Busy day yesterday. Helped Stacey make strawberry trifle (I love it when she asks me what she should make, I suggest something completely at random, and then she goes ahead and makes it). Went to tea at a friend’s, which turned out to be High Tea complete with homemade scones and clotted cream, assorted finger sandwiches, etc. Then went to Spoutwood for the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) meeting and potluck.
Speaking of which, I should mention how proud I am of Stacey. 7 months pregnant and she’s still over at the farm a couple times a week tending the gardens.
So, fun fact learned at CSA meeting: the average article of supermarket produce travels 1500 miles before you purchase it. I’m all in favor of the plethora of food options that mass transport gives us; but this seems slightly nuts for the items which could be gotten locally. And local organic vegetables have waaaay more flavor than the ones that have been bred to withstand long travel and rough handling.
After the CSA dinner I wandered around the farm a bit with Stacey and made myself a honeysuckle wreath. Then I took the Lad over to Highland Farm for a fire performer’s meetup. This, unfortunately, was a disappointment. I brought the Lad because he really wanted to see fire performers spinning poi. He had been at the St. Patrick’s day gathering at the farm, but mostly missed the fire spinners because he was recovering from an illness and resting indoors. So he was pretty excited to really get to see some spinning.
However, perhaps due partly to early rain showers, the group took an exceptionally long time getting started. We killed time by playing glow-in-the-dark frisbee and foosball, but we were both getting pretty bored. By the time we left around 11, we’d only seen one person spin. I feel bad for robin_greenwood too: he had to leave even earlier than us, and didn’t get to see a single person spin. Which I understand is starting to become a pattern. Keep trying! Third time’s a charm, right?
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how difficult it can be to be 11-13 years old. Especially a precocious, adult-sized 11-13. You’re too old for a lot of little kid games. But you’re too young to be “one of the guys/girls”. A lot of adult conversation still goes over your head and/or is just plain boring (there are certain subjects adults just can’t stop talking about that you’re just not interested in at that age…).
And for some reason we just don’t seem to know a lot of people with kids in the age range of my stepchildren. This is a confounding mystery to me. We know plenty of people with babies and toddlers. We know plenty of people with older teens or college-age children. But that in-between bracket is strangely empty. It’s as if kids just vanish between the ages of 8 and 16. If you’re reading this, you’re in the north-of-Baltimore/Southern PA vicinity, and you have older middle school to junior-high aged kids who want playmates, please get in touch!.
Today Stacey’s off at the PA Lavendar Festival with the Princess, robin_greenwood, and another friend. I’m going to be taking it easy today, as is my right and duty on this hallmarkiest of occasions. My most ambitious intention is to get the car washed.