Northfield Archives | Page 43 of 50

Sprinkleritis

The girls enjoyed another 45 minutes with the sprinkler this afternoon. Well, Julia did. As these photos show, Vivi was as bored by the whole deal and Julia was energized by it. The funniest part of the activity was Vivi’s constant requests that I “durn up” or “durn down” the sprinkler, which accompanied promises that she would run through the appropriately high or low sprinkler. She never did. After roughly 20 trips to the faucet (I counted!), I only had to touch the handle, but not even turn it, before one or the other said, “Oh, that’s the perfect height!” I bet I didn’t actually change the height at all over my last 20 trips (I counted!).

A Few Recent Drawings

Five things I’ve drawn in the last week. I’d draw something besides still lives (still lifes?), but nothing else will stand still long enough.

Red Lantern

The last rider in the Tour de France is called the “red lantern” or lanterne rouge. That’s my usual position when Julia and Genevieve are out for a bike ride.

Mer-Girls

This afternoon, the girls enjoyed their first “swim” of the season in the wading pool. They played for about 45 minutes, which easily doubled their previous record, and best of all, most of my time was spent in the lawn chair, making sure nobody tried to (make the other one) drink the water. Easy, wet, and fun.

Northfield Summer Sky

I stepped outside for a few minutes to enjoy the evening air but was stopped short by a spectacular light-and-cloud show in the western sky. Click here for the full-sized shot, which still doesn’t do justice to the sight of orange, yellow, white, gray, and blue clouds racing north…

Fields

In their flatland, prairie way, the fields east of town are beautiful right now…

Sprinkler!

The girls enjoyed the season’s first session with the sprinkler today.

Arb Ride

Except in winter (when I have to use the streets, if I can’t ski to work), my bike commute runs from my house to the southeastern corner of the Carleton Arboretum, over Arb trails to the Rec Center, and then over the Lyman Lakes to the center of campus. My favorite leg of this trip is definitely the dirt-path section in the Arb. The trees and grasses are glowing with color. Even the browns and tans of the path itself seem heightened somehow.

And the manmade sights – like the vista over Bell Field toward Evans Hall or this bridge near the Cole Wetland – are nice, too.

Drawing 3: View of Fields

Every time I look out our windows, I see this view of fields southeast of town. It’s not a displeasing landscape, so I thought I’d draw it. A first attempt in pen failed, so I retried it with India ink and washes over pencil.

The paper wasn’t quite heavy enough to stay flat as it absorbed the washes (hence the vertical rippling), but the colors worked well to convey the flat light of a cloudy evening and I managed to capture some of the depth of the view, which extends for a mile and a half to the next ridge. (Click here for the full-size image.)

Secret Library Sculpture

A fascinating sculpture, built out of sticks, branches, and twine, has popped up on the tiny lawn behind Carleton College’s library.

Wading into Summer

We capped the insanely busy weekend with a nice trip to the Arb so the birthday girl could wade in Spring Creek. (It’s not really wading if the water only covers your feet, but still….) Vivi, against her inclinations, decided to join the five-year-old in the water.

Vivi’s experiment ended after a few minutes, when a scary stick surprised her and, trying to get away, she stepped in some squishy mud, which was too much to bear. Before that, though, she did enjoy herself. How about that thousand-watt smile?

I Can’t Hear the Art!

I spent 90 minutes in our backyard this evening, working on my final drawing project (quick: what’s the opposite of a magnum opus?), which was a placid, relaxing sort of activity except for the ridiculous noises:

One set of neighbors set off firecrackers and cheered along with something on TV.
Another neighbor worked on training his new labradoodle – “No, Maggie! Maggie, no! No, Maggie! Maggie, no! Oh, good Maggie! Good dog! … No, Maggie! Maggie, no!”
Somewhere down the block, someone screamed, but in a fake way. A teenage girl?
The robins, red-winged blackbirds, killdeer, pheasants, and swallows all made their customary sounds.
An airliner, descending toward MSP, created a scary whoosh-boooooooom sound when it reduced engine power for the descent to MSP, 30 miles due north.
The neighbors two doors down talked about their weekend activities. (They’re going to see the grandkids.)
A loon called twice – perhaps live, on the nearby ponds, or maybe on someone’s TV.
The nice old lady next door watched some old show – a drama, judging by the music – at ear-damaging volume.

So much for the quiet countryside. I could barely hear myself committing art.

Rainy Day Near-Nudity

This afternoon, just after starting my drizzly ride home, I passed a student walking along in a straw hat and some raggedy khakis. He was carrying his flipflops in one hand and his shirt in the other. As I passed him, he turned and gave me a smile that was, I think, more than a little bit stoned-happy.

I’m all for embracing your inner nature child/pothead, but I’m also glad that I didn’t encounter him another hundred yards along the path, by which time surely the pants (et cetera) had been shed, too.

Sisters in Action

Start to finish, today was a day for the sisters. As far as I can recall, they spent a maximum of 75 minutes apart – the time when Julia was napping. Beyond the usual things they do together – three meals and two snacks, bathtime – they played at home in the morning (Legos, blocks, play kitchen), helped out at Menards while we bought flowers for the patio, played again at home right after nap, rode bikes and generally laid claim to campus in the afternoon, and then wound up the evening with, first, a second round of Shannon’s brilliant “Activity Lottery” and, second, Julia handling all of Vivi’s bedtime routine (reading a story, singing her songs, even tucking her in!). And except for a couple brief spells, they got along great. So great, in fact, that they both looked at me when I tried to take their picture.

Teletubbies in My Subdivision

As it often does, the internet reacted hilariously to my blog post and photos about the girls riding their bikes up the slope at the end of our neighborhood park. Some preliminary comments on the blog about how the hill can be a tough little incline gave way on Facebook to chatter about how the park looks just like Teletubbyland, the place where the Teletubbies live.

All the talk was summarized neatly by my friend Doug, who used his Photoshop skills to… To… Well, to make me laugh almost to the point of tears, and to put Julia and Genevieve in Teletubbyland:

Well done, Doug!