The Raptor Report

real raptors in real life in real backyards...


juvenile red shouldered hawk on our backyard furniture!


barred owl at Melissa's - she claims there are three!

Shakespeare on the Green

Well, Lin and I were in Shakespeare-heaven as we watched Romeo and Juliet on the Green Uptown Saturday evening. The weather held out despite the fact that we drove over there in the most rain Charlotte has seen in a while. We decided, as recent directors of this play, that a few of the decisions about cuts were strange - for example, Friar Laurence was completely absent from the last scene! I mean, who cuts his "I will be brief" mother-long monologue?! Overall, the production was quite lovely -- we especially enjoyed Romeo and Mercutio. Below are some pics from the performance and some stalker photos of Lin and I with some of the actors (hahaha)...




the balcony scene


me and juliet


lin and brave mercutio


me and romeo

A Little Culture is Good for the Soul

One thing I do love about Charlotte in the summer is the great variety of free (or quite cheap) outdoor culture...recently we've been hitting the Charlotte Symphony pretty hard with "POPS in the Park" concerts and the latest treat, "The Music of Led Zeppelin featuring the Charlotte Symphony." David Rietz (big LZ fan) reports that the singer was very Robert Plant-like and we both agreed that the musicians were tre-talented. Who knew there was such a thing as an electric violin?


POPS in the Park - week one


Trinity Episcopal's band teacher and member of the symphony, Tom Burge, greets guests


Jenny and Alston


Me, Lin, and Jeanne enjoy the POPS and Proseco


The Music of Led Zeppelin, Symphony style

Tomorrow, however, might be my summer highlight - a performance of Romeo and Juliet outside and free, to boot...

Feeling Palindromic

Last Wednesday, my Granny B had her second to last palindromic, two digit birthday - the big 88! I was able to fly home midweek for the big party (ah the joys of being a teacher in the summer) and loved seeing her get the big surprise of arriving at "dinner with me and the rent" only to find her larger extended family there. It's sad to see her getting older, but what a cool lady she is - I was so thankful to be there with her. Good job to mom for organizing...enjoy the pics...

Pepper and Meg hit THE AT

While most of us spend our weekends trying to catch up on laundry, some of us are regular adventurers, like Meg and her tiny but tenacious pup, Pepper. This picture of the pair hiking the Appalachian Trial was too good not to post...

Big Stone Gap

gets a big old thumbs up from me...think the Mitford series (remember Father Tim?!) but with a little more sass and scandal. I cried through the ending...two tear-jerking books in a row - summer is oh so good.

Mother of Two

Many of you have heard about Lula, Ellen's 1st love and puppy. I am happy to post that el has become a mother once again...after adopting baby Jolie (John's sister's puppy), ellen and john's family of three becomes four...

The Lovely Bones

As I wrote last year around this time, summer reading is my absolute love. I seem to devour books like manna - which may or may not be a good thing. The latest tasty treat was The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (written 2003). I know I'm a bit late on the bandwagon for this one, but I acquired a copy at our book swap and read the last 250 pages in about 4 hours. (It should also be noted that I actually cried on the plane while reading - much to my neighbor's dismay!)

So thanks, Alice, for a lovely, haunting, and moving story.



Next on my summer reading list is another book swat acquisition: Big Stone Gap by Adriana Tigiani. I'm only 10 pages in and I've laughed out loud twice - things are looking good...

Another One Bites the Dust

Hooray! I am finished with school yet again. And I have to say this was one of the best endings yet - it felt smooth and healthy and celebratory and I was definitely less enmeshed with my kiddies so I didn't cry too much (ha!). I am starting to ease into summer and feeling oh so thankful. I close this post with the following quotation from Gary Blackwood's The Shakespeare Stealer (our final read aloud text)...it feels just right to mark the end of a journey:

“Throughout my time in London, I had picked up a dozen new and useful terms…but the words that had made the most difference to me were the words I had heard before and never fully understood their import—words such as honesty and trust, loyalty and friendship. And family. And home.”

Memorial Day Revisited

Photobucket Album

Another Memorial Day with my precious Wake friends has come and gone...thanks to the Rietz's for opening their Steamboat home to us and to Emily and Andrea for hosting us in Denver. Some trip highlights: naked Henry Stevens, driving through a blizzard, pregnancy vomit, a transformer explosion, el tren mexicano, em's pumping loyalty, reading, hot tubbing, and just being together. Shout out to Cara, Christy, Marge, and Carolyn - we missed you. Stay tuned for Memorial Day 2009..

How now, wife? How now?

This question greets me each evening as David walks in the door from work...ever since we fnished a fabulous fifth grade production of Romeo and Juliet. Even though we were rained out and had to perform inside, the kids did an amazing job and garnished rave reviews...as always, my favorite part of the experience is empowering kids to love Will Shakespeare, appreciate his craft, and not be intimidated when they meet again in future studies. I also love hearing them say quotations like "how now, wife?" and "O, my love, my life" and "go to, go to, you are a saucy boy."

I have to pass along something that one of my students wrote in her reflection of our Shakespeare study to close this post: "I think Shakespeare is perfect to study in fifth grade because we have the perfect teachers to teach it - they are obsessed with him and his plays." hahahahahaha...

A few of my favorite pictures follow...

Bryan Q

You know you're getting older when little ones that you used to babysit get engaged...over the weekend of the Wachovia tournament, we had the privilege of attending an engagement party for the young (or not so young apparently) Bryan Quisenberry. Dad came in for the festivities and a lovely time was had by all. We are looking forward to their wedding merging Highland Park and Myers Park (hahaha) in Charlotte this July...


dave and dad on the green


cute dad

Carolina Rowell Sacher?

I'm sorry to say that I'm not quite sure if this is Caroline's new last name, but I think I'm close! I wanted to post her beautiful wedding picture and say that we had a lovely time in Greenville, SC a few weeks back celebrating with old friends...including but not limited to Ben and Liz Jackson, Matt Miller, Kristen Hancock, Brandi, Cate, Julie Waring, and Ryan Wilson...