Just jump right in.

OK- moving backward through the week, trying to remember as best as I can from this nearly-bed-time point of view, I will try and recap how the kids and I have been spending our time during these last days of summer-moving-toward-fall. I love this time in Portland. Fall here lasts forever and there is plenty of time and space to take in the leaves slowly changing, the cooler nights and warmer-than-you-think-they-will-be days. It is technically still fountain weather, though I wear a fleece in the mornings sometimes, at least to start meditating, but not necessarily to finish. Some would say it is too hot in the early afternoon to upick- I am not one of those people, but my children- at least today- were. The sun can be hot and is angling lower in the sky, making for unexpected heat.

We upicked late summer raspberries today. I would like to go back tomorrow or the next day to check on the blackberries again. We keep going to pick blackberries and I for one am surprised by the hordes of unripened berries. I am particularly frustrated by the girl who sits in the farm store, who, without batting an eye, assures me the berries are ripe and ready to be picked. Surely, I have picked blackberries earlier than this in past years? The tomatoes are starting to call out to be picked and I am gearing myself up to can them, as my freezer is filled to bursting.

There has been a lot to do with our guinea pig Albert as he dove out of Eva's hands a few days ago, looking toward the compost pile, hoping for the piles of chopped vegetable skins and half eaten fruit found there. He broke off his top two front teeth and has been receiving antibiotics (to save one tooth in particular) and special pea-carrot flavored acidophilus (to protect his delicate guinea pig gut). I am happy to say his teeth are already growing back and he is eating better and better each day. They seem to be long enough today for him to eat his timothy hay in near normal portions- the most he has eaten since his accident.

Let's see- there was a birthday party today for our good friend Orion, complete with fountain-time, cake, a pinata, time with friends, meeting new people...There was a park day yesterday with good friends, talking, playing, spending what feels like last minute time outside (of course we were going to the park well into November last year, but the slant of the sun makes it seem imperative to get our fill of sunshine this time of year...), making it all count before the change of season begins in earnest...There was walking in the woods on Sauvie Island to save me from the closed-in suburban feeling that sometimes takes me by surprise and presses in on me from all directions with the fences and pruning and lawn care. It is because of this squashed in feeling that I sometimes miss the Midwest with it's flatness in all directions, a spaciousness that you can stretch out in, a place where you can see forever in all directions, a space that beckons to you to expand.

All of this out and about time has, of course, been balanced by time at home, time reading Finn Family Moomintroll and James and the Giant Peach (both again), time thinking about Ninja lessons (for Samuel) and looking ahead to clay classes (for Eva), time talking about big numbers and scientific notation, moving from addition to multiplication and back again, watching spiders grow, flowers bloom, hummingbirds fly, hovering about the hyssop and scarlet runner beans...Calculators. Bionicles. Photography. Nasturtiums growing fresh from Eva's harvested seeds. Trying on winter clothes. Dreaming of snow and sledding and syrup-covered-ice, all while wearing a swimsuit, walking barefoot, watering plants, holding guinea pigs, eating watermelon and peaches and tomatoes. A magical time, this end of summer, so much to come, so much to remember. So much now.