Reading

  Today my dear husband and I get to perform together onstage.  This is a rare occurrence.  I think it has only happened twice before.  He is usually onstage or directing and I am usually costuming the show.  It is a nice treat to be able to do this.  We are doing a directed reading of The real Thing today at 2 at the Franklin Stage Company.  It is free, so come join us.

Structure

  Sometimes we forget the basic "rule" that goes along with raising a child with autism.  Structure is important.  Not that we adhere to this religiously - by no means.  When our son was young, he loved to line up his matchbox cars in specific rows - we would mess them up.  We never ate (eat) dinner at the same time.  Never had "Tuesdays we eat this, Fridays we eat that" dinner menus. We have always thought this was setting up a false set of expectations.  The world is not ordered and structured and always on time, so we never were, and never allowed our son that option.
   School has its own structure.  Summer, however, is decidedly unstructured - to the point of being detrimental to his behavior.  He only has horse back riding once a week, and swim lessons once a week. So today is the first day of a schedule - albeit a loose one - but a schedule nonetheless.
    First off, exercise.  He woke me at 6:45 to go bike riding.  Then we went grocery shopping.  Three times a week he has to help with the laundry.  He has fun outings twice a week with his helper.  Normally he is in charge of mowing the lawn, but it has been so dry here, we have little or no growth.  In the afternoons, we are going to start heading to the Y for some swimming practice. In the evenings - several nights a week, the boys go fishing with Daddy.
   There is still a lot of free time with nothing to do - because, let's face it, he is a teenager and hanging out in your room playing on your iPad seems the norm.  If all goes well, the rest of the summer should be a little less stressful. 

Morning in the garden

     Temperatures are predicted to be 95 today, so I was up early to water before the plants were stressed and limp.  This is some of what I saw as I drank my coffee.

Not one of my bees, but welcome nonetheless.

This butterfly has been working the echinacea for over two hours.

Visitors are always welcome

Lemon lilies from my husband's grandmother's garden.

All pollinators welcome

Open and open

   The show which has been with me for months is finally open.  Separation Rapid at Chenango River Theatre is open and you can still get tickets for some of the later shows.  Opening night was Friday, but I also had rehearsal for a directed reading of The Real Thing at Franklin Stage Company.  They are doing a 5 play series "On Love"  and we performed Saturday, and this coming Sat. we do it again.  So Friday I was up early doing finishing touches on the show, then off to rehearsal for  The Real Thing, then out to Chenango River Theatre for final ironing, painting and such on the costumes, and home.  I rarely go to opening nights because I have spent much of the week away from the kids, and I miss them.
      Now we are slowing down a little for a couple weeks - I may be able to turn my dining room back into a place to eat - it is currently a giant pile of fabric, sewing notions and two sewing machines. 

Fish Killer

Quiet fishermen

A study in silence... for a moment

Hunting frogs

   This weekend was free fishing weekend in our state.  My boys go fishing a lot.  I rarely go because I would never go enough to make the price of the license worth it. (I am cheap!)  Saturday we all went fishing at a pond not far from us.  The pond has small mouth bass, blue gills, pumpkin seeds, and frogs.   It was not a good night for fishing.  We had very few nibbles even on the worms (we used worms and lures variously).  I managed to catch the first fish of the night.  It was a small pumpkin seed - very pretty.

My pumpkin seed.

Not so sure of this!

Trying to remove the buried hook

  Unfortunately,  my hook was larger than it should have been, and the fish swallowed the darn thing.  When my husband tried to take out the hook, it took quite a while.  I was certain it was dead.  Then, when he held it in the water for a bit, it started right out of his hands - and flipped upside down.  This is not good.  It flailed around upside down for a few minutes, then...nothing.  The poor fish became  food for others fish.  I felt terrible.  I mean, it is one thing if you are fishing to have the  creature feed you.  I can deal with the hunter/gatherer mentality.  But to have it just die - oh, sadness!

frog legs

The second fish 

  Our youngest was the fisherman of the day - he caught 2 pumpkin seeds, and about 23 frogs!

Of course, before the night was out, he managed to fall into the pond and get drenched and he was chilly.  Luckily I wore a  flannel, so we managed to get the wet clothes off and the flannel on.  We are nothing if not stylish! 

The Horse Show

    My son  takes lessons at a therapeutic riding stable  in our area.  It has helped his confidence, his balance, and firmly solidified his love of horses. Last weekend was their second annual Horse Show.  This is an exhibition, not a competition.  Alex and his horse, Buckwheat, were the first team out.

 They were great.  I was surprised that they did not have him trot like last year, but it may have to do with Buckwheat's size.   He is much bigger than Alex's mount from last year, Marilla, so they may have decided on caution.

   It was wonderful to see the rider's and how they had progressed from last year.  The stable accommodates riders with many disabilities from ADHD to cerebral palsy, autism to recovering from auto accidents. This year's surprise for us was that after he rode, Alex was the commentator for the show.  Anyone who knows Alex has seen his talking into his hand as if he had a mic in it, and this time, it was real.  It was very lively.

Alex has a wonderful rapport with the horses, but there are two he gravitates towards, Buckwheat and Pip.  He rides both of these animals in his lessons, and just loves them.  Pip is a former racehorse who has been trained as a therapeutic horse. He has a wonderful demeanor. 

You can See Pip's tattoo from his racing days

Alex and Pip

Buckwheat and Alex

    This stable is a wonderful place - and has great people working there. (I have no scientific evidence, but I think horse people are always good people!)  Our state senator came out to see the show and pass out the ribbons.  He is a good guy.

State Senator Seward distributed the awards

Abby, Buckwheat, Alex and Daddy

Pip and his pal, Alex

While it may not seem so, the entire family was at the show.  Nicholas, however, seemed much more interested in the chicks than in the horses!

I'm Dyeing not Dying

   When  I work on anything with pigments - paint, dyes, markers, etc.,  I generally do not worry about gloves and such.  I can wash.  Yesterday I was dyeing some sample pieces for a show I am designing.  Separation Rapid is a world premiere of a play about the final journey of Bessie and Glenn Hyde in 1928 when they ran the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in a homemade scow and never returned.  Some of the characters need to be wearing the colours of the canyon so they can fade into the background when needed.
     I wore gloves to prep the fabric with soda ash, then I mixed the fiber reactive dye colours.  I lay the primed fabric pieces out on the lawn and using various squirt bottles I placed the colours in a loose pattern on the fabric.

After the colours bled together.

After the dye application, the fabric needs to be kept damp for several hours, so I covered the fabric with a drop cloth, weighted it with logs and stones and left it on the lawn. Today I wash it and see how it looks when dry.  We are aiming for a darker  look, not all the tans and yellows - but I fear this may have gotten too hot in the reds and oranges.  If I do not like it for the show it can be a great "something else."
    Last night when I ate dinner I realized that although I had covered my hands, I was wearing flip flops to dye in.  My feel were covered in red, brown and orange spots.  I looked like I had been in the spatter field of a messy homicide.  Just another reminder to wear shoes!