The Coolaroo Project

There is this really neat thing called a Coolaroo.  It is an Australian product, a tarp, a sunshield, weatherproof and fun.  I have long admired it and this year was determined to fix the "sun in the eyes while in the hammock" problem.  http://www.coolaroousa.com/

So my intrepid grown up sons drilled and climbed ladders to give me a belated Mother's Day gift.  Since it is triangle, the first part of the design was to figure out which three things we would affix it to.  One side to each pergola (yes, I have two pergolas...love to be outdoors yet a little obsessed with shade) and a tree out yonder worked out perfectly.

They tied one end of the rope to the third point of the Coolaroo and attached it up high in the tree.  More rope was run through an eye-hook attached to the tree and then attached to a cleat at the bottom.  It can be raised and lowered if a big wind comes.

Granted, it is still chilly here in Massachusetts, so maybe it looks a bit premature, but soon enough that very hot sun will bake down on the yard again...

but squinty eyes will be gone and we will all be loving the shade it provides.

About $90.00 and $20.00 for parts/roping, etc.  I think well worth it, but will report back at the end of the summer!

A good idea in theory...

A lesson learned through the photographer's lens.


For years and years and years, like all of us, I have been photographing my kids.  I have taken pictures of them doing virtually everything in their lives.  I've spent hundreds (thousands?) of dollars developing film photography and though wary of this new "digital" age, once I started using in in 2008, I have become blessedly thankful that I can now spend my money on something other than developing pictures.

This photo below is one I have always treasured.  It's Carter's hands when he was three holding sweet spring pink petals, his little denim shirt peeking through.  Adorbs!  I thought I would re-create this on Mother's Day.  My thought was to put both photos framed side by each on the wall.  He was as accommodating as an 18 year old boy should be when his mother asks him to do this.  I took one photo, then another, then another.  I repositioned his hands. 

And I just ... well...(not supposed to use the word hate)...but REALLY did not like the outcome.
It was as if it was just not meant to be.  It looked out of place, those big boy's hands holding little pink petals.  And in a way, it freed me of something, too.  It made me realize that not everything needs to be re-created.  Sometimes they are such perfect moments in time that
...they should
...be left
...exactly
...as they are.