junesleep

I'm getting excited about the trip that we want to take to celebrate our 40th anniversary. So far it's shaping up that we'll leave Friday morning, get to Ricketts Glen State Park, hike to see the many waterfalls, spend the night in a hotel somewhere near there that night (I'm thinking I will be exhausted after climbing 700' to see most of the waterfalls and hiking 5+ miles - we're going to park at the Rose Lake trailhead to shorten the hike a bit), then Saturday morning travel south to Hawk Mountain and that evening we'll get to West Reading to visit with Johnny, Alison and baby Rowan. Spend a couple days there and come home on Monday.


A very cute picture of Rowan.


Started gluing stained glass yesterday.

Doing the usual stuff today: OA, sweep and vacuum the house. For Sunday dinner I'm planning to make sweet potato black bean chili with baguette bread and some kind of flavored olive oil dip for the bread. I'll shop for that stuff tomorrow.

Remembering Skye.


This morning I was noticing the emptiness of the spot where Skye used to like to sit and watch the birds.

Dave's gone fishing with his brother Jim and I have nothing planned so it's a free day. As usual I have lots of stuff I can do here. Finish an amigurumi panda that I started a long time ago then start a pastel colored winter weight crochet crib blanket I want to make for Rowan (that's something that gets me excited - a new project), paint on the morel mushroom walking sticks, mosaic in the shed, walk the dogs...

Summer Naptime. Yesterday Candy and I hiked the Window Trail at Kennerdell. That is one of the longer hikes we go on. 6 miles and 2 of those miles are on a gravel road. I wore my barefoot shoes because they are wonderful for the soft ground of the woods but I forgot about the part of the hike at the beginning and the end when you are on the gravel road. My feet were bruised and sore by the time we got back to the car. I think it's interesting how at times an idea can strike and I do have the energy to carry it out, when usually I am very lazy. Yesterday I got home with my sore feet and all I wanted was to lie down and take my afternoon nap but the thought of being in the house on such a beautiful day seemed very unattractive. For many years I set up a summertime tent (though not for the last 3). The first time was after we moved here in 2000. I didn't have a tent so I stretched a piece of clear plastic over a clothes line tied to two trees in the back yard, put cement blocks on the corners, set up a cot and started to take my afternoon naps there. The next year I got a real tent and used it year after year till it fell apart. The tent I have now is very spacious, supposedly sleeps 10. That means that it will accommodate 10 sleeping bags on the floor. I'd hate to see 10 people try and sleep in there. Anyway, I set it up soon after I got home yesterday. Not easy. The tent poles stay attached to the tent walls and it's like a giant harvester spider attached to a polyester web. You have to be gentle and also strong to unfold the spider's legs so they don't break at the joints. Takes a lot of walking around it and making small adjustments. In the end I needed to ask Dave for help with the rainfly. I swept it out, brought out the memory foam cot and a sheet and a pillow, cleaned off a plastic chair and 2 little tables and found some old throw rugs to put in there. Then I sat in the lawn chair and drew the above pic. Last night I called my sister and lay on the bed talking to her till it got dark. It's only about 50 feet from the chicken coop so it was easy to stop off there and put the chickens to bed before I came in for the night.

Last evening I also helped Dave stretch chicken wire along the bottom of a fence he has around his corn garden. He has 2 lines of electric wire stretched around the plot to keep the deer out but he forgot the chickens. They were going in under the electric wire and scratching up the corn seeds as they searched for bugs.

Two pictures from yesterday morning's hike to Window Trail:


The mountain laurels are in bloom again. I love these flowers.


Me on one of the rocks that juts out from the edge with the Allegheny River far below. Even though it's called Window Trail there isn't a good view of the river or Kennerdell from it. Too many trees.

Today the plan is to hike with Jan at McKeever, come home and take a nice nap in my tent. Beyond that I don't know.

Morning.

Somewhere I once heard: if you don't like how your art is going, just keep doing things to it till you do like it. It'll eventually happen.

Update on the spiderlings. Still there and still basically bunched up but while I was watching them a wind came up and was shaking the bush they were on and they all scattered to the edges of their web. Then a couple put out web line parachutes and took off. I was bending over intently watching them when a few chickens noticed me looking at the bush and they came over to see what I was looking at. I had to leave because I didn't want them to see the spiderling cluster. I feared they'd make a meal out of it.


Then here's another odd looking thing I found in the yard this afternoon. New to me. It seems that it's called a stinkhorn! I didn't notice a smell but next time I look at it I'll check that out. Ha - another name for it is Devil's Dipstick.

Me Animal. That face I drew yesterday was on tracing paper so I drew another face on the page behind it today.


I finished the morel walking stick and took it for a walk down to the creek yesterday to see how it felt. The next one I'm planning to paint with black, brown and tan/gold colors. I want to paint all three sticks and then give Chloe a choice of which one is her favorite.

For my birthday this year I asked for one, and only one thing: a large windchime that can be hung in Grandmother Sycamore down by the creek. I've always had a fascination with bells and chimes. When I was a kid I wanted bells like church bells. Dad found a big steel pipe and hung it up in one of the pine trees out back so I could hit it. That satisfied me at that age. After he retired he made windchimes to sell out of the garage. I painted the wind catcher parts for him - painted birds on them. He had a sign out front. When he wasn't home to meet customers I know mom enjoyed going out and talking to the people who would stop. The big windchime that I want to put in grandmother sycamore doesn't feel like it would be just for me. It would be in the memory of dad too. We'll have to see how that all progresses. I've told both Jules and Dave that that's what I want and I'm hoping that everyone in the family who can will donate a little money to it - then it will seem like a family event. I want to put it up on Father's Day weekend when people are here.