Our goal is for them to fall in to bed exhausted, before we do.

so far it’s working.

Getting to see your blog friends in Real Life is one of the scariest and most fun parts of blogging. This trip to the East Coast has allowed me to meet up with some of my long time blog friends like Kate.

And like so many trips I find I have pictures not of people but of doings…and goings on. These pictures were all taking while sitting on Kate’s front porch, watching our children grow.

Kate’s current project.

Kate’s chair, that she recovered and her sewing bag.

Kate’s daughter’s crafty potholder (how many memories does that project bring back for you?? I’ve a few of those pot holders around still).

…including our friends in Canada…

The holiday which citizens of the United States traditionally celebrate by not laboring. I think these flags are probably left over from when we rode our bikes down to the city center to watch the 4th of July parade. They have been stuck in this jar full of pens since then and will probably soon get packed away for the winter or more likely thrown out. I’m sure there is a message in there somewhere…

It is 6:15 in the evening. The sun is setting earlier each night at the burrow. It has been a strange summer - only five or six days of real heat. Soon we’ll be back to SSSSoggy! Soggy but green that is.

Brit’s bread bowl is back and ready to report for duty. Featured artist month is over for me at the gallery. I appreciate the hard work that a lot of good people volunteer to make that happen but I have to say I’m not much for standing around drinking punch and talking about art, or why we do what we do. I’d kinda rather spend that time doing what I do, ya know? I would imagine that is a nearly universal sentiment and that we all wish someone else would do the hard and boring stuff and just let us cherry pick the best of whatever it is we like to do.

The herb garden says, “Bring it on! You want an omelet? Some rosemary chicken? I got you covered.” In my mind the herb garden sounds like Chris Rock…

There is no one to play with the toys. Blue Elephant hides his nose in shame. Cranky the Crane throws his off in defiance.

Soon I’ll head down these steps for the last time for a while, soon to see my family

But you can improve your corner.”

Yesterday I picked up a dear friend and we went to the memorial service for another mutual dear friend. It seems to me that it isn’t until a person’s memorial service that you gain a greater picture of what their live held, and oftentimes even regret never having had a chance to talk with them about this or that facet, but my experience with this woman was echoed in the words of one of the speakers, “this person’s very breath was kindness.”

She was what I would consider in many ways a wealthy woman. Her granddaughter read from a letter she wrote to her future husband, probably while he was away in the war, in which she told him that she felt nowhere as comfortable and safe as in his arms or beside him, of how much she loved him, and of all the things they would do together and all the fun they would have – picnics, dances, mountain climbing, skating and many more. By all accounts they had that love for the next fifty years, and they raised five children together. To find your best friend, that person who time away from is time wasted and then have the joy of children with that person is certainly the greatest emotion I’ve known in my life. In her later years she wrote, “What is a person? What is a life but all the experiences you have and what you have left when they have gone. My legacy is my children. I have to stay as close to them as I can without smothering them. And I have to clean out these closets…”

Her husband became a senator and many described how she was a strong and unceasing proponent of active and strong government. Several fifty year olds remembered wearing hand-lettered tee shirts at the county fair that said, “Vote for my dad.” Several of the names in attendance have buildings named for them in our community and several spoke of very real and concrete initiatives and drives she had been behind.

After the children were raised, gone, and the grandchildren started coming back and political life receded somewhat, she had thirty years that she devoted in a large part in her art and supporting the local art community. She was one of the founding members of the local artist’s cooperative gallery. She has inspired uncounted younger artists to persevere and her work hangs in offices and homes of many in our community and beyond it.

As I looked around the large room at all the faces that were there for one reason I found inspiration. Love the ones you love. Don’t waste the time or hand you’ve been dealt. Keep trying. Keep playing. Go around obstacles. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

I probably slept 20 of the past 24 hours, which I’ve only ever done, well, never, but I’m feeling much better today. The fever broke in the night and I’m definitely on the mend.

Here is a picture of what I’ll have to give to the boys when I see them.

I don’t get the credit though. A coworker picked them up for the boys on a recent trip. We heart her.

I caught a wicked case of food poisoning yesterday, laid me low starting at about 2 AM and I just now had some crackers that seem to be staying down. Most of the rest of the time between then and now I’ve been under a blanket, coming in and out of consciousness - I love my vacation!

One thing I did get out of bed for was the delivery of a load of mill ends (firewood).

I took a picture of Brit standing next to them for scale along with the new Jeep I bought last week with my lotto winnings.

The mill ends driver couldn’t get my receipt to me and get out of there fast enough. Dude, its not like cooties. You can’t catch food poisoning from me. You have to make poor food choices like I did.

OK, next I’m going to try a little yogurt and more water.

Today I really didn’t have anywhere I had to be, which was really nice. First thing when I woke up, I got in the car and drove out to Willow Grove to help a friend with a project. I wanted to get that done today and enjoyed crossing it off my list first thing. List? What list? Well anyway, after that I went to Wally World to pick up a little guilty pleasure:

One thing about the family being gone is I’m not ever really in a hurry to get home. I just sort of wandered the store and looked at random stuff, acting exactly like the people that usually irritate me when they are in my way and I’m on a mission.

Jonah says, “I miss the boys!” Lily says, “I wiggle my ears if I gets me a little hot dog!” Sorry, no unfinished hot dogs with the boys gone.

After getting home, I went out and did some more carving. I spent about an hour on a cup for my uncle who broke his cup from me last week and wrote to tell me about it. That was a nice feeling. Then I did another bowl before taking a short break. After my short break it was dinner time. Hey, wait, how did that happen? Oh right, I got a new game and have the house to myself. Productivity, smoditivity…

Frac the cat misses everybody too:

OK, thats a lie. She is a one guy kinda kitty.

A crazy googly eyed kitty!

My hops are bearing some nice buds. They won’t be good for brewing for another couple of seasons but they look cool.

Did I mention that it rained pretty steadily today? Look at this shot of the yard. Today is August 27th and we don’t water the grass. Ridiculous! Don’t think that means I’m mowing it though. It is August. I try to have some standards - set boundaries with your yard is my motto.

OK, that is all the news from the burrow that is fit to print. Tune in tomorrow when I may regain you with fascinating tales of firewood stacking.

SD

Update by Scott

What happens at the burrow when the stitch is gone?

Turns out, not a whole lot…

No sewing machines run, nor to any children. Even the pets are sort of subdued.

I’ve gotten some good time in the studio but not as much as I imagined I would. Every year when the Stitch Family returns to the old home and leaves me in charge of the burrow I begin with big plans of all the things I’ll accomplish and usually end up not getting much done and wanting them to come home again long before they are due. Sure there is luxuriating in sleeping in and it is usually video games and vegging out in front to the tube that are my downfall but this year I can hold my head up and say that it is work that is keeping my from all the planned house projects. I still have high hopes, though (high apple pie in the sky hopes).

Today my son, met his great-grandmother, who died, before his father was born.

I’m not sure whether that picture or this one, touched me more.