…went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat. That has always been one of my most favorite of nursery rhymes. The imagery of the feline and fowl overcoming their differences and tying the knot despite the fact they were simply not meant to be has long been a staple in my reading cache. It is a story Loren had memorized by the time he was two and one his younger siblings have heard a gazillion times. I can’t explain why I love it so, is it the fact that at the edge of a wood a piggy-wig stood? Or is it that he wore a ring in his nose? Or is it simply because the Owl can innocently call the cat a beautiful pussy and it is a nice thing? Yes, I am that mature. Whatever the case I often find bits and pieces of this poem idling through my head.

This weekend Mia and I packed up her camper and headed to higher ground for a couple of days to relax and get away from the rat race that is The Manor. Really. We hauled good food, good wine, a few books, the dogs and a duckie boat up to a high mountain lake to take a load off before Devon and Cassidy return from Utah and Loren comes back from New York. We both had ambitions to hike, take said duckie out on the lake and maybe even go for a guided horse back ride. We ended up hiking a small bit because the dogs needed exercise. And then we were quiet. Quiet in the way of twelve hours of sleep at nights and long afternoon naps. The sort of silence that allows books to be started and finished in one afternoon. I caught up on sleep I have been missing for months and months. In fact, I stockpiled sleep for times when I am without and can just pull an extra bit from my pocket from all the extra I collected this weekend. Yesterday we did manage to make it out on the lake in our borrowed duckie boat. The day before a dear friend had stopped by and helped us blow the boat up for practice so I was not without all clues as to how it would work. He was spot on in his guidance and on my own it went up like a jiff. Our time on the lake was absolutely divine. Peaceful. Beautiful. Empowering for a couple of gals like us. And there we were, not a pea-green boat, not an owl or a pussycat. Just two moms on a lake in the summer, enjoying the gorgeousness of it all.

This is us on our boat. I didn’t realize both Mia and I have a thing about taking pictures of our feet until I downlaoded these images. Mine are the toes with nail paolish. So, yes, that makes her feet the ones nestled up against my butt. And, yes, I am wearing psychodelic granny panties. Sometimes I do. Get over it. They are comfy, especially when sitting hip deep in cold lake water. Good times for sure.