Thursday, June 15, 2017

Most Mysterious and Fascinating

My goodness, what a week.  Our church hosts Art on the Parish Green every year. Monies raised from this event support our Shepherd's Kitchen all year long, where we feed whoever wants to be fed on Friday evenings.



While one person manages all the great artists, another person manages everything else.  She was not able to be there for set up, or for the fair, and asked me and another couple to do her job. Oh my.  I was available, so told her I would do my best and I did, though I did not have much idea about what I was doing.  The weather was warm, but no rain.  Handy Man came to help the other volunteers with set-up and spent a lot of time there with me, thankfully.  Missy Bugg came to spend most of Saturday with us and is always such a help to  me.


Rae brought her chicklets to enjoy the kiddie activities.  What a big time.





Next up was Playdate Two.  We played in the pool, and treated our stuffed animals to expert veterinarian care.




Blue Eyes found a cool snail.


Ol' Henry and Bean did some heavy lifting before Ol'Henry had to head off to camp.

My little Wayside Posies having a big time.  Some tough decisions have to be made about this littlest and latest Peony Posie, who has won our hearts in such a very short time.  Would appreciate your prayers that her best interest is afforded her.









In addition to pet tending, decisions had to be made about which mint to use in your fragrance concoction.

 This week, Antebellie was in charge of storytime and did an awesome job reading to our rather large group of twenty kiddos.  I have no words for how dear it is to me for the older Playdaters to be managing the traditions for the smaller ones- sweet.
I know that there is just no way they can know the amount of time, money and work I spend on Playdate.  It is simply a priority for me.  It is easy to say kids need more down time, play time, creative time, outside time, story time, but quite another to see it done.  I take it very seriously, even when others don't. Still, when that same Antebellie reminds me, that to her, nothing could be better than Playdate and that it is her favorite thing and her favorite memory it makes it so worth it.


 The joy of finding a crawdad, no matter how tiny, never gets old.
 We were in the creek when Claire's Junebugg pulls out a rock and says, "Miss Kimberly, I think this is a fossil."  Oh my, was it ever.
We've been playing in this creek for thirty-one years and never have anyone of us found such a perfect fossil. Where did it come from?  Mystery Number One.
I mean it seriously looks like something from a souvenir shop.
I messaged a friend who's feller is into such things and she thought it was a brachiopod and indeed it was, but how did it get there?  The place she found it contained a big area of every kind of rocky material imaginable, that I believe was dumped there- red brick, asphalt, concrete, etc, which led me to believe it was somehow in that pile. So, Bean, Bugg and Giddy-Up and I haul it down there again today to spend some time in that pile and we find a few wee fossils, but nothing as charming as the one above.  As we are gathering up our finds, Bean yells, "Here's another one." and it indeed it was!
Still a mystery, till on the opposite side of the creek, where there is a large flat of shale that I had noticed looked  a lot different after the flooding of earlier weeks, I saw the place that  the fossil was dislodged from.  Bean and I took a closer look and that shale was covered with red lumps, which we realized were fossils.  Bean came back to the house to grab a chisel and hammer and sure enough, fossils everywhere.










You certainly never want to interfere  with their growth, but I've been a bit stymied by Bean as a teen, or nearly so.  He was the perfect first grandchild because anything I showed an interest in, he was all in and we would it explore our current obsession six ways from Sunday.  Teaching him and providing experiences for him was my greatest joy.  He has become quite an accomplished swimmer, a feat that requires a huge amount of his time.  I'm happy about this too, but I sure miss our adventures.  Each time they come to visit I ponder if I'll find something that he'll enjoy.  
Last week I asked him to bring a knife or two to help me with a project. Let's go back a week here to the day we made Deer Deterrents.
 The Smalls played in the garden while Bean sharpened the bottom of branches.

 Then we drilled shells, tied silvery ribbon and shells and yarn to the branches.
 Then we carved Irish Spring soap to fill a bag to add to the branch.

 When we finished, Giddy-Up proclaimed, "That is beautiful!"  "It is yard art, and I need one for my yard even though I don't need it for the deer."  Be still my heart.
Then up the hill to play and cook out.

 Back inside to work on the summer dress.

What a dolly.


So back to today,  which for me, hunting ancient fossils with Bean, was like ol' home week.
 Mystery number two and we'll be done.  I found this tiny blue egg in the chicken yard.  We have no idea where it came from. I've gotten small ones before, but not this small.  The very small ones have never had a yolk. We were curious to see what was inside.
Well, lookie there, it not only had a yolk, but a good sized one for an egg that small.

Giddy-Up wanted to cook it, but after he and his friend had poked and prodded and squooshed it, I didn't think that would be a good idea.
All of God's amazing creations just impress my socks off.

4 comments:

  1. I'm glad you're back at the garden again!

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  2. the anonymous was me :-D

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  3. So glad you had a wonderful 2nd play date! Those fossils are a wonderful find. I can remember spending hours collecting arrowheads when I was little. Fossils would have been even cooler!

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  4. Arrow heads would be icing on the cake.

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