Finally.......furniture

We've been without real furniture in our Belly-Acres room for over a year. It's difficult to find places that sell indoor porch furniture and the ones that do are spread out all over the state. It's frustrating to take the time to drive to these places and not find what you want so the best way to deal with it is just not to go at all. We visited one store this spring and they only had one style, which was ugly. A wasted trip.

Today we decided to make another try at furniture shopping and drove an hour to Branford to check out Wicker World. Paul fell in instant love with the first thing he saw in the store, but he has a tendancy to do that even with things that are really ugly (such as the set mentioned above!). So the very pleasant lady in the store showed me everything else they had and I came to the conclusion that this time Paul was right. Score one for him.

The picture does not do the furniture justice AT ALL. It is really much better looking than the picture shows. We really went all out and got a sofa (not a love seat), a rocker, a chair, a wingback chair with ottoman, a coffee table and an end table. It will be here in 4 weeks. I hope it all fits in our room! It will feel really good to sit in real chairs instead of the extra dining room chairs we have been using. We bought the extra thick cushions that are nice and soft and cozy. Paul had to check each chair out to see if it was good for falling asleep in. They all passed the test.

Welcome sound

I was just out on the porch and heard a sound that I haven't heard for a loooong time. A very welcome sound. The sound of raindrops plopping on the ground. I think our parched earth and withered plants are breathing a sigh of relief. It has been so dry. Yesterday we broke a heat record. It was 93 degrees. Very un-fall like. It was hot again today but after the rain tonight we will get back to more seasonal temperatures.

The full moon was beautiful again last night, casting shadows on the lawn at midnight as if it were high noon. But a full moon really brings out the crazy side of people. Do any of you who work with the public notice a change in people during a full moon? The students in school become much more agitated and boisterous. And Paul has an increase in the number of REALLY strange calls he gets from people who aren't his clients. The full moon must be having an effect on them. I wish I knew the physiology behind it.

Going to sit on the porch with my tea for a few minutes and listen to the earth soak up that lovely moisture.

The endless summer

Did I die and go to heaven and not know it? This weather is absolutely unbelievable. Perfect perfect perfect. The days are warm and clear. The nights cool and comfortable. Today the temperatures were in the mid 80's. People are strolling around in shorts and tank tops. The air conditioner was humming away in school. The katy-dids are singing their little hearts out. I don't think there has ever been a group of katy-dids who have lived this long. We haven't had a hard frost yet so my flowers are still showing off their beautiful colors. My little rose bush that I got for free two years ago at a nursery because it was near death has suddenly had a tremendous growth spurt and is producing dozens of beautiful white roses. Tonight we had cold salad and iced tea for dinner. This is the end of September? It feels more like July. Mother Nature usually evens things out. Maybe we should prepare for an ugly winter.

The moon is beautiful tonight. I hope everyone's sky is clear so they can bask in the lovliness of it. When we went for a walk tonight we sat on one of the benches at the UCONN branch and watched it rise. It was coming up so fast that you could actually see it move. I have never seen the moon rise that fast. But then I don't think I have actually taken the time to sit and watch it rise.

A note to the people who know Torrington...... Looking more carefully at the picture of the fantastic view in the previous blog, I think that flesh colored building is not the hospital, but the Torrington Towers. Sorry. My mistake.

And now I think I will sit on the porch for a while before going to bed and just listen to the night and watch the moon shine on the field. Sometimes I wonder if our heaven is right here on earth.

Two different views

We are running out of days for the "10 best days of the year". We have already had more than 10 this month. It has really been a spectacular month weather-wise and today was no exception. It was a sparkling day. A perfect day for doing all the things I love to do. I mowed the lawn and I did some gardening. Paul spent the day building a small stone wall at the top of the bank that goes down to the stream.

But there is no doubt that fall is on it's way. As I sat on my porch this afternoon I could see some of the trees in the distance beginning to change color. Soon the whole hill will be a lovely patchwork of red and orange and gold. My porch is such a perfect place to watch the seasons change. I know it won't be long before the hill will be obscured by blowing snow and Paul's truck will be rumbling down the driveway, plowing snow in it's wake.


Last year the farm above us was sold to a developer. He has divided the land up into building lots. They range from 2 acre to about 6 acre lots. Some of the lots are really lovely and the price reflects it, $350,000 and more. He has had to do lots of work to make the lots accessible, including blasting lots and lots of ledge. Tonight on our walk we ventured into one of the lots to see what progress has been made. After a long walk up the beginnings of a steep driveway we reached the spot where a home would most likely be built and found it had the MOST fantastic view.


I don't think there is a spot in Torrington that can compete with this for viewing pleasure. (Click on the picture for an enlarged view) The city of Torrington is right in the middle. You can see in this picture how Torrington is right in the bottom of a bowl. For those of you who know Torrington, that tall flesh colored building in the middle is Charlotte Hungerford Hospital. The view is breathtaking. Tonight we could see the almost full moon rising above the hills. If I built a home there I would have a balcony on my second floor bedroom and sit out there every clear night and watch the stars. Oh, to have the money to afford a place like this!

Saturday shopping

This morning it was so overcast and foggy when I woke up that I thought it was raining. We had plans to go to the Peddlar's Market at the South Canaan Church in Falls Village. I was afraid that it might be cancelled because of the weather. But it wasn't raining so we took a chance and drove to Falls Village. By the time we got to the other side of Torrington the sun was out and it was warm.


Quite a few vendors had driven their cars onto the church lawn and set up their tables of good stuff and junk.


I saw this neat great wonderful old pedal car that I wanted Paul to use his marvelous "fix-it" skills to fix for the kids to use when they visit. But he said he didn't want to. I should have bought it anyway. They just don't make things like this anymore. It's such a classic. They only wanted $25.00 for it. As we were walking away I saw another lady running towards it oohhing and aaahhhing with her friend who was saying, "Didn't I tell you it was wonderful?" That always makes you want it even more.

Some things were fun to look at just for the nostalgia factor. I put a lot of miles on a little tricycle almost like this.


We saw lots of people we knew such as Mom's friends, Ronnie and Ella. When I was looking at this picture after I downloaded it I saw the "Free Table" sign in the background. Heck! I missed that when we were up there. A table of free stuff..........and look at all the free books.
We saw the mother's of a couple of Kara's friends from Torrington. We saw old Falls Village acquaintances.......Billy Beebe, Chappy Allyn, Mary Fitch, Frank Hadsell.


We saw coach Chinatti and his wife. If you look real closely at coach Chinatti you will see little brown things floating around his face. That is his bug defense. He sews wires with corks on the end onto his straw hat. He swears it keeps the bugs away. I think those things bobbing around my face would drive me buggy. Everytime I looked at him the corks made it look like he had a swarm of bees flying around his face. He's very proud of his invention.


This year they had a little, very small, art show inside the church. Three artists were exhibiting their work. One of the artists had used a print of his to make note-cards. I loved the print and I have a weakness for unique note-cards so I talked myself into buying a packet.


My favorite part of the market is always the books. They have tables and tables and tables of books, all for $1.00 each. We bought 16 books. Enough to keep us going for a while. I also found 2 etched sherry glasses for 50 cents. I have been looking for a small shelf to hang on my wall to hold some small and special knick knacks that need to stay away from tiny hands. I found just what I was looking for today for $1.00. It was a very good day.


We went out to dinner tonight with Gail and Charlie and then back to their house to watch a movie.......Fracture. I had never heard of the movie before but it was quite good. It had Anthony Hopkins playing one of his usual creepy characters.

And now for the best part of my day.....bed and book!

Happy 5th!

Five years ago this evening we were dancing at Brett and Megan's wedding. Five years later we are still dancing with joy that they chose each other. I don't think there is anyone who is as perfect for Brett as Megan is. She makes Brett happy and for that I will be eternally grateful. She doesn't need to do anything else.

Their wedding was sweet. It was simple. It was a reflection of the type of people they are. Happy Anniversary, Brett and Megan. Always be as good to each other as you are now. I wish you many more years of happy togetherness.

Letters, I have stacks and stacks of letters...........

Two years ago when I was cleaning the attic I came across a box of letters that I had written to Paul while I was in college in West Virginia and he was in college in Connecticut. I wrote almost every day so there were quite a few letters. I sorted through the letters and put them all in chronological order. Then I began reading them. Not fast and not all at once. I have been reading one letter a day and I read the one which corresponds to the present date. It sounds like a long slow process, and it is. It will take four years to read them all! I enjoy doing it this way. There is so much I have forgotten in the past forty years and reading them slowly gives me time to digest and remember and enjoy.

In September of 1966 (it can't be 41 years ago can it?) I was just beginning my medical-surgical rotation, my least favorite rotation. We had to board the orange and black Wesleyan bus twice a week at 6am for an hour ride to the hospital over West Virginia's stomach churning twisting roads. We had just gotten our nursing caps, which was similar to a promotion in the business world. An exciting event in a student nurse's world. In retrospect it was rather an odd embellishment to be wearing. Do you EVER see a nurse wearing one of those things today? Quite impractical. They were always catching on things and getting pulled off. They had to be continuously washed and starched and ironed. If you didn't get the bobby pins in right they woujld slide off your head. I used to work with a nurse in a doctor's office who had trouble with hers popping off her head several times a day. One day she hadn't had time to wash her hair in the morning so she put a wig on. Halfway through the day her cap popped off while she was tending a patient, carrying her wig right along with it. There they were, wig and hat, lying pitifully in the middle of the floor.

One of my first patients was an elderly gentleman who required frequent medication. I don't think he was very happy with the situation. When I would go into his room, cheerful Nancy Nurse-like, he would snarl, "Jesus Christ, can't you leave me alone?"

My room-mate's parents paid us a surprise visit that September and took us out to dinner. Anyone who has been a college student knows the value of a dinner out. We were in heaven. We had roast beef, gravy, potatoes, vegetables and home-made biscuits for 85 cents a person!! It's so hard to believe that times have changed THAT much.

Here in Camelot

While most of the country was sweltering in the heat or floating in flood waters this summer the Northeast was enjoying almost Camelot-like conditions. Except for a couple of 100 degree days it never was unbearably hot. We enjoyed lots of sun. We had enough rain to keep the gardens growing and the lawns green. It seemed that it mostly came at night and by the next morning we were enjoying the sun again. How utopian. And so it continues this fall. We are having a string of perfect days. Days that people around here always refer to as "9/11 days" because the weather on 9/11 in the Northeast was stunning. Bright blue sky, no humidity, warm and sunny. A sparkling day. We have been enjoying days like that all week. It is supposed to stay like this at least through the middle of next week. There is no rain in site through the rest of September. We are all basking in the glory because we know we will be paying for this in December and January. Mother Nature usually evens things out. We can't live in Camelot forever.

I picked up a bit of poison ivy over the weekend after working outside. I've been putting Benadryl cream on it but it was only effective for a couple of hours and since you are supposed to use it no more than 3-4 times a day that means I had a few hours of itching misery before I could run for the Benadryl tube again. So I stopped by the drugstore on the way home to see if there was anything else I could use that might last longer. I came across some wonderful stuff called Zanfel. Has anyone ever used this before?? I have to say that it is like a miracle. It has something in it that actually removes the urushiol from the skin, which is the toxin that causes the poison ivy reaction. You simply squeeze a little ointment in your hand, mix it with a little water to make a paste, rub it over the affected area until you feel the itching stop, rinse...........and like magic almost everything disappears. Sometimes you have to use it twice depending on the severity of the rash. But that is all you need to do. Cured! My rash is almost gone and the itching has stopped except for one area which was worse than the others, so I will use it one more time tonight. I wish I had known about this 3 days ago. So the next time you are suffering from nasty poison ivy.........get Zanfel. But a warning, it's not cheap! CVS does have a store brand that is the same thing that is about half the price.

Frosty bears.

We had our first frost this morning. Somewhat scattered but still a frost. The meadow was touched with a white glaze when I woke. But my flowers escaped Jack Frost this time so I can still gather bouquets. I know their days are numbered so I'm enjoying them while I still can. The sheets were so cold when I crawled into bed last night that I wanted to jump right back out again. Stiffened me right up!

Last evening as I was sitting on my porch sipping on a glass of sherry and enjoying the view I caught sight of something black ambling across my yard behind the swimming pool. Our neighbor's cows had gotten out the day before and I thought, "Not again". This one looked just like a black angus, which I didn't know he had. I got up to take a better look just as it picked up speed. My second look told me that this was no cow. It was one HUGE black bear. I mean really BIG. He was hustling across the yard like he was on a mission. I have seen evidence of bear on our property but this is the first time I have actually seen one. This guy was really LARGE. And I only had one tiny glass of sherry. Honest.

The good and the bad

Things I really did NOT like about Girl Scout camp:

1. Cleaning the latrines.

2. Washing my face and brushing my teeth at the outside faucets.

3. Nap time.

4. Swimming lessons. I spent two weeks standing in the water every day with a silly rubber cap on my head practicing my "rotary breathing". I never even took my feet off the bottom.

5. The swimming pond. It had a mucky bottom, weeds and lily pads and the worst of all possible creatures, water snakes.

6. The smell of my tent.


Things I really DID like about Girl Scout camp:

1. Camp fires.

2. Overnight hikes.

3. Sleeping under the stars on the overnight hikes.

4. The bread and butter at each meal.

5. But MOST of all it was the singing. I lived for the singing fest after meals. For that brief time I would forget that I missed home. It made me happy. I loved the way the dining hall seemed to vibrate with the singing voices. Singing made everyone smile and laugh. I loved the overnight hikes when we all climbed into our sleeping bags and sang together under the stars. The only reason I ever wanted my own children to go to camp was so that they could experience that indescribable thrill of all those voices joining in song. After dinner songs like Kookabura, Do Your Ears Hang Low, Great Big Gobs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts, My Tall Silk Hat, Rise and Shine, Green Grow the Rushes Ho. Rollicking rounds like Sarasponda, I Love the Mountains and Scotland's Burning. There were the songs that made my heart warm that were sung under the stars in the sleeping bags like Tell Me Why the Ivy Twines, Ash Grove, Little Owlet and Mr. Moon Moon Bright and Silvery Moon.

There were so many more and I remember the words to almost every one of them. But as I was thinking of the songs today there was one that the words seem to have been lost to me forever. I tried to find the words on the internet. No luck. No matter how much I think I can only remember the chorus: "Hi ro jarum. Hi ro jarum. Skinnamarink a doodley um. Skinnamarink a doodley um. Gloria hallelujah. Hi ro jarum". The spelling is probably all wrong because I only sang it and never saw the words. I think there was a lead singer who would sing something and then the rest of campers answered with "Glory Hallelujah, hi ro jarum." It may have even been a song at church camp and not Girl Scout camp. Is there anyone out there who remembers this song and can help me with the words? It has been stuck in my head all day long!

Loser indicators

This afternoon as the assistant principal and I were standing outside doing bus duty we were commenting on the vast differences among the hordes of students who were pouring out of the school at dismissal. Everything from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the heap. We have a very varied ethnic population. We have tiny girls and boys who look like they are still in the fourth grade. We have "mature" looking individuals who look like they should be driving their own car to school. There are shy ones. There are the bold, self confident ones. Some are polite and respectful and some spew gutter talk. Some smile lots and seem happy. Others look so sad. We have the fashion plates and the Salvation Army dressers. You name it, we have it.

As I was watching them I was trying to think of what slot I would have fallen into when I was that age. I was a smiler, I think, and shy but I would have fallen under the "naive and pathetic" category. There was one moment in Girl Scout camp that defined my image at that age ("L" for Loser!).

I made the decision to go to Girl Scout camp with my very best friend when I was 12. The Girl Scout camp is not far from where we live now. Strange how life is. Little did I know that when I drove to the camp I passed right by the place where I would someday settle down and raise a family. This area all seemed so strange and foreign to me then. I was apprehensive about going. It was two weeks and I had never been away from home that long. Once we arrived my little best friend found someone that she knew from a neighboring town and joined forces with her, leaving me to make new friends. Many of the girls were from Torrington and knew each other. There was no one else from Falls Village. I knew no-one. Loser indicator #1.

I had moments of real homesickness. One evening I walked up to the dining hall for dinner and I noticed a long line of homesick little brownie scouts. They were all in various stages of tears. Some sobbing and some valiantly trying to hold the tears back. At the head of the line was the camp director sitting in a rocking chair. She would take each girl in turn and rock her for a few comforting minutes in her rocking chair and then put her down. I really wanted to get into that line for a comforting rock but at the age of twelve that would have been, for sure, loser indicator #2.

We had a dance one evening with the Boy Scouts from the camp on the other side of town. Big evening for 12 year old girls. Lots of excitement. I dressed up in a little pink and white striped matching top and shorts. To insure that I looked dazzling I made a paper flower out of pink kleenex and secured it to my hair. Loser indicator #3.

I thought the dance was rather fun. I was even beginning to enjoy myself. There was a short little guy with glasses who wanted to dance with me alot. I did. At least I had someone to dance with. But then all my dreams came true when a tall, dark and handsome young man came over and asked me to dance. Oh heaven. We danced and chatted. After the dance he asked me if I would like something to drink. "Oh my gosh. He must like me", I thought. Of course I said yes. He said, "Sit down right here and I'll be right back". I sat down and waited and waited and waited. He never came back. I could see him on the other side of the room laughing with his friends. Uh oh. Loser indicator #4. Yup. That defined me. That was my niche.

Being a "pathetic loser" was not a bad thing. I didn't feel sorry for myself. It was an experience that I probably would not change if I had a chance to do my life over again (although I don't know if I would do that GS camp thing over again.). It certainly does humble you. It makes me a real softie for some of the little pitiful munchkins I see in school. It was then that I realized that tall dark and handsome doesn't mean a thing. It's what's in the heart that matters.

I have often wondered who that young boy was. I wonder if he was from Torrington and if it is someone that I now know well. I wonder if he remembers that pathetic little girl with the kleenex flower in her hair.

Exercise that brain

What a difference a little rain makes. We had a couple of inches of rain the other day and our world that was slowly turning brown looks like someone took a bright green paintbrush to it overnight. The grass and trees look like they have a new lease on life. My flowers that were wilting are now standing straight and tall. Our lunch group ate lunch outside today. It feels so nice to grab that little half hour and be able to spend relaxing in the sun and breathing the fresh air. The air in a school with 1200 pre-teens gets pretty unbreathable! We all enjoy being outside so much that I sometimes wonder if in the wintertime we could just bundle up and sit outside in the cold eating hot soup or sipping hot cocoa. It would make a pretty pathetic scene, but it does feel so good to be outside. I think when I retire the thing I will enjoy the most is the freedom to go outside in the middle of the day. It's a whole different world out there.

I hurried up with dinner tonight because I really wanted to take a walk before the sun set. The past two nights Paul has gotten home too late for us to do that and I really enjoy my evening walk. I read an article on the internet yesterday about a study that was recently done on exercise. They have found that doing moderate exercise 3 times a week actually causes new cells to grow in the brain. They found that after three months some people's brains actually grew larger because of the increase in brain cells. The greatest difference was noticed in the area of the brain that control memory (I could use that) and cognitive functions. So exercise not only is good for your heart and blood pressure, it also makes you smarter!

A slow change

It's beginning to look like autumn but it still doesn't feel like it. Some of the trees are beginning to turn red. When the wind blows through the trees a few leaves drift to the ground. But that "fall" feeling still isn't in the air. In New England August usually throws a hint of the changing seasons at you. A string of 3H days (hazy hot and humid) will end in a humdinger of a thunder storm. The next day is usually crisp and cool. A brisk wind will blow occasional dark clouds across the sky. People who wore shorts the day before are now donning jeans and poking through their closet for a light jacket. When you greet someone you cross your arms with a little shiver and say "Sure feels like fall today, doesn't it?".

It is almost the middle of September and I am still waiting for that kind of day. It is rather unusual that it hasn't happened yet. Today was rainy and humid and muggy. A little cooler than yesterday but not that crisp, shivery kind of cool. We are told by all the weather professionals that tomorrow will be THE day. Crisp, cool and fall like. We shall see.

The rain and gloom made it a good soup day today. I made some homemade soup for dinner. We lit a fire in our stove on the porch, lit the candles on the table and ate while watching the fog slowly settle over the hills. After dinner we moved to the chairs in front of the stove and lingered for a while in front of the fire. We didn't need to get warm. It just felt good. I'm getting ready for the seasons to change.

The little red bucket

I just finished reading "An Affair With a House" by the garden guru, Bunny Williams. It was interesting reading for me because the house she bought is in Falls Village so I could easily picture the house she was renovating and the gardens she was designing. Even though she loves gardening I can't really relate to her because her financial situation and mine don't even come close and never will. She flies to Paris to buy a special plant for her garden. A big garden trip for me is a 20 minute ride to the Falls Village Flower Farm to spend $35.00 on a really nice hosta. But there is one thing I do share with her. She begins her chapter on The Woodland Garden with this: "The problem with being a gardener is that as soon as you get one garden finished, you start looking over the fence. As soon as one creation is up and running, I get itchy to create again. It's a bit like giving birth to a child - three years later you're ready to have another one".


That is my problem with gardening. I can't stop. I am always finding something that looks ragged and undone and I need to cultivate it and plant it and make it pleasant to look at. I want to make a woodland garden and trail through the woods. I want to plant flowers all around the fields. I want to do all 16 acres! I need to live forever.


So today I continued my work on the stream bank. I hate to see it messy and unkempt. I want to look out from my porch and look at something pleasant and peaceful. It's nasty, hot work and I won't get it finished this fall. I have miles to go before I sleep. But that means I have something to look forward to next spring.


Which brings me to the red bucket tale. When Kara was little I bought a red plastic bucket for her to take with her when we went swimming. She used it at the beach and she used it in her sandpile.

Sometimes she would like to act silly and put the bright red bucket over her head when she took a bath to make Brett laugh.


It was a well traveled bucket. It went along with us on our camping trips.

It was a passenger on our annual fall trips to Maine. It was beginning to fade but that didn't make it any less useful.

By the time Damon came along it's bright red color had faded to almost white. But it still came in handy when Kara and Brett and Damon wanted to pass a warm fall afternoon by filling it with beans from the Catalba tree.


It can be seen here at Damon's 4th birthday party in the background. Much paler and with a broken handle, but still perfect for making sand castles in the sand box. As the kids grew up it eventually lost it's usefulness. I would sometimes see it blowing around the yard like a lost soul.

Today as I was pulling brush out of the bank I hauled out an old Christmas tree (we threw lots of stuff over that bank over the years) and lo and behold....................

.........I also pulled out the little red bucket. A bucket full of memories. Isn't it nice that there are some good things in life that never go away?

Still sizzling

It was hot again today. For some unknown reason, "hot" seems hotter at this time of the year than it does in the summer. Maybe just because it's not supposed to be "hot".

We drove to Lime Rock today for the "HUGE" tag sale, which really wasn't very huge at all. It took me about 15 minutes to look at everything. It took Paul about 2 because he is much less patient than I am at venues like this. Even though it was small we did find some useful and interesting items. Things were very cheap there. I found a very nice old side chair for a VERY cheap price. And some tiny little old bottles that will look great with a tiny little flower on a tiny little shelf or window sill. They were each 10 cents. A deal. Paul found some ceramic bowls with lids that will be great for soup. He got 3 glasses of just the right size that he likes to use for drinking his sherry. I found a nice snowman pin to use on my coat when the snow starts flying. When I asked the price they said, "You can have it"!

The tag sale was right across the street from the Lime Rock race track so we browsed to the tune of humming engines making their way around the track, over and over. As we were paying we were asked to look at a scrapbook of pictures of the "mess" that the owners of the race track were collecting in the back forty. Old tires, metal drums that contained "Well, water but maybe there might be some other stuff in some of them. We don't know". I could tell they were revving their engines for a "pollution" talk so I hustled Paul out of there and to the car before he could embarrass me.

We went out to dinner tonight in Litchfield. On the way over we could see the sky growing blacker and blacker. I could see nasty forks of lightening in the distance. By the time we finished out dinner and went outside it was obvious that it had been raining for a while. Praise the Lord. It smelled so refreshing. There was still thunder and lightening making the rounds. When we came home we lit some candles on the porch and had a cup of tea and a dish of sorbet with our guest while listening to the thunder and rain outside the open windows. It was a good way to end the evening.

Summer days......still.

Summer just doesn't want to go away. And that is fine with me. I am loving this weather. It won't be long before we are closeted in our houses every day at 5pm, huddled by the fire and listening to the wind pushing against the house. I need to enjoy every lazy moment of this weather.

The sun was a glowing red ball tonight. We open the windows, wide, in the morning and they stay that way all night long. It cools down just enough at night so that I feel a coolish breeze blowing across me as I slide down between my sheets and close my eyes. The crickets and katy-dids sing me to sleep. Tomorrow will be another hot day. We are going out to dinner tomorrow night with the veterinarian Paul worked for after he graduated from vet school. I like going out to dinner at the end of a hot day. It's too hot to cook and I enjoy settling down in a nice cool restaurant and letting someone else do the work.

Our lawn is starting to dry up with all this heat, but with some expected rain on Sunday and Tuesday, things should start to green up a bit before the leaves cover everything up.

There is a huge tag sale in Lime Rock tomorrow to raise money for historic signs for the district. There will be antique furniture and collectibles, handmade bird houses and decorative fences and organic produce. I might think about going. It sounds like a fun thing to do on a lazy Saturday morning. And then there's the laundry and the cleaning........ But that won't go away and can be done another day, right? At least the brown lawn doesn't need mowing.

Even thought it's midnight, I'm going to sit on the porch, have something cold to drink and enjoy the night smells and sounds. It's a seasonal pleasure that will too soon be gone.

Happy Belated Birthday, Damon.

While we were in Seattle we were able to celebrate Damon's 27th birthday with him. Because we were so busy I didn't have the time to devote to a special birthday blog for Damon. Isn't that how things usually go for the poor neglected third child?? But now I have the time for a special birthday blog for Damon....the child who makes me so glad that we decided to have just one more.

One of Damon's friends has posted this 17 second video of Damon on YouTube. In 17 seconds it says it all. This is Damon in a nutshell. Happy, optimistic, enthusiastic and ENERGETIC. He was SUCH an active little kid. He was like the energizer bunny. He kept going and going and going.


He was so active that we used to have to cage him to slow him down.

Damon's pictures when he was little were a snapshot into the future. What he was then is what he is now.

Damon is laid back. He can sleep anywhere at anytime. He has even fallen asleep at his keyboard and stayed there all night.


Dmaon has a high interest in anything technical. If it makes noises and has wires and plugs and flashing lights and will connect you with the outside world, he wants it.


Damon likes hot cars.


Damon likes hot cars and soccer.


Damon is attracted to sweets......big time.


Sweet things are attracted to Damon.


Damon is a really snappy dresser..................


with a flare for the dramatic.


Damon is a hard worker.


Most importantly, Damon is warm, caring, loving and sensitive. Happy birthday, Damon. I have to say it again..........I am SO glad we decided to have one more go at parenthood. To paraphrase Martha Stewart, "You are a good thing".

SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been an unforgettable Labor Day weekend. The weather was A+++. Bright blue sky. Warm but not hot. Gentle breeze. Cool nights. You could not have programmed anything better.

Kara and Sean brought the two little Maddens down on Saturday so we could have the fun of babysitting for them overnight while Kara and Sean took off to a local B&B to celebrate their 5th anniversary.



Shortly after they came we got a phone call from Seattle Damon. After asking what we were doing this weekend he told us he thought he'd like to stop by for a visit. Stop by for a visit? All the way from Seattle?? Not quite. It seems he was in Canandaigua, New York for a wedding and thought he would drive down on Sunday to spend the night. I couldn't have planned a better surprise.


We called Brett and Megan to see if they would be able to drive up and join us for a Damon visit but they were a bit busy with other things. This is what their lawn looked like on Saturday afternoon....drying things out as a result of a washing machine leak. Poor Brett and Megan.



We shoved Kara and Sean out the door so we could have our own fun with the mini-Maddens. I took them to two playgrounds and to Wal-Mart to buy plants.
We came home and Grammie had a great time reading to them and playing outside with them. I made a trip to the attic and hauled down some of Kara, Brett and Damon's old toys. They played with those old toys for hours. They were the BEST little munchkins. They behaved perfectly and even went to sleep instantly after I tucked them in. And so did I.

When Kara and Sean came back on Sunday they decided to extend their stay by another day so they could spend some time with Damon. I am so glad they did. We had to play musical beds again and move Damon out to the porch for the night but I know it was worth it for him so he could spend some extra time with Kara and her family. He doesn't get home very often so when he does we have to make the best of it.


After dinner on Saturday night we took the little ones to the UCONN branch parking lot and let them ride.....and ride and ride and ride....their big wheels. Eamon was in Little Boy Big Wheel Heaven.


Damon hasn't changed much since his kid days. Before too long he was climbing trees.


Eamon was fascinated by Uncle Damon's climbing skills. I wonder what's going through his little mind as he watches him?

After some rock climbing we headed back home and spent a perfect evening with Damon. We didn't do anything special. But it was special to be able to see him and Kara spending time together. It doesn't happen too often.


Elizabeth woke up this morning her usual cheery self and looking oh so much like Kara did at that age.

Eamon woke up his usual very serious self!

By 11:30 everyone was gone. I spent the rest of the day doing laundry, mowing lawns and gardening. Topped the day off with a trip to Nellie's Ice Cream shop for a dish (kiddie dish, of course) of Moosetracks. And now it's time for a hot shower and bed. Perfect end to a perfect weekend.