"Poor kids," Marcela says sympathetically as we're getting ready for bed. "They didn't get to go out in the yard today." We talked about it. Noah was out there for a few minutes. I watered the plants and moved everything back to its place, which is difficult to see in this night shot. But we just didn't get to the yard. We boiled corned beef and had more of our yellow tomatoes in salad greens. Our friends John and Lisa with their son Griffin, a fellow community school student and friend of Gwen and Maxim, came for dinner. After dinner Maxim came out of the playroom where Griffin and Noah were swinging drum sticks like weapons and wimpered, "Griffin doesn't want to play anything and I've given him five choices!" The boys marched by in cowboy hat and fireman's hat. I tried to encourage them to play the drums, but they wanted to play swords.
We laughed about the difference between boys and girls. I thought about putting the table in the backyard, where the swimming pool is in this shot. I thought about lighting the tiki torches and sitting outside in the night, but the kids were quietly watching a short video, so we ate the ice cream and finished the wine.
This plant, a jade tree, was given to me by the folks at Second Nature in 2002. It was small but healthy at the time. It has grown well since then, like our children and our growing roots.