Week in Review

Sunday

Mary & I spend the morning in the woods.  We watch the season slowly change.  She is incredibly observant about plants and animals;  I can bounce ideas off her and depend on her judgement.

It's also something of a routine to bring -- in addition to a nature guide -- one of those free local papers, Buy & Sell.  It gives you a pulse on the community.  We read the funny and odd things aloud, recognize names, etc.

In the evening I walk by myself, collect seeds.  The days have grown hot - 100 - and the humidity is non-existent - 15%.

 

Monday

Already forgotten.
A single photo reminds that we spotted our stray cat's nemesis through the wiindow.

Tuesday

Before it gets too hot, I go butterfly hunting.  At least this year, butterflies peak as Summer ends.

Mary watches Phantom of the Opera alone; boys can't stand it.

Wednesday



X-Country meet cancelled "due to ozone" (read, hundred degree weather).
Mary needs a newspaper for school assignment, so we drive to town and do some grocery shopping, have fun.

Evening walk alone.
Believe I see a kestrel silhouetted against the sky.

Evening movie: Strictly Ballroom

Play Date

It's a play date for Mary...

...for excitement I take the girls to the Feed 'n' Seed...

...where they run into friends...

I get into a long conversation with another customer -- here's the part I remember:

"My mom got cancer last year and had to surrender her cat..."

"What's 'surrender' ?"

"She gave it to the animal shelter.  She didn't tell us, she let us think a friend had adopted it.... Anyway, we put mom's obituary in the newspaper last month, and the family gathered around to read it together when it was published,  Well, we're cutting it out of the newspaper to preserve it, and realize there's a photo of mom's cat, it's located like right on the back of mom's obituary!  We recognized it right away.  An animal shelter featured it, wanted it to have a good home.  Of course I call them, so now I have the cat."

At sunset the kids run around the neighborhood while I take dusk photos.

Dancing

At sunset Mary & I walk.

Larry stops and talks hunting -- deer season begins tomorrow.  I notice his truck has camo seats.  Says he doesn't wear orange: "If the hunters can see me I'm more likely to get shot."  He lives to hunt and fish -- expeditions to Africa, to New Zealand, to Russia -- though he can hardly walk from a bum knee.

A hawk swoops overhead, crashes into the ground...

...flies back by with a mouse in one claw.

Tammy and Diana stop and we have to explain why we're staring at an ant bed.  To see what the ants eat, I'm bending down and stealing the seeds from their little hands.

A new girl is exercising a neighbor's horse Hank.

Harley, the Great Dane, is too rambunctious, leaping and barking,  and the girl gives up.

Harley is half the size of Hank.


Jonathan leaves for his class dance, 7th & 8th graders.

Mary & I stay home, watching The Waltons.

Brazil

Discovered a neat bug...





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Once a year the Platoon does a reality check and watches Brazil.
What a prescient movie! You won't read tomorrow's headlines the same.






"Happiness: We're all in it together"

X-Country Meet, Mountain Creek School, Sumerset

Happened upon a Great Egret at the edge of a dried-up pond.
More photos HERE.

From 2:30 'till 6:30 the kids and I are at a cross-country meet.  It's a dizzying drive on mountain roads.  Breathtaking rock formations.

Very pretty, cool temperature.

Man With Bow In Beard

People watching...

Mary fell down right at the start of her race and walked off in tears.
Jonathan finished 3rd.

It was dark when we finally got home.  Everyone in bed by 9:00.

Mountains

Had coffee with Glenn after dropping the kids at school.

Sitting on the deck, staring at the mountains in the distance, I was irritated that I didn't know their names & resolved to finally match them to a map.

It took the rest of the morning. Full details HERE.

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Diary:

• Cross-country practice after school
• Cat lost his collar

Geek

Day breaks with real, live clouds.  Rumors of rain, even.

Lazy morning spent waiting for moisture.

After lunch Jonathan visits friends who caught a computer virus. 

He diagnoses the problem and gets the computer working.

Finally, we putter.

Fall

Again, a strange oriental woman is sleeping in our basement guest room - we never know what's going on - so Jonathan and I sneak away for coffee.  And discover FOG!

It's exciting.  The stainless blue sky for 5 unbrkoken months was oppressive in the end.

Mary spent the night out in the country, sleeping under the stars in a friend's backyard.  We drive to fetch her home.

Around sunset, we drop in on neighbors and discover they're secret musicians.

Mandolins, banjos & guitars are revealed.

Evening DVD: "Lark Rise to Candleford", Part XXIV

X-Country Meet II

We're people watching...

I spent most of the time as a track monitor.

Jonathan placed 4th.