Summer days of July

As I have mentioned before, the deer roam loose in our neighborhood, and indeed in most of our small city...looking wonderful and causing much havoc with traffic and gardens. We have a nice tall fence to keep them out of our back yard, which does the trick so that I can garden to my heart's content back there. Last week, we had a contractor come by to give us a bid on refinishing our deck. We never saw him come or go, but he somehow left open the gate to our back yard. We found this out when the insurance man came home for lunch and called me down to witness three triplet fawns lying in the back yard grass. Mama had been feasting all morning to her great delight. It sure didn't take them long to find an open gate! I will skip the descriptions of the damage done, and just say how cute the three fawns were. I couldn't get a photo of all three, because as soon as I came out with my camera they scampered to follow mama back through the forbidden garden gate.

 

And on another note, the insurance man took a short trip down to visit his brother who is fighting forest fires down in the SE corner of Oregon. He is loading fire retardant into airplanes, about 8-10 loads per day when it's busy.

I think they had a good, but short, time together and the insurance man enjoyed watching and seeing what his older brother is up to.

Happy 16th Sam!

 Right from the beginning in Chicago, we knew we had something special...

Samuel Nils Jones.

 He started out liking balls of all sorts, but I have to admit that the sailboat was from Mom, and the stuffed rabbit from Grammie. It still made for one of my favorite photos.

 Samuel has always been a delight in our lives.

 I was hard put to find photos of Samuel that didn't include fishing.

 He always has a fishing pole at the ready...

 to catch a fish.

 

 As he grew, so did his patience, knowledge and expertise. I think he is now our unqualified family fisherman. You would think that fishing is all he does, but no, he is a man of varied talents. He likes to draw and paint, play the piano, hunt with bow and arrow, be outdoors building snow forts, hollowing out a tree for a canoe, hunting for bugs or toads or foxes, or babysitting a brother or sister. He is an avid Mountaineer fan and loves football. Sam has a tender heart for babies and you'll often find him minding one of the little ones.

 

 

He loves his extended family too, and here he is enjoying some time with Great Grandma and Grandpa.

 

Today we celebrate the young man he has become as he turns 16! Happy Birthday, and we are so proud of you!

Anniversary Camping

This year the insurance man and I celebrated 44 years of being married to our best friend(s). We decided early in the year to go camping, and so reserved a campsite out along the Metolius River. That is Black Butte you can see at the far end of the river. This is the most beautiful river that I have ever seen. (Please do click on the photo above, it is so worth it!) The head of the river comes out from beneath the ground under Black Butte, and therefore is so pure and so clean.

 

I posted about camping here last year, and it is one of our favorites. We parked in a nice campsite and relaxed for a couple of days. (Look familiar William?) We read, played games, napped, ate and hiked.

Along both sides of the river are great hiking trails. There are always good wildflowers here, spring through fall, but this year all the wild sweet peas were out, blanketing the edges of the river.

At night we sat and listened to the river while watching the campfire and stars. Ah.....

Willows That Weep

 

Willows, especially those that weep,

sing a tune that echoes through the years

of our lives.

Graceful beyond compare, bending,

touching the ground

with branches that run tears.

 

Hidden spaces, from rain, heat,

snow or unwanted faces.

Dappled shade with private peeping holes,

seen from the outside are

eyes among the leaves,

both human and avian.

 

Our vintage town had enormous willows

along the river bend.

Majestic, they trailed their tears,

mingling

into the rivers' water,

flowing from one into the other.

 

Lovely summer green, these giant beauties

reached high,

to the sun and to azure sky.

River banks are their haven of choice,

for there they soak up water for

 needs of their weeping.

 

As the wind blows

and weeping branches separate,

hidden spaces are revealed

although never fully.

Branches ripple, bending

to the summer winds,

alone, unique, different.

 

Mysterious summer friend to

all who seek shelter,

both large or small.

Companion to those who need solace,

who must needs find someone

to weep with them.

 

                                              By Jennie

 

A Little Love at Camp Tadmor

 

Our granddaughter Kory is spending the summer at Camp Tadmor, being a counselor to a group of girls each week. So far the reports are all good, and she is having a fantastic time.

 All the fun stuff campers get to do : ) This camper is the daughter of the first counselor Kory had when she went Tadmor for the first time. I love how God keeps the circles moving.

 It's been a HOT week at camp, and I think there were lots of water activities.

 One of these is a giant slip-n-slide, with soap bubbles all over it.

Kory reports that God is working, and we are so glad that she is there and fulfilling a long-time dream of hers. Pray for real change in the lives of these kids and staff. BTW, if you know a camper going to Tadmor this summer, her camp name is 'Sassy'.

June and Macy

 The month of June has been unusually busy for the insurance man and I. After we attended Kendall's graduation, we decided to have her younger sister Macy come for a week. We picked her up and then took her camping up at Walton Lake in the Ochoco mountains. One day we drove to a snow park near the top of the mountain, and she found an old growth ponderosa pine stump to stand on, and a log cabin that they use to warm people up during the ski season.

 We also found a lot of blooming wildflowers, and she picked a big bouquet for the camp trailer.

 One hot evening we took her to the park that is close by the house, and she mainly had it to herself. Lots of playground fun.

 The following week she and I attended Vacation Bible School every morning, she as a participant and I as her leader. It turned out that we had three boys in our group too, and they are the insurance man's 2nd cousins. So it was all one big happy family. They all liked the science class each day and making things.

 The bible stories, the videos, the games and of course the snacks. Macy, Josh, Elliott and Luke and I had a great week together.

 JoAnn spent the week crocheting Macy a poncho for this fall, and it turned out so cute on her. What a great idea!

And during all this we have had a pretty good heat wave. On our trip taking Macy home we recorded this landmark temperature about one hour north of us. Wow...I think maybe it's time for July, and a bit of a slowdown as well.