Skipping Town

It's been a very full, very momentous few days, and of course--while so much is happening personally--the world is burning in so many ways. But I'm committed to continuing this daily record, even if it doesn't necessarily fit the tone of the current cultural moment. Thursday 5/28 was a day I'd been working toward for months: the pub day of The Distance from Four Points. My virtual launch was a lot of fun. And neighbors gathered afterward for a socially distanced celebration in the street. Godspeed, book. And then, on Friday, we closed on the sale of the Soisson House. I couldn't talk about this too much publicly because I was so afraid it would all be derailed. I mean, so many things could have gone wrong, right up to the moment of the closing. I'd notarized documents two weeks ago so the closing could take place without us being there in person; we'd arranged to fulfill the final requirements from the buyer's lender; we negotiated with the insurance...

We're back in NJ, back to the regular routine, except, you know, I have a BOOK COMING OUT so my mind is in a thousand different places. It's exciting, despite the world being on fire. The idea of a "pub day" is somewhat diluted since Amazon and even indie bookstores have been shipping The Distance from Four Points for a few weeks now, but the offical date is still a milestone. Godspeed, my book. I'm guessing most of you have heard about my virtual launch event via email or social media, but if not, please join me tomorrow on Facebook Live, where Octavia Books is hosting a launch. I'll be giving some background into how I came to write this novel, reading from the book, and answering questions in a live Q&A. Join me tomorrow May 28 at 6pm ET:    https://www.facebook.com/ OctaviaBooks/posts/ 10156822751061017 We were pretty sad to leave NH, but we're holding onto the fact that we'll be staying there for two weeks in July. Lots more hammock / pond...

Last day. Sob. There is actually no reason whatsoever for us to go back to NJ, but we're going back anyway. Maybe we'll set up the new pool if it's warm enough. In any case, we'll be back here in a few weeks, so I refuse to get too melancholy. A Gift of Quarantine is getting to spend more time up here. So there's that (she says, the spectre of today's NYT front page adding a ghoulish and wrenching shadow to every word of this blog). As is typical with long, active vacations, by today we were all a little fried. The kids slept late and all they wanted to do was stay in their pj's and play with Legos inside, which was fine. Andrew and I went for a short hike in the woods with Farrah, who is just so cute and game for anything. She bounds over fallen logs and prances through the grass. She's getting so good at her recall. What a pleasant little pup she's been this trip. But she's also beyond exhausted from all the activity. Once we were back inside...

We had a huge list of things we wanted to do today. We started off at the creek. Andrew and the girls explored another junkyard area, including an ancient rusty car (pieces of it). They found a bunch of old bottles. Then we followed the creek for a long ways. It's such a peaceful place. Farrah kept up well, wading and romping. We retraced our steps back to the swimming hole. Andrew thrilled the kids by jumping into the swimming hole fully clothed, despite the freezing water. Back at the house, the girls and I retreated to our hammocks to read for an hour and a half. Farrah was passed out under the kitchen table. Andrew read in a chair in the yard. Next up: rock painting. Painting on rocks with the acrylic paint markers is really fun. I'll be adding more colors for our next trip. The final piece of the day: pond. L&G changed into bathing suits and took turns balancing on an old board in the water, even though the wind had picked up and it had gotten quite chilly. There...

A full day. Morning at the creek. L&G floated their Lego girls/boats in the stream and then waded in the swimming hole. Andrew and Lucia went on an exploring trek and came back with a lot of old glass bottles. While they were gone, I sat with Farrah by the creek and Greta played blissfully in the swimming hole, lost in her own world. It's a magical place. After lunch, the girls played with Lego girls while Andrew and I read in hammocks. Then the kids wanted to paint rocks again, which we did. The afternoon had gotten very hot, so the girls went down to the pond to play and swim. They really loved jumping off the dock into the water. Andrew grilled chicken for dinner, and we added it to some pesto I'd made at home and brought up with us, over pasta. Then we made a fire. No one wanted the day to end. There are so many things to do. This week has flown by.

There was a lot of stillness today. The girls spent hours in their hammocks, reading. Andrew hung one up for me, too, and I was with them much of the time. Utterly silent, just us in the woods. Andrew went for a long run, chopped wood, drank a beer while looking at Mt. Ascutney. Greta hung out by herself on the dock for a while, swishing her net around in the pond, catching salamanders and putting them into a bowl of water. A woman rode by on a white horse, slowly. The sun shone the entire day. The girls and I came out of our solitude later in the afternoon to do some rock painting. I'd brought some Posca paint pens and we'd collected rocks at the creek. Greta painted a capybara rock and then painted other rocks as furniture for her capybara. Lucia painted stones with eyes looking in all directions and arranged them like the Brady Bunch (her comparison! parenting win). Dinner was burgers on the grill. Now this is news: we ventured out of our near-total isolation for the ver...

The expansiveness of NH time is astounding. At home, even during lockdown, our days are just crazy--homeschooling, cleaning, cooking, grocery ordering, all the life stuff that takes up every hour of every day. There's not a spare second to do anything. Yet here in NH, the hours expand. The kids did some schoolwork in the morning, and then the day just eased along. L&G spent three and a half hours in their new hammocks in the woods, reading and playing. I sat in the sun and read a book, Farrah under my chair. The kids spent the next three hours at the pond, catching creatures and then wading into the water. I read some more, in a different spot. (Andrew, unfortunately, had to work today; though he has the rest of the week mostly off.) For dinner, Andrew grilled sausages, and I chopped them up with some bell peppers, feta, and farfalle. We ate outside and had Oreos and Thin Mints for dessert while the kids played with glowing sticks in the fire pit. They ran back and forth from...

IT LIVES! The snapping turtle lives. I saw it today while alone on the dock, waiting for the kids to bring me a rake so I could retrieve something they'd dropped into the pond. It was quiet and perfectly still. I was lying on my stomach, gazing into the water, when I sensed movement in the reeds to my right. Something was swimming there, too big to be a fish, too smooth to be a frog. As I watched, the head of the snapping turtle broke the surface, and it swam there for a moment before sinking back down into the deep. We hadn't seen it for several years. We likely won't see it again for several more. It emerged today in quarantine greeting. After schoolwork and lunch, the kids spent most of the afternoon at the pond, catching critters. They lost a flip-flop, a china teacup, and a net into the water, but we managed to retrieve all these things. Later on, Andrew hung hammocks for them in the woods, and they read there for a while. Dinner was leftover BBQ from yesterday, and ...

Another fantastic NH day. We packed so much in. I feel like I've been pummelled by relaxation and fun. We touched base with homeschooling in the morning, keeping up to speed more or less, but put it aside by noon so we could get on with our NH plans. First up: Andrew got an old riding lawnmower out of the barn, with the idea that he'd hitch up a wagon to the back of it and drive the girls into the (terrifying) back fields to collect some things from the dumping area. But the wagon had a flat tire, so it took some time to fix; then the lawn mower wouldn't start. While Andrew tinkered, the girls and I looked for four-leaf clovers in the yard. Lucia found two four-leaf clovers within three minutes. Greta found a four-leaf clover and one five-leaf (later in the day, she found another four-leaf). I found a five-leaf.  We eventually did go to the back fields, just pulling along a wheelbarrow. Farrah absolutely loved running through the field off-leash (well, with leash still ...