Sunday-Morning Stuff

~~House of the Rising Flower~~

I couldn't resist the title in this photo where I decided to transfer the usual emphasis.  It's an early-morning shot. The sun is rising, as is the flower.  Blurring the house adds a little atmosphere the morning scene. 

Anyway, I was out taking a few photos while waiting for the paper to come.  And, of course this transition into fall offers some nice material, i.e., plums beginning to ripen, apples clumped together on the one tree that produced this year, and colorful late-summer blooms.

This is a day of transition itself.  

Willie and Debbie come home tonight, and the grandpuppies will be happy to see them.  Except for Todd's three-hour disappearance, they've been good pups all week long.

I took them with me on a drive over to the Priest River area yesterday.  Bill had gone with the other two Border Collies on a fishing trip to Lightning Creek. 

It was too hot to do much of anything, so an air-conditioned drive sounded good.  Good choice, too, cuz it was 95 degrees most of the way. 

Last night, I went to the fair to pick up my entries and money.  By the way, my sister Barbara got a wad.  Her goat photo won the digital-photo challenge, and the prize for winning her division and overall was pretty generous, moneywise.  

Today we're planning to attend a neighborhood picnic at my old friend Marilyn Chambers' home.  She's been hosting them for years, but for some reason we've never been able to attend.  Nothing is holding us back today. 

This is definitely an "old friends" time for me.  After seeing and visiting with lots of dear friends at the fair, I'm sure today's picnic will reap some good visiting.  

Tomorrow my old friend Chris Moon and I will set off toward Priest Lake, where we once worked for the Forest Service engineers. We always pick a drive to a pretty area that we once haunted to do our visiting. 

And, Wednesday, the old-time, retired staff members from Sandpoint High School will get together for their annual gabfest at Linda and Ron Hunt's.  

It's scheduled every year on the afternoon when all the local educational staff has to report for work.  The event serves as an annual reminder that we are free and our former colleagues are not. 

Anyway, we're heading into fall now, and times are good. 

By the way, Annie put in a long, adventurous day yesterday on her European work-related trip.  She sent me a note just before heading to bed last night:  

Hello - I've now been up for 21 hours I think, maybe 22.  It was a long day that started in the rain climbing a lift for donuts and then ended in the rain carving my geocaching name into the back of a yellow car (the car is a geocache and you only get credit if you carve your name on it).  

In between was a lot of great experiences including standing at the center of the border between Germany, Netherlands and Belgium - climbing onto a tank called "Battling Annie" in Belgium, hiking up to a fortress in France, having my picture taken about a 1000 times, etc.  

I think Annie is enjoying good times too.

May your Sunday be filled with good times, and for you East Coasters, I'm glad the hurricane was a bit milder than predicted.  Hope all is well.

Happy Sunday.