Alison: Wuh.

Wuh. That's what Otto says. It means "look." He squeezes his fingers into a group, holds out his hand, palm up, showing me his Spiderman pajamas, and says "wuh."

Anyway...

I recently met my sister at my dad's condo in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Zoe and I drove about 4 hours south, my sister drove 3 hours north, and we collided at dad's. My sister needed to get away for the weekend, and I was so glad to be able to hang out with her. We brought along Zoe so someone could be the adult. Poor thing. She is only 15.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the shops of Peterborough.

In 'Grove and Main' we saw ribbons from an old New England textile mill. We had to buy some!

Wuh:

Either side of the ribbon is beautiful. We, my sister and I, got so misty-eyed about how to use these ribbons.

Next door was a cooperative gallery, set up like the one we have in our town.

Earlier Zoe had found a bookstore and stayed in it (far away from us).

Then the motherlode. Next door, in The Window Gallery, we came upon an exhibit of porcelain one of a kind art dolls and crazy wooden chairs and ladders by Mona Adisa Brooks.

I was soooo happy! Coming from the end of the earth to a small town in New Hampshire and seeing this?! The man watching over the gallery said Mona had recently moved to Peterborough from New York City and while the building her exhibit was in was being renovated into a hotel, the owners let her show her art there. I am so lucky to be in the room with all this art. So inspirational, so much fun. Her dolls, especially the ones in "Book of Fools" on her website, were awesome in real life. The fabrics, the hats (she designs hats, so no wonder), the expressions...

Sigh.

My dad, my sister, my daughter and I walked through old cranberry bogs, along paths around a beaver pond; we found an owl pellet beneath a tall fir tree, bones and the outer portion of the shell from an old snapping turtle, and a few sticks.

It was a nice weekend spent with my sister. One the way home, I wished we could live closer to each other so we could create art together.