Postcards from the Mothership

Help! I need more models!

I’ve really been enjoying taking pictures of people rather than stuff lately. The daisies in the garden are gorgeous, the sunsets are spectacular, but what I really want to take are portraits. Thank goodness the boys are reasonably indulgent to mom’s camera habit. (Okay, actually, they’re just easy to bribe.) It wasn’t until I started putting this post together, though, that I realized that every single picture this week save one was of the boys — and the last one was of the cat.

Really, I need more models!!

My friend Yvonne gave us this kiddie-sized wicker sofa, and it fits in perfectly on the porch. When I brought Lucas out to take his picture on it, I was just planning on a straight-up portrait of him sitting on it, but he had other ideas. I just laughed and snapped as he created the various poses for me, all without any direction at all. Clearly, I am grooming him to be either a Calvin Klein model or a circus clown.

Not to be outdone, the next day I had all three of them in on the action. I figured if I was going to offer porch portraits, I’d better make darn sure I could do it properly.

I had it in my head to do an entire week of porch portraits, but the porch version of this idea wasn’t coming together, so we moved it onto the lawn. It’s far from my original conception, and yet ended up being one of my favourite pictures of the boys, ever.

I’d remembered taking pictures on the little bridge beside the boys’ school on the first day of school in September, so I snapped one to memorialize the last day of school in June. They’ve both grown up so much in the last year, haven’t they? I love how these work together!

(It’s been at least two weeks since I used the vintage frames — that’s enough of a gap, right? 😉 )

We now interrupt this boyfest for a catnap…..

While all of Ottawa headed downtown to meet Will and Kate for Canada Day, we headed in the opposite direction. Much as I would have liked the crowds and excitement, I know the boys would have been bored and tired and probably not very happy. So we went to Calypso and had the best day at the waterpark ever — can you believe Lucas went on the big waterslides with me? He’s fearless! I didn’t bring my camera (!) and couldn’t really see the screen on my iPhone when I snapped this one of Simon, but it’s a happy picture of a fun family day, and the Instagram processing emphasizes that for me.

Speaking of family fun, it’s the little moments that make good memories, don’t you think? We wandered about Manotick one sunny morning to celebrate the start of summer, checking out Watson’s Mill and the toy store and stopping for lunch, and then on the way home we stopped for home-made ice cream at the HodgePodge Shoppe.

When I started writing this post, I wasn’t quite sure what the weekly theme would be, and then I realized it was as simple as this: happy. These pictures all make me happy. What a great way to start the summer!

Edited to add: Oops, I almost forgot — Thursday was the end of June, so here’s the monthly mosaic, too!

When we adopted Willie last weekend from the animal shelter, it wasn’t only because kittens make for excellent photo fodder. At least, that’s what I keep protesting. *wink* Truth be told, I’ve always been a dog person, and even though we’ve had cats for many years, I was unprepared for how quickly the little furball would endear himself to me! I’m only a few shutter clicks away from my official membership into the crazy cat lady club.

And hey, milestone fun this week – yesterday’s picture was 183 of 365, the half-way point. Hmmm, doesn’t seem nearly as momentous an achievement as it did the first time I did a 365 project. Maybe because I can’t really imagine *not* continuing this project for the foreseeable future?

I did manage to tear my lens away from the furball a few times this week, though. Last Sunday, we invited my parents over for a Father’s Day dinner, and then roasted a few marshmallows over the firepit as the perfect day descended into evening. The light as the boys played on the tire swing was magical, and something about this one epitomizes summer for me.

After a long stretch of sunny, dry weather, we’ve had quite a few days of rain. I liked this picture and the raindrops a lot when I took it yesterday, but looking at it this morning only reminds me of the torrential downpours from last night that seem to have flooded something from our well and caused water to (yes, sign, can you believe it?) flood into the basement. It’s not a lot, but enough. The well guys are coming this morning to look into it for us, but I’ve heard that a lot of people in Manotick had problems with flooding last night. 🙁

And of course, there were a few (!) cat pictures this week. This one was actually taken at the shelter, just when we were choosing Willie. It was nice to see on the LAWS website that the female orange tabby we were also considering was also adopted on Saturday. I love happy endings!

He’s kinda cute, and poses for pictures better than the kids!

He seems to like the patio door in my bedroom — the only place in the whole house with curtains. Admire them now, I fear they may not last the summer. 😉

This one made us laugh. We’d just finished dinner and the boys were searching the house for Willie. Tristan eventually found him in the closet in his bedroom, just about the most isolated corner of the house. He’d tipped over a bin of stuffies, and then curled up and gone to sleep with them. I know he’s happy with us, but in the shelter he was in a cage with half a dozen other kittens — maybe he’s wondering where they went?

After a week of cat pictures, I was feeling disloyal, so here’s a portrait of my first baby, the patient and always delightful Katie. You can read the whole story in her expression, eh? “Really? More pests in the house? Sigh.”

And this one wasn’t an official picture of the day, but it makes for a fun post-script, no?

You know what I just realized? I’ve inadvertently named our pets after the Royal Couple, who happen to be due to visit here this week. Willie and Kate. Ha!