The Fairy Ring

Yesterday was a glorious day for us on our trip. In the morning, we visited Winterthur, the country estate built by Henry Francis DuPont to be a museum. The 175-room house (!) and 1,000 acres of land surrounding is makes it the largest of the DuPont estates, and it really is quite a site to be seen. We first enjoyed a family-focused tour of the 5th floor, which included rooms decorated in the Federal style and one that was completely lined with 18th-century Chinese wallpaper. It was fascinating to hear our tour guide talk about what it was like for DuPont's two daughters to grow up in this enormous museum of a house. After the inside tour, we walked around the grounds some, with our goal being the recently-added Enchanted Woods, which was set up to be a children's garden. One of the areas was a circle of what looked like toadstools. The sign next to it warned visitors, "Never, ever step inside a fairy ring." Erin not only stepped inside the ring, but sat on one of the toadstools, and immediately, the ring filled with a cool mist. It was incredible - cool, refreshing, and totally magical. Certainly not something that will be forgotten any time soon.

Little Visitors

My parents have done a lovely job of decorating the outside of their house, and one of the areas that I just adore is the collection of bird feeders hanging near the deck in the back of the house. They have four of them: two for hummingbirds, one "sock" feeder, and one more regular type. Sitting at the kitchen table, it's wonderful to watch the birds come and get their fill of seeds (when the mourning doves don't scare the rest of them away). Last night, I was able to creep out onto the deck (no easy feat, seeing as I had to open and close both the slider and the screen door to get out there) and got some shots of a Goldfinch that was enjoying an upside-down snack at the sock feeder. I'm hoping to get more shots of him and his friends in the sunshine before we leave, but for now, this will do!

Reunited!

Today was a joyful reunion, as I picked up my beloved (and recently lost) Kindle at the Philadelphia airport. Even though I was pretty sure that the one they had was mine (I mean, how much of a coincidence would it have been if there had been two Kindles left on my flight?), I still almost held my breath as Dad and I drove to the airport this morning. When I asked at the ticket counter about it, as I'd been instructed to do, they smiled and handed my precious electronic travel partner back to me. I hugged it all the way home. And I'm fairly certain I'll never repeat THAT mistake again!

So Lonely

I am usually a very organized person, and it's very rare for me to lose something, especially something important. So when I couldn't find my Kindle yesterday morning, it was very strange. I looked everywhere (and my parents' house isn't really that big - there were a limited number of places it could have been hiding), and then started to despair. The last time I knew for a fact that I'd had it was on the plane from Newark to Philadelphia on Wednesday morning. Rut-roh. I immediately went into "oh crap" mode. I filled out a form online with the airline, but didn't really think anything would come of it. Then Dad and I decided to go to the airport and talk to the lost baggage office to see if, by chance, someone had found it. The woman in the office, Suzette, was incredibly helpful and nice. She made a few calls, and the people on the other end checked in a few safes. Finally, she spoke to someone who said that yes, a Kindle had been found on the Newark inbound flight on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately, it's currently locked in the office of a woman who won't be back until Monday. But I'm thinking it it's probably mine, so we'll be going back on Monday, hopefully to reunite me with my electronic friend. In the mean time, though, its charger remains alone, so alone. Hopefully not for long!

That's Hot

We seem to have a problem. We seem not to be able to visit my parents when we're not doomed to experience extremes in the weather in one direction or another. In December, we froze our bippies off (when we left to return to the airport, it was a chill-inspiring 14 degrees). Erin and I arrived here this morning for what is destined to be an incredible two-week visit, only to encounter record temps in the other direction.  Hmmm... Thankfully, the house is nicely air conditioned, and we have plenty of indoors activities to choose from (including just enjoying each other's company!). And daily visits to the community pool are also in the forecast. Now we just have to hope that we don't all melt!

Almost Time!

It seems like we've been counting down forever (since February!), but tomorrow is the day that Erin and I leave to spend two weeks with my parents in Pennsylvania! I don't like being away from Jim that long (and I'm really not looking forward to my reunion with my two least favorite friends, Heat and Humidity), but I am really looking forward to spending that much time with Mom and Dad. We're planning to see a lot of relatives that I haven't seen in a very long time, some of which Erin's never met at all (!), and I'm even going to get to go to one of my Dad's camera club meetings (woo-hoo!), but what I'm looking forward to most is all the laughter that I know this trip will include. So anyway, after all this waiting, the packing fun has begun. My father taught me very well when it comes to packing, and although Jim laughs at me almost every time we have to do it, it's something that he knows to leave to me to make sure that everything both fits and doesn't get overly wrinkled. Today we started with Erin's things (which are traveling in her very own pink suitcase!). As if the color of the luggage didn't give it away, you can definitely tell she's a girl - just look at all those SHOES!

Inactivity at Its Best

This week's 2Peas photography challenge theme was "activity." I actually took a picture today that is a great demonstration of the exact opposite of that. This is probably Mia's all-time favorite perch. When the shutters are open, she will literally lay on top of this chair, staring out the window (or curled up in a snooze) for hours. She loves that she can see out the front walk, and it's a nice spot to catch a little warm sunshine (after the fog burns off, that is). Ah... It's a cat's life!

Here It Comes...

June Gloom is still sticking around, although it does seem to be burning off a little earlier each day. Tonight, though, we saw it once again rolling over the hill at the end of our street again, like a blanket coming in to cover us all.  I actually love when it does this. One of these days, I'll grab Erin's Flip video camera and take some video of it. You can literally see it gliding over the hill. It's quite something to see!  Jim likes to call it "nature's air conditioning," and if that's not a positive spin on our nightly cocoon of coolness, I don't know what is!

June Gloom - In July

I was not naive enough to expect a miraculous and instant end to the so-called "June Goom" just because we turned the calendar to July, but this morning's fog was particularly thick. Looking out our bedroom window this morning, we could barely make out the houses across the street behind our house. The good news is that it burned off before noon today, and we're now enjoying sunny skies and warm breezes. Now THAT feels like summer!