July

Okay, I do still knit. I haven't shared very much of my work lately. Here is one. It's a Faroese Shawl which is made from the leftover yarn from last year's big project.

The Canada Lily plants in our yard did seem to enjoy the weather this year as well as the wild berries on our property. One of the lilies is over 6 feet tall and had 16 flowers on it.

The boys now play enjoyable music and that has been a fun thing for us as a family to listen to.

Here is our little blueberry picker checking out the early berries. By the next week the majority were ripe. Our summer has been different this year with the teens working 5 days a week at a garden center near us. They enjoy the work. Off they go in their little car in the mornings and back they come at lunchtime. We do our family activities in the afternoons mostly. Teens are a fun thing to have around the house! I miss them while they are away...of course I'm glad they are spreading their wings too.

~Rachel

Tall Ships

Sail Boston puts on a great Tall Ships event! We went down to Beantown to enjoy the sights.
We've been to plenty of tall ships activities before...but never quite like this one. There were dozens of ships in. Only a few were docked to be open to the public. Many were at private docks around the harbor. The floatilla of ships viewing from the harbor was worth seeing on it's own. While standing in line to board La Amistad (which had another ship rafted to her) we watched another of our favorites go by in the harbor, the Roseway. I can't say that we've ever watched tall ships go sailing (under motor) by while boarding another ship before. We really enjoyed the Picton Castle the most I think. As we approached there was a piper blaring out a tune on the bagpipes. Her home port is in Nova Scotia. The atmosphere on this ship was just happy. Most of the crew were young people and they were clearly having the time of their lives.
If we had the time we'd have gone back for another day of it. What a wonderful event!
~Rachel

June

June was, well... April! It rained every day but 3 and those were a far cry from "sunny". The pattern has been continuing into July as well-only not as cold.

Here are a few photos of some of what's been going on around here. We replaced our dead GPS with a new used one and we are caching again.

The youngest boy is raising a small flock of chicks.

And, boys will be boys and play with swords. It is a common thing now to hear sudden foot noises in another room followed by laughter and "parry...repost" or something like that. Lessons are off for the summer but they have been a fun thing this winter/spring.

~Rachel