While AC and I packed up to leave, Sam spent the morning digging out the branch, rearranging rocks, and planning a “bath” for a spot just downstream from where we gather water to boil for washing dishes. When it was time to go, she did not want to leave. Just before bed this evening, she said, “Mommy, for my birthday, …

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It was hard to choose one photo among the many I took today. Candidates included Sam scooping water from the branch, AC helping Sam shoot an arrow into the hill with his boyhood bow, and AC chopping grass with a swing blade, moments before he sliced up a hornet’s nest (and told us to run into the house!) In the end I …

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When AC first took me up to the Shack–his family’s rustic retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southern Virginia–I was prepared for bumpy, dirt roads. I was not, however, prepared for hurtling up through a tunnel of rhododendrons so dense and thick and narrow that the branches scraped and squeezed the side of the …

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A pepper on the pepper plant!

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for my taste, but Sam loves swimming at the city pool.

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Remember when the Bent Spoon garden was orderly? Yeah, that didn’t last long. The tomatoes have turned it into a jungle. Enter at your own risk.

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We took Sam to her first movie in a movie theater. It seemed appropriate that it be “Cars 2” because “Cars” was the first feature length film she ever saw (in 3 installments, while we were in Brighton in 2008, and she was 3 years old). Sam loves “Cars,” which has long been her comfort movie. We were pleased that while …

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Been hearing about Nia for a while now. It’s dancy. It’s sweaty. It’s fun!

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Today was the last day of the summer session of “Le club des amis”–now Pascal and Eugénie get to take a nice long rest. (If only I could join them!)

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