Summertime fun

[click on this link for some music to put you in the mood ... while you spend a moment or two here]



It's been a couple of busy weeks since I was last here - time spent making memories with our children and grandchildren. The camera got a good workout capturing just a fraction of the many moments we had together. The best moments, though, can't be displayed here - they're burned into our collective memories.

a hike through the forest (under the pretext of 'taking the dogs for a walk')

cooling one's toes on a hot summer day

a quick time out for a pose ("are we done yet ?")

anticipating a big splash at the water park

visiting a pioneer village to get a glimpse of life in the 1860's

seeing how water was used to provide power to the mill

but the highlight was a visit to the one-room schoolhouse (where I was 'reacquainted' with the strap ... much to the delight of our granddaughters !)

and where they saw how students dressed for school 150 years ago (note the absence of cell phones and iPads)

in between the visits to parks and playgrounds and beaches there was still plenty of time to catch frogs in our pond (here's Hailey, ably assisted by Sasha - both were equally obsessed)

and the end of each day was capped by a glorious sunset

I hope your summer has been equally blessed.

Postcards ...

Thank you to all of you who have visited and left a comment over the past couple of weeks - I thought I'd send you some postcards to say hello and let you know I hadn't completely disappeared.

I hope to 'visit' you this week yet before we make our return home.

Sunset metamorphosis

... shot from our back yard,  in less than 30 minutes.

[we will be traveling over the next several days - I hope to catch up with all of you toward the end of this new week]

Under the full moon

I don't know whether statistics back it up but folk lore has it that strange things happen under the full moon. I was out in the wee hours last night and caught some strange apparitions.

(SOOC:  10-22mm  f5.6  120sec  ISO200)

At last ...

I don't want to jump to a hasty conclusion, but ...

The relentless heat engulfed us once again today. Our lawn is a major fire hazard - only the weeds flourish but they lend themselves to easy pulling since their roots can't grip dust.

Towards noon clouds started forming. Our hopes had been dashed so often over the past 2 months that we didn't put much credence in the '40% chance of thundershowers' forecast. The clouds gathered into darker thunderheads but despite the occasional rumbling, no moisture materialized. Now masses of dark clouds appeared but they passed quickly to the north and south of us - we'd seen this pattern before.

The sun played peek-a-boo with us throughout the afternoon. Several times I left the garden weeding to go indoors when what appeared to be an earnest rain started. It petered out as quickly as it had begun. I was determined to finish weeding  after dinner so I didn't go in when the rain started yet again. However, this time things were different - the rain didn't let up and in fact we received several hours of very welcomed drizzle.

If the forecast for the next few days holds, we might be able to declare an end to the drought. I suspect there will be much joy should that happen.