Another Hitch-hiker!!!

Our second car died last week and stayed in the parkng lot where Tom works. Tom and a buddy went to tow the car home today to be fix and this little guy......no wait! Big guy . 4+ inches long man!! Now I'm used to taking pictures of stick bugs that don't move and just hang out while I take my fill of photos. But this guy turned its head and looked right at me!!!!! It freaked me out a bit. I was afraid to get too close just in case, like a bat, it would get caught up in my hair or something!!!!!

" You're smart when you only believe half of what you hear, Wise is when you know which half to believe. "

The last daylily blooming in the garden:

I can't believe how long this daylily bloomed. it was one of the first to start and the very last to finish. Turtle heads are on their way.






Stick bug #3:


This guy took a ride from the south end of South Bend all the way north; including three stops. One of those stops was at the grocery store!! I hope it likes it's new home.



Not getting much done this weekend again. too much running around and socializing to get anything done. That is why having the kids back in school will offer up most of the week for me. It is so nice to have a chunk of time for me. PLus Tom is on vacation next week. Unfortunately most of it will be taken up with fixing the 2nd car, taking a trip down to Indy to see family and hopfully getting the siding finished on the front of the treehouse. The treehouse that has taken 4+ years and problably 2+ more to get it finished or at least, darn close.
One man doing the work, money and time are the culprits. What's the hurry? We would like to get a few good years of our girls enjoying this treehouse before they head off to college!


"Good thiiings come to those who wait a long time"

I love a Rainy Day

I love a rainy day. I've been looking forward to this day. It gives me permission to get to my work bench and get some work done, and let nature take it course outside. We so needed this rain.

"“The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.”~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


CAR TALK:

No, I'm not talking about the humorus talk show on NPR. I talking abut the time spent in the car with my girls on the way to school. This is an opportune time to give and share life experiences and advice.
Planting seeds.
I know I have given something worth thinking about to my girls when I get a choaked up feeling after I have made a point. something they can really chew on and understand. I think Iget choaked up because I wish I had a parent like myself when I was growing up and very impressionable. But at the same time I feel good that I was able to give just that.

We were listening to the radio and the song"Live lke you were dying" by Tim McCraw came on. The words

" went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu" raised a question "what is fumanchu?" Well, beside the fact that I thought it was some kind of facial hair design....... "I'm not sure" But I did want to raise the question "What do you think it means to live life you were dying?"
Amy kind of had some idea, so I continued, "To live life like you were dying would mean not letting the little things that seem big to some bother you or consume your energy so much, you don't have time for the waste of time when you are dying."

I feel like I gave them perrmission not to get so caught up in other peoples (peers) issues that can drain what is really important and good. Although being sensitive to others who have to deal with these things because they don't know how to live their life like they were dying yet.

"then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I watched an eagle as it was flying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying."


CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:


The Wreckers
`Michell Branch & Jessica Harp`






MY FAVORITE QUOTE TODAY:

“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” ~Dolly Parton

"Where flowers bloom, so does hope." ~Lady Bird Johson 1912

**(Gilt Edge Toad Lily)







Stick Bug’s Wisdom Includes:
'Being Patient
Focusing on Your Own Activities
Hiding in Plain Sight
Blending In
Being Out of the Ordinary
Being Accepted for What You Are'

American Walking Stick (Anisomorpha bupestiordes) sprays his intruder with a chemical spray that causes blindness. YEOW!



**False Solomon's Seal Smilacina racemosa Lily Family (Liliaceae)




To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
An eternity in an hour."
-- William Blake

"From a windowbox
of Charlottenberg Palace a single petal of phlox
bears down into the shallow cup of its palm
with all the unbearable weight of a snowflake."
-Mario Petrucci,
Liberation of the Berlin Zoo,
1945







*Joe & David

Walnut Sphinx, Laothoe juglandis

Blackberry Lily, Leopard Lily 'Hello Yellow' (Belamcanda chinensis)

This is the time in summer when the garden starts to wane a bit. The last of the yellow in my garden this season. Next will be the Turleheads. Fall is on the cusp.



"This pure Mind, which is the source of all things, shines forever with the radiance of its own perfection.
But most people are not aware of it and think that the Mind is just the faculty that sees, hears, feels, and knows.
Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling, and knowing, they do not perceive the radiance of the source."

~ Huang Po

Cicada

While working in the yard, my girls found this Cicada nymph hatching. What a great find.

Cicada Songs

They say your songs
portend the end of summer
just as chirping robins
usher in the spring air.

Listen to the sound
whirring, buzzing through
leaves of trees that shelter
the thrumming brood.

Insect monks chant
hymns of nature
for us and for
their silent females: “mate her.”

More musical than electric currents
that hum along power lines,
your symphony hovers,
guarding the sultry night like armored palatines.

Constant and pervasive,
we humans sometimes hear
sometimes ban your frequencies,
lulled to sleep by drums so dear.

Air conditioners and headphones
drown out your beautiful noise
but others sing with you
till Fall’s frost steals these little joys.

~David Granville

The Summer's Reprieve

That beautiful season the Summer!
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light;
and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



~Sweet Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum)

I laid awake last night, smelling the fresh night air flowing through my bedroom windows for the first time in weeks. The Cicadas are singing so loud that I don't even hear the road nosie. I'm sure when I get out to mow this weekend I will find many disgarded nymph skins. I used to collect them to use as part of my Halloween decorations for the table. How cool is that? (evil grin)

Went on a bike ride last night with my daughter. I love my bike.
here's a sweet little photo of it.

I am a tall woman who needs a bike that will give my long legs the full stride without the knees reaching for my ears. This a men's 1972 Chicago Schwinn Speedster.




It's is such a cruiser! I love love love this bike and It only coast me $10.00 at St. Vincent DePaul. It was the first object my eyes landed on when we walked into the front door. Not an impulse buy, but a must have!

~"The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. "
~Iris Murdoch, The Red and the Green