Sabbath - Weekends last forever now

I don't mean to rub it in, but our family no longer has "weekends", as in the two days of the week to travel, get errands done, socialize, tour, visit etc.

I realized this last night when we planned our next visit to our grand daughter.  My thinking is still locked into having to travel on the weekend to see her, oh and her father and mother.  I had a sinking feeling in my heart that it would be months before we could get up to see her.

"Well, we could go up in the middle of the week!" Rod said.  Yes we can and we will!

This is going to take some adjustment in my thinking.  We have segmented our daily living into weekdays and weekends, and in fact they have these names.  I sometimes wonder how we did all we did when we had two children at home, both worked full time and in there somewhere I got my Master's.

Recently our minister preached on the Sabbath and it has gotten me thinking about what 24 hours we could celebrate the Sabbath.  The challenge would be to put away our electronics, and TV.  It means to really honor the time period and rest and reflect and enjoy life slowed down.

I guess we could start in a shorter segment, which we did by attending the Vespers last Friday night at First Parish Lexington.

SO if you are looking for us in the middle of next week, we will be in Vermont visiting Sarah Hazel Swartzbaugh and her parents.  I guess we should let them know.........

Thankfully I am married to a snorer

Ok, most nights I would not relish being married to someone who snores. In fact if we were not at Coniston I might still be poking him to stop. Instead at 4:22 am, after being awake since 3:09 am, I decided to move out to the couch in the living room. Channel 1 and the stars and night sky is just incredible. It feels like I am a part of the sky.

I always love the sun rises here, in fact the first year we owned the house, I got up every morning I could to watch and sometimes photograph the sunrise. The picture on my blog is to remind myself about how beautiful sunrises and sunsets are.

So when I got up to come onto the couch my mind was a flurry of activity. I am in the middle of a few sewing projects that I brought up to Coniston this weekend and I just started a good book. Is it too early to start the day, with my normal cup of God's nectar, AKA java? As a retiree, I don't have to worry about being rested for work. Being tired with a rotary cutter is another story but I will be careful sewing.

I will try again to go to sleep on the couch, but if I cannot sleep, then it does not suck, to watch the stars fade and to see the sun rise over Mount Mansfield, or as my Mom helped us understand growing up (through her reading Buckminster Fuller), the Earth turns to reveal the sun, the sun does not rise. Another Mom memory!

The eternal optimist turns a snoring husband into a good thing. Will I remember this back in Lexington?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

California friendliness

While sitting at dinner on Sunday afternoon at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, I brought out my knitting.  2 people at 2 separate times came over and admired my knitting.  I don't mean they admired my knitting, I mean they ADMIRED my knitting.  One of them was a knitter and was feeling badly that she did not have hers and the other was a family where the young child was watching me so the Mom started the conversation.

I started to think, WOW, California is more friendly, but these folks were from Florida and Wisconsin(?).  So is it the atmosphere of California that made them more friendly, or is it that they were on vacation that made them more friendly.

I can tell you it did not feel like New England or Boston the way they approached me and the depth of the conversation.  It was not a polite, "Oh, look you are knitting."  It was "Wow, love your knitting, wish I had mine, let's talk for a bit about knitting, and anything else, but mainly lets talk and connect."

Was I more open to it since I am on vacation?  Am I not open to it in Boston?

I am not really sure, I just know if felt very different and I liked it and at the same time was a bit suspicious about them as they approached me.  Typically New Englander I suppose!

Grief 15 years and it still catches me off guard

Just now walking down the hall, as I planned my next project, I was thinking about rug hooking.  I took a rug hooking class in Middlebury VT over 15 years ago, and like many of my classes, I have done little with it since then.  Recently I moved all of the rug hooking materials to Coniston because I think it is more likely that I can have time there to work on it.  I also found a shop in North Hero which has the same exact rug company products which sparked a new interest for me in rug hooking.  Then, I saw a quilt at Vermont Quilt Festival, of a map of Vermont and all of its counties and BINGO, my next rug project will be a map of Vermont with each county a different color.  This is how design works for me.  An idea percolates for a while and then BINGO, walking down the hall the idea comes to me.  This happened with my alphabet quilt projects a few years ago.  For a few years I imagined an alphabet quilt with the square a fabric piece that represented the letter and the letter appliqued on it, e.g. Apple fabric for A, bumble bee fabric for B, etc.  Then I saw this exact design is a quilt book, bought the book and produced multiple quilts of this design.  Nieces, nephews, auction winners at both First Parish and Star were recipients of this quilt design.  But I digress . . .

I was staying with Mom and Dad when I took the rug hooking class.  After I returned to their house one of the things I needed was a frame to put the in-process rug in.  They gave us a rudimentary design during the class that I explained to Daddy and a few hours later he produced it from his work shop.  He was like that.  A mere suggestion of an idea or need, he disappeared and came back with it. 

So why, almost 15 years after his death, just thinking about that rug frame, do I suddenly burst into tears?  Is it because I was caught off guard?  Murg said once that he grieves every day the loss of his parents.  This was my moment today to grieve the passing of Daddy.  I have the rug frame though and this weekend that design of Vermont counties will probably be on it.  Thanks Daddy!

Harvard Square differences

Last night since we arrived home early from our dinner with Star Island friends, we decided to drive into Harvard Square for a "date". We parked at Huron Ave so we could get our exercise in, walked the 15 minutes to the Square, spent 20 minutes in the Coop, Murg bought 3 books, and then we walked over the the Charles outside hotel bar for a drink. Fortunately the Red Sox game was on so we watched a nail biter as Baltimore scored two in the ninth, closing to within one run.

On our way to the Coop we happened upon this scene. 6 individuals sitting in chairs in a semi circle watching the game on a TV inside a store, facing outward to the street. There were about 15 other people standing around them, since the chairs were all occupied. They could have been at Fenway watching, they could have been at the Charles Hotel with us. We were only a few hundred yards away drinking our beer and Dark and Stormy.

We discussed whether the chairs were their own or had the store provided them with the chairs. We wondered if they were homeless! We wondered if this is a scene for every Sox game! The Red Sox are adored by many people in this area. Watching the game when you are out and about on a Saturday night is easy no matter what your situation in life.

Life is Good, go Red Sox!

Holiday Workshop and ramblings from a Weekend

Since I taught a Myers-Briggs workshop at work a few weeks ago, I have been thinking more about Myers-Briggs. I realize just now that I reserve weekends for my MBTI preferences. I have had a "deliverable" on a volunteer activity at church and it has hounded me for months. It is easy to not deliver on a volunteer activity because there is not the same level of accountability.

My deliverable is to document our annual Holiday Workshop at FPLEX. Here is the blog for that so you can see what I mean. Last Year, 2008, I was supposed to get this done, so 365 days later I am doing it. Typically for my P of ENFP, I get things done in a burst of energy. I went to the Holiday Workshop, have a wonderful husband Murg, who went home to get our laptop. I interviewed people who were running the tables at the workshop, many of them who have been helping run it since the early 1980s, and wrote up their projects in that other blog's posts. The husband of one of the orignators is a wonderful photographer and he is going to help with with some pictures for THAT blog.

My point is that this task has been weighing on me for 365 days, or longer, and with a few hours this afternoon I am going to get it near complete. The cool thing about the blog aspect of this, is that a blog does not to be done. You can keep adding to it and that is what I intend to do. My task is done, even though I will keep adding projects. The purpose of this blog is fact is to share with other congregations and for them to add their ideas. Blogging is perfect for P of the ENFP, because I don't ever have to be done adding my thoughts and for THIS blog, it clearly says it is my ramblings.

So, I fed myself this morning by going to one of my favorite activities of the church year, and I am near complete in a task for Green Sanctuary and I got some new insights about myself around Myers-Briggs. A good weekend so far and it is only 1:35 Saturday afternoon.

Now that was a Great movie!

Bee, Murg and I just got back from "Julie and Julia". Don't tell them, but I read this entire book while sitting in a over-stuffed chair at Barnes and Noble. It took me 3 sessions. I bought a latte, wandered upstairs, and sat for a few hours each time while I read.

I love anything with Meryl Streep in it, and she was particularly good in this movie. The movement between the two stories was very good and boy did it make me hungry.

There are not too many movies, where the three of us come out saying "That was a really Great movie!"

I actually want to go see over half of the movies which were previewed. A couple of them, Murg leaned over to Bee and me and said "That is not a Sally movie". Can't watch anything with suspense violence or blood or tense music which leaves out about 90% of the movies made.

This movie was perfect, for me. What a great start to the weekend!

So much for the sleep bank

Damn. I really tried to go to bed early last night, but how could I turn off the basketball game. I would have been upset to wake up this morning and heard what an exciting game it was, and not "been" there. Murg threatened to block any sports channels until we catch up on sleep.

At 10 pm, as my eye lids were becoming very heavy and the words on the page of the book I was reading starting floating, I almost turned it off BUT WAIT, 2 minutes to go and the Celtics had done some catching up since half time.

1 hour later, and lids even heavier and now I have adrenalin flowing through my body, the game ends with 1 point difference, 3 OTs and the Celtics lose. OMG.

My main problem in this sleep arena, is that I cannot sleep past 6am, 6:30am if I am lucky. I am a lark. I try to sleep, ask Murg to not have NPR start at 6am, but it does not work. Too much training of getting up early.

So tonight, I don't care if there is anything happening on the tube, I am not going to stay up for anything. No Ellsbury stealing home, no Jon Stewart, nothing. Most Fridays I try to stay up for Letterman, coz I don't have "school" the next day. Usually I fall asleep at 10am, wake at 11:35 for Letterman, and go to bed without seeing him.

OK, enough, my lids are still heavy, BUT I have work to do.

Life is Good - Brilliant company and tag line

I recently bought 2 more Life is Good t-shirts. I bought one early on before their popularity and I still wear it albeit infrequently coz I don't want it to fall apart. There were certain places early on, that I had to wear it e.g. at least once at Star Island every year. Now that there is a t-shirt sold each year for that conference, I don't have enough days now to wear it, so it sits on the shelf for Star.

I often think, Life is Good, sometimes and sometimes it is NOT GOOD. If there were not good times and bad times, we would not have the comparison to know the difference. This is kind of like the Baby on Board signs. There is not always a Baby on Board, so the sign is a lie sometimes.

Wearing the shirt, when Life is NOT Good, is a prod to be positive maybe or a day turns bad and you need to change shirts. Maybe I can bring it to Star this year, and wear it to indicate when Life is Good for me. In that case, it would be worn out, but now that I have 3, I could alternate them.

I also wonder if in this horrific economy, whether more people are buying Life is Good gear?

So today for me Life is Good. It is Friday, and by big brother got Red Sox vs. Yankess tickets for G (older brother), J (sister-in-law of older brother) T (oldest younger brother) and S (me)

It is sunny, and we head to Coniston after the SIC meeting tomorrow.

Earth Day 2009 - my third major resolution

Today at work we have an Earth Day fair. In fact, I am sitting staffing a table right now on how to make non-toxic household cleaners. I shamelessly borrowed this from FPLEX where M and C have been driving this initiative during social hours and other church events.

My future Daughter in law, M was reading this book over the winter. I got it from the library and took it on our recent trip. TANGENT ALERT, the best time for me to read a book cover to cover is on a long plane ride or a weekend at Coniston.

TANGENT OVER: I did not totally understand why M wanted to plant asparagus but now I do. Up until now, I have pretty much avoided gardening. It is a solo activity and for an MBTI ENFP, there is not much solo in my life. Thanks to M for turning me onto this book. It is a really thought provoking book. Live off the land only with locally grown food for a year. Here come the chickens soon.

So I figure I will start by planting asparagus at Coniston now, and gradually grow a garden up there. The prior owner already had an herb garden, I just need to figure out what is what.

This is my third major GREEN resolution, that I have personally done. The other two are NO PLASTIC BAGS and bring my own coffee mug into coffee shops or to fill with water so NO PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES. Oh, I forgot, we stopped the Boston Globe daily paper, since more often than not it went directly to the recycle bin. I hope I am not personally responsible for the demise of the Boston Globe.

So, in a few years, I will be harvesting asparagus at Coniston, and this year we will have zucchini and tomatoes.

Happy Earth Day everyone!!!!

Busy times and fun trips

This time of year always gets busy. This weekend we are in Nevada at a deGanahl/Russell family reunion. These are the cousins that we grew up with on the Lazy EH Ranch in Colorado. I wish more of us could get there, but whoever is there is exactly who should be there I guess. We have another opportunity for a reunion in August, when my cousin Nancy's son Galen is getting married, so that means another trip to Colorado.

In June we are off to Salt Lake City for General Assembly, Star in July, England in September to celebrate M's 70th birthday and hopefully Thailand to visit B for Christmas. In looking at a map, we are pretty much halfway around the world when we get to Thailand.

There are times in our lives when we are busier than others, but it feels like we are ramping up for a busy few months. Not that I am complaining, coz it is all good stuff.

Too long away from Coniston

While driving to dinner last night both Murg and I agreed that it has been too long away from Coniston. We missed a weekend the week that Autumn died, and last month was a 5 week Sunday month. I don't feel as centered, I feel like there is something missing in my life. We have gotten into the habit of being there every other weekend, and we got out of that habit by missing one weekend. If I had planned it better we could be up there this weekend.

What this all says to me is that a year ago, going on a lot of intutive decision making, we made a really good decision. We might not have been so eager to own a second home this year with the financial crisis.

Also at dinner last night we counted our blessings. Good solid jobs, fun vacations planned for the year with family and friends, wonderful kids who are not kids any more but more like grown-up friends, wonderful spiritual communities.

Yes, we are very lucky AND I believe that we all create our own destiny, so it is some luck and some intention. For once in my life I feel like I deserve to be this happy and fortunate. Now, I just need to get back up to Coniston to see that sun rise from behind the Green Mountains, and to take a deep sigh and realize that I have come home to Vermont.

Words of wisdom from Forrest

Yesterday I went to All Souls UU church on the upper east side of NYC. It is a really beautiful church. Forrest Church preached a great sermon. During it he mentioned that he has said these before but since this was my first time hearing it, I was pretty struck.

Remeber 3 things he said:
Like what you have
Do what you can
Be who you are

I was with A at the service, and she wrote them down to give to her son who is about to graduate from college. I said them over and over to myself so I would remember them. I knew A had written them down as well. I did not want to lose this nugget, so now that I have blogged it, I will know where to go in case I forget.

NYC - great long weekend

This is just how we think and it is amazing how in sync we usually are. We were invited to attend a donor recognition event for our beloved Star Island, and the options were in MA or NYC. The weekend for the MA one was one of our VT weekends, so we said "Let's attend the NYC one and make a weekend of it."

I am sitting on the Bolt bus for our return bus trip and I have to say we fit a lot into the weekend. In somewhat chronological order here is what we did:

*Left 8:30 pm on Thursday night from South Station
*Arrived at Midnight at Penn Station and cab to Pod Hotel on 51st between 2nd and 3rd (Try it sometime, very small funky room, but exactly enough space for showering and sleeping, which is all you need a hotel room for anyway)
*Walked to Times Square and ate a light bite at 24 hour restaurant across the street from Lindy's. We were headed to Lindy's for the obligatory cheese cake but they were closed at 1:30 am. The nerve . . .
*Home to bed, clock said 2am, but it had not been changed from EST to EDT, we actually went to bed at 3am and got up at 9am the next morning
*Bought 1-day metro pass (we did this all 3 days) and traveled via bus to Natural History Museum. Spent most of the day there with a short break to have a bagel from H&H. I loved the gem and mineral wing.
*Walked back across Central Park to our hotel,(79th across the park, then down Madison to 51st and I might add, there were no Starbucks on Madison in all of those blocks) freshened up, and took bus up to Yorkville to dine with the Mays
*Walked home from East 83rd to 51st since it was 20 minutes before the next bus and we had planned to get on the bus when it caught up with us. This never happened. Just a few 32, short blocks
*Down the next morning to Greenwich Village, bought cheap but good stuff at a street fair, after breakfast at diner
*Up to the theater district to see Jane Fonda in 33 Variations (GO SEE IT)
*Quick dinner with friend who is chairing All Star II this year.
*To the donor recognition dinner on Central Park West.
*Back on Subway, finally had obligatory Lindys's cheese cake
*Crashed into bed
*Up this morning to breakfast, I went to All Souls and a quick brunch with 2 friends. Rod walked over to 8th and 9th then to MOMA
*Lunch at Rockefeller Center, poked around in some more shops
*Took subway to 34th and caught the Bolt bus.

Yes, we packed a lot into the weekend. We saw some friends and missed seeing some others. Not enough time in the day to catch up with everyone. Next time.

One of our dreams/plans is to live in NYC for an extended period 6-12 months. Each time we go for a long weekend, we explore areas we have never explored before. We have learned to take the bus coz you can see the neighborhoods. We have learned to not take the bus around matinee time. We got off and walked to the theater and beat the bus by many minutes. The diversity and unique areas are infinite. There is a lot to see.

All in all it was a great time. I AM EXHAUSTED.

ICA - wonderful sunny day

This morning we went to the Barn and cleaned out Bee's locker. We walked up the hill to see where Autumn is buried, took a video of the view that he has and cried and cried and cried. There is an endless amount of tears we can cry it seems. The woman who was leasing Autumn showed up, with some flowers for his grave, right after we started clearing out the locker. She was devestated as well, and she has only been riding him for 2 months. On Monday, the day before he broke his leg, she took her husband to meet him. "Are you sure they don't want to sell him?" he asked her. It did not take very long for him to work his way into her heart.

We went by our local equestrian shop to buy racks to put our saddles on in our back shed, took K's car to the airport (Bee had been in NC with K and A when we had to call to tell her about Autumn).

As a distraction, and because we are members, we decided to go to the ICA. This is a wonderful museum BTW. Shepard Fairey's exhibit is incredible and another video "THEM" by Artur Zmijewski was excellent as well. We are already planning on going back soon before some of the exhibits leave. Then we walked into the North End and had a nice early dinner at a traditional Italian restaurant. Home by way of the T and a cab.

Murg is off to see Watchman at an IMAX near here and I am going to go to bed early. This is a result of buring the candle at both ends all this week, and some restless nights. Grief like this disrupts your equilibrium. A visit to the ICA helps as a nice distraction from this grief, AIG, CNN etc.

Got my fix today

Today we left the house at 7:30am to drive to South Hadley to watch B compete in a horse show. We have not seen her compete since last May. I really miss seeing her on top of a horse. At one time in our lives, we drove together 5-6 times a week to the barn. For only 1 year the barn was 10 minutes away. For the other 7 years it was 30 minutes away. Then she started driving herself, and I had to detach gradually from watching her. At the time, I really missed it, A LOT. Kind of like when Crick stopped playing baseball. I pine for those days, every time I drive by a baseball field.

So, yes we are crazy. We drive 90 minutes and sat for 6 hours, inside a big barn, with a breeze blowing through us. We did get up to stretch the legs a few times. I am always nervous when she jumps, but today she was perfect during her jump class. It was also great watching her as the co-captain of the team. Helping the newer members get more comfortable. Urging them on when they were obviously nervous. Helping them mount. The first time the trainer said who wants to help Susanna get on, B jumped up and went with them. Is she going to give her a leg up? No, I think she was holding the horse while Susanna mounted. Mara was giving the leg up. I suppose she could give a leg up to some riders but at her barely 5", is is nearly impossible for some of the taller horses.

So many memories came back today of really early (4:30am) wake ups to drive to shows and sitting and watching and waiting. It does force you to slow down and just appreciate what is going on around you. It is magical the relationship between the rider and the horse.

At Bethany's first horse show with Autumn, just before she went into the ring she said "What right do I have being on top of a 1200 pound animal, and thinking I can control him?" The answer is that she has worked really really really hard to establish that relationship and now competing at the collegiate level, she rides a different horse each show, and usually one she has never ridden before. She did really well today in her flat class, with a pony who gave other riders a bit of trouble.

I could go on for a while, but I will stop now. It was a great day and for now my need to see her ride has been satisfied.

Your FLAIR says it all

In facebook just now, I added a piece of flair and look at my bulletin board. It brought back lots of memories of why that flair ended up there.

I decided to take a screen shot and date it as a record. I just added "Stop Whining" and "I survived 2008".

My friend K in Hawaii send me lots of flair, which I appreciate. I know I got "Motherhood is not for Wimps" from her and the Boston Celtics shoe when they won last year.

I have them loosely organized into categories, but I would never have them all lined up. I bet some SJs out there have them all organized in lines or alphabetically.

The knitting and quilting ones are obvious.

My favorite book is Le Petit Prince.

This collection is so obviously me, as is the entire Facebook account.

Happy Friday, and BTW contrary to my previous post I really mean TGIF. Stuff happen in between 7:30am in the morning. I won't need a wee dram tonight but a nice glass or red wine will be perfect.

TGIF - But not really just glad that the "work" week is over

TGIF has such a bad connotation. I am really glad that at the end of today, I will have 2 days in front of me that will be filled with socializing and my hobbies. As I think about it I get to do that at work, so how is that different. No, I don't knit at work and it would look pretty crazy to set my sewing machine up in my office, and my meetings are not a church service or reconnection with my FPLEX community.

So the hobby I get to do at work is relate to people and help me and them solve issues that arise either through listening, brainstorming, nudging, observing and just being me.

J gave me a quote on Tuesday and is is now in my Quote of the day archive. It has helped me be a better listener in two tough meetings this week. That is a hobby of mine, to always be learning about myself and continuously improving. The engineers among you will debate whether this is a hobby or not, but THIS IS MY BLOG, so this is a hobby.

SO I don't say TGIF today, in the mundane definition and usage but rather, onto the weekend and a continuation of what I really like to do with my life.

Seriously - we know what we are doing

The excitement in the middle of February in the Hero Islands is to walk on water. Frozen water that is. When we get up to Vt we always score a Seven Days which is the social calendar for the Burlington area. While browsing through it yesterday morning Murg noticed Great Ice

Yes, this is what we do for excitement in the great white north. We did not attend the christmas tree bonfire but I sense a yearly tradition coming. Bonfires are like a pilgrimage in my family, but I digress as usual . . .

We discussed footwear before we left the house and I chose my trainers/aka sneakers since my merrills don't have the arch support and snow shoes are clunky and there was not quite enough snow for them. I borrowed x-country skiis last time we were up here and will buy some soon but don't have them yet. Perfect choice BTW.

Qammi, charged onto the ice and easily ran 2 to 3 times longer than we walked. The walk was 2 miles out to Knight Island State Park. When we got 1/2 there, and I guess she could not see either bit of land, she started to run diagonally toward the closest piece of land. Unless we had called her back I am pretty sure she would have kept going. We arrived on Knight Island and we think she thought we were done with the walk. Due to running so much, both her back legs were shaking. Enough for her. The funniest though was when we started back. She looked at us with the same look when we start a fire in the wood stove. "YOU HUMANS ARE STARTING A FIRE INSIDE"!!! My instincts say this is a BAD thing" The first time she would not come into the house and to this day whenever we start a fire she keeps an evil eye on us and will not come very close.

She kept running back toward Knight Island, since she was sure that was the destination, and she was tired. Eventually we put on the leash and coaxed her along with the words "Really, Qamm, we know what we are doing, this time!" At the halfway mark, we took off the leash, but it was not until she could see the shore that she started running toward the North Hero side.

Granted, it was pretty confusing. People on skis, skates, sleds, walking and snowmobiles, were going in both directions.

Our dog has great instincts, she barks sometimes at strangers, knows that fire should not be inside the house, and knows when she is tired she should look for the shortest distance home. I would not count on her as a guard dog or guide in the wilderness.

It was a really fun event, and I can see a big party next year at Coniston to walk on water and go on a pilgrimage to a bonfire. We come by it honestly. Daddy loved fires and probably walked on water in his day.

STOP - Not Done with Winter Yet

This is just not fair. I am not done with winter yet. As I sit on the couch at Coniston waiting for the rest of the house to wake up, I can hear the dripping of the snow from the roof, and the mound actually can be seen under the snow. Our ice sculpture which was installed on New Year's Day is in it's last day. This is just not fair. It is only February 8th and I can see the start of the end of winter.

Yesterday when the plow guy was here and I marveled at the piles of snow that he was creating he said "They are getting pretty big" to which I responded, "Yeah isn't that great."

I guess this confirms that we made the right decision to buy a retirement house in Vermont. We have been through almost a year of seasons and I still love it here. Granted we have not seen mud season yet, BUT honestly how bad can it be. A pair of wellies and we will be all set.

Yesterday Rod and I donned our cross country skis and went out into the meadow in front of us. I am making sure that my fragile knees can continue this sport before I invest in a pair of skis, and he did his best to obliterate the tracks in some places. (You can ask him for the details, since that is his story)

At night with clouds but almost a full moon we went for a walk with C and M and A and Q. We walked down Fox Crossing which is the road right across from Phelps Lane which leads to the causeway/bike path. All of the houses on South Street connect to the Lake but they are all PRIVATE ROADS. Of course at night, even with the moonlight we could not see the sign (tee hee hee). There are at least 4 beautiful houses down this road and we turned back when Qammi in her exploration turned on a motion detector light. We then walked down Allen Point Road which is another PRIVATE road. On both of these roads, if they weren't private we could get to the causeway on our bikes. Instead we ride 1.5 miles around. Not a big deal really.

Back to Coniston for games: this weekend it is Settlers (of course), Acquire (a game that A and his uncle play and he has a brand new box of) and Apples to Apples (which C and M had never played before)

Off to the Burlington VT UU church, back here for a few hours and then home.

It has so far been a beautiful winter weekend at Coniston, BUT I still don't like that it is melting, and that I can see the ground in a lot more places . . .