Summer Fun! Part 1

Years ago I read a book by Tasha Tudor, and in it she weaves a summer childhood image that is so delicious I was drawn right in and lived it right along with her. In her recollection she talked about how she and her cousins would make up plays, with costumes and all, to perform after dinner for the grown ups. She talked about running barefoot in the woods and all the natural adventure they had, which included laying in the tall grass watching the clouds go by. When I read this, those many years ago, I vowed to open the door to the arts and freedom in nature especially all summer long. One way we have maintained this tradition is sending the kids to Theatre in the Open....a marvelous theatre camp outdoors at Maudsley State Park. The kids spend all day outside from 9am - 2pm! Above is Isaac with one of his Fairy houses. This year they learned about body expression...so their performance was done through gestures with a narrator. Their dance blended all the age groups together with a slight rock beat. Isaac looks forward to attending again next year :-)

One of the special treats to going to Theatre in the Open is we stay with my parents. My parents are all about the grand-babies so it isn't unusual to see things like the picture above! One of the perks of staying with them is they live on an Island off Newburyport MA with a beautiful, rugged barrier beach of the Atlantic Ocean. We spend a lot of time there...mostly after 4pm when most beach-goers have gone home.

The photo above I am going to frame. I wove a wonderful story about the little merman captivated by the sea.

Plum Island Reservation has a fabulous rock-hounding area. You have to work a bit for it because it's about 6 miles down a dirt road and you have to battle greenheads to get there. It's worth the trouble. This visit pictured above we were just coming home from camp and decided to enjoy the water even though we didn't bring our swimsuits!There is a wonderfully open ended playground called Mosely Pines just before the chain bridges that we just love! I don't have a photo but there is a huge tree stump that stands about 15 feet high and about as big around as my kitchen table. They have climbers grips all over it for kids to scale. There is a huge zipline and trails, like the one above, to the river. On this hike Isaac found a couple of jellyfish stranded in the reeds from the recent storm. Of course what would living on the water be without a kayak trip or two! The basin is a great place for young adventurers and one day soon I know Isaac will be venturing out without the adult escort.We know the cousins are all getting bigger when they ask to sleep in a tent alone. They made it as far as sundown ;-)

At the last minute we decided to drive up into Maine to see my sister and her family for a few days. We enjoyed swimming off their boat and tubing. Isaac actually went alone! He also jumped off the top deck of the boat which I am even a little scared to do! We got our usual 4 gallons of Maine blueberries, which were small this year and I think we nearly went blind picking over them to bag. We visited the Maine State Museum and then visited the Maine Desert...yes, I said ME and Desert. The owner of this once fertile farmland cut down too many trees too fast and did not rotate his crops and the whole land turned to desert. Sound familiar? Above is part of the 50 acres that is left of the original 300 acres back in the 1800's. Mother Nature is reclaiming this land - it gives me hope!