Lots of things going on today that could have produced the photo for today’s entry. A birthday party at the Railroad Park, another birthday party at the Spray Park… But the last one I took outside in the yard before coming in the house was the jackpot winner as soon as I snapped it!
I can’t resist showing you the sunset from just 10 minutes earlier than the shot above, though. Gorgeous!
We went back to the Avenue of the Boulders today - a group of 15 of us this time (we had 13 last week). I had hoped to show the pools and waterfalls with the rock waterslide to my brother, SIL, and niece who are visiting from Portland. How sad that just one week after we were there, that part of it was all dried up!
We decided to walk down the other way to where Mill Creek Falls is located. It was so hot and muggy, even being by the creek. We all cheered when we heard thunder rolling and started to see flashes of lightning while we were sitting on the cliff across from the falls. We made it back out to the cars just as it started to rain.
The lightning flashes got bigger and brighter as we drove down the hill toward home - and it rained so hard we couldn’t see! It was like driving through a touchless car wash at high speed. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the lightning, but it’s kind of hard to do that while it’s pouring down rain and we were driving down the road. So this picture of the falls will have to do!
I was out in the yard early today - earlier than I would normally even be out of bed for the day - to talk to a rep from the phone company about the utility pipe in our yard. I had to run back in to grab the camera while she was talking to Charlie - the turkeys were out!
A couple minutes later I saw this young fella wander over. I know I’ve posted pictures of the deer already, but this one was only about 50 yards away from us, calmly nibbling on the wildflowers.
Today was our park day with the homeschool group. Sarah didn’t want to leave and sat on the curb and cried.
Another day of nothing special going on. Just working, playing with the kids, making sure they’re fed and well sunscreened before letting them out in the yard, etc. So I decided to go into the field next door to our house and take a picture of some of the wildflowers / weeds growing there.
This bug looked interesting. A Google search tells me it’s a Trichodes ornatus, commonly known as the Ornate Checkered Beetle.
And I liked how this flower looks sort of like a dandelion gone to seed. I haven’t had any luck with Google telling me what kind of flower it is yet.
Edit: Thanks to my friend at 365 Days of Me, I’ve determined that this is the seed stage of the Achyrachaena mollis, known commonly as Blow Wives. Thanks!
Nothing really exciting going on today. So here’s a picture of Sadie for you to enjoy. She’s my baby, I guess. She’s in my lap within a minute of me sitting down on the couch. And she loves to nuzzle and lick my hair. She gets all snorty and snuffly and rubs all over my head, as if it were made of catnip.
Happy Memorial Day! Today I went over to the Veteran’s Cemetery where my Grandpa is buried, to take a picture of all the flags out. They mark all the graves with miniature flags on Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, and I think Fourth of July. Today’s picture is of my Grandpa’s grave marker, with the flowers that my Mom and Grandma placed there in his memory.
Actually, I’m posting two pictures today. I really liked the way this one turned out. I love how the focus on the flags goes fuzzy as they get further away from the camera. All the people in the background are waiting for the ceremony that is held every Memorial Day. There was a bagpiper playing old military songs, they fire off a military salute, and the F18 jets do a fly-over at one point.
We live in a really patriotic small town. We have a Veteran’s Cemetery here, and lots of historical interest in the area. There’s a neat tradition here called “Avenue of the Flags” where the main streets are lined with American Flags leading the way to the cemetery. Each flag is donated by the family of a deceased Veteran - the flags are the ones that were draped across the caskets. One of the sections I like best is the historic covered bridge. Originally built in 1922, it crossed the Antelope Creek, 12 miles up the road. In 1987 it was moved to downtown Eagle Point, and has since served as a safe walkway for children crossing the Little Butte Creek to get to the local elementary school. Both sides of the sidewalk leading to the bridge are lined with the flags, which are put up for all the national holidays that are specified as appropriate to fly the flag.
Today was another beautiful Sabbath day. We got together with some friends after church and lunch, heading up to Avenue of the Boulders at the base of Mill Creek Falls, outside of Prospect. It was a nice easy hike, especially compared to last week’s hike up Table Rock, and it wasn’t nearly as hot - 72 degrees instead of 92. Yikes.
Part of the water has carved out some neat little pools and falls among the giant rocks, and one rock in particular was quite smooth. It makes a great little waterslide. The kids, and even a couple of us adults, had some fun sliding down the rock, even though the water was frigid! And it was so smooth and slippery, even on the camera’s sports mode, Hannah blurred a little, she was flying so fast!
We continue, slowly, making progress on our front yard. A good section of it has been tilled up and we’ve figured out roughly how much dirt we need to haul in. Charlie will be borrowing a truck from a friend this weekend - a nice big diesel that can haul 2 yards of dirt at once, and has a dump bed so he can just back up into the yard and dump it where we can just rake it down instead of in the street where it would have to be hauled up into the yard by wheelbarrow.
The bricks you can see stacked up here aren’t permanently in place; we’ll have to move them to dump the dirt on Sunday. But it gives you an idea of what our wall will look like when it’s done!
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