Black-eyed Susans and a Few Clouds

My weekends usually follow the same pattern. Saturdays we clean house, do laundry, and grocery-shop, with the adults splitting up to complete tasks and the kids participating a bit but usually doing their own thing. Sundays are for catching up with big projects around the house, or doing some work that we've brought home with us. It's a boring routine, and one that doesn't leave a whole lot of time for active or creative pursuits.

But this weekend was different. Our recent storms cleared momentarily, leaving a bright, fertile landscape to explore. A hike with a friend around the rim of a gorge revealed lush wildflowers and nature- and human-carved stonework.

Then my older kids and I caught a fun community theatre production of "Charlotte's Web."

Afterwards we couldn't help but explore the fields of clover beside the theatre parking lot. Busy bees and mating beetles covered every clover.

The theatre's garden planting out front was a rich riot of color. Black-eyed susans are the most cheerful flower I can think of, and they were blooming in profusion.



My youngest son, who is almost three, seems to get into trouble when he feels ignored. And this weekend was no exception. On Saturday night, he and I ended up spending four hours in the emergency room after a poison-ingestion scare (luckily a false alarm).

So, to make up for that, we decided to spend some relaxing time as a family on Sunday. There is a ten-year age difference between my oldest and youngest kids, so it's not always easy to find something that all of us can do together without someone being bored or loud or whiney or argumentative (not to mention how the kids behave!). The one thing we know that everyone can enjoy is a trip to the arboretum. We feed the ducks, geese, and fish at the pond, and then the kids run around and explore.

The day was unbelievably cool for August, and a little overcast, giving all the colors around us a beautifully deep tone.

The kids have caught on to my mushroom obsession, so they help with sighting and photographing interesting specimens. We found some big, gnarly mushrooms under a large tree, and my daughter took some great photos of them. One of these days I really will have to start compiling them all in a field book, as Smoothpebble has suggested.

We ended our time at the arboretum peering closely at a caterpillar chomping on a dandelion leaf. This was the closest to a Zen moment that I've ever had with my boys--all of us peering intently at the little guy on the leaf for many moments of quiet stillness. And to think that this photo captures permanently that perfect cocoon of quiet seems instilled with irony. Yes, the moment is transitory, but I will always have this image to jog my memory of those fleeting little pockets of time with my kids that usually slip away from me.

What a gift of a day!



I hope your weekend was similarly rich (minus the trip to the ER)!