random perfection. but then again, isn't it always?

Tito Chuchi, aka my brother Anthony, has always been a jungle gym for little children. Or big children for that matter. I remember climbing on him when I was little, I remember watching my cousins do it like crazy when they were little, and the tradition continues with our children. All he has to do is get down on the floor and it is an invitation to climb on top of, to jump off of, to roll around on, he's the jungle gym.

my toes, sand and shell particles, salt water rushing back to the ocean waves

After we returned from Key West and the Houstons returned from summering in New York, oh, didn't I mention the Houston family's adventures in Northeastland? Well, I must fill you in. They took two days to get up to the city, NYC, then when they got there had there own apartment to stay in, in midtown, near Columbus Circle, with a doorman, while the regular tenant was summering in the Hampton's. (Oh Muffy, pass the canapes, will you?) Then they headed up to the camp, the summer house in Essex just a stone's throw from Lake Champlain, doncha know. Okay okay yes it's true! I'm a bit on the green-ish side, just a touch of envy, can you tell? Jeanna filled me on every detail, from the free concert in Central Park to walking over the Brooklyn Bridge, to canoeing and hiking and swimming up in Essex, to badminton on the lawn and it just sounded so idyllic, how can one not want to participate? And not to mention, I Miss New York. I haven't been since I left, not that I need to go, but it wouldn't be awful to go, just for a minute. Sigh. But after the mac-daddy of a trip I have planned for this coming winter, Ethan said I was on lock-down for '09, so I'll just have to plan for '10, yes? Yes.

Anyhoo, I digress. After the Houston's returned from their glorious trip, we all spent the afternoon together at my mom's house on the beach and it was one of those totally random perfect days. No agenda, no holiday, no need to celebrate or mark your calenders, just one of those days that evolves into utter perfection.


As goes Magdalena goes Augustus, as goes Augustus goes Frida

We spent the day swimming in the pool mostly, just hanging out, then had dinner out on my mom's back porch/veranda and Magdalena noticed that the waves were breaking over this crazy bluff that had formed from sand deposits. The tide was coming in and fast and the waves were creating these perfect pools and there is nothing that Magdalena, Augustus and Frida love more than pools on the beach, so off we went for a sunset swim that was the perfect icing on the cake of a perfectly lovely day.

the gloaming approaches

Can I tell you something so so funny? I have been saying the "loaming" for years now, and no wonder no-one ever knew what I was talking about because it's the gloaming. I read the word in a poem once, it means dusk or twilight, I always think about the gloaming as just before dark, the second that happens post-dusk, if you know when I mean, when figures in the distance take on a different feeling, perhaps, they seem more three-dimensional to me, and depth perception is off a bit, and there is this momentary feeling that anything could happen, a bit spooky/supernatural, but not scary, more like rich with the unknown. Anyway, it's one of my favorite times of day, and it only feels like the gloaming when it is warm or humid, never cold or sharp, there has to be something fuzzy and permeable about the atmosphere.

Magdalena and Dave

Dave and the children

This is one of my favorite shots. The high water mark under David's feet, the oh-so King and I stance, the babes playing in the distance.
Absolute random perfection.