our impression of old lyme

Monday morning saw us on a quick trip to the lab for a blood draw (a lyme disease test for our tick magnet) due to Dante's mysterious illness. Then we hit the gorgeous scenic backroads of eastern CT on our way down to the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme. We wandered the gardens -- I confess to green-thumb envy -- and saw poppies, which was exciting as we've been reading The Wizard of Oz lately. The guide gave an introduction to American impressionism as well as a history of the Lyme Art Colony and Florence Griswold herself during our tour of the house and new art gallery. The pic above was taken in the new museum gallery, and the kids are all sitting in front of my favorite painting from the collection: Harvest Moon Walk by Harry Leslie Hoffman.



This was followed by our own foray into plein air painting down on the lawn by the river. The weather was perfect, and the kids had a great time. Lucia found the paint to be magically delicious. Dante had fun painting, at least until the Motrin wore off. We skipped the picnic on the lawn in favor of a jaunt to the cottage in Saybrook. After cleaning some windows, we hit the beach, along with Kathy and her kids, and David and his friend Julian. Grandpa brought his kayak down and gave rides along the shore to interested parties. Dante lay on a towel moaning, while I read to him from the Burgess Bird Book for Children, and Lucia shared ring floats with Lil and Jo.

We were late bringing the chickens in, which lead to the lovely discovery that if you wait til they really WANT to come in, they will not run away from you but will gather in an orderly fashion in the corner of the pen and wait for you to pick them up and put them into their current mode of transport back inside: the laundry basket.