Traveling long, traveling lone

Tomorrow morning I'm leaving for a week's visit with my aunt in the high desert of Oregon. Who goes to the desert in August? But the day temps are about the same as northern Indiana and the nights are about 20 degrees cooler. Aunt Katherine has planned many side trips, including one to the coast. At 90, she is still active and alert and she's so educated and interesting. My cousin has a mule trip planned and a fresh salmon to cook. I'm not taking my laptop and I won't have (or search out) access to a computer. Life will be wonderful...

except I miss my husband and sons already.

Ron on the riverboat with his music. It's hard to see proof of how close he is to being a man,  

The F150 nest created by a sloppy and somewhat dim robin. (Spring photo but I haven't posted much this summer.)

My new compost bin at Gene Stratton-Porter site, all it needs is a little grading around the outside and it is ready for use. Three bins with the largest used for the raw stuff, the one next to it to build layers and the final bin for the final cooking. Steve built most of it with some help from the community service workers.  

Tacky Garden Stuff

Remember those tacky garden signs showing an old woman bending over with her undies showing? Perhaps you even still have one. (haha) Anyway, Ron was taking black and white photos in the garden at the site when I walked into his scene and he snapped this.

Shhhhhh

Ricky decided to try out for soccer this year, despite playing only one season in the 7th grade in a community league. He has been enthusiastically giving it his all (as is the norm for him), but I have been hinting that the competition is tough as the other boys have been playing for years on travel teams and I also know this high school is very competitive in all sports. Ricky has not been on any athletic teams in high school and is entering his junior year. When he was younger, we supported his desire to pursue interests even if the skills weren't there yet. As he enters the late teenage years, this is more of a dilemma, but we decided to support his interest in trying out because at least he would have fun this summer.

Tonight was the Code of Conduct meeting with players and parents. After the meeting, the head coach wanted to talk to me in private. Bracing myself for what he was going to say, I learned that he will be putting Ricky on the varsity team and he wanted to warn me that Ricky would not get much play time. He said Ricky works hard, has improved and is enthusiastic. He talked to some of the key players before making this decision and the stars want Ricky to be on the team. I'm still processing this. And I'm still processing the idea of becoming a soccer mom at this late date.

(The teams are not going to be announced until Thursday, so that's the reason for the shhhh.)

Modified Farmer's Tan

I am working outdoors for the first time in my life and I am not real disciplined about sunscreen since I don't burn. This has resulted in some unusual patterns on my body. Starting at the top, I wear a hat, so my forehead is white and lower face is tanned. I wear pastel polo shirts with the site's logo on it to identify myself as a site employee and I usually wear gardening gloves. The result is a extremely white upper arms, berry brown lower arms and slightly tanned hands. I usually wear shorts, so my thighs are white, my knees are dark brown and my calves are tanned. And my feet are the most unusual. Crocs are my indispensable garden shoes, so I have a distinct tan line on the top of my feet and little round tan marks where the holes are.