Fall from Grace

After the cattail study, Mei and I and friend Keri headed to the local rink for homeschool ice skating time.
Halfway through, I tripped, fell backwards and am now posting this with a concussion.
I'm very surprised at how much damage can be done by this. I saw stars, almost passed out (saved myself by getting my head between my knees), felt nauseous and then just limp as a noodle. Had a brief episode of vertigo at the ER, and uncontrollable shivering for hours. Just managed to hold still long enough for the CAT scan, which thankfully was normal.
The lesson here is "Don't think you can easily copy little girls of 10 who are competitive skaters." They were my inspiration for trying to do stuff I clearly wasn't capable of doing.
MeiWei started taking lessons recently and we were there for practice time. I had been encouraging Mei and even have been learning along with her by paying close attention at her classes. I've been skating all my life, but never learned any "moves". This day I was watching the advanced girls and I had just proudly shown MW how I was beginning to understand how to do a little spin when I lost my balance and tipped completely backward onto my head. Really. No other part of my body even has a bruise. Strangely my JAW locked up on both sides and I could hardly talk. That hurt worse than my head. So the EMT's came, strapped me to an ice-cold board while I was pinned on the floor between a bench and a wall of the hockey player penalty box (where I collapsed after coming off the ice) and was wheeled off like an injured football player. I could only roll my eyes to say good-bye to MeiWei from a distance. That was very hard.
It was so fortunate (thank you, God ) that we had just befriended two or three other homeschool moms. They took over Mei and Keri until Keri's mom could come get them. The staff was wonderful too.
So I'm still swimmy headed but Keri's mom has taken Mei for the PM, so it's quiet. Tai will be home at dinner and can take over then. FatherRobin is working late at a very big presentation. Because of that I'm just thankful it didn't happen tonight.
So what were MW's first words after my being away in the ER for five hours?
"Is there school tomorrow?"

Cattail Study

Yesterday, before my "fall from grace,"(see post )we began our cattail study from the Outdoor Hour Challenge ebook . MeiWei and I and Mr. Bingley, the dog, walked down to the little pond on the neighbor's property, which

I suspect might have been the irrigation pond that provided water for the horses who once were raised here.

It is a picturesque setting. Edged on three sides by lawns that roll down to it, bordered behind by woods, and watched over by the original farmhouse, it attracts geese year-round and is our source for spring peeper choruses to herald the season on warm nights .

It also hosts a small stand of cattails.

We didn't have much time because of our date to go skating, so Mei shot these pics for referencing later. Then she made a quick sketch of the flower end of the plant and filled in a couple of notes on the jounaling page from the study's ebook.  Tomorrow I'll have her finish the page, now that the photos are on the computer. But for now, I will recuperate and enjoy her great shots.

photos by MeiWei