The Goose Pond

We took my favorite redheaded kid to the goose pond when she was visiting last weekend.  Oh, how I Do love those geese, so much that I can easily overlook the goose manure mess that surrounds the pond.  It was a bit buggy . . . the population of mosquitos and mayflies is extremely dense right now . . . but we had a wonderful time feeding the geese and seagulls leftover bread crusts, searching for interesting feathers, watching all the birds swim, and of course, chasing them around.  The whole experience might have been a bit more serene if my Sarah hadn't been nervous around the geese, upset because the bugs were biting her brother en masse, and generally so out of sorts that she ended up having a major meltdown on the way home. The nice thing about the pictures, though, is that they don't show any of the bugs, whining, or temper tantrums.  And how can you not fall completely in love with my favorite redheaded kid's blazing hair in the evening sunshine? 

Here's Ms. Melancholy, having a little time out, looking sad and wistful, and so upset with those bugs, underneath her umbrella.

The next day we used our feather collection from the goose pond to do some feather painting outside right before bedtime. There was smearing. There was splattering. Fun stuff.


We are anxiously awaiting the reappearance of that almost toothless grin in a few weeks along with her brothers for their next visit.