Adventures on Dartmoor

Well, we made it to England jet-lagged and a little the worse for wear.

Happy home in Devon

After a couple of quiet days, we ventured out onto the moor today. It was spectacular

Haytor, Dartmoor

if slightly vertiginous.

Chris leaping atop Haytor

I tried not to look… The heights were scary, but the ponies were friendly,

Mother prepares to pet a pony

and you could see practically forever.

Stay tuned for future adventures as the Melvilles take on the Devon roads (winding and single lane), the vastness of Dartmoor, and who knows what else!

Another milestone

Well, boy #3 is now a High School graduate — I have the picture to prove it.

Tim is the little brown dot on stage to the right of the seal and just left of the podium. And yes, we were in a hockey arena — where else would a north country graduation take place?

We got a couple of decent photos, but let me tell you, it wasn’t easy to get all three brothers making ‘normal’ faces at the same time. Afterwards some of us  (not the graduate, who had better things to do) came home to celebrate.

And so it went…

Now on to the next thing, whatever that may be.

 

 

“I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.” *

On Saturday I’m flying to Florida to meet up with “my girls” for a week on the beach.

On Tuesday my dual personality will leave for her biennual journey to England to visit her in-laws.

Posting will most probably be intermittent, but don’t worry, we’ll be checking in from time to time. My husband will be loaded down with all manner of laptop, iPad, iPhone, etc. so I will not be cut off from the world. God forbid.

In Sanibel: Team Skinnypants

While we are gone, the boy and his bride will move into their new (old) house. That worked out nicely, right?

*T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

You remember…

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

Where are you now?

Facebook, as you know, is a veritable font of new-agey platitudes and politically-correct advice. Once in a rare while, however, I find something that a friend has posted that makes me sit up and pay attention.

Lao Tzu, or Laozi, is traditionally regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and as the founder of Taoism. I readily admit I know next to nothing about eastern religions. (If you are interested, you can read about it here.)

Whatever. I just think these particular words are eminently true. It is SO important to live in the day.

Here is what Frederick Buechner says about it:

“Much as we wish, not one of us can bring back yesterday or shape tomorrow. Only today is ours, and it will not be ours for long, and once it is gone it will never in all time be ours again. Thou only knowest what it holds in store for us, yet even we know something of what it will hold. The chance to speak the truth, to show mercy, to ease another’s burden. The chance to resist evil, to remember all the good times and good people of our past, to be brave, to be strong, to be glad.”

― Frederick Buechner, The Hungering Dark

So BE in the present. Or at least try hard. Look around you. Pay attention. Listen. Be brave, be strong, be glad.

Praise the Lord.

Did you know?

Did you know that today–June 19–is Juneteenth?

What is Juneteenth, you say? Juneteenth is an annual observance to celebrate the date Union soldiers enforced the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all remaining slaves in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865.  Texas was the last state in rebellion, following the end of the Civil War, to allow slavery.

Although the rumors of freedom were widespread prior to this, actual emancipation was not announced in Texas until General Gordon Granger came to Galveston, Texas and issued General Order No. 3, on the 19th of June,  almost two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Freedmen’s Memorial Monument to Abraham Lincoln in Washington D.C.
Frederick Douglass was the keynote speaker at the dedication service on April 14, 1876, with President Ulysses S. Grant in attendance.

Although Juneteenth has been informally celebrated each year since 1865, it wasn’t until June 3, 1979, that Texas became the first state to proclaim Emancipation Day (Juneteenth) an official state holiday. “Juneteenth has become a day for African Americans to celebrate their freedom, culture, and achievements…It is a day for all Americans to celebrate African American history and rejoice in their freedom.” (The Library of Congress)

As of June 2012, 42 U.S. states (including my flyover state) and the District of Columbia have recognized Juneteenth as either a state holiday or special day of observance.

I say, sounds to me like a good reason to have a party.

At the very least, I think I’ll watch a movie with the awesome Woody Strode* in it.

This might be the beginning of a beautiful new tradition.

The Professionals (1966) on Juneteenth. You know how I feel about this movie.

In case you didn’t know, Woodrow “Woody” Strode attended UCLA where he was a world-class decathelete and played football. He served in the US Army during World War II. Strode was also one of the first four black players to integrate professional football in 1946 when he played for the Cleveland Rams. Later he he played a Buffalo soldier in the 1960 John Ford movie Sergeant Rutledge. He appeared in over 80 domestic and foreign films in a career that spanned nearly 55 years, including Spartacus and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Joyeux anniversaire–part II

Happy anniversary to our big brother and his lovely wife who tied the knot thirty years ago on June 18, 1983. Hats off to you two love-birds and may you enjoy thirty more happy years together!

C’est une belle réussite. We should eat some cake.

Joyeux anniversaire

This weekend we went to a surprise party for our good friends who were celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary hosted by their daughter.

We lived next door to each other back when our kids were little.

I guess we’ve all grown up–or at least, gotten older!

Thanks for reminding me! Well, at least there was cake.

Hats off to all those brave souls who manage to stay married through thick and thin.

We’ll have another milestone to share tomorrow!

Father’s Day Work Day

It’s a tradition in our family that on Father’s Day (and Mother’s Day as well), the children labor willingly and with joy in their hearts (!) at whatever task their parent chooses. This year Father decided to spend the afternoon doing yard work at our camp. Due to son #2’s work schedule, we had to do this yesterday instead of today, which turned out to be a good thing because it is pouring rain today.

The boys chopped and sawed

while their father mowed (and mowed and mowed)

and Till Eulenspiegel and I did a little gardening.

When we were all worn out we made our way home via our trusty local market where the boys fortified themselves with homemade beef jerky and we picked up meat for the barbeque.

Today we’re having the big meal (ham steaks and pineapple on the BBQ with au gratin potatoes and green beans) and tonight we’ll probably watch the new action movie that the boys have given their father (another tradition). What is your Father’s Day tradition?

Perfect Pink Peonies

Peonies are my new favorite cut flowers.

I know, I know. You’re thinking, “what about the ants?”

But I’ve discovered that if you cut when the bud is just starting to open, there are no ants!

So cheer up all (if you need cheering up) and remember what Keats wrote:

But when the melancholy fit shall fall
Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,
That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,
And hides the green hill in an April shroud;
Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,
Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,
Or on the wealth of globed peonies.

Find yourself some flowers to enjoy on this beautiful day! What are your favorites?

Happy Father’s Day

“Then came the reflection, how little at any time could a father do for the wellbeing of his children! The fact of their being children implied their need of an all-powerful father: must there not then be such a father? Therewith the truth dawned upon him, that first of truths, which all his church-going and Bible-reading had hitherto failed to disclose, that, for life to be a good thing and worth living, a man must be the child of a perfect father, and know him. In his terrible perturbation about his children, he lifted up his heart—not to the Governor of the world; not to the God of Abraham or Moses; not in the least to the God of the Kirk; least of all to the God of the Shorter Catechism; but to the faithful creator and Father of David Barclay. The aching soul which none but a perfect father could have created capable of deploring its own fatherly imperfection, cried out to the father of fathers on behalf of his children, and as he cried, a peace came stealing over him such as he had never before felt.”

― George MacDonald, Heather and Snow

Happy Fathers Day to all you good fathers out there and grace to you, and peace, from God our Father.