We watched the Eiffel Tower lights being turned off and then made sure we had all of our lights off for Earth Hour Saturday night. We were enjoying our scrabble game so much that we continued to play by candlelight until the game ended at midnight. We were just about to get ready for bed when we heard sirens.

The view out our window Saturday NIght.
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

The first police car pulled up in front of the bank, so we thought the bank had been robbed again. Then a second police car pulled up at an angle across our street, blocking our driveway. The lights were flashing right outside our window. Eight fire engines responded, including the Naval Base. Densmore Oil was on fire.

Mystic Ladder Truck in front of the bookstore giving access to Densmore’s roof.
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

We initially couldn’t tell if it was the apartments above Main St., Bank Square Books, or Densmore. We also didn’t know how bad it was or if it was spreading our way. The firefighters worked fast and kept it contained to the one building, but we watched and waited to be sure it was safe to go to sleep, which wasn’t until 2 a.m.

Pump Truck and firefighters from three departments at the rear of the building clearing debris after successfully fighting the fire.
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

Sunday we went to Connecticut College to see our friend Lauren perform in concert. She is a member of the Connecticut College Orchestra and plays the string bass. They gave a few family concerts as practice for their final concert coming up in May. We weren’t able to go to the previous ones, but made sure not to miss this last one. At one point during the concert they allowed people from the audience to walk in between the musicians while they were playing. Feeling the music like that was incredible and gives a whole new meaning to the term “surround sound”.

The movie “A Night at the Museum” has been recommended to us twice and we finally remembered to check it out from Netflix. We watched the first half before the concert and the rest when we got home. We had a hard time tearing ourselves away at one of the most intense moments of the movie. Eric was laughing, because I was just excited about it as he was the first time he saw it.

We all got into the movie, but Johann enjoyed it so much, he can’t get enough of it. Now he has plans to create his own wax figure museum. He’s working on a list of all the people from history that he wants to put in his museum. So many ideas, so little time! And here we thought we’d have a nice quiet weekend to catch up on things. What were we thinking?!

“Our tree”,originally uploaded
by eclectic echoes.

By the time the holidays are over, Johann will have helped decorate four trees: Grandma and Grandpa’s tree, our large tree for Ukrainian Christmas, our table top goose feather tree, and one at the Mystic Aquarium. Every Christmas Mystic Aquarium has the “Holiday Sea of Trees” as one of their holiday events. Local organizations sponsor decorating the Christmas trees that are placed throughout the indoor spaces of the aquarium. Bank Square Books agreed to do a tree this year.

Annie and Jane, the owners, got the idea of using little Dover books, scallop shells, and one of their origami sea creatures kits for ornaments. Jane took one look at the origami pattern book and decided they didn’t have the patience to do it, but I did. So Annie called me and asked if we’d like to help them with the tree.

The timing was perfect. We needed a fun project to work on. The chance to help the aquarium and the book store, while also helping friends made the project even better. We worked on it for about a week and a half. In the end we managed to make 50 ornaments for the aquarium tree and about a dozen origami for Johann to keep.

“Our tree 3″, originally uploaded
by eclectic echoes.

While we were busy folding, Annie called again and asked us if we’d like to help them decorate the tree as well. Johann was so excited, he could hardly wait until November 25. We met them at the aquarium in the morning and had the best time putting our ornaments on the tree. Boomerang, one of the young California sea lions, kept swimming over to see what we were doing. Bank Square Books’ tree is right in front of the observation window of the indoor California sea lion tank. We made sure to put ornaments on the back of the tree for Boomerang to look at too.

Our friend Annie, who has done Johann’s story time for the past 2 years at Bank Square Books, told us about it. Her daughter, Elma, has played a large role in entering the Williams School into the contest. Elma is a wonderful young lady and has come several times during her vacation as a guest reader to Johann’s story time. We want to help them win the contest. Please go and check it out. You can vote three times from one computer, so use all the computers that you have access to! The last time I checked they were ranked #7. Please go to www.williamsschool.org and click on the link to vote for the school. It will take you directly the William Schools entry at CL&P where you can see the video, read the essay, and cast your vote. The voting ends December 12!

Twenty-Spotted Lady Beetle
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

Classification

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Coleoptera

Family

Coccinellidae

Genus

Psyllobora

Species

Psyllobora vigintimaculata

Life Photo Meme

Originally I had a special guest photo lined up for the Life Photo Meme, but somehow I forgot it’s Invert Thursday! The guest photo is definitely not an invertebrate. So I guess that posting will have to wait for next week!

Sampling originally uploaded
by eclectic echoes.

Watching the birds take dirt and water baths in the garden has been fun for me. In just one year we’ve turned this garden around from seemingly dead soil to nicer soil full of worms and bugs, which is attracting birds. The bird bath has brought birds we previously had never seen in this neighborhood before: the American goldfinch and the house finch. So far we’ve spotted monarch, yellow swallowtail, black swallowtail, and white cabbage butterflies in the garden, as well as lots of bees, ladybugs, and hoverflies.

After my two encounters with the lady whose husband owns the building next door, I consoled myself with the fact that it doesn’t matter what she thinks, the garden isn’t for her. The garden is for us and for the critters who are already benefiting from it. In her world, there is always someone on the bottom and someone standing on top of that person. She needs to be the person on top. She also cannot understand doing something for nothing. If there’s nothing in it for her, she won’t do it. So this whole project short circuits her brain. Her rationale is that we are somehow employed by our friend, with whom we’ve been co-ordinating on the garden project.

Thankfully, she seemed satisfied after our last conversation. She was so hostile and rude at our first meeting, I thought we were going to be shut down. She reminded me of my underlingness and her power that she thinks she has. She can cope with us working in the garden, which is half hers because she owns that building, only if she thinks we are working for our friend to improve the grounds for his business. She will be the first to admit that the garden was left unkempt for so long that it was an eye sore, but since it was our landlord’s turn to pay for the landscaping and upkeep, she wasn’t about to do anything herself beyond complaining about it.

A new generation originally

uploaded by eclectic echoes.

It didn’t matter how I explained our true relationship to our friend or how we had our landlord’s permission to do whatever we wanted in the garden. I could see that she needed to see this situation as us being our friend’s employees in order to cope with it. She thinks now that she is getting a bargain, landscaping that she doesn’t have to pay for, and that we are working for our friend. As long as she stays out of my way, she can think whatever she wants.

Then we moved the brick pathway. I’m not sure why, but somehow my working alongside Eric was funny to people who were out that weekend. So many people were laughing at me. One guy actually laughed in my face. I worked just as hard as Eric and I pulled my own weight. Eric said my tan is more attractive than other ladies around here, because mine is the result of working long, hard hours outdoors, not lounging on the beach or lying in a tanning salon.

The front flower bed is nearly finished, but I’m running out of steam. At one point, Eric and Johann quit. After their much-needed break, they came back and helped again, but now I’m getting burned out. And I’m tired of being laughed at by people who are walking by while I’m tending the garden. It takes a lot of energy to ignore them. Working class people are treated so poorly here.

One originally uploaded
by eclectic echoes.

But then Johann spotted a female monarch in our garden. She was attracted to our butterfly weed most of all. I ran to get Eric and we all watched her with fascination. Also, a handful of nice people have come by in the last week. They each said how they’ve been watching us working and recognize the hard work we are putting into the garden. They love what we’ve done so far. They are impressed with how we did the pathway. That sure helped me. I was feeling so discouraged, that I decided I really do want to find a remote place the three of us can go to where we live so far out, that we only see other people if we travel for days to get to the nearest town. The ultimate compliment and reward was that the female monarch came to our garden like she did. We aren’t even finished creating our backyard butterfly and hummingbird habitat and she chose our garden in which to lay an egg.

From this:

To this:

We’re making progress. All the plants are being chosen by Tammy to attract butterflies, bees and similar pollinators. The lower garden (a shade garden) is designed to be a refuge for birds with fresh water and open dirt for bathing. Tammy I’m sure will create a more in depth entry on our progress and hopefully at the end we can do a real nice before and after comparison.

Barnacle — Originally uploaded
by eclectic echoes.

Dance a Jig — Johann enjoying an
Irish Jig, Originally uploaded
by eclectic echoes.

The storytelling and music of Hand in Hand, Danny O’Flaherty, the Johnson Girls, and Robbie O’Connell filled us with joy. We thought about all the chores we didn’t get done and decided it was more than worth it. So much so, that on Father’s Day, Eric finally asked if we could go back for the last day of the Festival. That was what he wanted to do for Father’s Day. So I put the bread I’d been asked to bake on an extra rising schedule and we left for what we planned would only be about 2 hours.

Hand In Hand — Originally uploaded
by eclectic echoes.

Kenny Wolin — Originally uploaded
by eclectic echoes.

Johnson Girls + Johnson Boys — Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

Finale! — Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

A few years ago, I went into the local yarn shop to see my friend and mentioned we had been at Wal-mart to buy something. A look of horror filled her eyes, she shushed me, and whispered that I shouldn’t say that so loudly. She was trying to help me, to make sure that the other women didn’t hear and wouldn’t hold it against me. I was confused. What’s wrong with shopping at Wal-mart?

I refuse to lie about who I am and where I’ve been, but to a certain extent, I find myself playing this game while we live in Mystic.  We found a homeschooling group we’d like to give a try, but I have to appear to be better off than we are, at least in the way I dress. In preparation for a play date, I put on my linen pants, a white designer T-shirt, and my roses china dangle earrings. I braided my hair. But I didn’t have the shoes I needed to complete the outfit.

Then I remembered one of the fashion quirks here is to wear flip-flops with everything. One of our old neighbors at Factory Square is a slave to fashion. She has at least 20 pairs of flip-flops and each one is an accessory for a specific outfit. I’ve seen women wearing fancy outfits with $2.00 flip-flops in a matching color. Personally, I don’t think that goes together, but going to Wal-mart for a cheap pair of flip-flops solved my problem.

What I find completely ironic is the looks I got while I was in Wal-mart. The reason I was there was to dress up for the play date to pass myself off as not being money poor. The other shoppers were staring at me with nasty faces. Many other times I’ve been there in my grubbies and I’ve heard people around me whisper about someone else who looked expensively dressed once she was out of earshot: “What is SHE doing here? She doesn’t need to be shopping in here. THOSE rich people have some nerve. They take advantage of everything. They have the money to go elsewhere and here they are shopping in a store that’s meant for us.”

I was having a conversation with one of the mothers in the homeschooling group. She was talking about the importance of owning a pet and asked if we had a dog. I said that we didn’t. Then she lowered her voice and said, “Oh, that’s right… (whispering) you rent.”

I’ve been told we are “too friendly”. As one friend put it, we are intense people and not everyone can handle that. If we are too friendly that is interpreted as being too forward or out to get something from the other person.  You can’t just be a really nice person here without drawing suspicion.

We are military kids and Eric served in the Army. We are viewed as being unstable, because we grew up moving around a lot. The truth is that we have contributed to this community just as much if not more than the locals have. And we are looking for a place to put down roots. We also have benefited from traveling to different parts of the world and have a lot to offer.

Everything seems to be viewed as a service you go out and buy, even church. You don’t search for a spiritual home with people you feel comfortable with and can share and worship with. You go church shopping. Does the church have the right demographic you are looking for? Do they have better youth programs? What features do they have to offer? Only then do people attend to see if they like what the minister has to say. Church community doesn’t even come into the picture. It’s no wonder that in our search for a church community where you can feel God’s presence when you enter the building, we’ve come up empty.

We didn’t seem to have this many problems when we were out West. At least I can honestly say I’ve done everything possible short of selling my soul to try to fit in here and form a social network. What ever happened to the kids get along, the parents get along, let’s get together and have fun? I’m learning how to do small talk better, but I still feel like a fish out of water.

I worry what living in this atmosphere is teaching Johann. We’ve always told Johann to take people as they are and to judge someone by their character, not their color, creed, religion, or possessions. He greets everyone with a “Hello, Friend!” attitude. Eric and I are struggling not to become jaded. What we value isn’t always being reflected by the people around us and it’s confusing.

The best way I could think of to explain it to Johann was to use Little House on the Prairie as an example. We are like the Ingalls family. We believe in working hard, playing hard when it’s time to play, helping our neighbors, following the Golden Rule, and not prejudging someone based on superficial criteria. We are rich because we have the basic necessities of life and we have each other. We live in a place where there are a lot of Olesons. We need to do our best to get along with them while we are here without becoming like them. But, in the back of my mind, I keep thinking the sooner we move, the better.

Rest — Notice the swallow behind and to the left of the boys.
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

Last weekend we went to the Mystic Seaport’s 29th Annual Sea Music Festival, (more on the music later) we all had a blast at the festival and Johann had a grand time. One of the things he always wants to do when we go to the Seaport is run in the large grassy village commons area. He runs and runs, Tammy and I take turns chasing him or playing tag, but he also just flat out runs with whoever is willing to run, even if it’s only himself. This time he had quite a few running mates—a three year old boy and about two dozen barn swallows.

The barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) were feeding on the small gnats and other insects that were flying around the field. When Johan started running in the field there were about a half dozen swallows at a time in the field. As he started running around the field he joined up with a ~3 year old boy who was enjoying the field as well. Together they must have kicked up a lot of insects because the number of swallows dramatically increased.

The swallows criscrossed the field behind the boys and even chased “after them” to get all the good insects. The boys did not fail to notice and began chasing some of the swallows as well!  It quickly became a game with both sides chasing round and round. Eventually the boys plopped down and just watched the swallows crossing back and forth in front and behind them. Often flying within arms reach!

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By the time we left to go to the concerts there were at least two dozen swallows crisscrossing the field doing acrobatics to avoid the people walking by. More than once a swallow flew directly at me veering off only at the last minute. They did loops and immelman turns seemingly effortlessly.

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Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Hirundinidae
Genus: Hirundo
Species: Hirundo rustica