Our Main Maine Event

Just like last year, we spent a week off the coast of Bremen, Maine at the Audubon Hog Island family camp.  And like last year, we loved it.  This year, though, we had a guest with us--Goo came along.  And it was a magical week.

We traveled up to Maine, making a few stops along the way.  We ate lunch in the pouring rain at the Lobster Shack at Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth--delicious lobster rolls and whole clams and fried fish and whoopie pies and Grape Nut pudding.  We didn't spend anytime on the beach or climbing the rocks, but I did get to sniff the lovely beach roses.

We also stopped at the Kittery Trading Post, a bit like a local Cabela's, where we got some souvenirs and some last-minute camping supplies.

Then we made it to the boat and our weeklong home-away-from-home.  Many of the staff were returnees from last year, as were many of the campers; I think that made it doubly special.  And much of the week was familiar.  We even played the same four or five getting-to-know-you-games that first night--Stuffed Animal name toss, Human Knot, Marshmallow River Cross, and Captain's Coming, a kind of Simon Says.  At one point, the kiddos were standing together and the next move was a waltz; they looked at each other and headed in separate directions!

Our Loft:  Our room was in the attic of a 19th-century chandlery, a huge loft with twin beds, a private bathroom, and a view with a breeze.  We were right in the center of camp above where the boat docked (half of the building stood over the rocks of the shore), not far away like last year.  I liked the location and the room.  I spent more time sitting in the Adirondack chairs looking at the water and sitting in the hummingbird garden watching the three flitting birds.  The kids and I spent much of the last day trying to catch a picture--at one point we were staring at one feeder only to discover that the birds were on the feeder behind us!

That's the chandlery aka Fish House; our room is in the attic.

Shakedown Cruise:  On our first full day, we took a boat cruise around the island.  This is a slow, lovely ride with lots of birds.  We saw gulls, cormorants, guillemots, a juvie bald eagle and then a beautiful mature one sitting in a spruce.  I was the one who spotted him, from his white head against the green.  Amazing, iconic.  We also had a long talk about whether a bird was a Greater or Lesser Yellow Legs.  Apparently, if you can imagine pushing its beak out the back of its head and it is long enough to emerge, it is a Greater; this one was.  We also saw a harbor seal or two, following us around!  I've always loved boat rides, even slow ones like this.  Makes me want to get my boating license and buy a boat.

Can you see the eagle?? 

Optionals:  Sprinkled throughout the week were various optional classes from which to choose.  Many were the same as last year which made deciding easier.  And because the kids are well-behaved, the instructors didn't mind if they attended alone.

• Ponding:  Bud enjoyed mucking around with nets.
• Geocaching:  Goo enjoyed the GPS "treasure hunt" so much that he took it twice.
• Nature Journaling:  I really enjoyed the drawing lesson, complete with detailed bird wing and feather discussion.
• Nature Photography:  Mama and Sis liked practicing their photography.  All the photos here are mine, but theirs are much better.
• Joy of Birding and Citizen Science:  Birding was my favorite subject at camp, still being quite a novice, and so I enjoyed both the intro Joy of Birding (which I took last year, too) with its discussions of habitat and food source and behavior (Mama took it with me) and, later in the week, the discussion of digital birding platforms like eBird and Project FeederWatch plus a practice walk with some new skills for listening, watching, and counting.  

This was a lesson in food source and beak shape.

Evening "Campfire":  We gathered every evening in the large Fish House for evening guest lecturers and music.  Oh, I loved the singalongs with the camp staff band--Colleen played guitar, Russell on banjo, volunteer John on guitar, and camp director Ron on violin/fiddle.  We all sang along to songs such as "Eider and Osprey," "Island Lullaby," "Rattlin' Bog," "This Land is Your Land."  A new counselor Rosie, the younger sister of ornithologist Anna (whose new husband Ryan was the new camp photographer), introduced us to "The Sun is a Magic Fellow" and "At the Roseville Fair."  And a few times, a very musical family joined them, singing "I'll Fly Away" and "Charlie of the MTA" and "Isle au Haut."  One night, a guest musician, Jud Caswell delighted us with his "backyard songs" about "Blackberry Time," "Getting Poor Slow," and other touching ballads; he'd performed last year, too.  I really enjoyed seeing how much Goo loved the music and even sang along--he's a clear tenor and harmonizes really well.

Meals:  Oh, the food.  It's such a treat to have a chef at camp (not that canned Sysco food I recall from my Girl Scout days), especially one devoted to local, sustainable, and delicious fare.  Our favorites included

• Salad dressings such as strawberry, orange mint, spring onion, and southwest buttermilk, which were delicious on spring greens
• desserts: chocolate-chocolate chip cookies, ginger snaps, flourless chocolate cake, strawberry shortcake, ginger ice cream with chocolate ganache and cranberry sauce, and my favorite these moist chocolate cupcakes with delicious buttercream frosting.  And of course, the last night's cream puffins!! (Handmade, with little shortbread puffin heads!)
• Lobster night:  Okay, I don't like lobster, but Mama, Bud, and Goo relished in the lobsters and the haddock chowder.  I had the delicious pizza.  Sis, who doesn't eat anything with tomatoes, had a little grilled steak.
• Other dinners included roast chicken, spaghetti with either pesto or Bolognese, hamburgers.
• Breakfasts always had a main dish--broccoli and pepper frittata, pancakes, scrambled eggs--plus a buffet with oatmeal and yogurt with toppings.  And lots of coffee.
• Lunch was sometimes served outside (which was great until the awful black flies hatched in numbers on the first sunny day!  Bud and I attracted them--I looked down more than once to a dozen flies on my socks and bet I had fifty bites--my ankles swelled beyond recognition.)  We had grilled cheeses with tomato soup, quesadillas with salsas and toppings, plus two days of sandwiches for hikes and cruises.  

Hiking Day:  I sat out hiking day, and Mama with me.  The kids went with Goo on the long hike around the whole island and had a great time.  Mama and I sat in the Fish House and talked and drew and ate our sandwiches.  A little squirrel, one of the chatty ones that lives in the middle of camp, came in and out of a small crevice in the closed screen doors.  I drew the eagle and the seal, the hummingbirds and the beach rose, based on a nature drawing book that the resident artist had used in the Nature Journaling optional.  It was restorative to sit around camp together alone.

Puffin Cruise:  It was a bit foggy on puffin day and, when we got to the island, we didn't see any for awhile.  Then there they were--four little rubber duck-like puffins with their colorful beaks were floating in the water.  They hung around for a long time and we all got some great pictures.   We also saw both Harbor and Grey Seals, the grey being larger with longer snouts and more unusual in the upper parts of Muscongus Bay.  And then we went to Harbor Island for hikes and lunch.  The kids hiked around with Goo while Mama and I hung near the beach, sniffing roses, watching the fog roll in and out, and building rock cairns that were eventually inundated.  It was a glorious day.

"At Home" Day:  On the last full day of camp, we all hiked out to a cove and explored the area.  The kids and Goo did some seining with nets, finding all manner of intertidal critters, while I scrambled across some rocks to take in the view.  I am still awed by the coast, with its huge tidal differences (about 12'), boulders and rocks, and evergreens.  It's just so beautiful and unlike any coastal landscape I have known before--certainly not the Gulf Coast!  We had our periwinkle roast again--the boiling of small snails in seawater--and Bud again almost ate his weight in the tiny tidbits.  We took a few more optionals and then celebrated camp with our Lobster (or pizza) dinner and our "Treasures of Hog Island" exhibition and show.  Another week of camp was over, our last time at family camp.  Sure, we can go to Hog Island again, for teen camp or Raptor Rapture, but not together as a family, not with this staff for these activities. Very bittersweet.  I will treasure the memories and our time together.

(For my recollections of Family Camp 2017, see here.)

Wish Me Luck

Tonight.

Me.

Thirteen 11-year-old Girl Scouts.

4 other adults.

Camping.

Outdoors.

S'mores.

A night hike.

Flashlights.

Sleeping on the ground.

Wish me luck.

Gommie's Weekend: Bunnies, Burgers, and Butterflies

It's been busy since Gommie arrived on Friday.

Zoar the bunny

She actually got to the northeast on Thursday--during that crazy thunderstorm, which delayed her flight for hours--and went straight to see Fun Home on Broadway, which she loved.  She stayed in the hotel that now occupies the building where I lived in graduate housing--it's much swankier now.  And then came to see us Friday midday.

We actually picked her up on the way to the open house at Sis's animal camp, where she and her fellow campers were providing information on a variety of animals, mainly small and wild.  Sis's group was in charge of the African pygmy hedgehog, named Biscuit, which could fit in her gloved hands.  Cute, spikey, and blonder than I think of hedgehogs being, we  learned that they can eat scorpions with no problems.  Sis was particularly good with holding and caring for Biscuit, who seemed a bit concerned with the noise as the exhibition continued.  She's the "hedgehog whisperer."  

After we had visited the ferrets, chinchillas, red-footed tortoise, corn snake, guinea pig and such and after her duties were over, she took us to see her all-time favorite, the bunnies.  (They weren't one of the animals the groups presented.)  Her favorite was the gray one named Zoar (I liked the big one named Winston, I think, a Flemish big one or something; he reminded me of our cat Mr. P.)  She had visited the bunnies and the otters, too, everyday on her way into camp.  Mama would send me a morning photo of the animals, especially because I'm partial to otters.  Sis loved this camp and asked if she could volunteer at the nature center--I know she'd love it.  And I didn't even mention that they have horses and sheep!

We got Greek food on the way home.  Saganaki (burning cheese!), patates (french fries), Bud's sauteed octupus, my tiganica chicken (lemon, onions, oregano), orzo, Sis's souvlaki, Mama's gyro, and Gommie's three dips (tzatziki, skardalia, and eggplant.)  Plus rice pudding!  We ate on it for two more days.

On Saturday, we had our usual ice skating and kung fu morning, followed by lunch at a burger joint.  A kinda fancy burger joint with truffle oil fries, lobster macaroni and cheese, Wisconsin cheese curds (but not really), and even duck burgers!  My burger had a fried egg, avocado, and kalamata mayo on a wedge of lettuce.  Sis had a humongous shepherd's pie.  And Gommie got a "flight" of burgers so she could have three different tastes.  She also taught the waiter how to make a milk punch!  Dessert was this pseudo-Ding Dong with flourless chocolate cake and a white chocolate mousse that was more like a cream-cheese filling.  Sis got the pineapple upside-down cake.  All pretty good.  We recuperated by watching Brave together.  Toward dinner time, we were invited to our neighbors to sample his latest brisket, which we all indulged in.  Gommie also got to meet their chickens.



Today, we went to the aquarium, so Bud could show us where he'd been to Oceanography camp.  We couldn't go out on the research vessel, but we could visit the touch tanks, sharks, sea turtles, jelly fish, otters, and, most importantly, the seal feeding that he'd wanted to see (though, we've seen that a dozen times over the years, but I'm not sure he really remembers.)  He knows each seal by name.  My favorite part this time was the butterfly exhibit.  Colorful insects made the flower bushes shimmer; butterfly shadows danced on the floor.  Several even landed on us--some on Gommie's hair, some on my bright skirt--we were told that some butterflies are attracted to white.  The kids were kinda disappointed not to attract any, though one brushed against Bud a few times.  I took lots of pictures and some even came out.  The one of the Monarch is actually from outside the butterfly tent; he's just a local!  I liked how the Blue Morpho-like ones seemed to flutter and dance in pairs.  There was also a small purple, black, and white couple near the exit.

For lunch, we headed across the street for Southern food.  Bud continued his seafood hat trick with PEI mussels in a saffron sauce--twice the manager commented on how amazing it is to see an adventurous kid.  They almost never even look at a children's menu now.  Sis had chicken fried bacon over hashbrowns with scrambled eggs, Gommie and Mama had a Low Country Eggs Benedict on grits, and I had shirred eggs and some biscuits.  Plus a mini-skillet of peach cobbler and a very moist and delicious tiered lemon cake.  We sure do know how to eat well.  Like yesterday, we came home and rested to a Disney film, this time Tangled.

And both nights were capped with a visit to the legion of fireflies in the yard, dozens of them, in our yard and in surrounding yards.  It's fun to see them at dusk because you can actually see the beetles flying between flares.  Several times tonight, there be a group practically blinking in unison.  Last night, we saw two bats (not coming out of our house!)  There are some mosquitos, too, so we don't stay out long.  Mama learned at the bird festival last week that there are actually as many barred and barn owls in CT as red-tailed and shouldered hawks, only you rarely see them because of the darkness and trees.  Haven't seen an owl yet here.  But we did see the mama raccoon cross the road by the stream.

And the week has only just begun . . . .

Hiding Out

It's going to be 93F today, with a heat index somewhere above 100F.

Which is much too hot for me.

By about 30 degrees.

It was 90 yesterday and pretty miserable with all the high humidity.

So, we're staying indoors, with the AC adjusted to cope with the heat (it can only be set about 15 degrees cooler than the outside temp, which means a warm 78F inside--but we don't want to break the thing now.)  Which means not much moving and no turning on the oven.

Bud is actually at camp this week--oceanography camp at the local maritime center.  They'll be out on the Sound taking specimens later in the week.  But not today, thankfully--can you imagine bobbing in a stopped boat in 93F temps?   Actually, many of my readers can; the kids up here, however, would not be used to that (and even I remember getting slightly queasy on a rocking boat in the full TX sunshine!  No wonder Pop would go fishing at 5 am or whatever early hour it was.)

I love that he can go to that kind of camp.  There are so many to choose from--next week Sis has animal lovers' camp at a nature center (with rabbits!  Though, we don't know if she'll get to work with the rabbits); later, Bud has Minecraft redstone circuitry (if I have that right) camp.  Others have sailing or Legos or lacrosse or history (American colonial, that is) or build-a-Roman-city, and myriad other choices . . . we just had camp.  You know:  tents, campfires, s'mores, singing, swimming, tie-dye, hikes.

I'd be ready to go to either kind of camp.  But not in this heat.  I'm hoping not to have to step foot outside!

Summer Fun: Day Camp

We've been day-camping in the backyard thanks to the very mild weather recently (59F yesterday morning!)  I like to sketch and sip on raspberry shrub at our table while the kids do whatever floats their fancy.  They made origami ninja throwing stars today and then stalked me all over the backyard.  They liked to see if they can follow me without being seen--our yard has lots of rocks and bushes to hide behind.  Yesterday, we just sat talking, reading, and spitting cherry pits as far as possible (I realized that I'm terrible at that.)  We can see and hear the birds and bees, admire the flowers along the rock wall, wave at neighbors on the sidewalk . . . who knows what the days will bring, but you can bet, if the weather isn't too hot or bugs too bad, this is where we'll spend some time. 

Summer Fun: Camp

Sis has been at Girl Scout horseback riding day camp all week.  And she LOVES it.  She proudly wears her pants, boots, and bandana that mark her as one of the horse girls to the bus stop each morning.  And this year, it being her second, she is in the experienced rider group, which is smaller than the beginner.  And she is with her favorite horse from last year, Tucker.  Everyday, she proclaims horseback riding "awesome!"  

And she likes the tie-dye and the gimp, both clear signs that summer camp is upon us.

The rest of camp has been more so-so.  Twice already they haven't been able to swim--once because they were down a lifeguard and once because a girl in an earlier class fouled the pool.  Hopefully, today, both of those problems are taken care of.  Also, she was supposed to take a letter boxing mini-course, but the instructor wasn't there--so she got thrown in the sports group instead, which was a disappointment.  But those are minor annoyances compared to being with the horses three hours a day.

Summer Fun: Flying the Camp Flags

We've been working on our prayer flags project. We used to have a set of Tibetan ones hanging on our laundry line, but they blew away in the wind.  I came up with the idea of decorating our own when I got a set of white muslin flags at my Zentangle retreat--those were made by one of the instructors using white muslin and hem tape.  I found some colorful ones online and bought a set for each of us.  Thursday, at my craft group at the historic house, the kids worked on their flags.  Sis illustrated such words as grow, share, look, hope, love, while Bud drew some abstract patterns.  I zentangled mine--with a labyrinth, heart, pinwheel, yin and  yang, quilt square, Zentangle tile, flower, and other shapes.  Mama is still thinking about hers.  

I hung mine up at our little family "camping" area on Friday morning and like how they flutter in the breeze.


We've really taken to sitting at this table along our rock wall. In the Summer Soul Camp workshop with Heather Bruggeman that I just finished, she encourages setting up a camp space. This is ours.  We'll keep a basket of things to take when we head out--sunscreen, sketch pads and pencils, snacks, maybe juggling balls or bubbles or something, who knows what else.  So far, we've sat there every nice weekday, sometimes sketching, sometimes having snack or lunch.  I've watched them sword fight and run through the sprinkler.  We've watched a bumble bee crawl into and out of it's nest in a hole in the ground--who knew they did that?

And we've talked.  Not about school, like we do September through June, but about random stuff, with lots of laughing (so random I can hardly remember what all we've chatted about.  Birthdays, "beeroriums," "tabby-tabby" cat Mr. P.)  I've told them about the hummingbird I've seen by the honeysuckle; Bud's talked about the "brown birds" he saw making a nest in our rainbow birdhouse, which we can barely see from camp.  We can see down our rock wall, which is my favorite view in our yard--with our roses and other plants, windchimes, bunny weathervane, and various trees.  We've all agreed that it's the perfect place for a tent, if we had one, and that we would enjoy sleeping out.  I loved camping in our big beige tent in the backyard the times that my dad pitched it--I even had a December birthday slumber party in the tent (because it's just warmer in Houston) and we made blueberry pancakes on the grill.  All the conveniences of home, with some of the excitement of camp.  And it isn't really hot yet (my Texas family would say it never is.)

Sis will be at her own real camp this week--only during the day, for horseback riding--so it'll just be Bud and me for awhile.  Maybe he'll finish his flags and we can hang them up in our camp.  We have two more months of summer to enjoy it.

Campin'

I'm camping this week.  At home.  Via the internet.  Which, considering how muggy it is and how hot for Connecticut in June, suits me just fine.

It's my second time attending Heather Bruggeman's Summer Soul Camp, which invites us to adapt the parts of camp we liked as children and invigorate our daily summer routine with small rituals and activities.

I think I can credit camp with our two afternoon forays outside so far this week.  We didn't last long because it was hot, but I've been enjoying sitting under one of our maples which provides great shade for our metal table set and has my favorite view right down our rock wall.  Yesterday, I sat there while they played in the sprinkler/"beerorium."  Today we picnicked there, albeit with a deli lunch.  I'm considering doodling some little flags to decorate.

And then I had this crazy idea to get a tent to sleep outside with the kids, since we're not going far this summer.  The weather will cool off, into the low 70s again next week, which would be good camping weather.   It could be really fun.

Summer Fun: My Mantra

"The heart may freeze or it can burn
The pain will ease if I can learn
There is no future
There is no past

I live this moment as my last
There's only us
There's only this
Forget regret
Or life is yours to miss
No other road

No other way
No day but today."

--"Another Day", Rent (Jonathan Larson)

We've been singing Broadway musicals here recently, from Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, and a few from Rent (which the kiddos are too young to see just yet.)  And so when the time came for me to pick a mantra for my Summer Soul Camp experience--a week-long, web-based spiritual community that focuses on recreation and renewal for adults, i.e. "camp," created by Heather Bruggeman of Beauty That Moves (you'll recall that I've taken several of her classes before, including 30- Day Vegan, Whole Food Kitchen, and the winter "camp" Hibernate)--I chose one of the lyrics from Rent:  No day but today.

It's the modern, NYC/Broadway equivalent of carpe diem, and has a catchy tune, if you know the song, making it easy to remember throughout the ten-day experience.  And I've needed it.  As I mentioned here earlier this week and perhaps a few times before, my back is in a frustrating place.  From the high of our trip to England through the challenges of the five-week tour season at the historic house and to the multiple end-of-year activities, including the kung fu tournament near Phillie, up to and including my new aqua therapy routine, my back has gone from great to good to eh.  I've worn my brace more and taken more pills, both painkillers and muscle relaxers (I've never missed the NSAIDs I'm allergic to so much), than I have in years, which isn't a great sign.  But it's not as bad as it's ever been, not nearly so--I can still drive and sit and walk, and even fold clothes, feed the cats, and unload the dishwasher (and yes, I still feel grateful about those things everyday), so it's really all relative.  It's just taking all my learned mindfulness skills to work through the discomfort and inconvenience in order to continue to enjoy the summer without being limited by pain and fear.  That's no small task sometimes, especially at the end of the day.

And the mantra has helped.  While it could be perceived as hedonistic or narcissistic, the mantra to me speaks of staying in the present and not worrying about the past or the future (or the past repeating itself in the future, for me).  It reminds me to do what I can today, both things that are fun and enjoyable and those that help make me feel better.  And when the pain comes, focusing on the here and now, as emphasized in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), eases its sting.

I haven't been able to do every camp activity--I didn't make the market tote or the prayer flags, yet--but I have been trying to embrace the idea of adult R&R through simple, focused activities.  So today, even with some discomfort and later my brace, I explored the full range of summer possibilities with the kiddos:

• opened up the house and turned off the AC because it was only 65F overnight;
• went to aqua therapy and then extra swimming with the kiddos;
• played several games of cards, including Slap Jack, War, and Slamwich, their new favorite;
• read several chapters in Lark Rise to Candleford, the semi-autobiographical, nostalgic, rural 19th-century trilogy from England (as seen on PBS, though I'm told the show isn't much like the book);
• sketched in the yard with the kiddos for half the afternoon--Sis did some imaginary garden designs, Bud did Star Wars characters, and I did our garden statue of a cat;
• made broccoli and cheese quiche and Dutch babies with our CSA-box eggs;
• went for a post-dinner walk in the cool breezy air;
• decided last-minute to go to the town concert on the green, which was inexplicably not happening despite flags and a sign announcing it . . . .
• so we went for consolation ice cream, which we ate in the front yard while watching the sunset, surprisingly undisturbed by mosquitoes, until Mama got home late!

What a wonderful summer day!!

And thanks to Heather and the camp community for helping me tap summer's potential.  Even though camp ends soon, I know its effects will last til school starts . . . and beyond.

Summer Fun: When in Camp

Camp is over for the summer, going out with a bang.

And, well, something of a whimper.

See, yesterday was the end of Build-A-Roman-City camp at a local inventing museum, where the kids had used real tools--including a blow torch--to create their own villas and other landmarks in a traditional ancient Roman city, based on the book by David Macaulay.  Villas, baths (like I helped excavate in Tunisia), amphitheater, Colosseum, forum, city walls and gate (like we saw in London), and others.

Except Mama and I missed the open house.  We had specifically asked when it was and thought we knew (we showed up when the counselor said), but we (or more specifically the counselor) were wrong, missing presentations and the whole city together by about 15-20 minutes.  We arrived as children were departing with their houses to find our kiddos in tears.  Which means I was in tears soon, too.

And we weren't the only ones who didn't get the right time.  Several campers were upset.  And some parents arrived even after us and were not happy (one chewed out the director.)  

I had really wanted to see it.  We'd been looking at the book and even watching videos of virtual ancient Rome on Rome Reborn in preparation.  And I felt bad for the kiddos, who had wanted us to see the whole thing.

But we did get to see the city gate that Sis helped build and the amphitheater Bud helped build . . . and we got to bring them home!  That is some consolation.

Bud, however, keeps remembering things we didn't see--like the water coursing through the 70' long aqueduct they built and the bubbling fountain--and gets that face.

I hope we'll be able to forget the disappointment at the end and remember all the great fun they had.

Not now, though.

But look how wonderful:

The city gate Sis helped build

The colosseum

The amphitheater Bud helped build

Roman forum

Aqueduct

That round area to the right is the communal toilet!!!

I didn't get a good photo of the baths, which were filled with people in various states of undress.  Sis was amazed that others added butt cheeks, penises, and "dots" for nipples.  Otherwise, the baths weren't quite right, though, not being built with hypocaust tiles (I'm an "expert" on this, having excavated that Roman bath house in Carthage.)  There were actually people all around the city--soldiers, slaves, even actors in masks that Bud helped design.  Each child also made a family for his or her villa.

Their individual villas (villae!) were fantastic:  people, furniture, garden with flowers, a peristyle, even a market shop on the street.  And the bake ovens they scorched with a blowtorch!!!  I loved all the little details, each handcrafted and decorated by the kiddos.

Street view.  Sis' house has people an a cart out front.

Side by side, both houses had shops in front.  Sis's was an apothecary-like store, Bud's was a sculptor

With second floors and roofs, peristyle in back.  All of the roofs are removable--the second floor even has more rooms, for the slaves (who don't get shirts.)

Without any roofs--hard to see, but there are mosaic floors, fountains, staircases upstairs, an altar to the gods, vases, flowers, pottery, dining room with reclining couches, and even toilets.  Plus people.