summer photos by Rebecca, 2020

 post #502

          Well, here goes, many vertical photos, I hope they work for me this time. I so want to share my daughter's view of things because I love her eye... as well as the rest of her, of course. Thank you, R, and it's always a treat to be able to do a mostly R post!

p.s.. I am still somewhat hampered by the changes Blogspot has made, but at least I managed to include some basic items. I will hope next week to continue to make progress. If not, I will take it all out on a super rant about the current political situation, which never disappoints for being appalling and even dangerous.  Thanks for taking a chance here, and thank you, Rebecca, for letting me use your photos today:

 the faithful and elegant welcome patrol:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

how to hang your hands out to dry:

 cousin and cat love:

in the woods:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

boots and paws under the falls:

potatoes from the garden, early treat:

sharing the meadow before a mowing:

beauty and the book:

UQueen Anne's lace, with escorts:

impressive broccoli from the garden:

 

hanging out in the summer, no social distancing needed:

 

Rebecca catches the fun in these next two photos! Bravo!        

sweep up, summer cousin camp time, 2020

post #501
        This is another attempt to post on my blog before its good ol' ways are hidden away.  Here are some more of the photo mix from the 10 days of "cousin camp."  It was wonderful to be all together, even while not leaving the property for days and days. We will hope the travelers manage to stay healthy during their trip back to Colorado.  Some hoax! This virus thing continues to be so abundantly scary that I wonder if those who think otherwise have had their brains fried during an earlier lifetime, and they are simply no longer able to process info adequately!

STAY WELL!!!

Other photos retrieved and now shown for the first time:

These are beautiful walnuts overhead on the deck but not yet falling on our heads!! Good timing, team!  We ate all our meals outside, distanced.

herding hens, and a rooster

  [note: the vertical photos I so want to include right in this spot continue to elude me!! So far I have neither thrown my laptop on the floor nor screamed and yelled. Close, but not. Yet.]

 

I made a brief visit to the outside world via TV, to see the honoring of Rep. John Lewis, lying in state in the US Capital. I found this historical and evocative event very moving, and a hopeful sign of the power of human beings to be their better selves.

THANKS BE FOR THE DAILY PLAYING IN THE POND:

photo made with my camera by their daughter/my granddaughter, AGE 9!!!

     
               I think this happy photo is a good place to wind this puppy up, with promises that, if I can, I will take us to a completely new and altogether other place next week. I don't take well to not figuring something out, but for now I've had Enough of Being Baffled!

Summer love (Cousin Camp, 2020)

post #499 

            By some unearned miracle, this week we are managing to have our annual cousin camp here in the homestead in Eastern Kentucky.  I am not doing much of the work -- such as a lot of food planning and prepping -- but I sure am loving this once a year together time!  (Actually, I am doing very little work AND getting dinners by J almost every night!)

          The big hits this year so far are the chickens and the four roosters.....  I'm going to share just a few photos, several taken while the wrong lens was on my camera. When candids are required, there's often no  time to be fully prepared. There are only three kids at the moment, which is plenty after so many months of my being sheltered alone most of the time.

NOTE: at first I said I'm going to try to do better than last week about adding the photos. It seems Blogger has decided to revamp itself.  While there are bound to be glitches for awhile, especially since my learning curve is never what I'd like it to be, the difficulty of the new system is unbelievable.  There seems to be no rhyme or reason for some of the changes, and there is no way to seek clarification.  I was gratified that so many others are complaining on line about the "improvements."  I will leave up what I posted Sunday night in frustration, even though it may duplicate some of what I hope appears here.  (This is being tried again Tuesday evening.) I just hope that I can figure out who can help me because I really do not want to lose access to the 500 blogs I have been posting over ten years.  


FIRST, some more hay ambiance photos: 

good friends

 

NEXT, COUSIN CAMP

        first: important to remember --

            

chasing chickens who are not ready yet to give it up

viewing social distancing, on my way home -- if cattle can do it, why can't we all!!

            Well, there are 4 vertical photos that continue to refuse to be transferred to the blog, even though I did find the link to go back temporarily to the former format .  Two of those photos are my favorites of the week.  I will keep working on all this, but not to worry since I definitely feel that the big picture is really most important these days. The election.  Our democracy. The health of every world citizen. Getting rid of chaos and cruelty that currently rule our government. Inequality. And of course racism, which, like the virus, is real and is all controlling, even if we don't want to believe it.  So, I end by a plea to support the arts and creative thinking as a way to nourish and strengthen the positives that surely lie beyond today. I hope.

Very sad to say, but Blogger (Google's baby) no longer makes sense after an update....

post #500

I am pretty distressed that I can no longer access the tools I need to do this blog! It's a bummer! I am going to have to struggle this week to see if someone can explain this fiasco to me. I may have to change blog providers! AFTER ALMOST TEN YEARS of posting weekly!!  Fellow bloggers are also complaining.  Boldly.  I'm so sorry.  I suspect Google is trying to be more assertive and controlling, on behalf of their profit. They may be most interested in people making more money... so that G. makes more money.  I don't make any money from this venture.  I'm more interested in world peace than in having a piece of the world.

I'll try to add a few photos but I can't make a story out of them or know which ones will make it through the rabbit hole, etc.  If anyone can help explain what is happening, I'd be glad to hear from you, even though I don't trust putting my email address out there, for fear of possible further exploitation.  Of course there's a possibility that I will calm down and everything will soon make sense, with help from "my people." I sure hope so.

                I'm amazed we have managed a version of our annual cousin camp here in Eastern Kentucky.  Everyone, please be safe and take this virus seriously.  

                Gratefully yours, Ann

living each day in the now, for now

post # 499
          Here's a heat-filled hello from Eastern Kentucky! I hope everyone is healthy, wearing a mask when needed, and able to find a way to stay cool. I feel the week has been so full that I've decided simply to share some recent photos purely for their timely loveliness. Also this is the first week this year that has brought me to tears, which, actually, I appreciated. It felt way overdue. I suspect others have had that same response along this long and lingering path filled with so many "hard to believe it's happening" moments.

It has been a lot cleaner and calmer outside my front door after these Phoebe beauties left the nest this week. You Go, Kids!!  I kind of miss you, but not totally. Stay safe!

 

on the side of Sideway Road, during my evening stroll

sweet peas, from a visit to a friend's porch nearby to trade eggs for empty egg cartons

 

newly mowed fields which are favorites of mine

bale rows from that field

Look for this row of bales in the preceding photo, near where the road ends. I sort of risked my life to take this photo, in a hurry.  I just love hay bales, an every year happiness.

There are two more photos to add, but they are currently playing hard to get.  So I'm giving it a rest for a bit, a cooling down period.... That may be what we need now in our public life? The least we can do is wear our masks and care about those around us. That's a reality most people in the current administration seem determined to deny, to the detriment of all Americans.  

what we ask

post #498
       
         We ask
                 will kids go to regular school in August? or
                 will the virus thrive in that shared air?
                 will they work again from home?
                 will their spirits support each other, 
                         day by day, and in the years ahead?
        
        What will they learn? How about us, who cry at night,
                   from exhaustion, from these questions,
                   from those who are afraid and not able to act,
                   from what our world is teaching us, if we listen.
            
         What of this will the children remember next year, or
                    fifty years from now.  

          Can it be that they'll know
                   we love them and we did what we could?


      Today, in honor of kids I know, I just wanted to go through my images and pick out a few of the kid photos I have made over the years. Some of the kids are related to me, some are not, all are known to me.  Many have been on one of my posts over the past ten years -- so many are older now than they were then! Enjoy!

  

Mountaintop Removal Rally

measuring the milkweed