The Tragic Ruination of the Orange Bishop

Hudson has been working on a science project for weeks that involves drawing and painting lots of mammals and birds and reptiles. Yesterday afternoon he had been laboring over a ruby- throated hummingbird, and was just finishing up an orange bishop when Harper strolled over and noted that the photograph of the orange bishop he was using was so charming, she thought she might paint it herself. I suggested she might want to work at a different table (because experience has taught us that two left-handed kids trying to use watercolors in close proximity to one another is sometimes awkward) but both she and Hudson thought they could make space next to Hudson. You can see where this is going? Hudson had just filled his brush with black paint and Harper reached over to get the water. His elbow was jostled, the brush full of black paint went slashing across the orange bishop, and CHAOS ENSUED. There were ear-piercing histrionics from Hudson, then Harper joined him, feeling equal parts sorry, defensive, and annoyed that he was so upset even though IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT. It took around 15 minutes to diffuse the situation. Helena ran upstairs to escape the tension. She came back down when things settled and reminded all of us, rather smugly, that she was "the only kid not crying!" Helpful. We had, the night before, read The Sorely Trying Day by Russell and Lillian Hoban. If you've read it (and you should!) you will note some similarities to our event. Though, thankfully, in our version the blame could not be traced back to any animals living in our house. Anyway, the good news is, after the ruby-throated hummingbird was salvaged, the orange bishop deemed beyond fixing and wadded up rather violently and put into the recycling by Hudson, the offended party and the offending party were back to normal. Harper was offering to give Hudson horse back rides on her back if, "he would promise to ride side-saddle like a proper lady."

In other, much happier, bird news, we spent the day after Thanksgiving doing a little birding near the Grandparents' and Harper and I saw a belted kingfisher! He flew away before we could get a picture, but it was quite a thrill.  I did manage to get a few shots of brown pelicans engaging in their unique style of dive bomb fishing.

This was a pretty fantastic moment--my parents strolling behind me, my boys and girls scampering in front of me, the water sparkling, the sea grass waving. Glorious.