Parade of wheels

This is another annual Lord's Point event. Alexis and Ethan decorated their scooters (while Grandpa "did his thing") and then were the lead riders in the parade around the Point!

There was plenty of time to jump off the big dock, crab, play in the sand, and swim at Open Way beach. Everyone was hungry by supper time!

Cousins

The Woodilla cousins, Christopher, Maria, Kathryn and Michael, came for a visit and a good time was had by all. Jack, Christopher and Jill went for a sail and Christopher put his new sailing skills (following a sailing camp in the CHarles River basin) to good use, steering Wind 'n'd Go for most of the time (Jill forgot her camera, so no pics). The others enjoyed the beach, and were joined by the sailors on their return.

Alexis, Ethan, Kathryn and Michael

Mary, David, Sue, Christopher

Maria, Jill

Ty

Jack cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, and after a final dance by the "fantastic four", David and Susan and their four children returned to Boston. We're looking forward to next year already!

Ethan, Kathryn, Alexis, Michael

What's new?

Today was much like other days: swimming, crabbing, and visiting the Seaport (for the third time!). There were new activities such as Ethan rowing and going to the community house by scooters to make fish prints on tee-shirts, but I didn't have my camera handy. Here's a picture of the finished tee shirts. (It was billed as arts and crafts, but in actuality the children stood and waited while the adults made the prints with a wood block.)

One new event at the Seaport was when I was part of the capstan crew to raise the life-boat back on the Conrad

after it was launched for a "Man Overboard!" drill. It was hard work!

Repeats

By popular request we went back to the Seaport this morning to drive the tug again and build a toy boat. This afternoon it was back to the beach and more crabbing -- plus the annual photo standing on the big rock. Another fun day for all.

Pictures of the day

After a morning on the beach we went to the Seaport. Ethan steered a model tug using a remote control

while Alexis and Mommy enjoyed a play on the village green.

Dinner was served poolside ...

(The adults enjoyed lobster but there's no reason to make my followers jealous with a picture!)

Two not-to-be-missed events

This morning we went to the aquarium

Alexis liked the seahorses and jellyfish, and Ethan liked the sea lions and feeding the birds. We also watched the white whales being fed and touched sand sharks (they felt rough) and sting rays. The penguins looked as if they were flying as they sawn underwater.

Monday is still Bingo night on Lord's Point! Alexis, Ethan, Mary and I all thought we had lucky cards and we almost had five in a row several times -- but someone else called "Bingo!" before our row was complete. Maybe we'll win next year!

Sunday

Is waffle day - making and eating (with whipped cream and strawberries).

Followed by crabbing and swimming -- there as an off-shore breeze and it was very hot on the beach.

Tina came for the afternoon to see Mary, Alexis, and Ethan, and Steve Brown stopped by between Cape and Milford. It was good to see them both and catch up on news (though of course I'd seen Tina last week with Tami and the girls.) Our guests left late afternoon -- just as well

because (a) there was an extended rain shower and (b) Jack discovered there was no propane for the bar-b-q.

Shop, eat, and play.

Morning,

evening,

and beach time in between.

Day 1

8 AM

9 AM

11 AM

REPEAT!

A good day with lots of fun!

Ready or not ....

Here they are!

(In)active

Most of the day was spent doing "background" tasks for tomorrow's arrival of the Gig Harbor gang: shopping for staples, rearranging furniture, hunting out toys, etc. I did have some time to relax, through we did not manage a sail. More tomorrow - they don't arrive till nighttime.

I do have an eclectic reading list. I'm "simultaneously" (by chapter) reading Dewey's "Art as Experience", Douglas Wolk's "Reading Comics" (both for my graphic novel on Art, Design, and Organization), John Hess's "The Galapagos: Exploring Darwin's Tapestry" (required reading before our trip there next October), and Salman Rushdie's "The Enchantress of Florence" ("free reading"). The beer was good for helping to digest such diverse content.

Tall tales

First a repair job -- a new motor on one of the clearstory windows. Success! We can now open it for the first time in a long while. (Yes, that grey rectangle under the ladder is a door!)

Later a sail into Stonington Harbor to check on a very tall sloop mast with four spreaders that we have seen from outside the breakwater. The boat -- more properly the yacht -- Whisper, out of George Town Bermuda, was huge too. I'd forgotten my camera, but she was easily found on the internet. Take a look at the details from builder Holland Jachtbouw. And if you decide to charter her, please invite me on board!

Plans are foiled

Just when I was looking forward to new photo-editing techniques ... the link to purchase Photoshop was down, though they were sorry for the inconvenience -- as I was informed in about a dozen languages. Probably it will cost more when the site reopens. I hope not.

Sunday's Post

Sunday's guests: Tina and dog Lisel, her daughter Tami and her daughters, Katya and Natalia, and Tina's ex-husband (Tami's father) Phil. Tami is Mary's childhood friend who lives in Moscow and spends the summers in the US visiting grandparents. Unfortunately her time in Connecticut did not overlap with Mary's this year, but they came to visit anyway. (Tina used to spend summers in her family's "cottage" almost next door to ours.) And this year Phil was visiting fromOregon because otherwise he would not see his granddaughters. We have not seen him since the divorce, over 25 years ago. He was still the same. Everyone had a good time. Tina, Jill and Tami talked, Phil shared his opinions with Jack, Natalia spent the afternoon in the water, Katya searched for shells then learned about them from books on my bookshelf. Liesel spent most of the time asleep in her crate under the deck. We had corn and hamburgers and watermelon and ice cream. We made plans to visit Tami in Moscow.

And now I am going to buy Photoshop so I can make one photo with everyone in it!

Milestones

Sailed out through Wicopesset Passage (between the east end of Fishers Island and the rock clump known as Wicopesset Island into Long Island Sound. I don't think we've been here before in Wind 'n Go -- the last time must have been in Nerisa when sailing to Block island, and even then we probably went through Watch Hill Passage. So, as you can gather, the day was fair, the wind steady, and the tide high.

This evening we celebrated Daniel's 18th birthday with a BBQ and Diana's famour multicolored cake (I think she's made this for 18 years now!)

Round the marks

The day was gray and overcast, but there was a steady breeze (not strong enough to be called a wind) from the NE and we had a good sail: Out to bell 3 by the Stonington outer breakwater, then round nun 2 and past Latimer Light to the north heading towards Noank. We passed nun 18 and were within striking distance of can 7 at the Mystic river entrance, but the wind was flukey inshore so we headed back towards home, skirting Ellis Reef marker and White Rock, before making a series of short tacks back to the mooring. We needed to keep the jib working all the way to the mooring -- not something we usually do, but the wind was light enough that the flapping sail once we turned into the wind did not bother my deck work. We were out about 2.5 hours.

Today's photo is a surprise, a pumpkin plant growing where we threw last year's pumpkin into the rough grass at the edge of the "boatyard." Maybe there will be a photo of a pumpkin in a couple of months!

Settling in to summer work routine

My goal is 2 hours of concentrated effort each weekday (no more, no less). I have three projects in the incubation phase:

(1) Revision of the EGOS irony paper for publication (with Ulla, except she's on vacation at the moment so we're not having Skype conversations about it) -- I'm doing preliminary library "thrashing about" trying to find the right amount of detail that I need for "mapping the field" without it becoming a dissertation literature review. My searching is complicated by the fact that I have lost SHU library privileges so need to find my way around the University of Gothenburg databases.

(2) A critical pedagogy piece with Jeanie for CM7 in Naples next July -- we're meeting on August 16 to write the abstract and draft the paper. I'm not really doing much on this except feel guilty every once in a while that I haven't done anything.

(3) Developing my graphic novel on the topic of Art, Design and Organization for EGOS in Gothenburg next year. I'm spending more time on technique than the story, so it's still in the fun and not the slog phase! Also I'm reading a good text on the theory of art comics (the technical name for graphic novels) that should help me to not be too literal in my panels.

None of this work lends itself to photos at this stage, and I haven't been out searching for inspiration, so this is a dull post. (And no doubt my work sounds dull to most followers!)

Ironies of the garden

Just as our first tomatoes are ripe, the lettuce ceases its former prolific growth!

You might find it hard to believe, but these six plants have been sufficient for our daily lettuce consumption for the past couple of months.

Take off the list of routines ...

... sailing. No wind AGAIN today.

Continuing routines

Read the Sunday paper on the beach

Check the wind velocity by looking at the flag

Exercise

Lunch on deck

Check the flag again --

Yes! Wind ...n'Go

Evening annual beach party and scavenger hunt on Open Way Beach.

Back to the regular route/routine

LIbrary ....

... supermarket

and a slight diversion to check on the Annaoplis Naval Cadets in 44 ft sailboats

who had stopped in at Mystic Seaport during their summer cruise.

The XO on the boat we boarded said his crew included a guy and a gal who really liked to cook, so that was their assignment and everyone ate well!

Still no wind.