weekly wandering

Hola, Familia!
Elizabeth, perhaps if your pictures don't attract advertising dollars, my multilingualism will. I was going to post some pictures of C's birthday, but it seems the Duffy's are much easier to exploit for humor.

Here's something interesting: Good homeschooling family that we are, we have been reading Mary Poppins outloud for the past 6 months, not that it's long, but somehow things get in the way. The kids keep wondering when she is going to turn nice. In the book, MP is very detached, snappish, and more than a little petty, and not at pretty like Julie Andrews. Tonight the selection was about a midnight romp at the zoo in honor of Mp's bday. The king of the beasts is not the lion, but the hamadryad, who is a cobra like creature. The kids were wandering what a hamadryad was, so I googled it tonight, and discovered that PL Travers was into theosophism, Buddhism, and Navajo mysticism, which makes some of the silliness of the story make more sense. "We are all one" says the hamadryad, who is also a snake in Yeats' poetry, but a kind of tree nymph in Greek mythology. Wasn't Walt D. something of a New Age afficionado? And people are worried about Harry Potter. Please don't tell any of your Catholic friends, but we are thoroughly enjoying the story. My cover: CS Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet ends with a Bacchic romp at midnight, replete with talking bears and bridal bower festivities.

On to more interesting news: First swim meet today: A place 1st in 2 events and JA placed 1st in 4 of 5, but DQ'd in 1, the butterfly. B received no blue ribbons, so he was very mopey, but at least he didn't come in last -by a lot - this year, like last year. JW did better, too, and was happy to get a blue for his relay.

Happy Father's Day, dads, by the way

I'll let pictures do the rest of my talking, at least most of it:

Cs first catch, at Cub Scout family camp. Yes, J's pole did fall in the water, but JA saved it. He asked for a reward for about four days. J did catch a fish; there just happened to be about 50 milling around the dock, waiting for a snack. C's other catch:

J'er's stitches:

Scenes from C's birthday: