enjoying the summer sun

Well, we finally experienced the first 2 hot days of the summer much to the delight of my children as well as every other person in New England. Even the local newspapers have front page articles about what the rain has done to the farmers and tourists. Nothing has been growing and fungus diseases have been rampant while the tourists from Canada are still traveling here in masse. It makes me wonder how cold and miserable the weather must be up there if they think Maine is an improvement this summer. I have been slowly signing the children up for lessons in swimming, sailing, and canoeing.

Last year Mary helped out at the farm down the road with the horses, but our neighbor seems a bit distracted and hasn’t gotten back in touch with me. I think I’ll check out the horse rescue farm a few miles away and see if she can do anything useful. Mary just wants to be around the creatures in any way she can, she checks out every horse book, fiction or non-fiction, she can from the library and asks every few days, “Do you promise I can have a pony when we move here?”

A well meaning friend keeps suggesting that the girls do ballet with her children, but I can’t contemplate spending beautiful Maine days cooped up at an inside activity. What people who summer here as children remember are the bright blue skies, the cool breezes, the days on the water, and the incredible views of mountain and sea. I want the kids outside, running through the fields, riding their bikes to the mailbox, and wading at the shore. As soon as the package arrives with my sling, we are going to hike up this mountain that overshadows our farm.

It is a mile to the top, but without a secure method of carrying Julia Ellen, it might as well be as far as the moon. While we aren’t quite ready to camp at Mt. Katahdin or brave the summer crowds at Acadia National Park, we are enjoying every ray of sunshine, every breeze, and every opportunity to be out in the wonderful Maine air.