Grammie's Birthday

Yesterday was a beautiful day to celebrate Grammie's birthday at Stuart and Emilie's camp on Shadow Lake.

We made homemade ice cream with the old hand crank ice cream maker.

There was a barbecue with all sorts of meats and side dishes. And of course the cakes. Lisa always makes 2 delicious cakes.

Grammie and her sister, Estelle, had a goog visit together.

Kids had plenty of fun in the water.

Cole and Asa played together inseparably all afternoon.

Hazel played tirelessly in the water with Estelle and Lena.

Dan gave the kids turns at sail boat rides around the lake.

Dan and Wayne take advantage of the breezy lake with the sail boat.

Dan give Cole and Asa a ride.

What fortunate kids these are to be building these kinds of memories.

Fog, Sun, and Alligator Meat

Yesterday we went to visit the wind towers again. 

It was a foggy morning.

Our group consisted of Lisa, Dan, Laura, Martha (Grammie), Julie, Estelle, Lena, Wayne, Cole Heather, and myself. Channel 3 news, WCAX, was there as well.

For brief moments, the clouds parted, offering a glimpse of the panoramic views.

Climbing on the rocks is fun.

WCAX follows up with some reactions. They should be showing this piece on their saturday morning broadcast from 6-8:00 a.m. Don't worry if you miss it. I'll embed it here on the blog.

Afterwards, the sun started to come out for a bit while we had lunch at Cajun's Snackbar. Cajun's is a locally famous spot, known for it's spicy food, alligator dinners, and frog leg appetizers. Luckily, for less adventurous diners, they also offer your basic burgers, fries, and hot dogs. Wayne tried the fried alligator. He's been looking forward to it all summer, but in the end, wasn't crazy about it. Still, as a teenage growing boy, he managed to scarf down every crumb.  Meanwhile Estelle and Lena tried their first corn dogs. 

Cajun's is a busy little place and the inside seating area was packed, so some of us had our lunch outside in the picnic area, which included some gardens, paths, and playing space.

Wind towers and Cajun's - crossed of the summer bucket list.

Birthday

The day before my birthday, Julie and Estelle commissioned Wayne to compose a piece of music for my birthday.  Wayne quickly threw together a few measures for his trumpet, Estelle's oboe, Cole's saxophone, Lena's recorder, and Heather's piano.  They all got together that afternoon for a couple of run throughs.

The concert was held on Joanie's porch on the evening of my birthday.

Warming up...

In attendance were Joanie, Julie, Lisa, Dan, and Cole's friend Fintan.

The first performance...

The encore performance...

I love Lena playing the recorder. She did a great job. They were all great.

Then poor Fintan, who recently starred as Charlie Brown, in Mirror Theatre's "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" was coaxed and cajoled into reprising his role on our "stage." He was a good sport about it. He is from a very musical family. He plays trombone, violin, and piano and he and his siblings are all members of various segments of Vermont Youth Orchestra.

Wayne had made a cake - lemon cake with lemon buttercream frosting. Very yummy!

And Heather had made some blueberry tartlets with the blueberries we picked the other day.

It was a great evening and I really enjoyed the music, cake, tarts, company, cards and gifts. Thanks everyone for a great birthday.

Blueberries and Crystal

Yesterday was a beautiful afternoon to do some blueberry picking.

 On Thursday, Cole and I had gone blueberry picking. Wayne had a friend over so he didn't come, and Heather also wanted to stay and play with Wayne and his friend. Cole would not allow me to take any pictures of him blueberry picking, but the next day, I took Wayne and Heather. They let me take a few.

 I think the season is just beginning here, because there were still lots and lots of unripe berries.

 There is a beautiful view.

 Wayne picked a green one.

 We each filled one of these baskets.

 Afer picking blueberries, it's on to Crystal Lake to meet Julie, Estelle, and Lena. The girl in the yellow suit is Heather's friend Kiera. Her grandparents own the blueberry farm. She was spending the day with them while her mom was at work, so we invited her to come to the lake with us. Luckily, she had her suit!

 Lena, the animal lover, tries to become friendly with the duck family.

Friends, cousins, berries, sand, water. All the best things of summer in one day.