Home Leave Proper

Rebecca here: This entry is being written from the southwest corner of Virginia, in a log cabin up in the Appalachian mountains. My brother-in-law Jonathan has African jazz playing on a portable speaker while he and my nephew Fletcher are playing whiffle ball in the yard. Everyone else is napping and resting after a very satisfying 6-mile hike around a mountain lake earlier today. This week is likely to be the apex of home leave vacation during our time in the USA this year.

But let me take a few steps back… Jonathan had to leave early from their stay with us in Maryland at the end of June, but his wife Emma and son Fletcher were able to stay for the first few days of July. Over those days, we enjoyed some very competitive games of croquet in the front yard of our Bay House. We also took the boys on a short hike to the Turkey Point Light House, part of Elk Neck State Park. We could almost see Charter Hall from there…but it was a hot day and the boys weren’t thrilled with a forced hike on a hot day. The other highlight activity was a visit to the National Aquarium. They had just reopened with very strict policies to reduce risk of COVID, including strict mask-wearing, one-way traffic flow, and 25% capacity. We have loved to go to the Aquarium in the past, thanks to my mom’s membership, and this time was even better because it was truly not crowded. We had a spectacular view of the octopus who must have gotten used to being alone and unobserved and was startled out in plain sight. Even the dolphins seemed pretty happy to come out into the main pool and greet a handful of visitors.  In the evenings we played a few good board games and watched silly slapstick films—all the things to celebrate the end of school and the beginning of summer, except that we really wished we had a pool to go to.

Emma and Fletcher departed for their 12-hour drive back to Nashville on Friday. That evening, we were able to finally arrange to see good friends from our Baltimore church. They have two boys who really love the outdoors, exploring, and finding creatures. David was just over the moon to finally have an agemate to explore with, and the two of them took off for a long beach walk while we adults caught up, the younger son tried fishing nearby, and their baby crawled around exploring the lawn. It was great to spend time with Ashley and Bill, and hear their views on politics, parenting in a pandemic, and the goings-on at church. Then there was swimming in the Bay (never mind the muck!), running through the sprinkler and even a little canoe paddle. The boys were industrious about lighting a bonfire after dinner and had a great time roasting marshmallows and making s’mores as masses of fireflies hovered in the trees.

That was the start of a very social weekend, all done with strict social distancing. On Saturday midday, my parents came out to join us for the July 4^th holiday, joined by their close friends, the Ballards. Louise brought out a perfect picnic lunch and we stayed cool in the shade by the water for a while, before starting up a new round of croquet. My dad continued to beat all challengers! It was delightful to visit with these old friends as well. My parents stayed on for the evening and several of us went out for an evening canoe paddle. As the sun set, we were able to see fireworks lighting up the distant horizon in multiple directions across the water. We spotted at least 10 bald eagles, both mature and immature, soaring and screaming along the shoreline. We returned home for sparklers and a dessert of delicious mixed fresh berries.

Our final visitors that weekend were Chris Ballard (son of my parents’ friends, and my one good friend from high school) with his daughter. Again, David was delighted to have a good friend his age to enjoy the afternoon with. This time, we had to dodge inside to avoid a major thunderstorm, but it quickly passed, and then we went out again for more canoeing – this time through the marsh. I loved hearing the kids talk about gliding over the shallow water and peering down into the aquatic underwater vegetation: “It’s like looking down into a forest of Christmas trees!” David gleefully announced every time he spotted a tiny fish. I was thrilled to see a Northern Oriole at the end of the marsh, and for Ella, every Great blue heron was a new marvel (for us, they were just the next-door neighbors, so it was good to remember the wonder of the Bay through her eyes). Ella and David swam in the Bay afterwards for a really long time, and I was so thankful that he finally had healthy social time with another kid. This pandemic has been especially hard on him, emotionally.

We had agreed with our landlord to use the Bay house through the July 4 weekend, but leave July 7. On Monday, we needed to pack up the house and do our best to fit as much stuff into my mom’s car as possible when she came to pick up the boys mid-afternoon. Even after they left, Paul and I found a remarkable amount of work to do to empty the house completely of our stuff and prepare it for a thorough cleaning. We finally decided to quit work and enjoy our quiet evening around 8 pm, watching more thunderstorms roll dramatically up the Bay.

On Tuesday, our last day, I woke up early as usual, but did something I’d never done before, taking a cup of coffee out to the beach to watch the sunrise, enjoy the fresh morning and birdsong, five eagles across the cove, two turtles on log, a heron perched on a snag, with all the assembled calls of our familiar, if unseen, avian neighbors: a bittersweet moment to savor this unique period of pause by the water for our family. Then I took one last walk up the farm lane, something I’ve been doing every morning since we arrived. I’ve watched every shrub and tree all spring and have learned which blossoms are roses and which are blackberries. I know the territories of the mockingbird, cardinals and chipping sparrows, respectively. I have rested in this peninsula and gotten to know it intimately. I’ve raised up so many dear friends in prayer every morning as I walked that gravel road. It was terribly difficult to think about leaving, and I’m afraid I took my time saying goodbye to each step of it that morning.

Our sister-in-law Emma gave us a tremendous gift for hosting them: she hired a cleaning service to come and thoroughly go through the house before we left. So, between 9 and noon that day, Paul and I were sort of pinned down to the house to supervise the cleaning, and yet we didn’t really have to do anything in particular. It was an incredibly restful time. I picked a quart of new, fresh wineberries and had a chance to sit and journal and give thanks for this time. And then Paul and I celebrated with one last canoe trip, finally making it up the Principio River together for the first time all year. As we were nearing the mouth of the river (almost 40 minutes of paddling), we marveled at the fact that we weren’t hearing any complaining! No bickering! No moaning of “I’m tired, I’m hungry, I’m bored!” We realized that we have not ever done that trip alone, without kids, in the quiet of two adults who are fully capable of paddling the whole way without complaint. No offense to the kids, but it was truly one of the best dates! We went far up the river on the high tide and enjoyed the exploration together. And then we left the canoe back at Charter Hall before finally driving off to my parents’ house.

For the rest of the week, we had a bunch of administrative things to catch up on, including some medical appointments and things to prepare for Paul getting a new work permit for Ethiopia. We were a bit neglectful of the kids some days but had a couple of nice late afternoon outings. One day, all of us drove down to the nearby Gunpowder River. We have gotten to know a wonderful swimming hole there, which was a relief on a hot day. It’s deep enough to actually dive underwater with goggles and see the trout, or swim crawl against the current, running to stand still. On the next day, we took the kids out for a great hike at Cromwell Valley Park, one of my favorite spots from our Baltimore life. I was astonished by how sweet-spirited the kids were about hiking that afternoon. Oren insisted on taking the long version of the hike with me, leaving David and Paul and to take the short-cut and wander along the stream. He really likes walking and talking and I’m so glad to do that with him when we can.

On Saturday, I went out alone to visit a friend from our old nieghborhood. We had kids in the same elementary school class and developed a tradition of walking together every week, which we repeated that morning and then sat in her beautiful garden for a  long talk. She is a remarkable woman who is making the best of a lot of adversity, raising her older child, a young adult with autism. She’s truly a soul-mate, and we always have so many stimulating conversations together, and tease each other about using long vocabulary words. As I left her house, I spotted my brother out in his yard and had to stop by and say hi. I really miss those times of living on the same street with him and having spontaneous get-togethers. (We all returned on Sunday afternoon to try and play a little football and frisbee with Paul and Gabriel in a rainstorm).  I was grateful to my husband for letting me go off by myself for the first time in maybe three months!

In the evening we had a very special dinner to celebrate the 64^th wedding anniversary of Paul’s parents (ours was the next day). Bunny and Henry came in the late afternoon to visit and reminisce. Then we set up some outdoor tables next to the new pollinating garden, the one we helped my parents to establish this spring. The variety of blooms are now exquisite there, and the air was lovely and cool in the evening. The Mosley’s contributed some really good steaks, and I made a fresh blueberry strawberry pie for dessert. The kids flew kites for a while when the wind picked up. It was great to celebrate in a special way.

On Sunday, we spent a fair bit of time packing for the trip that brought us to the Appalachians. In fact, last year, we had planned for a big Mosley family reunion in Chattanooga this week. However, the pandemic necessitated canceling that plan – too many families gathered at once, in a place with too many big attractions and high rates of COVID. We were still planning to drive down and see Jonathan’s family again at their home in Nashville, but the COVID rates there were climbing and making us nervous. In addition, Jonathan realized that he had been spending 24 hours a day in his home for the past 3 months and getting out of town would be a welcome relief. So, he hatched a plan to find a cabin in a remote location, halfway between Baltimore and Nashville. And here we are!

It has been very good to spend time with them here. We’ve been developing new versions of cornhole competitions. There are lots of trails on the hillsides for wandering around. Cows graze on the steep pastures around us. The silence in the mornings is stunning. The darkness of the night sky and the brilliance of the stars here is dazzling. It’s great to be here and to spend time with these family members who also feel like friends.

Post Script: Paul and Jonathan took an afternoon during the vacation to visit brother Mark in North Carolina. Here is a photo of them together for the afternoon. 

Bonus photos: