Full moon

As a mom and a science teacher, I always talk about the full moon. My children and I always walk outside the night of the full moon to bask in its gloriousness (pretty sure this is not a word). We discuss the Native American name given to each one and why it was called that. In my science class, we did the same and I usually lead off the lesson with something that corresponds. amazing how the moon names from so long ago, in such a primitive time provide the substance for a timely lesson plan.

Then this happens to me....Here I am on the full moon, the harvest moon, overlooking the Parthenon in Athens. To my left, all lit up is the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian's Arch. Earlier in the day I stood next to a carved rock from 450 BC. BC!!!!! Are there words for this feeling? I feel so small...so new...such a speck in this big, old world.

The moon looks the same halfway across the world, however. I don't think I will ever forget this moment and the wonderful friends Marc and I spent it with . (bad ending a sentence with a preposition) Happy Birthday Fred!

Scene stealer

So we were at the Parliament building in Athens. There are these great soldiers who are very tall that do a changing of the guard thing that is very poetic and historical and important. I did not get a shot of them because I was so distracted by this pigeon. Do you think she knows what she's doing? What are the chances?

tp tirade

So we are on top of the acropolis viewing the temples built for Gods and Goddesses, Amazons and One-eyed monsters. This seemed strangely out of place. Perhaps that is why it is in a pile of rubble.
On another note, Athens is the birthplace of democracy... the cradle of western civilization...fertile in the arts, sciences and philosphy, right? Then why, oh why can you not flush your toilet paper? This had to come up in discussion somwhere.

stop laughing

bad weather

We arrived in Santorini! This is the view from our little cozy cave. See those little fluffy clouds? That is the bad, bad weather everyone apologized about. This place is beautiful. Everything looks like magazines and postcards. Our suite looks better than the website/brochure. Does that ever happen? In a few minutes we will be sitting down to cheese, bread and olives with Fred and Sarah. sighhhhhh

If I am king dilly, dilly....

Looky what we found in our lavender bush today! I know, kind of blurry. THAT"S BECAUSE SHE IS VIGOROUSLY SHAKING A BUMBLEBEE WHILST CRUSHING ITS HEAD. Seriously. It was the noise I heard before I saw her. She was crunching it's live skull and thrashing about. I watched her for about 30 minutes in awe.

Do you think she prayed after? Do you think she espoused something amazing to the other bees? ("praying mantis"--mantid=Greek for prophet or seer) sorry I am a dork and I have Greece on the brain.

how you doin, lobster?

next time....

Next time I am bringing him

for my lobster

you Looooove him

Hope for the flowers

So, a few days ago I stopped my car to pick up a caterpillar in our driveway so as not to run over it. He crawled right over to the line where the garage door closes. Had to save him again. Here's the funny part.....
This tree had leaves on it a few days ago. Big, bushy, lovely leaves. In three days--bam! no leaves. They ate my tree. I saved them and they ate my tree.

Sweetwater creek

September, finally! Still hot, but not freaking hot like last week. Ten days above 100 degrees. What's that all about? So we drove the fam to this amazing place, Sweetwater Creek State Park and hiked for miles. Saw snakes and lizards and turtles, oh my! We skipped rocks and sang songs. For a while little Will was clapping together two rocks a la Monty Python. We met the stranger....I mean ranger and he mentioned his guided hike. We visited the ruins of an old mill and after the hike walked through the visitor's center to learn more. Folks were romanticizing the ol' mill and saying bad, bad things about Sherman for burning the thing down. Funny how there was a huge display of the slaves picking cotton (for the mill) and making bricks (for the mill)that they breezed by. Guess we only need to remember what we want to.

Off my yankee soapbox. Gorgeous day. love my family immensely. Didn;'t want to leave it was so perfect!