It's Crab-Picking Night!!

The high tides caused by a combination of Hurricaine Bill and the full moon brought us a bounty of crabs in our pot.

We're breaking out the steamer, Old Bay, newspapers and mallets. It's time to get dirty!

This Boy's a Changin'

In some ways Jack is the same as he's always been: funny, sweet, lazy, clever. But some things about Jack are changing, and I get the feeling these changes are here to stay. He is now capable, gruff and less forthcoming with his feelings. He shuns things, games or activities that he deems too childish. He closes the door when he is in the bathroom, and turns away from me when he is unclothed.

He is 9 1/2 and I think I'm saying "farewell" to my little boy. That was so fast! Everyone said it would be and to savor every moment. But I'm afraid I didn't listen well enough. It is so easy to let the best times of your life pass by without realizing you are in the thick of them.

I no longer have the little boy who came into my life late one March evening. The boy that fulfilled my husband's desire to have a son. The first male offspring of my grateful father. The boy I never knew I wanted but became, and remains, the light of my life.

I am proud and devastated.

And a Storm Rolls In

There's nothing better than watching a storm roll in from the mainland. It usually happens after lunch, just when everyone needs some down time. Today's was loud and powerful and made us all feel really, really tiny here in our little cottage on the sound.

I'll take an afternoon boomer every day, as long as Bill stays way out in the Atlantic...

The Fear of the Fish

All finned creatures off Topsail Island are officially in hiding as the fish-slayer has arrived!

Summertime Sisters

Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to grow up with a twin. Allison and I were five years apart; a lifetime in child-years, although more and more insignificant now. And I turned 14 twelve days after Ashley was born. And as such, she and I have never had a traditional sister relationship. However, that relationship, too, is evolving into a much closer one. (Gaining another sister at this point in my life is an unexpected thrill.)

So to watch these twin girls of mine grow up together, as two lives so intertwined that sometimes neither they nor I can sort out the individual joys and anguishes, has been a fascinating privledge.

Today I found them on the hammock, stroking each other's faces and cooing together. It was not for show, although they will perform cute twin tricks on occasion. They were alone and simply enjoying each other's company. The company that I suspect they feel incomplete without. The company that they have enjoyed since they became capable of enjoyment. The company that they have had since conception.

I feel so, so lucky to be the mother of twins.