Birds of Prey

Looking over my photos from this summer, I was fortunate enough to be able to see numerous birds of prey. I had my camera with me just twice, the rest are photographed in my mind.

This young guy was on a telephone pole in Wenatchee at the railroad tracks. He was screaming and screaming as if he were afraid to fly away into the wind. Jan and I watched him for quite awhile. My zoom worked great considering I didn't have a tripod to hold steady.

Osprey

This guy showed up during a backyard birthday party for Pat n Ray's grandson. He just perched right over us and watched us have fun.
Bald Eagle

OMg! I didn't consider that these birds aren't all around the globe. I do take things for granted, don't I? Sorry, Midge. So now you know what they are. ;o)

Our Carnivorous Pitcher Plant

Yes, you read that right. We don't eat meat, but we now have a plant that does! It is an American Pitcher Plant.

You can see the dark spots in the stem of the plant where it is digesting some bugs, most likely flies. We've had it two weeks and haven't killed it yet so we must be doing something right.

Glug! Glug! Gulp!

'just trying to poison us ... AGAIN!

I don't think I'll EVER stop picking green things to eat that I'm supposed to leave on the plants.

SooOooo, Jack needed some basil and asked me to go pick some. I went out to the rock garden and picked basil and inhaled the wonderful aroma. I knew we had two different kinds of basil so I picked from the second plant (or so I thought). I smelled it and it had basically no aroma...I figured it must be lemon basil.

I washed it and plucked the leaves from the stems and laid the pile on the cutting board. When Jack started chopping, he noticed the strange leaves.

Long story shorter....I had picked the tops of my zinnias that have not flowered yet!

I just looked up the toxicity of the plant and supposedly it is not poisonous but you aren't supposed to eat it. So what does that mean?

The Rest of the Grandkids

Of course, our visit was with both daughters and their families so now that we are home, I want to share some pics of my other grandsons. Oh my! How they do grow! (And how they do eat!)
To top off our visit, my niece, Chrystal, and her boyfriend, Steven, arrived with their new baby, Travis. What a sweet, precious baby. He arrived two months early....just couldn't wait to see what life is all about!

This was a beautiful day and we just all hung out in the front yard under a big ole shade tree.

Nothing like family!

Oh, Yeah! Life is Good!

What can be better than to be with daughters and grandkids? Nothing I can think of.....

(Unless it is to live CLOSER to them!)

Annual River Art Walk

Every year, Shady Cove is the place to be for the River Art Walk. It is a great event where artists come and set up their booths for two days. Of course, I forgot my camera so I am borrowing a photo from http://www.upperrogue.org/ web site. I believe Alma Spicer took all of the photos of last years' event.

We managed to buy some metal art and spend money to further the local art community. This event draws folks from all around so it helps our little tiny town in many ways. Our next event is the Rubber Duck Races down the Rogue River. I'm rather fond of this one because I started the event about 10 years ago.

I love summer time!

Kudos to JC Penney in Medford!

Today was the annual Kids' Spree. This is for kids in our county who don't have a heck of a lot so buying new school clothes would be out of the question for them. ENTER:  JC Penney and many, many other sponsors and volunteers.

Volunteers were screened carefully earlier in the year. Today, at the appointed time, each one of us was given a child to take into the store and shop until one of us drops! I was "chosen" this morning by a young boy who attends our school. He was such a particular shopper; it made for interesting shopping. He was just as sweet as could be, he just knew what he liked or did not like...and it had all to do with the feel of the fabric.

We had a gift card with $100 on it and everything was on a blow-out sale to begin with. At the end, we got 20% taken off from the grand total. So he really made a haul. The good thing is, when a child is selected to be invited to come and shop, his/her entire school age siblings are also invited to take part so all the kids get new clothes.

To wrap up their shopping experience, they get free breakfast from Mc Donald's and a back pack filled with school supplies.

I know first hand just how this evet makes a difference in these kids' lives. They start school feeling good about themselves and on an equal footing with their peers. It is such a beautiful thing to see. Some of them wear just these new clothes for most of the school year. Luckily, they are usually invited back again the following year!

We truly need more donors for this program as we had less kids who were able to be invited this year. Ah, to be independently wealthy... the great things we could do with the money!

Basically, today couldn't have been much better. So thank you, J.C. Penney and all of the donors who helped make this possible for all those deserving kids!

(Insert mental photo here of smiling, happy children!)

Great-Aunties/Grandma Quilt

I totally forgot to post the photo of the latest Great-Aunties-Grandma Row Quilt. This is for the new addition to our family, Travis. I didn't want to post it and ruin the surpirse, then I promptly forgot about it.

As some of you know, this is a tradition I started in our family where the grandmother-to-be decides what colors she wants the quilt then the great-aunties and grandma each make a row. Lucky granny gets to put them together and finish the quilt.

Great-Aunties Bernadette, Sandee, Pat and Grandma Annette

(Missing in action is Great-Auntie Ina who is bombing around England somewhere right about now!)

We were all quite happy with this quilt. It's a great tradition...too bad I didn't start it earlier for my first four grandkids! .. that's okay though, we'll get to make THEIR babies a quilt!

(Can someone explain to me why it is grandma yet great-aunt? Why aren't we the grand-aunts? Hmmmm.., I think we're pretty grand!)

It's not about the fish, it's about the i-n-g

Fish-i-n-g... Jack's back is healing slowly but he managed to tag along with two buddies and go fishing yesterday. The three of them have small 14' boats and take turns driving to the lakes around here. Jack hasn't been fishing since he hurt his back four months ago so this was a celebration in itself.

It so happens that he caught the only fish and it was such a beauty, he brought it home for dinner. (But I had a meeting I couldn't miss so we fixed the fish to eat tonight.)

My point is that no matter if they ever catch a thing, it is all about the act of fishing. Getting outdoors. Putting all your projects on hold for a day. Relaxing. Enjoying nature to her fullest. Talking with good friends or not talking at all. Contemplating whatever is on your mind. Breathing clean, clear air.

The "i-n-g" is definitely the best.

(Jack did come home a bit sore, but he is walking this morning so I'd say he is improving! Yay!! We are even going to try a drive to see the girls and families next week.)

Iritis

Iritis....nope, it's not a new kind of flower; it's an eye infection or inflamation and yes, I have it.
I woke up yesterday morning with my eyeball hurting something fierce. I thought I had an eyelash stuck in the upper part of my eyeball but as the day wore on, the pain got worse.

Each time I looked towards a light of any kind, it felt as if a knife were being sliced into my eye! Yikes! By 3:30, I decided to call the doctor. I managed to wrangle an appointment in Medford for this morning. Thank goodness, my designated driver, Jack, is better and could do the driving! I laid back and covered my eyes and imagined where we were with each bump and turn in the road. I knew right where we were without even peeking. I guess that comes with 20 years of driving the roads around here.

Anyway, that doc diagnose me but she couldn't treat me, she had to find an opthomologist on call. We we had to go home only to return 6 hours later. After this doctor, I came home with drops that I have to put in every hour and more drops that will go in every 4 hours. I'll have a follow-up appointment on Friday. It's a good thing I got it looked at because it can lead to blindness and/or other complications of the eye. After joggling my memory, I've actually had this before about three years ago.

Whew! I have to say after 2 rounds of drops, I already feel better. I am sitting here with my sunglasses on in a dark room, but the light from the computer isn't hurting at the moment.

The best news is Jack and I are taking turns with being the patient. I have to say he was so worried about me the past 30 hours....it's been rather endearing. I awoke to breakfast in bed this morning! Heck, I don't get that kind of treatment on my birthday or anniversaries or anything. So through my thick-dream-state mind, I sat up and smiled and managed a "Thank you, Honey!"

The Carrot I'm Dangling Under my Nose

I decided I would dangle a reward in front of myself for the day I'm done scanning my photos. (If I'd quit finding them here and there, I might be finished scanning!) Anyway, this photo was taken at Vicki's house during her wedding festivities. I'm going to get out my pastels and try my hand at it. .. AFTER my photos.

I'll have to ask Vicki what kind of plant this is. The wavy lines of contrasting colors are so pretty.

This one hurts

It's one thing to go through tons and tons (and yes, more tons) of photos to scan; I'll just be saving them in a different and more compact format. However, my negatives from the 1950's is totally another thing. I was so careful over the years to label each packet of negatives and file them in envelopes by years, etc. Now, they are going to the dump. The entire lot of them all the way through 2004 when I got my digital camera. That's like 50 years of negatives. (Sigh).... I know, it's only "stuff".

This is one reason for the purging...because Jack and I are the Stuff King and Queen! I've noticed when we hit a space together, I'll say to him, "You don't need that....toss it!" and he'll give me reasons why he should keep it. When I come to something not used in years, he'll say, "Toss it!" and I'll give him reasons why I'm saving it. Actually, we work well together because the pickup truck is over half full of trash and the car is completely full of donations. Now that's something to be proud of.

I have so many empty cupboards and shelves, I rather like the looks of things around here lately.