Friday, June 20 (NH)

Andrew and I both had to work today. The kids slept late. At lunchtime, we put up the hammocks in the woods. Lucia worked on diamond art; Greta finished a book. She loved the book so much that she said, "If I could carve open my heart and put the pages inside, I would."

After work, I read in a hammock for a while and went for a walk. Andrew and Lucia went for a run. Andrew grilled burgers for dinner, I threw Farrah some toys to chase in the yard, and then we sat around the fire pit. A quiet, nice New Hampshire day. It was very windy and cool, so no pond swimming took place.

Andrew mentioned to Greta today his plan to excavate an old ping-pong table from the barn, a plan that none of us approve of. This isn't a place for ping-pong. As Greta put it: "This is a place to reconnect with yourself and with nature. It's not a place for modern games." It's hard to convey the withering disdain Greta managed to convey in those words. 

Final note: On Thursday, somewhere in Vermont during our drive up, we saw a black bear on the side of the road. The bear was small, and it was clambering up from a woodsy ravine, and it looked like it was considering crossing the road. That was a pretty intense start to this summer's wildlife encounters.