Back to the Mountaintop

Visiting Mom and her husband at their beautiful mountain hideaway is like coming home, even though I didn't grow up here. After about 15 years, the place has such a familiarity to it, and of course, Mom's there. Time has been flying by lately, and it's already been almost two weeks since our visit, which I'm still fondly remembering. I could spend hours sitting at the kitchen table watching the birds at the feeders in the big old ash tree behind the deck.

It's always a joy to go exploring for whatever wildflowers might be blooming.I love strolling down, and hiking back up the steep driveway, looking for what might be blooming on the edges of the woods. The hike back up is a butt and thigh blaster, believe me!
. . . a rather blurry spiderwort blooming on the edge of the woods.

Besides hanging out at Mom's, we often take a little time out to visit a local attraction. This time I was just in time for the county fair. I'd never been to a county fair before, and it was really fun. Saturday Mom and I spent a couple of hours strolling the midway and checking out the exhibits.

This was the biggest cow I've ever seen in my life. I wondered if she was even capable of standing. She was huge.

Isn't this sheep sweet? She let me pet her for a quite a while. She was very docile, and her lanolin left my hands feeling soft and moisturized.

Meet Rasta-Sheep! Wouldn't you love a scarf made from his wool?

This guy was a sweetheart. He was very gregarious, and enjoyed being petted and talked to. Some of the horses and other animals stayed in the backs of their pens and didn't seem to enjoy the noise, the strangers, or being on display. Others, like this guy, wanted to be the life of the party. He had such beautiful eyes.

These two were also very friendly. The blonde had beautiful blue eyes.

Besides bird watching, eating Mom's delicious home cooking, strolling around the property, enjoying lively conversation, and going to the fair, I helped Mom do some dividing, moving, and weeding in the perennial beds surrounding the front of the house. This is the first time in quite a while I've been able to visit during the growing season. It was a joy working with Mom in her garden. We worked for a few hours on Sunday, and finished just in time for a rain shower to water in the transplants. The rain had almost perfect timing, except it didn't give me time to get any pictures of the borders. Rain all day Monday cancelled my tentative plans to visit a Japanese garden in Rockford, IL on my way back home.

Last weekend I hung out with my three daughters and my grandson at The Middle One's lovely place on the north side of Chicago. Piling all of us into one of our compact cars for another road trip over the river and through the woods (and up the mountain,) before the snow flies was on the list of the many subjects we talked about as we hung out enjoying each other's company, a bottle or two of wine, and watched the remnants of Ike dump several inches of rain here in our neck of the woods.