The SOUND OF FOG

I love fog. I know, I have said that before, and I always amend it with - as long as I don't have to drive in it. One of my favorite sounds is the sound of the fog horn. I used to love to listen to the fog horn as I fell asleep when I lived on Peaks Island in Casco Bay - Portland, Maine. Fog seems to eat up all other sounds, everything sounds different if you can hear it at all. Muted.

This is a picture from the webcam on Cushings Island, also in Casco Bay. When I check out the webcam, I can smell the salt air, the seaweed at low tide, and hear the fog horn.

OOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo. Can you hear it when you look at this picture?

THE JOY

I love kids. Yeah, even after teaching 38 years, I still love kids. Ya know what amazes me the most? Their boundless energy, the ability to go and go and keep on going. Do you remember the fun of just running around and around in a field or thru the woods, up and down the hills... Now, I know you are not so old you can't remember that!

On our trip up North, my cousin and her family were in at the same time staying in the house next to us and I got to spend some time with her and the kids. I will not post their pictures here, well, not anything that can be recognized since I have not heard from her since we left the mountains... and I won't put anyone's picture on here without permission... but this one shot - well, I love it because it reminds me of the energy I used to have and sure could use now! Remember the days when you just could not seem to hold still? When you ran and jumped and sang just for the joy of doing it? Or is it just the joy of being alive, being safe, being loved?
I love this picture even tho you cannot recognize who it is, I feel it captures that joyous abandonment of the moment that only comes in those first few years when we are allowed to dance and sing even if we are off key and do not know the words and don't care, when we are still in that "Oh, how cute!" stage of life before the "Behave yourself" time or "What will the neighbor's think" keep us from enjoying the wonder of life.

THIS YEAR'S WATERFALLS

The waterfalls up near my house in PA were rather dried up, trickles, really, compared to last year and other years before. But, nevertheless, we slowly hobbled to as many of them as possible. I always feel like I am on a pilgrimage when I am up there... there are several places I simply have to visit and that includes every waterfall within a 10 mile radius of the house. Well, that is a lie... that includes as many of the waterfalls as I can manage to get to by walking less than a mile from my car and not climbing too many rocks. This year I had to use the cane, but I made it to Luke's and the northern one at Rockport, I can't remember its name. Anyway, here are a few of them. Look hard and you will actually see some water!

Remember the pic from Hickory Run where the water was so high it hit the door on the van as we drove thru it? Or this shot from several years ago when I actually got up there in the fall. Well, as you can see, this year we barely got our tires wet.

NEW IN THE JULY GARDEN

Much to my amazement, I actually have corn growing outside my bedroom window! It is delicious!

And watermelon! These are the little personal sized Sugar Babies, and they are growing up the fence!

This is my first ever pumpkin, not to be confused with the 4-legged Punkin. ALso harvested today, another quart of string beans and enough strawberries to put on my cereal.

Not much is new in the flower department except the hybiscus. I should have taken a ruler out there when I took this shot, but I didn't, so you will have to trust me, each bloom is 12 inches across.

I am still loading PA pics... maybe Monday... if I get the yard work caught up.

Thanks everybody for all the nice emails and comments... it was a challenge trying to use the laptop up in the mountains... it didn't seem to like to let me into your blogs to comment. It didn't even like to let me onto my own blog! But it did let us do our classwork.

SAVING TIME.....

If you are interested in more pictures of the Tree House, how it got its name, or some of the many Reasons Why I go to PA... visit last year in the archives...
http://possumlane.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html. That will save lots of time (I have dial-up and a slow connection) and when I get done with some more of my chores - more about THEM later - I will put on this year's pics, not better, but a little different, especially the lack of water in the streams!

BEAR WITH ME.........

Well, we are back on the Eastern Shore... I will spare you all the gruesome details until later... but for now, I want to thank so many of you for sharing your Bear jokes with me. We did not see any bears at all this year, nary a one. Not even any bear poop up on my favorite rock on the mountain up behind the house, so I actually got to have a nice sit-down up there and watched the morning fog roll up off the river. Anyway, I simply must pass this joke along. For some reason it truly made me LOL!!! I was almost ROTFLMAO, but it would have been too hard to get back up. Anyway (2) I will share it with you.

>Three Holy Men and a Bear.
A priest, a Pentecostal preacher, and a rabbi all served as chaplains to the students of Northern Michigan University in Marquette. They would get together two or three times a week for coffee and to talk shop. One day, someone made the comment that preaching to people isn't really all that hard. A real challenge would be to preach to a bear. One thing led to another, and they decided to do an experiment. They would all go out into the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and attempt to convert it. Seven days later, they all came together to discuss their experience. Father Flannery, who had his arm in a sling, was on crutches, and had various bandages on his body and limbs, went first. "Well," he said, "I went into the woods to find me a bear. And when I found him, I began to read to him from the Catechism. Well, that bear wanted nothing to do with me and began to slap me around. So I quickly grabbed my holy water, sprinkled him and, Holy Mary Mother of God, he became as gentle as a lamb. The bishop is coming out next week to give him first communion and confirmation."
Reverend Billy Bob spoke next. He was in a wheelchair, had one arm and both legs in casts, and had an IV drip. In his best fire-and-brimstone oratory, he claimed, "WELL, brothers, you KNOW that we don't sprinkle! I went out and I FOUND me a bear. And then I began to read to my bear from God's HOLY WORD! But that bear wanted nothing to do with me. So I took HOLD of him and we began to wrestle. We wrestled down one hill, UP another and DOWN another until we came to a creek. So I quickly DUNKED him and BAPTIZED his hairy soul. And just like you said, he became as gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the day praising Jesus."
The priest and the reverend both looked down at the rabbi, who was lying in a hospital bed. He was in a body cast and traction with IVs and monitors running in and out of him. He was in really bad shape. The Rabbi looked up and said, "Looking back on it, circumcision may not have been the best way to start."

Hope I have not offended anyone - or any bears here.

MOUNTAIN HOME

Yes, we are once again at the Tree House. Here is the view from up back where I like to drink my morning tea... but this time it was my bottle of Starbucks - much more portable for these old legs! The climbing has been slow, and I hate to admit - painful - but I made it! Computer time is limited.......... this is from the laptop. I feel so brilliant - I got this far.

KING OF THE MOUNTAIN, ER, TREE!

Spook has been quite an entertainer lately. He runs up into the redbud, sometimes so high I can no longer see him from my seat here at the computer. Very distracting! And, no, there are not any birds up there. He does not usually choose feeding time to disrupt things at the bird feeders. These pictures are through my dirty window in front of the computer desk. (Like I had to tell you the window is dirty!)See the aloe plant on the window shelf? Can you find Spook in the tree?

My friends tell me I ought to have a webcam focused on this redbud. It is a busy, busy place. But would that mean I had to wash my window?????