Little Collections

I spent a few hours this week cleaning out and re-arranging Claire's room. I took a lot of stuff out, and moving around the furniture always gives a room a fresh feel. I also found piles of treasure. Piles might be the wrong word, I found all kinds of small treasures carefully packed away in small pouches, containers, bags and boxes. Somehow Claire knew exactly what was where. I don't know where half of this stuff came from, but its obviously important to an almost five year old.

Acadia

Two weeks ago we took a three day camping trip to Acadia National Park. Its a beautiful place, I'm glad to have made it before our three years here are through. In short, we climbed some mountains, jumped off some boulders, and saw a lot of wonderful stuff. I also took a lot of pictures. When you are in a place like Acadia, its not easy to stop.

Summer Time

Now it feels like summer is here. Its been raining quite a bit, just about every day, but I guess since we had such a nice spring that a rainy first half of summer is fair. It hasn't stopped us from getting out. We've been spending a lot more time around Portland, which has been nice. Its easy to forget how many beautiful things are within 10 minutes of the house. This picture was taken at the Bug Light. Rainy, but nice.














And here is yet another sunset at our favorite sunset observing spot, Ferry Beach. Sunsets are kind of tricky to catch over the water in Maine. Ferry Beach has the sunset, but its also really protected so Claire has no problem wading in. Its usually quiet, too. Not much more you can ask for in a beach.














We went to Freeport recently to see The Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in concert (at the L.L. Bean Summer Concert Series), and we had a picnic dinner at the Portland Headlight which was very relaxing. Claire started summer camp today (just two mornings a week), and she will start tennis camp (also two mornings a week) tomorrow. She wanted to be in tennis camp badly enough that she offered to pay for it herself. We told her we thought we could handle the $30 tuition, and she was so thankful it was as if Mike and I had won Parents of the Year Awards. She's been counting down the days since. I feel like I'm at the very top of the roller coaster right now. From here on, I expect summer to fly by.

I've also been spending time experimenting with different glazing techniques, and that has been going really well. Its so much fun to open the lid of the kiln after a firing.