Who could be so lucky?

“Who could be so lucky? Who comes to a lake for water 

and sees the reflection of moon.” 

― Rumi

Tall trees line the lake  |  beautiful mountain ridge  |  afternoon boat rides  |  a sleepy bird on a boat  |  the most delicious ice cream  |  the view from our bedroom  |  sleeping in with my favorite two people  |  rope swing below

We spent the weekend among friends on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. 

I am so thankful for sweet friends who opened up their beautiful home to all of us. 

I would not have changed a thing about the weekend...

even the promised thunder clouds loomed far away during the day.

It was hard to leave that beautiful lake 

and those trees lining the water tall - swaying gently in the breeze.

And as November nears, 

it is even harder to imagine leaving these friends we hold dear.

This time in our lives has been so full of the most unexpected, 

and so sweet in its many blessings. 

Who could be so lucky?

we are here...this new adventure has officially begun

“Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that,

 the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.”
― Maya Angelou

We are officially here in Boston...we even have the license plates to prove it.

And to welcome us, Boston has been a bit of a mid-summer dream. 

The weather has been unbelievably beautiful - 

perfect for exploring our new neighborhood and city streets -

and I could not love our little apartment more. 

We still have some unpacking to do, 

but I have already begun feeling much more at home than

I ever thought I would.

I met my new doctor this morning and really liked her which is a relief.

I am measuring right on schedule for eight months, 

and baby girl's heart beat was as strong as ever. 

We are off to a good start...

for life truly is pure adventure.

weekend rain.

"For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain."
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 We drove out to the country on Friday night and Saturday

we went to the Tri County Feed store a few minutes from my parents house.

Stepping foot in that store is like swallowing 

all of Virginia horse country in one gulp - I love it.

Husband got some Lucchese boots which he looks pretty darn good in

and rain coats for the rest of us which was perfect timing because it rained 

most of the weekend... not just rained, but stormed - I loved it.

Yesterday evening, we took Lucy girl for a walk in the rain.

Afterward, we sat on our porch drying off as the day's final beams of sunlight

broke through the clouds casting wonderful shadows and

glistening off raindrops hanging ever so delicately on to

 bright green leaves and fuchsia blossoms.

We are back in the city for the work week - happy to be here and

thankful we are able to enjoy and breathe in the countryside every chance we get.

we walked to dinner by way of a playground...

"If it comes to a swinging, swing all, say I."
— Robert Louis Stevenson

 Last night, we walked to dinner by way of a playground. 

While Lucy girl chased after her tennis ball,

I went swinging.

When is the last time you sat on a swing? 

I closed my eyes and let my long (too long?) hair fully take flight in the wind.

It was freeing and exhilarating to feel the
weightlessness of the height and the gravity of the fall...

Only to be caught up in the air once again.

And so I became lost in the momentum -

forcing the hot, heavy summer air to move around me.

 It was just the thing I needed:

some carefree swinging.

But afterward, I paused for a moment while sitting across from Mr. D - both of us

sipping on delicious peach milkshakes with Lucy girl at our feet -

and found that I would not trade that moment for a thousand swings.

----------

Happy Weekend!

May it be at least a little carefree...

aquamarine pool blue.

"We jumped into water so clear and warm that it was like jumping from air to air."
— Elisabeth Eaves, Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents 

 Its fully Summer.

As Summer as Summer can possibly be.

Its getting HOT here in the District and the three of us are really feeling it...especially Lucy. 

And during these hot Summer days, 

there is really nothing better 

than immersing oneself into a cool, aquamarine, crystal clear pool.
So that is exactly what this Davis family has been doing.

 Hope you're staying cool, too.

life like a storm

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." 

— Mae West

This is where we spent the majority of this past week .

A constant reminder of how wondrous creation is...and startling when you realize how close 

the nations capital is from this quiet, bright and beautiful countryside. 

On Friday, Mr. D and I took a late afternoon nap outside on the loggia

and watched as sheets of rain billowed across the mountain and sent waves dancing across the pool.

The thunder rattled in my chest and that sweet unmistakable smell of a hot July thunderstorm

filled my lungs - for some reason reminding me of growing up in the most general sense and

yet somehow managing to encompass every summer of my childhood into that single familiar mist.

We laid together watching the mountain disappear in the thick and heavy downpour

and listened to the rain drops dancing loudly on the pool deck.

Soon the clouds grew lighter and the mountain began to reemerge

and believe me when I say, 

it would have taken your breath away to see how green it all now reappeared.

The middle of summer is definitely here 

and life has never seemed more abundant and clear.

photograph by Mr.D

hello, July.

"I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, 

like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket."
— Sylvia Plath

 Mr. D and I were married six months ago today.

Its the weekend of my second very favorite holiday...

and the world...well, at least the East Coast...is ours

to explore as we please.

Happy Fourth!

Enjoy and travel safe if you are...

and relish your surroundings if you're not. 

We are still undecided....

photograph by amber

solstice

"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees,

just as things grow in fast movies,

I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer."
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 

 On Summer's Eve, we saw Sixteen Candles outside on a lawn with another couple we really love, 

it was the perfect way to kick off the Summer...

and then this morning...

I was met at work with an email that brought not only this Summer, 

 but life in general into perspective.

Just when life starts to seem crazy and I start to feel a little defeated, 

I am sent a gentle reminder of how lucky I am. 

Thankful to be here, now 

Happy to be married to Mr. D 

and feeling overwhelmingly blessed by those around.

Praying today for my family who has lost

and thankful for those who are near.

----------

I am looking so forward to this Summer and all that it holds, 

I want to make the most of every minute of it - taking not a single day for granted.

It is a Summer of beginnings, after all.

photograph by the amazing and wonderful Amber

a collision.

"The most interesting information comes from children,
for they tell all they know and then stop."
— Mark Twain

One Summer night, 

the sky was laying on top of the field -

a collision that resulted in a million fireflies twinkling in the twilight.

So thick was their presence

that you would inevitably swallow them whole if you ran out into their midst.

 So majestic was their design

that one could hardly comprehend the spectacular scene illuminated in the space 

where this magnificent collision took place.

-------

I grew up catching lightening bugs in jars, 

but according to husband they don't exist out West. 

So, we have been outside catching fireflies every night to make up for this.

 photograph taken by amber.

awful normals and air conditioning.

"At a certain part in your life, probably when too much of it has gone by, you will open your eyes and see yourself for who you are. Especially for everything that made you so different from all the awful normals. And you will say to yourself, 'But I am this person.' And in that statement, in that correction, there will be a kind of love."

-Phoebe in Wonderland

In sudden stillness - 

if a 102 degree humid day can ever be completely motionless...

in the kind of air that is hard to move through or even lift your hands - 

my words hung around my neck

strangling me to the steady sound of the window unit.

Hearing, but not feeling.

I searched back through time trying to find an explanation.

A reason for this place.
All the while frantically grasping, but not flinching. 

Laying there, it wasn't until I felt the cool air faintly tickling my skin that 

I pulled myself out of comparisons 

and other things akin.
And something lifted me up off the carpeted ground,
just as I was. Who I am. 

photo by Olle Eriksson

summer is here

"Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, 

is always beyond our grasp,
but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."

— Nathaniel Hawthorne

Its hot here in the District and the humid air truly feels like summer is here.

We went to Eastern Market on Saturday morning for bluebucks pancakes and crepes

and saw Top Chef being taped.

Went to the Memorial Day concert on the Hill 

and in no particular order:

celebrated a friend's birthday with pizza and sweets

had several milk shakes 

laid out by the pool

finished a book and started two more

picnic with family

gave Lucy girl a summer do 

saw Midnight in Paris 

and hardly ever stopped to look at a clock

 

I'm in survival mode this week

really focusing on every little blessing -

giving thanks in and for everything.

one glimpse of a summer's night....seems maybe but a dream this morning

"In a Wonderland they lie, Dreaming as the days go by, 

Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream- Lingering in the golden gleam- 

Life, what is it but a dream?"
— Lewis Carroll, Through The Looking Glass

 At one point yesterday the car said it was 99 degrees outside - was it lying?

Before the sun fully set - and after dinner - Lucy girl, Mr. D and I sat out on our porch with our neighbors

and just like that Spring had vanished and Summer was here. 

And while today's stormy clouds have brought Spring weather back, 

we glimpsed how wonderful this Summer will be...

when warmth lingers even in the fading light

and neighbors amble about outside.

Bicycle wheels, lawn chairs and bubbles floating by. 

Soon... once Summer has fully arrived, we wont be able to pick up our little Lucy anymore....

hot pavement and a summer routine.

"There we did begin, 

Cloisterd in the waterfall, 

Our summer discipline."
— Basho

I am ready for summer. Our third in the District together. 

Ready for kayaks and yoga under the Monument,

for Good Stuff milkshakes and long bike rides...

for our summer discipline.

this picture...

Because we saw Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros this weekend, 

and it reminded me of the last concert we went to [Arcade Fire].

And because I am really missing these people as of late.

no cars go.

Among other things,

we saw Arcade Fire and Spoon play at 

the Merriweather Post Pavilion this weekend...

definitely a top five concert - 

not to mention great friends and 

an amazing late night meal at The Diner afterward. 

Oh, Summer....

seasons.

"I have accepted fear as part of life – specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back...." — Erica Jong

The same way I classify myself as a morning person

I have also declared myself a lover of change, but I am beginning to see that this may be a stretch

Something I more or less wish was true, than fact itself.

Or maybe its just when more than one change is piled on top of another

the stack of uncertainties weighing so heavily on me.

But I know this to be silly - it all always works out - 

Still. I have a hard time saying goodbye, 

and mourn the loss of a summer that has too quickly passed.

end of summer settling

There are so many little towns up and down the East Coast. Each rich with history and a whole world each unto themselves. I would love to spend the rest of the summer hopping from one cape to the next. And while I am seriously lamenting the fading of summer and the departure of friends now dear, I am looking forward to the cool breeze of fall. The smell of school supplies filling shopping aisles and the rainbow-colored leaves swaying overhead. I'm ready for boots and light jackets, pumpkin pie and apple cider. 

But man oh man am I going to miss our summer friends. 

photo one from Kling and photo two from me

France and Italy.

I feel like I am starting to read like a broken record. But it is hot. So hot outside. It has drained me of energy and words. Ice cream now seems like the only practical meal and the thought of running, let alone walking outside has me in search of air conditioning and a couch at night. And while the heat has robbed me of energy and productivity, I am more than ever lusting for an adventure out of the country. 

The shade of a tree in France or the steady rocking of a gondola in Italy.

Image found here.

intentionally carefree.

Metaphorically speaking I'd like to jump in a river

maybe swing on a gigantic rope with its prickly woven edges

to grab on with all my might 

just to let go 

flying through the air

only the sound of the warm air whizzing by my ears

the act of being intentionally carefree

Its supposed to be over 100 degrees today

and 

literally I'd like to jump in a river

photo here.

sweet exhaustion.

"Idleness is not doing nothing. 

Idleness is being free to do anything." 

- Floyd Dell-

 

 I woke up exhausted, 

but I really have no good reason for the drain I feel. 

This morning, as I swung my feet around, letting them dangle

heavy off the side of the bed, I was sure I would fall over if

I attempted to stand upon them

And in the shower, the hot water pounding upon my back 

and shoulders, I could hardly open my eyelids

letting the water fall all around me

But yesterday, I did nothing but eat and lay afloat in the crystal

blue water of the pool, the mountains standing guard around me

I was lost in a 100 degree dream world, 

followed by popcorn and a movie

and a relaxing drive home in which I let the movement

of the car rock me to sleep.

 So you see, I really have no good reason to be exhausted...

but its hot outside today, so very hot.