More Wandering Vermont

What a beautiful part of the world. Lora drove and I rode along, through small towns, quaint little villages, over mountains, and by rivers and streams. The weather is cool and rainy and it seems to bring out the brightest colors and crispest edges. Today we walked a labyrinth and some paths in a place dedicated to spirit walks. I walked the Pagan path, and it was so peaceful and filled with small gems of natures splendors.

On the Road Again

Hello-it's been a while since I posted anything here. Apologies to you all, but while we're home, it seems like sometimes there's not much to post about. Anyway, we're on the road again, and there's lots of great stuff going on.

We first attended the Indiana Green Party Annual Congress, to meet with other Greens, and share plans for the year again. We always love spending time with our Green friends. who are always so marvelously caring, that we leave filled with new knowledge and energized with ideas to make things better.

Immediately after the Congress, we headed east to visit friends in Vermont. We love it here, and seem to have arrived at the height of fall color. It's just gorgeous here, and the friends are just as warm, welcoming and wonderful as ever. So far we've spent an evening in a favorite pub, and had a terrific dinner.

Then yesterday they drove all day and let us ride along to see amazing spots along the Kancamangus Highway. It goes through National Forest land and the overlooks are breathtaking. We took over 100 pictures of misty rain falling on wet rocks, amazingly colored trees and water rushing over rocks. Just gorgeous, and the amazing thing is that each place we look at is more beautiful and in a different way than the last one.

We ended the evening with dinner in a little Greek restaurant where we all had different meals, mostly totally unknown to us, and we could trade tastes and learn about new dishes. I had Moussaka, just because I loved how the word felt on my tongue when I said it, and it was delicious.

Grazing for Dinner

I always love this time of year, when I can take my handy garden basket and wander out into the garden to see what's available for tonight's dinner. We eat such healthy meals this way, trying to keep up with the best and freshest things that are just coming on ripe.

Tonight we had a nice piece of fish, and from the garden, added a small yellow summer squash, flavored with olive oil, garlic and fresh chopped basil and grilled, and sliced red and yellow tomatoes, a few green beans, and some cucumbers, sliced thin and flavored with vinegar and sugar and a little fresh dill. A handful of nasturtiums made the table look pretty.

Add a good bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, and an aged sharp cheddar for an after dinner finisher and life just couldn't be better. Oh, and followed up by the blueberry pie made from our own blueberries, and baked by Jim. Great stuff!

Use It Up, Wear It Out, Recycle It!

We try to be as economical as we can be on our little farm in the country. Grow our own veggies, compost, and organically grow good stuff, and use our old hand tools as well as we can. We realized that we may have taken it too far recently when we used this really old plastic bucket to prop up a watermelon growing on the fence, and it just crumbled away under the pressure.

This bucket has had a million uses around the old place, from a home for newly hatched chicks to holding the water to mop the floor, to a mixing tank for plaster to fix the walls inside the home, and carrying water to keep the new baby plants moist and growing in a dry season. It's so old and tired that the color has almost faded away from sitting in the sun, and now, the whole thing is crumbling away in chunks and almost fell over and dumped this nice watermelon into the grass. It's not ready to pick yet, and it'd be a shame to lose that yumminess. I think it's probably time to give up on this old bucket and get rid of it.

Is it still recyclable, do you think?

The Race is On! It's Zucchini Time!

See that spot of darker, speckled green in among the zucchini leaves? That's a zucchini, getting bigger and fatter by the day. We were away from home for four days and came home to find 4 big ones like that, hiding among the blossoms and leaves of our one and only zucchini plant.
Only ONE plant, mind you! and it's already ahead of our ability to consume it and keep up with the flow! We could eat zucchini fried with onions, oregano and garlic for dinner as we did last night, diced into soup as we did today for lunch, and stuffed with sausage as we're going to do for dinner tonight for a week, and the sneaky things would still grow faster than we can eat them.

So, if you're hungry for zucchini, let me know. If you hear your doorbell ring, and come to the door to find nobody there, but a pile of green orphans on your doorstep, it was probably me, trying to keep ahead of these sneaky green things in the annual battle to keep up with the zucchini. Wish me luck!

We've also got tomatoes coming on-not quite ripe enough to fry as green tomatoes yet, but soon! Yummy. And we have lots and lots of cucumbers too. The funny thing is, we planted them next to a fence this year and somehow they're finding their way to grow with the leaves all on the inside of the fence, and the cukes protruding through! Looks slightly obscene as you walk past and see them all sticking out. They're delicious though. But that's going to be a race to keep up with too. Let's see, if I could just invent a dish with zucchini and cucumber combined.......
The blueberries are starting to get ripe too, and what a crop of them this year! So far the birds are getting the few a day that are ready to eat, but soon they'll all come on with a rush and we'll need to get out there and pick like crazy. These delicious goodies are just the best, all winter long in pancakes, blended into smoothies, and just eaten while still frozen. Delicious bounty.

Aren't we just the luckiest? To live in such a great place? Happy summer to you all.

A Tree-Hugger Wedding

Recently, we drove half way across the country to attend a wedding of a very special couple, and were very glad we did. This is a young woman we’re not really related to, but sorta, and have adopted her as our quarter-daughter. It’s a long story, and too complicated to explain, but we love her a lot, and wanted to be there to share in the joy of her special day.

In this day of pre-packaged, pre-prepared, hired-out and homogenized ceremonies, this was a do-it-yourself ceremony that really reflected their beliefs and ties to the natural world around them, and it was great to be a part of it.

They started by composing their own invitations and printing and folding them themselves, and involving nature around them at each step of the way. They made their own food to serve guests, with the help of family and friends, and stood on the grass of a State Park, for the ceremony on a rise of ground with a lake in the background, held flowers freshly arranged by a friend, and released live butterflies after their vows were sworn, to carry their love into the skies.

It was wonderful to see the love and friendship radiating from the guests present, and nice to know that they were as fond of the couple as we were. Each guest went home with packets of wildflower seeds and baby red oak trees, to continue the natural love wherever we went.

We wish Paula and Jim the best in their life together, and are so happy that we were able to be there when they made their commitment to their life together. The future looks pretty good, cradled in their capable, loving hands.

Added later: The Bride is always right! I missed mentioning one very important part of the day! The Flamingoes! Paula is a good sport, and what's a wedding without a little good-natured teasing? Somehow these pink flamingoes kept appearing at odd intervals throughout the day. Fortunately she was able to laugh at them all, and we kept them to a not too obnoxious minimum, so they were really a fun element to the day. Gotta love pink flamingoes!

Nature Running Amok!

What a Spring we’re having! We’ve been so busy enjoying all the spectacular things we’ve seen this year that I’m way behind on posting to the blog. We’re on the road today, on the way south to attend a family wedding in South Carolina. Jim’s driving, it’s a rainy, misty day, and I’m in the back tapping away on the laptop. If I can get this all written out, I’ll just be able to post it later, when we find internet access tonight.

The last I wrote was about seeing the two owls in a tree near our house, and Anna being so thrilled to see them. Well, it didn’t stop there at all. Seems like our little place has become a stopover for lots of unusual animals, and they’re showing themselves with regularity.

The night after we saw the two owls, we were eating dinner on the back porch with the good view of the backyard, and Jim suddenly stiffened, and said, “What the heck was that?” He’d seen a larger bird than usual, landing clumsily in the yard and got up to investigate. What we had was an American Woodcock, strolling slowly around near the garden. Jim was able to get this good picture of this strange looking bird, as it stood surveying the yard before taking off on its hunting exposition.

It’s been described as the bird with no neck and a carpenter’s pencil in its mouth, and that’s just what it looks like. It’s a plump little bird, weighing about 8 ounces, very short legs, and the head sits right on the body. Big brown eyes watch the world around it attentively. The bill looks long and flat, and is flexible at the tip. This bird loves swampy or wet ground, and slowly walks around, stomping heavily with one foot, then swaying its body forward to stomp again. It’s feeling for earthworms in the ground, and the rhythmic stomping drives them near the surface, where the bird plunges his beak into the sod, the flexible tip opening to grab the worm and he jerks it out and gobbles it down.

So for about an hour and a half, this strange bird slowly stomped around the garden fence, feeling for worms. We never saw it find one, but watching his slow dance was almost hypnotic, and we were compelled to watch for as long as we could see it. Apparently this bird is quite common in our part of the country, but almost never seen, because it’s so shy and blends in with the natural colors so well.

Last year, we attended a naturalist presentation to see the mating flight of the Woodcock, and it’s like no other. The male finds a flat open space, and uses his feet to rake away grasses and weeds to make his arena. He parades around this open space, making small soft calls, until he hears a female respond to him. Giving a discordant Preeeeet sound, he takes off in flight, spiraling up and up over 200 feet, then wafting down in a seesaw motion, he lands right next to the female and parades for her. It’s amazing, the specialized physical characteristics they’ve developed, and how they find each other. How wonderful to be able to share our world with something so unique.

More Owl Sightings
The night after the Woodcock, Anna’s parents came by to drop her off, and she had told them about seeing the owls. Standing out on the patio, they asked us if we had seen the owls again, and we had to say no, we’d just heard them call. Just then we heard a very loud owl call, very close by. We all stopped to look for the owl, and my son spotted the two lovebirds, together in a tree about 20 feet away, in plain sight! Wow! We tried to get a picture, but just couldn’t make it work, but we stood in open mouthed awe at the two beautiful birds, obviously together and ready to start this year’s family. They’re usually so elusive that we’ll see them fly toward the pines, then just disappear as they slip into the dense foliage. How amazing to be able to get this kind of good look at them.

From being afraid of the sound of the owls, Anna now calls to them regularly as she plays around the yard, seeming to think, in her 3 year old mind, that they’re just part of the farm, like the new kittens, and the earthworms we dig up regularly. Really neat, but just ordinary miracles. Not a bad way to see the world, I guess. She's entranced by our latest batch of kittens, only four this time, and that 's plenty but they sure are special to a kid.





Square Foot Gardening.
We’re trying something new this year in the garden. Our soil is so very poor, that every vegetable scrap we get goes into the compost pile, each year to carefully use in select spots for planting a new crop. Last year, Jim built me a raised bed, so we could more easily work with a more limited space to plant things, and concentrate the nutrients from the compost in just the planting area. This year, we took it a step farther, and divided that bed into square foot spaces, using slats from an old Venetian blind. The theory is that you make a smaller, more intensive place to plant, and have to feed and weed, only the part that matters. Since you never step into the bed, there’s no packed down dirt to have to loosen each year. By dividint it all into one square foot spaces, you can put something different into each tiny plot, and confuse the bugs and critters who search by scent for their favorite snacks. We’ll see how it works.

I’ve got flowers, herbs, onions and garlic planted in separate little plots, next to and among potatoes, beans, peas, cucumbers, okra, lettuces, cabbages, squash and tomatoes. It should be an interesting year in the garden, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all works. We’ll still have later plantings of things in rows, but this should give us some early small amounts of veggies until those larger amounts come along. Things look good so far, and when we get back, I’m going to have to get busy on trellises and props for things to go vertically, since they’ll have to go up, because they can’t go sideways.

The Hummers Are Back!

Oh, hooray! Our tiny magical hummingbirds are back. We just love watching these ferocious little dynamos, and look forward to their return each year. This year we put up three feeders, right next to the glass of the windows on the back porch and kitchen windows, so we could get a good look at them when they come in to feed. Once they get used to us each year, they don’t seem to be bothered at all by us living our lives right next to them. In fact they come and hover right outside the windows sometimes, and you can almost see them wondering what we’re up to, watching to catch a glimpse of us, just like we are looking for them. They're not used to us enough to get a good picture of them yet this year, so I found this picture elsewhere to post with this story.

We’ve learned more about these tiny birds this year, and it’s neat stuff to know. They actually eat bugs! That’s amazing and a good thing to know, since we have a lot of them around. The hummingbird egg is about a half inch long and a little over a quarter inch across, about the size of a jellybean. The mother usually lays two eggs, and the babies hatch out within a day of each other. The nest is a little cup, sitting upright on a horizontal branch, about an inch and a half in diameter, and woven of magical stuff, like spider webs, lichen, and fairy dust, I think. The mother and father bird both feed the babies a slurry of nectar and partly digested bugs. They migrate south for the winter, going all the way to South America and some fly across the Gulf of Mexico to return to us in the spring, sometimes resting on the tall rigging of ships on their way north.

Of the one in three who make it past their first year, all will return to their place of birth, often setting up household in the same tree they hatched out in. So as we feed these birds, we should have a slowly increasing flock each year to return to us. They don’t flock but stay in singles and twos, choose a feeding place and fiercely guard it from others. We try to set up several feeders, so they can spread out. We’ve seen the male in past years, perched near a feeder and chasing off all other hummers who come by to feed, even bigger birds who just fly near to investigate. The bees will sometimes rest on the bottom of the feeder scaring off a hummer when its feeding so it can harvest the drop or two of nectar the hummer will scatter when it flies off so quickly. Pretty fierce competition for a little bit of sugar water. We’re so lucky to be able to watch all this drama going on in our own back yard.

It was a TWO Owl Night!

Barred owls are a strong part of our home here in the country. These huge birds measure 20 to 24 inches top to bottom and have a wing span of 3 ½ feet. There’s a thick growth of tall dark pines that run around the south edge of our property, and it’s the favorite kind of nesting locale for them to raise their families.

All year long, we’re treated to their calls, and it’s fun to listen to their conversations and know what they’re doing in any season. The barred owl’s call is quite complex and drawn out, a two phrase set of notes, that sound something like, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-alllllllll?”

That long last southern drawl note is pulled out, and varies for different birds. That’s the standard call, and often we’ll hear it right out our door, and answered by another owl a quarter mile away. Sometimes they call back and forth all night long.

In early spring, in the urgency of the mating season, they’ll start with the standard call, and it’ll rise in speed until it degenerates into a rapid confused hoot-hooting. Sounds sort of like teenagers, getting all excited and noisy. Later, we’ll hear the owlets, practicing their calls, clumsily slipping in their syntax and slowly getting it together. We laugh when we hear a baby muffing his lines, and a prissy elder answering back in stern tones. Sounds like, “Get it right, you young punk!”

With all this activity, we seldom see the owls, and if we do, it’s usually just a huge shape as it glides across the open space and disappears into the dense pines. This week, we had a magical thing happen. Our 3 ½ year old granddaughter was with us, and we were sitting outside, close to dusk, just relaxing and talking. The owls were calling around us.

Suddenly one called really loud, and close to the house. It was so loud that it scared Anna and she cowered down with her hands over her ears, very afraid. We always want to teach her about the natural world, so we told her what it was and we decided to call back to it. So we did. All three of us made owl calls into the evening air—and it worked!

We fooled the owl, and it came gliding out of the pines, flew right over us and landed in a tree about 30 feet away, in plain sight! It was cold, so we wrapped a blanket around Anna, and went to sit on the ground a little closer to the owl sitting there to watch it. Soon it called again, and another answered from nearby. It called again, and here came the second owl, landed in a tree about 10 feet away from the first one.

They sat there sort of calling softly to each other and watching each other while we greedily soaked up the sight of these two magnificent birds, so intent on each other that they didn’t even notice us. We were able to talk to our Anna about these birds, and she was so excited about seeing them that she was trembling with excitement. What a night!

Just that quickly, she went from fear of the unknown mysterious spooky creature, to knowing what made it and appreciating how special it was. The next day, while we were outdoors working around the place and walking our path, she insisted we stop frequently to call the owls again. So we did-and I’m sure we’ll do it again!

We enjoy the natural world around us so very much, and it just triples our joy to be able to share it with one who will be responsible to protect these wild parts of tomorrow’s world. I think it’ll be in safe hands.

Bloom Time

Each year, when the exuberance of spring happens, I think-"How could I ever leave this place?" It's just so very beautiful, and it gets better each year. I've been on this land now for about 35 years, moving in when I was a young bride, and now retired, Jim joined me, with his hard work in clearing the brush and cleaning up things, and how the place has changed!

When we moved here, the previous owners had used a lawn service who came out regularly to spray poison all over. The grass was green, and weed free, but there wasn't a bird on the place, and the mosquitoes were terrible! I stopped the expensive lawn service, worked in more natural ways, and the lawn is now a combination of amazing variety, from grass, to creeping charlie, violets, and all kinds of wild and growing things. The birds provide a constant joyous dance of color and life, singing us awake in the morning, and the owls wake us in the night with their curious questioning calls. As I write this, I can hear the robin singing his night time call, and see the bright yellow finch at the feeder, along with the brilliant red cardinal and his more sedate colored, but still beautiful mate, the brown toned female cardinal. There are also, hairy and downy woodpeckers, chickadees, and many more, crowding around to share the life at this great place. I can hear the Canada geese now, encouraging each other with their noisy honks as they settle into the wetlands behind us for the night time rest.

The field out back that started as rye grass is now a wonderful woods, working through its transition from sumac and brush, into a tall, quiet maple, poplar and hazelnut woods.
We made a path that we walk frequently, reading the animal tracks in winter, and just enjoying the place, all year long. Oak trees are making a strong inroad and you can see the changes as you wander our path through the quiet growth. It's an amazing place, and the birds keep the mosquitoes in check most of the time. The little magnolia bush outside the front door that used to be shorter than my 5 foot 3 has grown taller than the house, into a magnificent exhuberance of pink glory, and just today it arrived at perfection, driving me outdoors with the camera to capture it yet again.

For Mother's Day last year, my children gave me a weeping cherry tree, something I've wanted for years. I had no idea what a success it would be! The bees are just mobbing it, and so intent on harvesting their pollen that I could get up close and take this picture of one of the little workers burrowing into a blossom.

The forsythia are just glorious, and the daffodils that Mom gave me years ago, have come up everywhere with their star shaped faces shouting Spring is here. Out in the back corner, the old weeping willow tree that I planted over 30 years ago from a pruning left by the roadside stretches its pale green switches 25 feet into the sky.




My heart always just leaps with joy each year when this process happens, and I hope it'll never change. The only thing that's not happened yet to make this a perfect spring is-MORELS! We haven't found any yet. But soon now! Maybe tomorrow.

A Two Fox Day!

Seeing a fox out in the wild is always a thrill. They're just the most wonderfully wild and free animals, and truly beautiful. I've never spotted one on our own property, but have seen the tracks through the winter snow, and see a fox a couple of times a year, in the area as we travel.

We had to make a quick trip to Terre Haute last week, and as Jim drove, I spotted a fox, just strolling along in a field. I saw it clearly, just walking along in no hurry, and could see it for a while as we passed the spot. I was amazed, because you never see a fox just walking, usually it's that rapid, energetic trot.

It made me happy to see that gorgeous wild animal, just at its ease, casually moving through its world, completely ignoring the traffic going by and at home in the woods.

Then to my amazement, as we were traveling back north toward home, I spotted another fox! This one was right at the edge of a field, watching some small mouse and getting ready to pounce. Every part of that fox was on complete alert and rigid and gorgeous.

Seeing one fox always makes my day, but this was a two fox day! What a lucky thing.

Spring's just the best time of year.

This was a long winter. Somehow, it just seemed to drag on and on, and never want to give up and release its hold on us. I think we're finally making it through though. Longer days, and warmer temperatures, force us outdoors to scratch in that ground once again.

Jim got bitten by the gardener bug bad this year, and planted about 30 tomato plants in the living room windows. He carefully carried them outside on warm days, and brought them back inside at night. Planted some out in the garden, only to lose them to frost. Thank goodness he had enough extra plants to start over again, and now they're growing well out there, hopefully giving us an early start on the season.I'm trying something new in my raised bed this year, dividing it off into foot square spaces and planting intensively in those squares. We'll see how it does. Makes sense to concentrate plantings in small spaces and just weed and feed in those areas. Using our good compost sparingly in those small spots should give us some terrific production. I've already planted about 16 of the squares, and can't wait to see how things come up.

We had Anna out and made a small fire to roast some marshmallows. Anna doesn't really want to eat the marshmallows, just set them on fire and blow them out. As long as she enjoys the fun.....

Maple Syrup

This is posted late, but better late than never. This was my year to make maple syrup. Now that I'm retired, I have the time to walk through our little woods, and tap the maple trees for syrup. Since we really only need a little bit, it doesn't have to be such a huge project as some people go through, but it does, as always, take 40 to 50 gallons of sap to cook down to one gallon of syrup. So you have to gather a lot, no matter how much you plan to make.

We keep changing the system each year, to make it easier for us to do the work. Jim carved sumac branches into spiles years ago, and we hung our rinsed out, recycled milk jugs on them to catch the sap as it came dripping out of the trees.

We can tap any maple tree that measures more than 6" in diameter, and there are a lot of those around here. This year, knowing that I didn't need a lot of syrup, and not feeling too ambitious, I just drilled 7 taps, and walked the trail twice a day to collect the yummy drippings. I bought plastic tubing, forced it onto the end of the spiles, tied a light nylon line around the tree, added an s hook to hang the jug from, and put the end of the tube into the jugs. That way, there were far fewer bugs in the sap than in previous years. Of course, we strain it before we put it on to cook, but it's nice to have it clean in the first place.I spent one day working with our outside stove to cook the sap down, and just about froze. It was a really cold day. Then I got smart. I put big shallow roasting pans on the top of the wood stove on the back porch and just kept them filled with sap. As it cooked down, I added more.

It was a lot more comfortable job on the back porch than running all the way outside all the time, and I could get lots more done in the house at the same time too. The house was dry and needed the humidity, and when it got too steamy on the back porch, I just opened the windows and let it vent for a while.

In the end, this year we got 6 cups of delicious, thick syrup, and it'll be delicious on pancakes and waffles when the family comes out for our annual family breakfast soon. Becky will make waffles, and we'll add sausages, and juice, and toppings made from our fresh blueberries and peaches last year, along with our precious maple syrup. It'll be great.

We've already used it to flavor a pot of baked beans and to sweeten a delicious dessert of peaches and crepes. How wonderful to have a place where we can create something so delicious with what we've got going right here in our own back yard.

Hurrah for Late Winter Sauerkraut!

There are so many old timey things that people just don't do anymore, and they're really terrific! Each fall, we harvest three or four big heavy solid heads of cabbage and cut them up into sauerkraut.

It's really easy, just slice it thin, and layer it in a sterilized heavy crock, or even a plastic bucket, with handfulls of kosher salt mixed in. We bought a clean plastic 5 gallon bucket and use it for nothing else but this project each year. When we've filled the bucket about 3/4 full of the cabbage and salt, we use our fist to pack it down solidly, put a clean china plate on top, and on top of that, a big flat rock, that we save and boil each year. The rock is to hold the plate down on the top of the cabbage.

Then we set it aside to work. After about two months, we lift out the rock, carefully lift off the mold and stuff that grows in the water above the plate, and only then, do we lift off the plate to see the clean white, wonderfully tart and crisp kraut underneath it.

We bag it up into 3 cup servings, and store those in the drawers in the bottom of the refrigerator for just the right day to savor that special treat. Today was one of those days, and we picked up a pound of the marvelous polish sausage that a local butcher makes and simmered it with some of our kraut for dinner.

With it, we boil some potatoes from our root cellars, and on the side, some crunchy fresh veggies. Cucumbers, radishes, and sausage were the only part we had to buy fresh, the rest we "laid by" during those productive warm days of summer and fall.

While enjoying this terrific meal, we took time to think about how many of the old timey things we enjoy doing that seem to be lost to most people these days. We really enjoy harvesting the food off of our own land and preserving it for later, storing it in our own buried root cellars, or otherwise preserving it to enjoy later.

Any day now, we'll head out into our woods to tap the maple trees for syrup. That's another thing that really isn't nearly as hard work as most people think, and sure does yield a delicious dividend. More about that later.

For now, it's cold and snowey outside, and I've got a full stomach of healthy food, and a good book. My only decision now is whether to recline on the comfy couch, or light a fire and sit in the rocker to read. What a life!

Winter Blues

Now, it's not that bad! These days, as usual for this time of year, I find myself wanting to slow down, stay inside where it's warm, and eat everything in sight! Happens every year, and I figure it's that prehistoric winter hibernator ancestor in me, fighting for dominance with the modern person who knows better.

So this morning, I dressed up warm, took the camera and went out to shake off the winter blues-and I found the blues! But a different kind than I expected. Even Jim's Owl's Haven totem pole, standing out in front of our garage was wearing a snowey cap this morning. It was a beautiful cold crisp, 21 degree, clean sunny winter morning out there, with the sun sparkling off that beautiful white snow, and blue shadows adding depth to everything. I tromped around out there for a while, feeding the cats, filling the birdfeeders, and making a start on pruning the blueberries-and there's another blue! Even the icicles hanging down from the eave of the house are blue with the siding behind them, and the smoke from the chimney looks blue against the sky.

So I filled my eyes and heart with the blues this morning, and came in, much cheered up.

Spring is on its way-and soon now. For the past two mornings, I've heard the owls in their mating calls. That fast, confused, hooting of two or three voices at once, in a flurry of noise. One of these days, we'll hear those wonderful baby owl tentive hoots. Wonderful music.

Home At Last!

On the way home, we stopped for a visit at the Artisan Center in Berea, Kentucky to see the works of the artists. These gorgeous glass sculptures looked like they were just temporarily stopped from their dance of joy. What beautiful things, and so very graceful. It always makes me just stare in wonder to see this kind of beautiful things. I feel sure these were created by someone who grew up looking at Dr. Seuss drawings, and recreated those mythical beings into this kind of joyful beauty.

We finally got home, to find that all the snow was melted, our shelter for the motorhome blown down, and water in the crawl space. Problematic, but not too awful, or expensive. It'll take some time to pump out and buy a new shelter to protect our marvelous traveling home.
This picture is how Jim felt about the water under our house. There's not quite this much, and we're slowly pumping it out, as it seeps in each day.

Lots of Family and Warm Weather

We headed south into Florida to visit some of Jim's family who travel there from Indiana each year for the winter. These snow birds live fairly close to each other in Indiana, then spend the winter within a few miles of each other all winter. What a life they live, so busy with volunteer work, friendly get-togethers and lots of good times. While those of us in Indiana are shoveling snow, they're mowing their small lawns and eating tangerines off a back yard tree. What a life!

Nila arrived for a month's stay while we were there, and Jim showed her the tangerine tree in Jean and Morris' backyard. We brought home a box of those golden goodies and savor one each day while we remember the sunshine.
What an amazing tree we camped under one night on the way home! It dwarfed our camper, and listening to the wind in this tree was like an all night lullaby.
Once back in Indiana, we stopped to see Tom and Susan and had such fun, we ended up staying the night. What a great couple they are!