a week of just being where I am

post #195
       It has been the kind of week where even trying to take time this afternoon to pull together this post benefits from some dumb luck.  It is now 5 pm, and I think I'll make it this time....

        Here are photos from throughout the week: 
      

This year's hay fields seem particularly beautiful.  Some are already cut, but this one is not - yet.

    The milkweed starts again to be showy, and, to me, continues to be fascinating!

      Our son graciously brought his daughter here, from the west, for her summer visit - wonderful to see them both!  Luckily we have fiber optic wi-fi so that even from here he can do what needs to be done.

      Our grandaughter is staying for a whole week, though, on her own!

We've seen a deer along our driveway, and admired the neighbor's well-tended garden,

      and visited with our friend's rabbits:

 

      Then, after a few days, our daughter and her daughter came from the east, also for a week, which makes for a cousin overlap! This is "first time" wonderful.

    We have been swimming in our pond, watching a lot of hummingbird activity on our deck, 

 

AND yesterday all five of us here were on and in the Kentucky River, during a gathering in celebration of a wonderful man who died this spring, at age 100.  He would have loved the day honoring him.

 What a full and fine week. The last photo, below, is of one of the great-grandchildren from yesterday.   And all of us need to remember, as his great-grandfather would say: "be particular."

Route 32, within the Rowan County part, in the rain

post #194
      This is Sunday, June 15 (Father's Day in the USA) so I could say, badly, that we are going "father" along Route 32 in today's photos.  I know, I left out an "r", but it can sound OK spoken aloud and quickly.... Early spring seems so long ago, but in reality I made these photos a brief 2 months ago, on April 11.
       I began by finding a place to park, near a Rowan County cemetery along Route 32.  The following photos are from that parking place or from my return nearby to the "main road." It was peaceful even in the rain. The house and the area around it are well kept up.  

    
Looking down toward the road from the cemetery area:

            Next I went back to driving along Route 32, first looking to the left:

     
          Then two views across from this "rejoining area":

       and then looking to the right, which is where I intended to go:

  
         A lonesome house on Route 32, but it provides my next pull-over spot:

         Farther along was another spot where I could pull over (note the same Stop sign in the following three views):

         Next, from that place, two views looking back to where I had come from (note the same "Curves Ahead" sign):

       Last for today, looking behind where I have been parked -- lovely!

       I have heard that remaking this road is inevitable, but I still dream of all the other uses one hundred million dollars could serve. I also wonder if ripping apart the existing community, with family members living near each other and such, is worth a more impersonal "normal" road that most people would simply drive on without noticing as many of the remarkable aspects of the current passage to Sandy Hook.  Again, I am particularly appalled that all that money will be spent to shorten a 40 minute journey BY SIX MINUTES!!  What about health care for veterans?  What about education for Kentucky students?  What about the environment that will NOT be enhanced by whatever construction that happens and which is noted to be currently unique, even for Appalachia?  I wish I could just accept what some want to call "progress", but for me it has to make more sense than what this particular road project has.  Or rather doesn't have.

      I do enjoy making photos like I have been doing.  Seeing with my camera.  Showing a story.  So here are the links to my earlier posts for Route 32: 
                 post #187
                 post #188
                 post #189
                 post #191

wanting to share some favorites

post #193
      I am having a serious case of nostalgia today, feeling tender toward my life.  Therefore I have decided to simply share some recent favorite photos, and leave it at that. The making of a photo is often my way of connecting to where I am and making sense of it. They can speak to me and for me. 
      Also, I am finally mostly rested after my time away from home, and this is an excuse for celebration and for seeing these photos with new energy.

My neighbor thought that I would be interested in this swarm of bees in their peach tree.  And I was!! I have actually never seen a swarm before.  I love seeing something new -- and important.  I hope these bees have by now found a good and healthy home.  We need our bees.

Another first - taking a taking-off photo of a plane made by exended family members!!  They came by twice last weekend; in between they went to a wedding in Illinois! 

Before they left, we took a group photo -- Here I am being laughed at for making a photo of the photographer setting us up for the photo, which came out well.  Bravo!

Note: they both helped to build the plane and one at a time to fly it, but it can take two to get the baby ready before take off!!  We loved having them here in Kentucky, all three of them.

MILKWEED!  New plants.  So far, eleven marveling months of following the milkweed.

a side passage in Chipping Campden, looking lovely in the rain

Again from France:

the feather garden

the stork over head, surprising me

sweet talk

There are many things I love about this photo, especially the good fortune to be there to make it.

 

A photo I haven't shared yet  -- I am with friends, in Dinan in Brittany, and I thought this blue window and the flowers enchanting.  Again, I was just happy to be where I was and with whom I was.

a second detour, this time to an English garden

post #192
       Every time I go to England to be with my stepmother I get to visit with close friends Bill and June. This time, ten days ago, we had our visit in their garden. It's not huge but it is always amazing. At the end of our visit I took ten quick photos, and they all came out well!  Now that is also truly amazing. Good vibes and good light and the copious English rains must have helped. I want to share these photos while spring is still in the northern hemisphere's air.       
       Thank you, June, for the help with identifying your beautiful blooms and for giving the back story on Mr. Frog. What commentary there is in the titles, however, is just me.

allium -- loud and proud

clematis  --  the gorgeous social climber

bird sugar water bottles, a gift to them brought from South Africa.  At the end of this post, I hope to add a photo June just sent me showing the bottle in use.

Solomon's seal - which even I recognized because here in Appalachia it is a wild flower. Fun to see it surrounded by emerging peonies!

Mr. Frog, who used to have a whole garden "pool" to bask in and float around on. Now he is on an extended dry out!  Hard to believe that at first he was just a joke.

delphinium

June writes that this is a Siberian Iris, either a Wisley White or a Dreaming Yellow.

      On the way back to my stepmother's I was in a hurry. However, I could not keep from stopping along this back (and narrow) road to take photos of the blossoms on the rapeseed plants (used to make cooking oils) and the general lay of the lovely land. It was raining off and on at the time, and I was running late, so this is all I managed to take home with me: 

It was all in all a beautiful time of year to be in England.

 

          p.s. June sent me this photo of hers -- a blue tit drinking out of the sugar water bottle. She says all the birds really go for it.