The Stones

I love the Internet.  Even though my computer is still a bit difficult and I have all kinds of things unwanted on this poor machine, and Bug is going to have to go through it again and update and remove the evil spies.  But regardless of that, today, I was able in the comfort of my own chair, in my own little place here, to book 2 tours for Vick and I on a Mad Max tour.  We will pick up the tour in Bath.  Then in a van that holds less then a dozen people, we will drive up through the Cotswold to Stonehenge.  It will be early morning with the light shining through the stones.  We will walk around the stones our shoes getting wet with the dew.  Of course, it is England, so it might be raining.  That will be just fine also.  We will stand there hardly able to believe that we are there.  Then the tour will take us past the white chalk horse.  It is not that old, but it is still very cool.  The next stop will be at Avery stones.  I think of Stone Henge as a giant seasons sundial.  Avery reminds me of a KOA campground.  You can see where there were three giant circles and then more space out beyond them for awesome camping.  You can have a central location for any big meetings, another one possibly a communal eating area, and the final one could have been for games or sharing of new tools or techniques.  After having read the Clan of the Cave bear and the rest of the series, standing in these spots feels like I have stepped into the books.  There is a great gift shop at Avery filled with traditional toys, and crafts from the area.  Then we will drive through the beautiful country side to a little village where there is a pub that we will have lunch at.  In the pub is a wheel that small dogs, Jack Russell size would run and run in the wheel powering it to turn the spit in the fire place around the corner.  The food is good.  The atmosphere is cool and the rest of the little historic village is also pretty cool.  Our final spot will be Castle Comb.  It is one of the most picturesque villages in the UK, It was even used in some Harry Potter movies.  We will walk from the parking area through the old chapel.  It is full of tomb stones, old beautifully carved stones bent in odd angles.  In the lovely little chapel is a tomb of a knight with the casket showing that his feet were crossed meaning he died not in battle.  cool.

While in Bath we will have high tea at the Bath and will walk down into the Roman ruins, we will walk across the gold bridge and on streets that Jane Austin walked.  There is a gorgeous garden across from where we will pick up the Max tour.  We will not have enough time there, we will not have enough time anywhere.  But we will fill every moment up with memories.  Memories of places, travelling together, sitting together talking and laughing.  I am so excited.

But before Vick and I fly to the UK, Bug and I are going to travel and visit friends and kids and grand kids.  We will drive and laugh and talk and sit quietly and make memories.  We have so many happy adventure memories already, time to make more.

It is not raining everyday, but most everyday.  Sometimes the rain is here left over from the night, gray and drizzly.  Other days we wake to sunshine and blue skies, but by mid day it is raining some where near here.  Maybe over the Gulf and the rivers, so we can't take the boat out.  Sometimes it is raining in so many different places you can't ride on the bike.  Those days are spent working on projects in the house or the barn.  I can even get some gardening in during the dry spots.

Here is the garden bench I painted.

It is not strong enough to hold someone sitting on it.  Maybe a cat, but I wouldn't want to take my chances on it.  But there is a spot just under my red rose, the one you would find in most old gardens around here.  But it gets so dense and heavy that it blocks all the sun around it.  There are lower plants in front that get enough sun to bloom, and that yellow bench just adds a touch of brightness all seasons.  The moon and star sculpture was a wedding gift from Marcy and Fred.  The metal bucket is filled with herbs, oreganos, chive, thyme and mint.  Parsley gets its own pot below nestled in with the cone flowers.  I have had to start hosing the garden to chase the wicked chickens out.  I didn't mind them scratching all the mulch out.  But when they started digging holes deep enough to lay down and disappear in, nope, too much.  Then they started killing plants.  They were digging so deep that they were throwing plant out of the gardens and onto the grass.  Dead plants dehydrated in the hot July sun, plants that I had had for more then a year.  Not just little baby plants.  So now I tell my wicked chickens to get out of the gardens or I will turn the hose on.  I get the hose and show them what I intend to do.  Then I warn them one more time, and then starting at the back of the gardens I herd the wicked ones out of my gardens.  Arguing and clucking, Moe crowing, little clusters of hens running out from the greenness of the gardens.  John C is usually leading the first cluster of hens, Moe will then wait and bring up the last group.  I love my chickens, but I also love my plants and my gardens.  Will they survive this next month or more that I will be away from them?  We will see.  If the weather continues in close to what we have had so far this summer, they should be able to survive.  Hopefully I will have time to prep whatever lives for fall.  I think I have done a better job already this year prepping for the cooler weather that will eventually get here.  Now for another couple of months, hopefully.  I am loving this summer. 

Bug and I are managing to get out and take our walks around the rain.  This morning as we were leaving the property we saw a huge doe standing across the street along the edge of the meadow, just along the tree line.  She saw us and froze.  That frozen look you see as they are looking just past their shoulder, legs set to leap away at a moment.  We froze also.  It was about a minute that Bug, the doe and I stood there not moving, barely breathing.  The time passed and I was standing thinking that I wished it would move, I don't want to scare it, but I want to move.  At that moment it seemed like all three of us made a slight movement.  She looked into the trees and then sprinted off deeper into the woods.  At that moment we could see that she had two fawns in the woods.  Their white spots flashing like sun through the leaves.  Just a beautiful morning, the sky filing with thick clouds already gray.  The air is so muggy here that butterflies don't even have to flap their wings.  They can sit floating on the humidity like they are sitting on a branch.  A flap or two and the thick air moves them like a wave tossing a boat at sea.  As I pulled the barn doors open there was a nice sized box turtle.  I think it might be Eggplant, a box turtle I first met in the garden.  There was an eggplant moving, and normally my eggplants do not move.  Looking inside there was a very happy and hungry turtle eating away.  I moved this turtle, possibly an older Eggplant back into the veggie garden.  I turned the rain barrel so that it dripped the rain water and left a day lily next to this turtle.  I wonder if it thought that it was being abducted by aliens.  I mean one moment it is in hidden up in its shell and the next moment it pops head out and the world has changed. 

I am so happy here.  I am looking forward to our trip, but when it is time to come home, there will be so much to look forward to as we drive home. 

The garden is flowing over.
It is summer and life is wonderful