Saturday Slight

 

The calendar might not say so, but in our minds, it's officially summer. 

Bill and I drove to Dubs last night for an ice cream cone. Fortunately, we were wise to ask for small cones.  

Small cones at Dub's are about four-five inches high and rotund.  I don't know if ice cream cones are appropriately referred to as rotund, but let's just say there was plenty of substance in that cone, which had a big styrofoam cup, just in case, it was easier to eat with a spoon. 

I ordered a swirl with chocolate and vanilla.  

Pretty much every ice cream cone we order at Dub's lasts long enough to cruise around for a while. 

This trip took us through the South Boyer neighborhood, down to Memorial Field where a baseball game was going and through some of the residential streets on the west side of Lakeview Park.  

I may have still been licking my cone as we crossed HWY 2, drove north on Division and west on Baldy Road. 

I probably wasn't licking by the time we reached our old home on Great Northern Road where the years of inactivity are sadly showing with tall grass growing in the driveway, shuttered windows on the house and the big red barn looking more derelict than ever. 

It's sad to see that sight where so many good memories in our marriage happened with horses in the fields and kids enjoying the pond south of the house and folks gathering every year when the air shows used to happen at the airport. 

Ours was a place where strangers would show up on Air Show Day and ask if it was okay to come into our driveway to watch the show.  Of course, it was because we had our share of friends enjoying the freebie opportunity. 

Not a lot going on there these days. 

As we drove past the "Upper Tibbs Place" and commented about all those houses, I asked Bill to slow down so I could point out the spruce tree, aspen and lilac bush that I had planted when we lived on that hillside the first few years of our marriage.

"They'll find a reason to remove them," I said with an air of cynicism about the disappearance of so many other meaningful aspects of living the majority of my life in that area. 

Anyway, it was a good ice cream cone drive, and, in my mind, a great signal that summer has come. 

Another symbol:  all those daisies and all the bushes along roadsides with beautiful pink wild roses.  

Seems like the wild roses and daisies compete for attention, and that's okay.  Both species are very pretty, except to farmers who don't like daisies mixed in with their crops. 

Another sign of summer came yesterday as I pulled out of my driveway and saw a lady with a baby carriage connecting with Taylor's cows. 

Taylor's cows are pretty social, almost always gathering at the roadside fence when someone comes along to admire, talk to and photograph them. 

This time Ashley from over on North Kootenai Road had brought her two little guys, Lark and August, to see the cows. Their dog, appropriately named "Selle" accompanied them on the mile-plus walk over from their home. 

"I don't usually come this way," she told me, "but I knew the cows were back." 

Ashley and I enjoyed a brief conversation as South Center Valley Road suddenly seemed to turn into a thoroughfare with a series of cars and trucks coming from both directions. 

Soon the traffic was gone, I had retrieved my mail, and Ashley went on her way. 

Twas a nice neighborly interlude and made even more enjoyable by the pleasant weather. 

Today Bill is helping out at a forestry event at Pine Street Woods. 

I'll probably hang out around here, somewhat relaxed but still attending to garden weeds and doggies.

Looking like another great and pleasant summer day.

Maybe the cows will get to gather at the fence for some more admirers. 

Happy Saturday.   

from The Netherlands with Annie Love . . . . Annie is at a geocaching event in Hellendoorn, Netherlands.

She's pretty excited, as always, to be attending the weekend gathering, but that excitement is heightened by the fact that she's seeing some geocaching friends for the first time since the Pandemic began.  

Hellendoorm has an amusement park nearby as well as an ice cream factory where Ben and Jerry's is produced for the European market. 

Photos from Hellendoorm and Amsterdam.