Subject: RE: 2005 Getaway Reflections Here...
From:
wysiwyg
Date: 20 Oct 05 - 09:52 AM
I guess I will go ahead and post my own reflections in this thread, tho I wasn't at Ramblewood... since several have mentioned their stop at our house as part of their Getaway experience.
Leadfingers introducing my stressed-out pastor-husband to Tom Lehrer in return for learning Hardi's version of "Built for Comfort" (played on SINSULL'S guitar).
Responding to Charmion's question "why doesn't it feel like meeting new people" when first meeting Catters, by explaining my sense of it-- that it's not so much that Catters are "friends" in advance, as that we are all cousins in a particular large, spread-out family. Something I've tried to express so many times as I've met Catters in turn.... Finally got it right, judging by the agreement expressed here with the "family reunion" concept.
LilyFestre's face as she saw, for the first time, what it is really like when one turns one's home into an impromptu Mudcat camp-- after having done a good share of the work to prepare for their arrival, purely out of faith in Mudcatters and her deep, intrinsic niceness.
Cousins' faces in our dusty dining room over dinner as they discovered each other's hearts and as other cousins of all ages did the same throughout the downstairs, with our large prison trays on tables, laps, floor, and everywhere.
Gobsmacked-looking Catters staggering in from the Getaway, babbling happily but somewhat incoherently till revived with quiet hosting and warm chairs; song bursting out as revivification took effect.
Everyone appreciating REAL COFFEE in the proportion Hardi uses for filling the grounds basket (fill the filter half-full).... Others making pots and pots of the same strength, in turn.
Sneaking Hardi into the loo in the middle of an energetic jam, to help me fish out my freshly-cleaned wedding ring from the sink drain before it disappeared into the septic field. Reading a book to Mootlefish, later, in the middle of this same jam, eventually attracting even busy Rowan to pause for a moment of magical child-mind dreamtime.
CET spotting the hostess going after folding chairs, following her into the bowels of the house's storage section; taking the handed-out chairs; carrying them through the house's many, many doorways to their destination-- one trip with his strength and height that would have been four rough ones for me alone. Rowan helping to fold and stow the chairs in a handy spot, later; Rowan helping to deploy them again when needed later.
Mmario's relaxed command of the breakfast kitchen, the morning after he noted other meals' items no one else happened to have brought, and slipped out to go get them so the hosts would not end with an empty pantry.
Madlion taking a needed break from big-sistering, to make a dinner salad anyone would have been proud to serve; the same big sister the next day offering her little brother her front-seat position on the way home from the mountain spring, because "it will prevent a lot of trooble."
Geoff and Mrs. Duck sinking into the recliners when I took the children away for their outing to the sunwashed, gushing spring. Rowan and Mootlefish screaming most luridly when I announced that rolling around the back of the van, entirely unsecured, means their job on the trip will be to scream quite thoroughly at every lurch. Children proudly serving the fresh, cold water to parents who finally looked relaxed.
Rowan running madly toward my camera any time he saw it aimed his way, so that most of his pix show a joyous, leering closeup of one of his remarkable wizard's eyes.
Mollie's wise and quirky smile flitting across her face, eyes like licked stones framed in that adorable haircut and gracing her slim, expressive dance through everything.
Mrs. Duck's immediate appreciation that I had shown Rowan how to use a magic stone as a false eye, monocle-style-- rather than the glass booger up the nose I quietly suggested to her might also have been an interesting alternative.
Slowing my mind down enough to listen in rhythm with Geoff's cadence as he reached for concise translation to sketch what USers don't know about English economics of the recent and present period.
The way the dishwasher seemed to hold more and more each time I reloaded it or Madlion helped to unload it.
Duckling faces and pajamas emerging in the early morning mountain light before Mum and Dad were up.
The beautiful table laid by Ducklings during the hour it took Hardi, Maddie and I to set up the spaghetti supper-- one utensil/decoration at a time because it was something fun to DO.... Mum and Dad watching the process; their amazement when eventually invited to take their places at the beautiful result.
The surprise of each visitor, in turn, as they encountered our quite unusually-temperamented critters and realized that we had NOT exaggerated nor romanticized these amazing individuals' characters.
The persistent presence of slanting sunshine on fall foliage during days forecast to be quite gloomy and wet-- following a long, solid week of cold, slam rain and depressing skies.
Geoff seeing deer moving far up on the ridge across the road, at the treeline, in the very place where their movement often captures my attention while composing Mudcat posts; this in the midst of bowhunting season when the deer more usually vanish upcountry.
Mootlefish's thank-you PM, composed right here on departure day while I sat waking up in my recliner; Madlion's whispered tip later what Mootlefish had done and said, thinking her PM had most surely NOT gone through, just so I would know.
Pontefract cakes and Yorkshire tea.
LOST AND FOUND-- Rowan's green beads, and I'll try to get them to the Duck's last stop before flight home.
They're gone just under 24 hours.... and... our home and hearts are forever full of them.
Pardon the typos and tangled edits-- you know how it is.
~Susan
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sj
