Outlook: Sunny

No weight to this post, just more photos of our new kitten, Sunny. ;-)

KITTEN DELIVERY!

YEOWR!

So, friends of ours had a kitten emergency. They adopted a cat from a shelter, and although this shelter requires that the cats they give out be neutered or spayed before they will relinquish the cat, and in fact they make the adopting people pay for this process...someone at the shelter or vet's office made a mistake. My friends payed to adopt a spayed cat, especially important as they wanted an indoor/outdoor cat. The cat became pregnant about 5 minutes after they got it home. Oh dear!

The cat had five kittens, too, and well, son H begged and begged and we caved. Today was Kitten Delivery Day!

Smiles and tears from the nice family giving the kitty to us...

H gets to know his new pet a little

"Whatchu lookin' at?"  Attitude already at 10 weeks...!

Learning how to hold a squirming kitten...not as easy as you'd think! But fun. :-)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Something to be glad about: 84 Big Ones! ♡ Yay for William D. Miller !

Mom was glad too! 

Dad still hast the sharpest eye in the art business. He wanted me to take a look at a very well-done portrait, and it turned out to be a  piece by William F. Draper!

We had a successful board meeting, I mean, fun family party!

A grateful kind of day! ♡♡♡

We Have A Winner (yawn!)

Well, even if nobody else cares, I was pretty excited to win the weekly Trader Joe's drawing! ;-)  I've been filing in those little raffle tickets (for bringing my own bags) once or twice a week for several years now. I might have been suspicious that nobody ever wins except that my friend Carol Peterson won once, back when the store in our neighborhood was new. She won like $50 and had her picture on a poster. It was all very exciting!

But now, years on, and hundreds of weekly winners later, nobody cares and it is only a $20 gift card.  They barely bothered to make eye contact today at the store's service desk, had to root around for the Winner Cards in a drawer, started chatting amongst themselves even as they were sliding the card across the counter to me and basically were pretty yawn about the whole thing. However, I got great props from another customer waiting in line at the desk who exclaimed and congratulated and said Wow! People actually win this thing? No way! That's so great!  and etc. Thanks, dear unknown shopper lady, for making my win more festive for me.  ;-)

In fact, despite the Trader Joe's managers' lack of enthusiasm, I was pretty thrilled. Ironically, they'd called to tell me I won on the same day last week that I had rotator cuff surgery! When I'd gotten home after a day in the hospital and was lying upstairs groggily (on my bed of pain...violins please) my son H told me the good news, with a pleased smile on his face, and you know, that was really a sweet little thing to hear! Something nice, some random stroke of virtue rewarded, that's always going to be kind of nice, however small. A quiet yay! 

Friend Friday

I have three amazing friends showing their work in a four person show opening this weekend at Haynes Gallery in Thomaston, Maine! The show,  Four Figurative Artists, features the works of three of my favorite artists and people: Ellen Cooper, Renee Foulks and Lea Colie Wight (Ryan S. Brown, whom I do not know, is also exhibiting.)


Four Figurative Artists

August 3 to August 28. 

Reception: August 3, 6 to 8 p.m.

The Haynes Galleries
91 Main Street
Thomaston, ME 

Jenn  Lea Colie Wight

Charnée  Renee Foulks

Cup and Vessel  Ellen Cooper

Congratulations on Your Surgery!

Message from a child, as yet unaware of the "get well soon" protocol! :-D

I can still type, thank heavens! photo: Sarah Barr

Rotator Cuff Surgery Yesterday!

In my gown and tiara, all dressed up and ready for the surgery soiree!

Typical after the operation ball "hangover!"

Intentionally not letting photos be taken today. But three sweet friends braved it and came to visit me...stars shall be in their crowns! ~♡♡♡~

A Turnip Bouquet

It's not every day
a bouquet of fat turnips
is laid at your door

(I have such cool neighbors.)

Double Rainbow

A double rainbow
brilliance and its subtle twin-
which is more lovely?

The Lord, the Almighty: Henry Downs

Thus saith Henry...

It was incredible.

Last weekend was Henry's graduation from the 12th grade program at Camphill Special School. (He will be continuing his schooling there for a further three years in the Transition Program so we are not completely through with Camphill yet, thank goodness!) We were told that graduation would have three parts; a class play, a celebratory luncheon, and a graduation ceremony. I somehow did not realize how complex and how long the whole event would be, and I would never have expected that Henry could take quite such a sustained and integral part in it if I had. I am filled with awe and gratitude.

Anna and Henry display heretofore unsuspected acting talent!

The play was a full two hours long, a full-scale production of Goethe's Faust, modernized by Henry's classroom teacher Andreas Schuske. It involved speeches and singing and dancing and dialogue and a kind of poetic "movement art" called eurythmy. The performance was so long, and with so many scene changes that there had to be an intermission to give everyone a break. But wow...I can't express how intense, serious and joyful it was.  Immensely cathartic, which I suppose was the point. Did I mention already that Henry played the part of The Lord, the Almighty? Oh, I did? Well, I can't help being astonished. And proud. And humbled. He did an incredible job. Who would ever have thought such a thing possible? The folks at Camphill, obviously.

Hearken unto me... 

Then came the massive luncheon in a huge fancy tent, with tablecloths and silverware nice enough for a wedding. Henry waited patiently, eyeing the long buffet groaning with delectable home-made foods. A few speeches and then came the all clear for the meal to commence. It was a joyfull feast!

After an long and intense performance followed by such a huge and resplendent meal, a few hours of rest were in order. Then came the graduation ceremony itself. It was a moving and complex ceremony, one that lasted two and half hours! Henry processed with his class, sat in his chair listening to speeches, stood to participate in various ceremonies, presented his first teacher with a rose, accepted a gift and tribute from his house parents, waited patiently through to the end and then recessed with dignity. Two and half hours. I could almost not believe it was possible. Except that's what my watch (and my numb behind) told me.

Andreas gave us a full Waldorf Lesson on the history of this graduating class!

The handshake and diploma moment

Henry's incredibly wonderful Housemother Anna Schmidt reads a poem in his honor

The family, proud but a tad limp at the end of a very long day!

What was especially astonishing to me was how this entire day embodied the Camphill philosophy that these special children be treated with respectful expectations of what they can do. HIGH expectations that is! It is amazing how often people of all kinds will obediently fulfill our ideas of how they will act. I am deeply grateful to Henry's teachers, houseparents, helpers and the entire Camphill community for holding fast to their principles and showing us what is possible.

Henry sporting his graduation hat...very cool!

Henry is going to miss his roommate, who is still a junior. They really were good for each other. Hats off to Camphill!