Sometimes we have expectations and plans in life and when they don't happen we are disappointed or angry or despressed or all of them. We have these ideas of beauty and how something would be perfect and even if it did turn out the way you want it would be a let down or you'd realize that it wasn't as perfect as you envisioned. Take this hike for example. Earlier in the summer we had taken the kids to Oyster Dome and it was a beautiful hot Northwest Summer Day. The sky was clear, the ocean was calm and once at the top we just wanted something like ice cold lemonade. We rested and enjoyed the incredible view of the San Juan Islands. This hike was going to be the same. It had been clear and warm all week. I wanted to start October out with a hike to kick off the month. John convinced me to wait until Friday and he would head out with me. I had made bread, bought brie, and a friend gave me smoked salmon. I had packed all this in the pack for a tete a tete lunch with my husband on top of Oyster Dome.
It was cloudy and overcast. We arrived at the trailhead and the sky became darker, threatening and the clouds decended masking the trees in fog. We jumped out of the van and started making our way up the hill. I walked with my eyes wide open, looking for signs of fall. I found some bluish grey downy like feathers hanging on a spider's delicate almost invisible web. Then the leaves that were just starting to turn colors were creating a design with their shapes against the grey sky. The surprise of an orange and yellow decidious bush among the cedar and fir trees, the lichen clinging to a branch colored in greys and greens hanging over the trail were some of the beauty and treasures that I found on the way. We continued further even with sprinkles of rain to find that the ocean and sky merge into one with no clear boundary for either. Then came the trees rising straight and tall, devoid of leaves, only to be wrapped in mist and light that danced around the trunks making me feel like I've stepped into a story right at the mysterious part, waiting for something. I could almost hear the music grow. I stepped around the bend and continued on, with the trees and mist at my back. I entered into almost a fairyland with the evergreen moss and colonies of mushrooms at my feet. I looked about waiting for something to flutter by or even an elf to glide in and out of the shadows but searched in vain. At my feet was a feather instead, signalling another creature alive in the woods, different from the first. This feather was orange and black, vibrant and perfectly in line with the path almost marking the end of the trail. The Dome greeted us with large drops of water falling from the trees and gusts of wind. The only dry spot was the rocky ledge and we looked out to nothingness. On a clear day you can see islands and water and boats and the curve of the earth but this day, it was covered and quiet and still. Too cold for the picnic lunch I had imagined so we quickly made our way down so my fingers could warm up. Each step of the path, I looked, taking my time to observe and enjoy the mysterious and quiet of the trail. Each step brought me closer to home and warmth and family. This hike was nothing like my expectation and yet so much more because I was looking for it. I was looking for the beauty, the imagination, the adventure of October and so instead of anger or depression, or sorrow, I found beauty in the wet and grey.
It was cloudy and overcast. We arrived at the trailhead and the sky became darker, threatening and the clouds decended masking the trees in fog. We jumped out of the van and started making our way up the hill. I walked with my eyes wide open, looking for signs of fall. I found some bluish grey downy like feathers hanging on a spider's delicate almost invisible web. Then the leaves that were just starting to turn colors were creating a design with their shapes against the grey sky. The surprise of an orange and yellow decidious bush among the cedar and fir trees, the lichen clinging to a branch colored in greys and greens hanging over the trail were some of the beauty and treasures that I found on the way. We continued further even with sprinkles of rain to find that the ocean and sky merge into one with no clear boundary for either. Then came the trees rising straight and tall, devoid of leaves, only to be wrapped in mist and light that danced around the trunks making me feel like I've stepped into a story right at the mysterious part, waiting for something. I could almost hear the music grow. I stepped around the bend and continued on, with the trees and mist at my back. I entered into almost a fairyland with the evergreen moss and colonies of mushrooms at my feet. I looked about waiting for something to flutter by or even an elf to glide in and out of the shadows but searched in vain. At my feet was a feather instead, signalling another creature alive in the woods, different from the first. This feather was orange and black, vibrant and perfectly in line with the path almost marking the end of the trail. The Dome greeted us with large drops of water falling from the trees and gusts of wind. The only dry spot was the rocky ledge and we looked out to nothingness. On a clear day you can see islands and water and boats and the curve of the earth but this day, it was covered and quiet and still. Too cold for the picnic lunch I had imagined so we quickly made our way down so my fingers could warm up. Each step of the path, I looked, taking my time to observe and enjoy the mysterious and quiet of the trail. Each step brought me closer to home and warmth and family. This hike was nothing like my expectation and yet so much more because I was looking for it. I was looking for the beauty, the imagination, the adventure of October and so instead of anger or depression, or sorrow, I found beauty in the wet and grey.
How much is too much homework? How much homework should each teacher assign? It's been hard in the past to homeschool during the day knowing what is going on and then to homeschool at night with blinders. I say that because I don't know what's going on at school and kids have questions. What does it mean by "Do you think the experiment is fair? Support your answer with 2 citations." How do you cite your work? Is it the same for each class? Is it standard notations? The answer is no to both. And what does "fair" mean? Does it mean equal or accurate or without error? I can't answer that? I don't know. Then there are essays. Right now she's writting a 12 paragraph essay on an imaginary trip from Washington to Texas and all the sites she's seeing along the way. Can it be outlandish? I would say yes, it is an imaginary trip, but is that what the teacher wants? I don't know. Then there are the "missing" assignments. I put missing in there because on the site they are listed as missing but the email from the teacher said they aren't missing and they will be entered the following week. That was 2 weeks ago. So what does that tell me? I don't know. It seems to be a standard answer. I am educated but have little contact with teachers. She turned in a form saying that we will not be attending the math night at the middle school. It was given a zero. We can't, we have an open house at the high school and soccer practice and a soccer game. How many places can I be at? I have to say, middle school was hard when I was there as a student. It hasn't changed. I talked to another mother in the mid-west and she has a similar experience with her kids and middle school. It must be middle school itself. How do I take that? What can I do?
It was October of 2013 when I last picked quince. I was in France and the fruit was ready. My grandmother announced that we would be making quince jelly that day. We gathered the basket and the quince picking tool and headed up the hill to the few quince trees growing in the yard to harvest the quince.
Fast forward 2 years and it's October. I put on my vest and scarf, grabbed a hat and my camera on my out to a friend's house who has a quince tree. In America it was customary to plant a quince tree at a corner of an apple orchard and her yard has that, two rows of apple trees with a quince at the south end. It is an unknown here in the States. Every time I go to the grocery store and pass down the jelly isle, I look to see maybe they have it in the snooty jelly section but they don't. So when I found out one of my friends has a quince tree and was willing to share, I was more than overjoyed!The day was foggy as I drove the 20 minutes to her house. We chatted a little and then we set up the ladder and I picked for maybe twenty minutes. I filled a small laundry basket half full and carted my treasure home. It truly is a treasure and requires a little work to get to the sweet nectar of the fruit. Some of the Greek and Roman myths feature a quince fruit however they are often translated as apples instead. It is easy to see how it would be translated to apple, I mean quince really can't be eaten raw. They have to be cooked to be eaten. Once home, I wiped the fuzz off the fruit and quartered them, placing them in the steamer juicer I waited until the hour was up and then drained this beautiful pink liquid into my collection bucket. And so goes the process until all the quince are gone. The beautiful pink liquid goes into the freezer for another day.