Writing on Whidbey

Just back from Whidbey Writer's Workshop on Whidbey Island, WA, across from Seattle. Formal Name: Northwest Institute of Literary Arts Master of Fine Arts Fall Residency 2011. You can see why we shorten it, sometimes to Writer's Camp or even W3. This was my fourth year attending the summer residency. It is a wonderful community of writers.

This summer the classes were headquartered at the Captain Whidbey Inn at Penn Cove, just outside of Coupeville. The inn is located right on the water and looked like this

and this

and this

and this.

I stayed just down the road in a three bedroom house

which I shared with my friends Grier and Cindy, children's book writers extraordinaire.

This was our view across the cove to the Captain Whidbey Inn.

To be continued...

Love for now.

N2

It's About Time

I know, I've been a Bad Blogger all summer. Bad Blogger! Bad, Bad Blogger!!

Sit! Sit, now.

Post!

That's a Goood Girl.

What can I tell you? It's been a bizzzy summer and will go on that way into Fall.

Thanks to those who sent a mail to see where the heck I was. So thoughtful and I didn't even get back to you. Too bizzy for that, too. But I hereby send apologies and hugs back at ya'.

~~~

I'm going to get back in the saddle the easy way, with pictures of the Corn Tiger and family.

They came here to California and then I went to Brooklyn to visit them. We'll do the same in September, in reverse. I'll go to Brooklyn first and then the Dear Daughter and the Boy will come to stay with me for awhile.

Nana is excited! (CT never did say Grandma. I wanted to be Nana anyway, and Dee said, "Well we'd better start calling you Nana then." And he heard that and said "Nana", and so it was.)

Dee said the boy asked to call me today and they left a message on my machine. He said "Hi Nana." 16 months old. What a smarty! When he was here he played back the messages on my machine from the handset, something I didn't know how to do. Three times. So it wasn't only by mistake. He liked listening to the two old messages on there all the way through. Funny Boy!

At first he just wanted to try on my reading glasses, because I have them on most the time and he wanted to see how they felt. Once he caught sight of the floor through the lenses, he would walk around with them on looking down to get this closer view of the floor as if through a magnifying glass.




Such a baby still sometimes and yet already such a Boy!

It was wonderful fun to get up early and have breakfast

outside in the sunshine while he explored my backyard.

And I am usually not a morning person!

We went early, June instead of August, for our weekend vacation on the Eel River.

Had a lot of fun with family and friends and Baby June came up for her first visit with us there.

We love swimming in that river! And the new owners of the lodge created access to a new beach this year which was perfect for the little ones.

A few weeks later, I went to Brooklyn on my way to a big re-union of my Father's family in Boston (140 people! More in a later post...).



The Dear Daughter and I took the Boy into the Village for a little children's street fair and stopped for lunch in a pocket park along the way.

He liked the bunch of balloons tied to the railing.

Ball! Anything round is a ball.

Reach. Pinch. Pop!

We hung around the apartment, wearing as little clothing as possible. It was NY in the summer: Hot and Humid! I never was good at that kind of heat, but we managed, at first with one little fan, then I had to buy an air conditioner for the window.

CT had no problem keepin' bizzy, throwing the ball for the dogs and, you know, movin' furniture and such. He's a real city boy, he makes that truck noise when he backs up "Beep, beep, beep!"

As opposed to "Brrrooom!"

Comin' through!

We went out in the mornings there, too, to the park down by the East River to enjoy the breeze with our iced coffee and almond croissant, and then to the playground for some slidin' and water play with Poppa.

Then home to crash for a good, long nap. You notice how he's nearly filling that crib already?!!!

My how fast they grow! And we see it all the more from the relative leisure of the Nana side.

Thankfully, we got a little time with Uncle George, just back from a friend's wedding in Italy. CT and I took a car over to his new apartment on the edge of the Clinton Hill neighborhood. The Momma met us there after her shift at the co-op food store.

Every day was a good day to be with my Loves, even in That Heat.

More soon.

Light Summer kisses for now.

xO,

N2