Day 2.309: Footwear optional?

This afternoon, we visited Peebles Island State Park and had a nice - if fairly short - walk. At our turning-back point I made everyone stand around while I tried to get a group shot. During the 12 second timer for one of the shots the camera rolled off the top of the camera bag where it was perched on my too-small tripod. Fortunately the only damage was to my family's sanity as I made them wait for another shot.

On the way out, I ran ahead with the girls at one point. Our wait for Exile #2 and E5N1 gave me more opportunities to take some pictures!

On the way back, E5N1 decided that he wanted to walk (I offered my shoulders as an alternative) - fair enough. He also refused to wear his boots. Not only is it mid-November in Upstate New York, but it was a gravel path. He wouldn't be dissuaded, so we let him - raising a few comments (mostly amused rather than critical) from other groups as they walked past.

Well, what would you have done?

Day 2.308: Doing some modelling

Not wearing clothes for other people to photograph I hasten to clarify. Rather, we started by making a boat out of Magnatiles and moved on to making one out of LEGO after breakfast.

This afternoon E5N1 and I were home-alone when Exile #2 took the girls to a birthday party. I adapted a yellow-and-green striped tower he had made into a satisfying monster/robot, then he asked me to make a 'crazy cat'. At least he didn't ask for a normal one. This is what I came up with - I was quite satisfied with it until the girls came home and greeted it with profound indifference.

Day 2.307: Friday Haikus #6

(watch this film first)


A girl on a box -
Inside is E5N1.
He seems to like it.

Friends came to visit -
I broke out LEGO Rock Band.
We rocked the plastic!

Day 2.306: Mid-fall surprises

We received our copy of Tori Amos' new CD today. It's a Christmas-ish themed affair called Midwinter Graces. As I've noted before she is not exactly known for her pro-Christian stance on life. Not that I am always straightforwardly pro-Christian either. So, much as we love her and her music, we were wondering what on earth she would have produced.

We haven't really had chance to listen to it properly yet, but we did put in the 30 minute DVD interview. It started off as we'd expected - church music was all stolen in the first place, bringing together ancient traditions, her churchy-upbringing by her minister father, fire and ice, reclaiming the feminine,... Then the surprises started.

First she said she'd been doing British folk-rock, then she said she there was some Big Band music on the album, then finally she said 'I'm a big Jesus fan!' and went on to preach a mini-sermon I've heard in our own church about how the newly-institutionalised church following the conversion Constantine used Jesus' words to try to control people and started to distort his message. We laughed out loud several times - even though Exile #2 is under the weather at the moment.

Oh yeah if you were wondering about the relevance of the photo - have you seen the length of my legs? Surprised?!.

Day 2.305: Dawn Redwood at dusk

This deciduous conifer in our front yard catches me out every year by dropping all its leaves in large clumps at this time of year. The other day it caught me out by being stunningly red in the light of the setting sun.

Our other redhead was off school today along with her sister for Veterans' Day. She had an all-day two-centre play-date which started with her departure for a friend's house at 9.30 this morning and then moved back to our house in the afternoon. Exile #4 also had a friend over for most of the afternoon, so everyone seems to have had a satisfactory day.