Lake crawled under the dresser and came out dragging one of Daddy’s 2.5 pound free weights. Just his size! Weightlifter!

As it turns out this isn’t his first time lifting weights at the gym. He had some prior experience with Nana and some 2.5 pound dumbells on Mercer Island. Go figure. He loves to explore. And I love sharing in his curiosity and zeal for living fully! 

A video is worth a thousand words. Enjoy!

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This afternoon as soon as Lake sank into the deep sleep of his nap I slipped out the back door. Nana and I went for a walk down the Peninsula Drive. I was so happy to have the time for another long walk again today. A touch of Tolle-time, free from responsibility. Feeling light. We were blessed to have Grandpa offer to stay home with Lake. They both had a good time. My dad liked the quiet. My son liked the quiet. I think they both napped a bit. Then by some good fortune Lake continued his nap for nearly three hours. Contentment. What a gift. Thank you fellows. 

And tomorrow we’ll have a nice long walk all together for Bloomsday! Looking forward to that experience too! I love a good walk. 

We have come over to Eastern Washington this weekend for our family tradition. It’s the annual “first weekend in May pilgrimage to Bloomsday” weekend. We’ve been staying at the increasingly winterized Point Petite cabin on Newman Lake for the past few years now when we come over. 

It’s early spring here. Very quiet. Just a few year-rounders out here at the lake shore. It’s predominantly a place of families’ summer cabins. I love this time of year here. The forest is just waking up with spring flowers. 

Hence, the Bloomsday festival. Spokane hosts the  12k Lilac Bloomsday Run every year for the past 40 years coinciding with the city’s many blossoming lilacs. We run or walk the 12 kilometers on Sunday to “earn our [finisher] shirts” and then drive back to Seattle. Along with a lot of other folks. Participation is generally 40,000 +. 

To maximize our weekend we drove over Thursday night in the storm. All the way we were following the lightening to the east. At long last we arrived down our long gravel driveway with forest branches ensconcing the way. We thankfully pulled up to the welcoming cabin. It was 3am. It was worth it to have the day here today. I got in a couple of walks and Lake got lots of time with Nana and Grandpa. 

Grandparents are fantastic. As the primary caregivers for Lake these days, Jo and I breathed in a bit of fresh air. And jumped for joy. We love Lake Bake and we love having a Lake Break too! 

I’m looking forward to a fun and relaxing family reunion this weekend at Newman Lake. Then on Sunday we have the Lilac Bloomsday Run and a post-race lunch with my brother’s family to cap things off! I like this Bloomsday tradition of ours… exceedingly.

Lake is getting really familiar with the stairs. He loves the feel of the painted fir and the challenge of the climb. He’s quite an avid stairclimber. If we are downstairs and the door to the upstairs is open, suddenly, faster than you can blink, he’s half way up to the landing. I don’t think he appreciates it fully, but it’s best if he has a spotter at attention in the background. His preferred method of descent is to go down headfirst like a wheelbarrow. Michael was trying to introduce the facing out downwards approach. He still prefers face forwards but he’s pretty mindful of his kinesiology and his surroundings. 

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The blues are knocking at the edges of my sleep and in between my comings and goings. The working Mummy blues. I love my job and I’d probably have some kind of non-working mother blues if I weren’t working. But still, sometimes I wonder where the time goes. I cried last Thursday when it was coming to the end of lunch hour. It’s near impossible to get to work on time Monday morning. Jo has to shove me out of the house.  

Shoo! You can have your coffee at work, Tolle!

The there’s-not-quite-enough-time-for-everything-and-everyone blues. It’s classic. What are you gonna do? Time to switch things up. Let’s make some interventions…
Enter: weekend away at the lake place 

Enter: warm sunshine of Spring (at last!)

Enter: supportive husband (+back rubs)

Enter: discontinue gluten

Enter: add supplements program: rhodiola, vitamin B complex, cholecalciferol 

Enter: grandparents coming to stay…yea!

And finally, last but not least

Enter: the magic *mummy room 4*

Mummy room 4 is one of the lactation rooms at the UW Tower, or euphemistically named “health room”.  I’d filed away the detail that the lactation rooms could be a needed respite from the hectic work-life balance but I’d never really pursued it. Just had lunch with Lake in a comfortable chair somewhere in some lobby type area at work… there are big buildings and Lake was a discreet and tidy eater. Well, he’s getting to be a pretty active eater so I thought it was time. And I’m so glad I asked; now I have my own key! To my own personal space for an hour between 12:30 and 2 pm. We can lie on the floor, turn out the lights, relax, put our feet up… it’s a sensory deprivation box. Or a blissful sensory enhancement box. Just a windowless room with a door that locks. Nothing much. No bed. No plants. No windows. But it’s mine for the hour to be with Lake. And I have a key. 

Now, just look at that face! 

Things are looking up!

The kitchen sink bath: it’s a classic. Just the perfect size for Lake. And the perfect height for Mummy. Not too much water. Just enough. And we haven’t had poo yet, but if we do: there’s the insinkerator! Hard to improve upon the quintessential kitchen sink bathtub. So much fun! It never gets old. One day I t will just become too small. But for now… we relish these kitchen sink bathtub kind of days.  

Yesterday heralded such a beautiful evening we couldn’t resist the pull of the out of doors. We all gathered in our small backyard and came together for some focused “express yard work”, or gardening as mummy likes to call it. It seems more inviting and appealing that way. Michael raked the grass and Mummy grabbed at some of the worst weeds… morning glory and Herb Robert?!? That wasn’t in the listing notes. Then, having assembled all the pieces, we successfully planted our kitchen garden. Tomatoes! Green beans! Spinach and kale! Chives and rosemary! Lake sampled the soil and cheered us on. Jo gets credit for the daisy chain and keeping Lake from eating too much bark. Nana was there in spirit having cut the grass on Sunday and provided the slug bait and a few herbs for our new kitchen garden. It was a real fun family event! Now we get to watch and sample as our garden grows. We look forward to harvesting delicious tender greens. So fresh… so local!



Smiling for Science. Sleeping for Science. Pilates for Science. Gardening for Science. Kale for Science. Carpooling for Science. Bicycling for Science. Walking Commute for Science. Neighbors for Science. Prayer for Science. Vegetarianism for Science. Vegan for Science. Unity for Science. Diversity for Science. Meditation for Science. Health for Science. Exercise for Science. Yoga for Science. Medicine for Science. Pharmacy for Science. Farming for Science. Family for Science. Fresh Air for Science. All Weather for Science. Oceans for Science. Friendship for Science. Frisbee for Science. Playing for Science. Farmers’ Market for Science. Breastfeeding for Science. Greenlake walk for Science. Tulips for Science. Bees for Science. Solidarity for Science. 

Earth Day 2017: March for Science. We celebrated in solidarity. We enjoyed nature, family and community all day and throughout the weekend. We thought of all the marchers around the world with great respect. Thank you for marching yesterday friends! We love you! We love our Earth! We love Art! We love Science!



Dear Lake, when you were small there was an empty lot next door. We could look out above the kitchen sink in spring and see a bower of flowers.

I write this because it could very well have a big house built upon it before Lake is old enough to recall.

The vacant lot has a bit of the wild in it. A bit of untamed free space. Naturalized. Something defiant in the vacancy, in the thick of the urban density.

Our next door lot harkens me back to the vacant corner lot adjacent to the spot where Nana grew up in Spokane on Cliff Drive. Eventually my grandparents did purchase it. Thinking to save it from building, to preserve it as a conservation corner. In a strange twist of fate, their vacant lot and the double lot with their home on it, sold after my grandfather died to a developer who bulldozed the entirety and posted it for sale as three lots for building about ten years ago. In some ways the vacant lot is the only thing that this remains unchanged. It took some courage to re-visit the now entirely vacant lot, where the house my mother grew up in once sat, and where my brother and I would visit my grandparents in the winters. I made this pilgrimage on October 19th 2009. My photographer friend Stephen Chalmers commemorated the scene with a collection entitled Pics For Sweet Tolle (of a house which wasn’t there) 10-19-2009.

My grandfather used to grow crops on the vacant lot. Mostly potatoes. Sometimes other vegetables, too, like garlic.  Both my grandparents liked to watch the birds there. My brother tells me the for sale properties are still standing there vacant. Naturalized. I think the vacant lot adjacent to our new house has been that way approximately the same length of time. The neighbors tell us the house burned down about ten years ago and it’s been vacant ever since. I dream of farming potatoes and garlic and kale there. For now I look out the kitchen window and I wonder what the future holds for this Secret Garden, this unbridled riot of flora, this proud and humble vacant lot.