I got the tent set up again. Big pain, setting up this tent. I even spent some time in it this early evening with the dog and a book, seeing how she is. She likes the little window down near the floor in the back of the tent. I don’t know what the designers were thinking when they put a window down there. Probably not that a sheltie would be fascinated by all things outside. It’s getting dark out now…maybe time to call it an early night. However Katie the dog is currently barking ferociously at a mama deer and her baby who are standing in our backyard very near the tent. So maybe now is not the time to attempt to get her to go to sleep. I’m sure there will be more to this story.
Category Archives: fun stuff
A new beginning
Over this past weekend my husband and I traveled to Southern Illinois to attend the wedding of the son of a friend of ours. It felt good, after the weeks of waiting for loss, to be witness to a new beginning. The young couple have so much of their lives ahead of them, are so happy and excited about their prospects, that it was contagious. We wish them all the best!
On the way down to the wedding we stopped in Springfield IL to see Lincoln’s tomb. We arrived after the cemetery was closed, so we stayed in a very strange Howard Johnson across the street. It didn’t have any windows in the front, sort of looked like a fort. It turned out to be OK, and really really quiet! In the morning we went over to Oak Ridge cemetery and visited the tomb. It’s worth the visit, the cemetery is beautiful, very old, and the story of how the Lincoln tomb was built is interesting. We wandered around some of the rest of the cemetery as well, then continued on to the small town where our friends live.
The family lives in farm country, with lush fields of tall corn, and beautiful dense green fields of soy beans. It’s a different kind of landscape for me, but very beautiful in it’s own way.
We were staying with the groom’s parents on their family farm, and I took the opportunity to run while I was there on the straight and FLAT county roads. I had, as my running companions, the farm dogs, Cooper the chocolate lab, and Lewie, the beagle. I have never run with dogs before and I have to say it was a lot of fun. Cooper ran in and out of the water filled ditch on the side of the road and kept me cool by shaking and flinging water all over me every chance he got. Lewie was off ahead of us, chasing some unknown prey in the soy bean fields. At one point Lewie took off down another road and I figured, “no problem, he knows where he lives” and kept running straight. After a bit I heard the clacking of toenails as he raced up from behind, tongue hanging out, a big grin on his face. We had a lot of fun, and Lewie was ready to go again when we got back to the house.
After my run I grabbed the camera to take pictures of my companions and the farm. A storm was coming in, and the sky was amazing.
After the wedding we headed home along a rain slicked highway. More storm clouds piled up, and I got this shot from the moving car. Later we heard about the bad weather in Chicago, but luckily this storm blew over us with no effect on our drive.
We had a good time on our little mini vacation. We affirmed again that we travel well together; it was a good break from our real lives, and we really appreciate the hospitality of our host!
Piping the weeds away
My sister is still in town and this morning she was practicing her bagpipes while I started weeding my small overgrown vegetable garden. She gets a lot of attention from people driving by as she plays her pipes in my yard.
My garden is totally overgrown. I don’t know when this happened. Possibly during this past week as I’ve been driving down to AA ? Or maybe it was before that when I didn’t want to think about the weed population and hoped it would somehow get weeded without me. Or maybe it was a combination of all of the above.
Nevertheless, I needed to get to it today, and even then waited too long into the afternoon, so that the work was hot and miserable. Lesson learned again: Weed a little every morning, or you’ll need a bagpiper to accompany your groans of dismay.
The good news is that under all of this were a few green beans that the groundhog didn’t eat, a few peas, some chard and even some tiny cherry tomatoes! And of course my parsley, rosemary, thyme, basil and dill. Really. It’s all in there!
Eight done
I just finished an 8 mile training run. I had deep misgivings about the length of this run; it’s a lot longer than any I’ve done in a couple of years. But I’m following the program and have faith that as long as I do that I can get through whatever is scheduled. My plan was that when the dog got me up at 6:30 I’d leap out of bed, eat my Cheerios and blueberries and get out the door while it was still cool. And this time the plan worked, (except for the leaping part) even though I didn’t make it to bed till long after midnight. Last night I picked up another brother from the airport at 11:30 and of course we had to talk for a bit before going to bed.
It took me 1 hour, 47 minutes and 3 seconds to do 8 miles. The three seconds were the hardest part. Mostly I was doing 2/1’s (two minutes running, one minute walking)…but there were some 3/1’s, 4/1’s and one notable 5/1 followed by a 3/1 while going down a long hill that I paid for in the next mile. Usually I note nature stuff along the way to report, but I didn’t notice much this time. I considered this a serious run and concentrated on my watch, my feet and my breathing. I thought a lot about my uncle who is now home under hospice care. The doctors underestimated his strength when they told us he’d die “within hours” five days ago. Now he’s home focused on each breath, much like I was focused on my breathing as I ran. In the old days when I used to run marathons I’d get through them by ignoring the big picture of 26.2 miles and paying attention only to the mile I was in. Now I am reduced to focusing on the minute I’m in, and that isn’t at all bad.
I’m headed to the shower now, and then my two brothers and I are going down to Ann Arbor to visit with a man who is living in the moment.
Art Fair
Today my husband’s uncle and I went to the famed Ann Arbor Art Fair. It’s a really big series of art fairs, blocks and blocks of juried art, paintings, sculpture, glass, mixed media, wood. Just about anything you can imagine, and a good bit you never thought of was there. We arrived on the streets of AA about 9 a.m. when it was a tiny bit cooler and less crowded.
But as the sun moved in the sky it got warmer and warmer, and more crowded. For a respite from the heat we also explored some buildings on campus, and hung out in bits of shade drinking cold water purchased from boy scouts. We saw lots of fun stuff, both colorful and black and white.
We had fun, saw lots of great art and escaped the heat midday. Good plan, fully executed!
Misc. stuff
I’m trying to learn new stuff in relationship to this blog. So it won’t be boring for me, or for you! And I now can upload pictures in a gallery…and maybe give you access to that gallery…hmmm…I have succeeded in uploading three garden pictures to a gallery I called “summer garden” (how creative, ey?) but now I have to figure out how to get that gallery into this blog post. Right. Hang tight…humming elevator music now…well…unsuccessful at figuring out how to add it. But I know someone will let me know!
Meanwhile. I went out to my little herb garden to gather some basil for a tomato and goat cheese soup I made this afternoon. (really good, if you want the recipe, let me know!) I thought I’d check on the young cardinal that was sitting in a nest nearby last time I was out in the garden (see post of July 8). Imagine my surprise to see a snake curled up inside the nest. I hope the youngster flew away before the snake arrived. But I imagine that the snake wouldn’t be there if there had been no bird. Sad story.
So..anyone have help about how to use the gallery feature? Post away! 🙂
[POST EDIT – Spike]
Cherries and lemonade
This morning I went to an orchard and picked several pounds of tart cherries. This is a family tradition that I carry out most years; the orchard I visit is the same one we used to go to as kids with Mom and Dad. Spicers Orchards has dwarf trees and no ladders; it was the perfect playground for four rambunctious kids. And we picked a lot of cherries too!
Many years when I go there I feel somewhat sad because I don’t have any of my family there with me anymore. Sometimes I would catch myself looking for my parents among the trees laden with fruit. Sometimes I’d just tear up at memories. But today there were fewer young families, and English was not the predominent language I heard, so I found myself remembering less and enjoying a beautiful day in the beautiful orchard. I did see an older couple that reminded me of my parents, and instead of feeling sad I just smiled at the familiarity of it.
As the morning moved into afternoon more families arrived and I heard bits and pieces of conversations that made me laugh. “I found one, I found one!” screamed one little girl as she carefully placed one cherry in the bottom of her bucket, crouched among trees heavy with fruit. “I have to go potty!” called another child. His father replied “You should have gone while we were up at the store, you’ll have to wait.” Right I thought, THAT won’t last long. Soon…”I’m taking Anthony to the potty.” called a young mother. “Get down from that tree!” “Just a little bit longer, we’ll go soon.” “Stop hitting your sister.” It all sounded so familiar.
The orchard is getting more commercial now, with rides out to the strawberry patches on trailers pulled by tractors, and employees walking through the orchard to see if we were doing alright. The young man in the Spicer shirt and straw hat that stopped to check on me asked if I had any questions about the orchard. I replied I didn’t think so, I’d been coming here since I was six. He looked at me for a moment and then said “That’s a really long time.” I smiled and said yes it was, and he wandered off.
After I filled my bucket I wandered back up to the store to pay, stopping to watch the automatic pitting machine that has been there as far back as I can remember.
Then I took the back roads home, like I usually do, enjoying the farm country, the horses in their pastures, the fields of corn that are “knee high by the fourth of July” this year. As I was enjoying the scenery I noticed a young girl by the side of the road with a sign for lemonade. I remembered doing the same thing at her age, and how no one ever stopped. I contemplated that for a couple more miles, and then took the next road to the right and went around the big country block, heading back to buy some “ICE COLD LEMONADE” from her. I’m glad I did, because I came across this field of wheat, browning in the July sun. It was so spectatcular that I had to stop and take a picture.
As for the lemonade? Well, it wasn’t ice cold, and it was a bit watered down. But it was the best lemonade I’ve had in a really long time. Her smile as I paid my 50 cents confirmed it.
The new library branch opens!
Early his morning I drove down to Ann Arbor, picked up my aunt and went to the grand opening of a new library branch of the public library I worked for when I was still in school. This new and modern building replaces a small dark branch library located inside a mall. This morning children and their parents arrived at the old branch, loaded up their wagons and strollers with picture books and walked the two blocks to the new building.
You could hear the excitement escalate in the chatter of kids as we approached the new building.
The children presented the books they had transported to the library director…
…and then explored the new building, which is beautiful inside.
I realized during this experience how much I enjoyed libraries, and resolve to pick up the pace to find myself a library job soon!
Camper Katie
I like to camp, but I don’t get the opportunity to camp now days. So I sometimes set the tent up in the back yard and camp out at home. I know. It’s weird. Trust me, it’s fun. And look at all the gas I save by not going up north! So last fall I bought a new tent, and this week I put it up for the first time. It’s a lot more complicated than my old tent, and it took me about 45 minutes to figure out that maybe I should just follow the directions. Then it went up just fine.
I decided I’d see if Katie (the dog) wanted to camp out with me. So a couple of nights ago we both went out to the tent about 10:30. I was tired, I hoped she was too. She settled in pretty easily, a quick sniff all around the perimeter of the inside of the tent, and she curled up on a pillow, let out a big sigh, and I figured that was it. I went to sleep myself. Shortly a dog barked, very far away. Of course Katie started barking herself. Then more sniffing, pacing, flopping down on the pillow only to get up and pace some more. After what seemed like at least half the night I turned on the flashlight to check my watch. It had been 40 minutes. So inside the house Katie the dog went, and I went back outside to enjoy my tent by myself.
The second night she watched me suspiciously as I got stuff together for another night of camping. When I grabbed the flashlight she trotted down the hall to our bedroom. I decided to watch the 11:00 news just in case there was rain coming. After the news, at 11:30 Katie had still not reappeared. I checked on her and she was curled up asleep in her crate in the bedroom. She wasn’t the least bit interested in camping out with me. So once again I spent a wonderful relaxing night in my very own tent.
Today I had to mow the lawn, so the tent is packed back up. But I promised Katie we’d try it again sometime this summer. Maybe I can turn her into a camper yet. After 18 years of marriage I haven’t converted my husband, but Katie might be easier. You never know.
Sun Tea and Weiglia
Remember sun tea? Maybe most of you are too young to remember making tea in big glass containers out in the driveway in the 70’s. A few unseasonably hot days ago I remembered wistfully the wonderful iced tea we used to make that way. So I dug through the back of my cupboards (OK, I don’t throw away nearly enough stuff) and found my suntea making jar, cleaned it up and put it back to use:
In a few short hours I had wonderful tea.
What great memories a cold glass of suntea brings! College days (the first time back in the 70’s when I was young) and even further back into high school. You can’t beat it.
Katie and I tried camping last night in my new tent. That was an experience; more on that another time. Meanwhile today we spent some time weeding the last garden. Then we rested in front of a weiglia bush in full bloom.
Change Is Hard 