Withywindle Wanderers

Today each Ady did something wonderful, in their own eyes. Eowyn and Cosette went to the fair with Nana and Bucca. On our way, we read about Angelina Ballerina, who dreamed ALL winter about going to the fair. And at last... Bens spent his today at home, cosily reading and writing and thinking and philosophising, which he rather enjoys! And I hiked high into the Cascade mountains, discovering the amazing Blanca Lake. The trees were enormous. At 5000 feet, alpine meadows, fresh air, birdsong, wildflowers and blueberries sated my senses. I was thinking about love, and desiring to love with more concern for those I am loving and less concern and fear about myself. At the very moment this thought materialised in my mind, Blanca Lake appeared around a bend in the path. Its blue-green is irridescent from glacial till trickling down from the Columbia Glacier. The worn, rocky mountain peaks were so ancient and connected to the earth's core. They inspired me to sing an old hymn at the top of...

'Twas lovely seeing Sam and Becca. I don't know when next I'll see any of my siblings or my parents, or my nephews. Hopefully not too far off!! I am thankful to see dear Bens, Eowyn and Cosette every day!!!! I love this pic Becca took of Sam and I soaking in the delicious Maine sunset.

I'm really thankful for the wonderful girlfriends I have in Seattle. This week has been one of celebrating them: Shakespeare in the park with Arenda (that's the sun setting over Puget Sound afterwards! Eowyn wants to be Sylvia, in Two Gentlemen of Verona, and posed as her all the way home!), wine in the jacuzzi with Katie, Korean deliciosities with Lisa, champagne and shrimp with Karen, biking to the zoo with Mary, singing to celebrate the assumption of the blessed Virgin Mary with Jeannie, and hiking to Talapus Lake with Diana and Nathalie! I'm feeling exceedingly thankful to have such wonderful women in my life! And to those of you I didn't get to see this week, a toast to you!

A few moments ago I was lying on my bed, freshly made with crisp, clean sheets, relaxing, when Coco came in and climbed under the fitted sheet, and crawled all around the bed, evading capture by mother-who-wanted-a-rest. Eowyn, was, meanwhile, outside, picking blackberries with which to make a pie. The marjoram, rosemary and courgette bread I'd just baked was smelling luscious. Coco, finally extricated from beneath the sheets, began bouncing over me on the bed, and OOPS, on top of me! OUCH! "No jumping on the bed Coco!" In comes Daddy, to jump WITH Coco on the bed, and head butt the glass light, which broke into a million shards, all over mother-who-wanted-(and didn't get!)-a-rest! Yet I love this little family of mine, and wouldn't trade them in for all the world! Love, and a toast to all mothers in the world in their quest for rest... Meg

I've just finished 'The Book of Lights' - an incredible read. Let me share a taste with you! "A passage from the Zohar came to him as he ascended the path. "Rabbi Yitzhak said: At the time God created the world and desired to reveal the depth of his being from out of the hidden, the light came from the darkness and they were joined together. Because of this, out of darkness came the light and out of the hidden came the revealed and out of the good came evil and out of mercy came severe judgment, and everything is intertwined with everything else... the good inclination and the evil inclination, the right and the left." p.240 Chaim Potok is addictive! I'm reading 'In the Beginning' now, his only novel I've not yet read. I began 'The Chosen' in Queenstown, Tasmania, aged 9, and was fascinated. Who's your favourite author, and how did you meet them?

I'm glad there was some glass between that beautiful cat and my beautiful girls!

...our favourite waiter, James, kindly took our photo (and accidentally filmed a movie instead!!)

This delightful lighthouse I discovered swimming out into the Atlantic from Waikiki Beach, Salem, Mass.! There I saw GROUNDHOGS for the first time in my life! Bens did an EXCELLENT job looking after Eowyn and Coco and our home, Bag End, in my absence! I've just doused our entire home with tea tree oil, which is a doubly sacred rite for me, in that it both cleanses away germs and connects me with my dear brother Stephen, with whom I would sit in our temple of the wind, listening to the Melaleucas sing. Love to you all, Meg PS I think I'm going to apply to Amherst (Uni of Mass.) MFA as well as Iowa. Amherst is near about 4 different unis, one at which Bens could study psychology! I really like New England!! And I really like YOU!

Spending time with lovely Sam and Becca and the wonderful Talbot/Winter family was fantastic. Here we are about to compete in a 5km running race at Friendship, Maine (Becca won a trophy, and we all won pizza!) Brunch at Thomastown bakery - lobster benedict, a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and a cup of licorice tea. MMMMMMMM! Becca's holiday house in Maine is a timeful place, using the word as Sheldon Vanuaken does, to imply a deep, full, wonderful space where connection and people and beauty and the cool sea and the mysterious blankets of fog and sailing on the 'Osprey' and laughing and indulging in divine meals and whizzing along in the little sailboat with Sam and kayaking and ... it was a superb time! Becca, Sam and I drove down to Boston last night, mooned the moon from the banks of the Charles River (an old tradition of Sam's and mine) and said goodbye ... I am so glad to have spent time with them, and the sad ache in my heart on saying goodbye is satiate...

At the Yorks, in Maine, I caught an Atlantic wave! I had a deeply spiritual time communing with Jesus. 'Twas heavenly. And I was excited, oh so excited, at being about to see SAM and BECCA! There was a cliff walk, donated by the kindly estate to which the mansions along which the path ambled belonged. It was incredible, and reminded me of my time in Cornwall, England, many moons ago!

Salem was incredible - I had the honour of meeting a group of Pagans - Witches, Druids and others, and attending their weekly town meeting and talking with them over a hearty beer.

I like the way this woman, by Rembrandt, is so very happy with herself! Renoir and I love orange! The squiggly little one is an Egyptian seal, 4000 years old! After being immersed in ancient Egypt and Greece and Rome, the European paintings seemed relatively recent! This Turner was enigmatic, in that he combined beauty and horror, the reverent oranges of sunset with stray limbs and chains of slaves who had been thrown into the sea. It seems the beautiful could not redeem the ugly in this painting. Yet it exposed murder very effectively, in a genre reaching people who otherwise would ignore slavery. About his woman, Van Gogh said: "I want to paint men and women with that something of the eternal which the halo used to symbolise, and which we seek to convey by the actual radiance and vibration of our colouring." YUM! The cherubs deep in concentration on their books reminded me of my cherubs (one of whom just snuck into the kitchen and is hiding...)

I LOVED the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and spent hours in gentle contemplation, looking at the courtyard from different windows and different levels, musing the ideas of perspective and paradigm and having a life with balance and harmony.