A Windy, Stormy Looking Morning

One Of Our Hungry Purple Martin Babies

6:30

It was 5:30 when I got up, a chilly morning so I had to close a window, quite a contrast to the past two days.  This morning is windy, gray, misty, a light rain, not a very inviting start to the day.  Rather one which makes you want to curl up on the couch and hunker down under a blanket.  Unfortunately, our floats were hitting our neighbor's dock because of the wind, so I was out in the water at 5:30 moving them over so they are now in the middle of our area. Fun.  At the moment, it seems to be getting darker rather than lighter as the clouds come in, the wind from the north, almost bending the flag poles.

Yesterday morning was a good morning to stay inside, as we had a couple of heavy thundershowers, and enough rain to once again flood our side yards, the roads, etc.  Not as bad as yesterday's early morning in Westfield, twenty miles away, where some people had to evacuate their homes because of four inches of rain in an hour.  So we consider ourselves lucky to have had only an inch or two of rain.  Everyone was happy to stay inside and once late morning arrived, it cleared up some and we had sun off and on the rest of the day.  Mitch and I returned the luggage case we had borrowed to our neighbors, so that was our job for the day.

New Porch Of The Ashville Library

Libby, The Library Cat

About 10:30, Evie and I drove the girls to the Ashville Free Library, another trip we always make to see their cat, Libby and the librarian Tabby, whose names we always mix up.  We found some books for all of the girls, and they got to play with Libby for twenty minutes before we went home.  Around noon,  Beth took it upon herself to do the Tuesday shopping, so she was gone for a couple of hours.

Kayaking With Granny

Marlena Poised

The rest of the day, mostly the afternoon we spent in the water, either Evie and the girls kayaking, usually with a couple of the girls riding along, or swimming and diving off our dock, playing on the floats.  It was actually, after the rains, a pleasant afternoon, as the temperatures got in to the 80's once again.  The girls would play in the water, then race in change, throw their towels and suits by the dryer, and go up to their rooms, hang out, come down and play some cards or games.  Then,  get the urge to swim, and off they went, up the stairs, suits on and in the water again for an hour.  They have always loved playing in the water, ever since they were old enough to hang on a raft or their Granny.

Wings At The Casino

Marlena

Halle

We got cleaned up and showered by 6:00 and drove over for the once a summer wing fest at the Casino.  It was surprisingly empty when we arrived, so we had our choice of seats but by the time we left, there was a good crowd.  The wings were fine, and everyone seemed to enjoy them.  The game alley, where the kids loved to waste their money, did not interest them much this year; they are growing up.  Afterwards, they played some on the swings, and then we walked to get ice cream cones, Marlena excited about the cotton candy ice cream.  We were home by 8:00, in time to watch a couple of terrible shows on TV but four played cards, a game called Telefunky, which the kids love and my Mom taught them.  At 9:15, the crazy girls wanted to go for a swim, so up they went for the third of fourth time, put on their suits and Evie took them out for a night swim.  They loved it. We were all in bed by 10:30, tired from our day of swimming.

Dusk

This morning, Beth and I are driving to Barcelona, on Lake Erie, leaving at 7:30, to go rock collecting, hoping to find some cool ones for everyone to paint.  Also, I want to make another cairn so we will have to see what I come up with.  The two cairns I built have lasted, or stood now, through a couple of winters.