A Walk in the Field

This morning, Andrew led us on a hike through the meadow and to the "back forty," a distant, isolated field, and then the woods beyond. This field is where we'd establish our illegal poppy-growing business if we decide to take a life detour and become the New Hampshire Snells. (That's an Ozark reference. IYKYK.) Lucia especially likes to hike back there because there's an old dumping ground that's full of broken bottles, pottery shards, and rusted-out old cookware. She also found two of her favorite "steam mushrooms," odd hollow mushrooms that release a little cloud of smoke when stepped on. She's developed a mushroom obsession this summer. It was a high-grass, tick-heavy hike (we left Farrah at home), but it's always fun to explore back there.

That hike, coupled with yesterday's river day, kind of laid us all low. We were all so tired today. Greta actually lay in her bed for a while, trying to nap. I think we're all ready to return to some creature comforts.

To that end, today we began our departure preparations. There is so much to do to unwind our stay, and it goes so much farther than just repacking our bags. Today's work:

--Retrieved all the floats from the pond, laid them out to dry in the sun, and then deflated them

--Unhooked the rope from either end of the pond and wound it up

--Took down the hammocks

--Put away all the old books the kids were playing with

--Played final games of Rummikub and Chinese Checkers and put away all the games

--Began laundry and vacuuming

There's still a lot to do, but we have tomorrow. It will take me approximately twelve hours to clean up the mess that is Nutmeg's room. I'm actually not sure it can be returned to its original state. 

We had leftovers for dinner, then went out for a final maple creamee at Frazier's. On the way home, Andrew made us stop at four historical markers, which he's been hankering to read all month: one about Lafayette's visit to the Cornish Windsor Covered Bridge, one about the bridge, one about the Cornish Colony, and one about the Blow-Me-Down Mill. 

What We're Reading

Greta - the second Greenglass House book

Lucia - Greenglass House

Andrew - In Search of Lost Time 

Margo - Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand (purchased from the discount shelf at our last Books-a-Million stop; a quintessential vacation read I kind of wish I'd saved for the beach) (Note that I am not ashamed that Andrew is reading Proust and I am reading a mass-market beach book; if anything, HE should be ashamed for failing to select, yet again, an appropriately interesting and easy vacation read.)

Read aloud - Little Women (still not done). The girls think Laurie is being way over-the-top as he explains, again, how much he NO LONGER LOVES JO and DEFINITELY LOVES AMY.