Mugs of Me

Zipline fun!

Getting ready for adventure!

Ready to go!

On my way! Yeah!

A victorious finish!

At the edge of my sister's garden - boy did her sunflowers grow!

Me amid the flowers!

A WONDER OF GODS CREATION!

One of the more interesting of God's creation - the life of a butterfly. I don't have pictures of a butterfly egg, or growing caterpillar. I also don't have pictures of this butterfly after it flew away. What I do have is pictures of transformation - transformation from caterpillar, to chrysalis, to butterfly.

A couple weeks ago this monach caterpillar shimmied its way up our window at work then found this nice comfy spot to form a chrysalis.

Just after the caterpillar shed its skin and skoochied up a bit - well on the way to becoming a well-formed chrysalis.

I missed getting a picture of the chrysalis in "pure" chrysalis form - even though I had two weeks to get it - oh, well.

A mere 2-3 hours prior to freeing itself from the chrysalis.

I missed the drama of the butterfly freeing itself from the chrysalis but here it is, flexing and strengthening its wings prior to its maiden flight.

Camping Trip

Our camp. Leslie and Steph around a campfire. Woods in background is home of our friendly neighborhood raccoon (nightly visitor).

Anna & Leslie at the beach one evening.

I'm helping to get a fire going.

Tennis anyone? Steph in action (sorry the pic is a little blurry).

My Hiking Adventure!

The old farm - I lived here for 3 years when I was between 8 and 11 years old. I love that old farm. It's a centennial farm on 120 acres (the barn and other outbuildings are hidden behind the trees and the house). We had all kinds of animals, mainly cattle, and we also worked the fields. Great place to live when you're a kid. I still like to go back often and the owners don't seem to mind as long as we ask first. My adventure is on this old farm. The owners made trails on the property and I'm about to investigate them!

Walking from the car through a field to the beginning of the trail scared out a wild turkey.

The beginning of the trail through the creekmarsh and to the sandhill.

The trail was rather overgrown but that just made the hike more adventurous. I got a little scratched from head-high wild rosebushes, walked by a pond filled with cattails, almost fell off some of the wood path (thankfully the swamp isn't really wet this time of year!) and travelled through a red pine man-made forest.

A pavillion and firepit (could use cleaning out obviously) at the base of the hill. The hill is really a crescent shape cutout with the center being an open grassy field.

Up the sandhill, follow the sand. It seems funny to call it a sandhill now that it's mostly covered with fauna. When I was a kid, this whole face was sand that the cliff swallows put their nests in.

This view is from the top of the sandhill facing southeast. What a view!

Last picture for you of my adventure today. This doe came out of the woods to the left on my way back to the van. She limps on her right front foot - whether a hunting injury or dogs, I don't know, but she's surviving. What a great day.