Cape Town

This is going to be a quick post as we just got off a 16 hour flight and I'm playing major catch up. Tim and I just got back from Cape Town where I was sent to run a workshop for three days and I craftily convinced (he didn't need convincing luckily) to play hooky from school and come with me. He surfed in both the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean in one day (and didn't get eaten by a shark), my workshop went really well- we brought together peacebuilding practitioners from all over the region to talk about best practices, and we had a wonderful few days to wonder around the country after that. It's an extraordinarily beautiful place. Mountains and sea! This post won't describe how complicated a place it is beyond it's breathtaking scenery, and we are both left with a lot of questions and feelings of discomfort regarding how little the lives of black South Africans seem to have really changed since Apartheid ended. We also went on a township tour (apartheid-era slums where the majority of black South Africans still live) which was very powerful. But for now, just some highlights -

The Cape of Good Hope! We hiked out as far as we could, leaving crowds and tour buses behind. This is the most powerful lighthouse in South Africa. The Lucitania went down on Bellows Rock, right out of the picture frame. It was pretty dramatic to be at the southern most tip of Africa.

South African Penguins!

Eating dinner outside in Hermanus by the light of an oil lamp. Earlier we watched Southern Right Whales from the shore with their young. Land-based whale watching!

Cold!

Wine will fix it!

The workshop I ran was held in Stellenbosch, the wine country about 20 minutes outside of Cape Town. Pretty much vineyards and wineries as far as the eye could see. Just like this.

Top of Table Mountain! We took the cable car up. Robben Island is just out of the frame to the left, all of Cape Town right below Tim.

Nature! We didn't quite make it to a safari so this is as close as we could get. This is an eland on a farm where we stayed for a night.

Typical sunset from the road along the coast.

The world is beautiful! I feel so lucky! Love, Carrie

Wolf Neck. Freeport, Maine

Sunset on Thanksgiving.

Sent by Eliza.

The Turkey

As the late fall light slanted through the window of my third grade classroom at The Brayton School, I placed my left hand on brown construction paper, splayed my fingers out as wide as they would go and traced my hand, bumping over each finger tip and then around the curve of the thumb. I cut along the outline with scissors and reached into the back of my desk for my small box of Crayola Crayons. I chose a different color for each finger - crimson red, burnt orange, canary yellow, forest green - and put a smiling face on the thumb. My Thanksgiving turkey was done.

Ben Franklin wanted the national bird to be a turkey. He felt the predatory nature of an eagle to be an unsuitable symbol for America. An eagle will grab prey right out of the mouth of another bird while in flight. It is an aggressive predator.

Turkeys are peaceful, they gather in groups and when roosting, sit in the lowest branches of a tree. Eagles choose the highest point of a tree for their nests. I stood under an eagle's nest on an island in Maine and was amazed by the detritus piled on the ground below - small carcasses, bones, muscle shells, twigs gathered and never used, white droppings. The eagle is a slob! The vegetarian turkey is communal and resourceful, grazing for food on the ground. A locavore.

Ben Franklin had a point. The way we begin can determine how we continue. Perhaps the history of this country would be a little different if there had been a golden turkey at the top of every flag pole rather than an eagle. School children would imagine peace as they saluted the American flag. Instead of eating it on Thanksgiving, perhaps we should be honoring the most peaceful of creatures; the wild turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Postscript: while looking for a graphic to go with this post, I came across a drawing that I had done a few years ago. I guess that most earliest of art projects, the turkey, made a lasting impression on me.

today

And And And....

Today's POST card is from Switzerland with a reference to a Museum of Contemporary Art. The more I look at it, the more I see. Are the yellow and blue objects and red splash of paint intentional or random? I wonder.

Thanks for sending this, Don. Welcome home!

Portland artist

The fairy house is complete. Now to wait for the residents to move in.

General Store. Danville, Vermont

Mail Outside

Mail Inside

Gas next door.

Note the red funnel. The nozzle on the diesel tank is made for trucks, too large for cars. We had to move on, almost running out of gas on the lovely back roads of Vermont.

Portland, Oregon

August creates a still life with materials that he collected on a walk with his grandmother.

contrast

The pictures will have to speak here. Suffice it to say that in Switzerland everything works! Trains run on time, bells chime on the hour, and mail is delivered to lovely boxes with top hats. Not so in Lincoln. We are indeed still living on the frontier!

Wolf Neck. Freeport, Maine

Eliza with her students at Coastal Studies for Girls.

Postcards from the edge

Welcome to a new feature on my blog. As more and more people have phones that are also cameras, I receive many great photos from far and wide. I hear a short *ding* coming from my computer and I know that someone is sending me a missive or photo often from distant lands. Call it a present day postcard, without the stamp.

My brother travels to Switzerland and finds the perfect car.

end of the season

visitors

We don't get many trick or treaters here in the dark woods of Lincoln but the bonfire may have attracted them. This was quite a trio.

From left to right: Alice in Wonderland, a Firefly (with the oh so familiar New England Halloween phenomenon...the jacket over the costume!) and Poseidon, Greek King of the Sea.

Before leaving, Alice asked if I would like to hear a poem.

Did she KNOW who she was talking to? What could make

me happier? She recited this from the book by Lewis Carroll.

How doth the little crocodile

Improve upon his shining tail,

And pour the waters of the Nile

On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin,

How neatly spreads his claws,

And welcomes little fishes in

With gently smiling jaws!

Full disclosure; turns out the two girls were from Cambridge, just here

visiting their friend, Poseidon. This must have been their second

time out, since trick or treating in Lincoln was postponed until last night due to the storm.

Cambridge was unscathed. Alice had already had a trial run. Very Lewis Carroll.

thirty years!

Carrie turns thirty!

The Party:

Fire outside

Fire in the barn woodstove

Clear night, half moon, stars and good company

Jeff and Jenn. Jeff is a friend from college.

Abid and Alia. Alia attended Columbia with Carrie and is now living in Boston.

The Cooks:

Eliza made two loaves of sesame topped braided challah bread.

Suzanne beginning the butternut squash soup with coconut and spinach and tofu.

Kate checking Epicurious on her ipad for lasagna recipes, stuffed dates and more.

Sisters!

Suzanne is from Austin, TX. Carrie and Suzanne met in Biloxi, MI working for Hands ON USA.

Carrie and Kate are friends for college. They drove down to Biloxi together to volunteer right after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Apple Crisp and ice cream. The end to a perfect birthday meal.

Twenty five of us gathered in Lincoln to celebrate Carrie's thirtieth birthday. Carrie, Suzanne, Kate and Eliza showed up around two o'clock after stopping at Whole Foods on the way to gather ingredients and began cooking up a storm. I joined in for the apple crisp part of the menu. Now this is the way to give a party. Many cooks!

Guests arrived as it was getting dark. Friends had traveled from as far as New York City, Washington D.C., Freeport, Maine and North Carolina and from nearby Cambridge. David lit a fire in the courtyard and in the barn woodstove. Guests migrated from barn to house and back again. The moon was bright and I realized how we all love to stand around a fire, drinking mulled cider, talking and occasionally just staring at the flames. The piñata in the barn topped off the party. Nothing like blindfolded revelers swinging baseball bats! It was a great evening.

Happy Birthday, Carrie!

neither snow nor sleet nor heat nor gloom of night....

Our mailbox was flattened by an oak limb. The sound of cracking wood lasted all night while the freak October storm raged. It's a mess around here; roads are closed, power is out all over town, school was closed on Monday and Halloween postponed!

This October storm was more like a spring storm when trees are leafed out and can't take the weight of heavy, wet snow. The oaks really suffered, so many came down or lost major limbs. I am glad now that we took down the four leader oak by our front door. We could have roof damage on top of everything else.

I just couldn't believe that the mailman delivered the mail as if nothing had happened. As I drove up the hill after teaching a class today, I paused at the bottom of the driveway and there was the New Yorker, a film from Netflix and some catalogs all neatly secured with a rubber band wedged under the piece of metal that was once our mailbox. I wonder how long we can get away with not fixing it. Or more to the point, how soon must we get a new one?

The good news is that 1. we got our mail, 2. the power is back on and 3. Halloween has been rescheduled for Saturday night.

All is well.