.

I like this photograph. To me it represents letting go of stuff stored in old containers and finding peace and harmony in the natural world.

Peace

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A day later....what happens when life gets too busy...

a startling visual

a reminder

of the importance

of mindfulness