Again?????

Yesterday morning, I went out to the backyard to water some of the flower pots, it was promising to be a hot one. Something caught my eye in the pool area. This:




Another duck mom and babies. This time 8. I am not a duck expert but I am fairly certain this is not the same mom as 6 weeks prior. Last week Chizz & I were having a drink out in the backyard when a female duck landed in our pool. She was there for a little while when she went up into the bushes (where we think the ducks having been making their nests) and disappeared. Then this week, viola!!

I think it is kind of cool that no matter what we think we know, mother nature throws a wrench in things every now and then. This year there has been a lot of discussion in our neck of the woods about what a strange weather year it has been. For the most part we have had a cooler than usual summer weather. In fact the National Weather Service says it is the coolest summer in our area in 40 years. Wow! We just returned from the East Coast last week where they are going through a bit of a heat wave lately, and let me tell you - it was plenty hot. 85 degrees at night for dinner. It just goes to show that you can't control everything. Somethings just happen.

I am thinking the duck maternity ward is closed now. The mom hung around overnight, after tucking her brood under her wings for the night. She left sometime this morning after 9 or so. It was cool having them around but I am thinking we are done. Maybe. . . . .

Why I Love Our Friends. . . .

We had an absolutely wonderful 4th of July weekend with some of our friends at Lake Tahoe. As our lives seem to get busier with volleyball matches, school, college searches, jobs, it is harder and harder to connect on a regular basis or as often as we would like. This weekend the stars aligned. And perhaps because we can't do it regularly enough, we seem to appreciate and enjoy the times we do spend together much more. The group is comfortable enough together to spend entire evenings together or to split up in various combos. Want to hike? Sure, at least 2 or 3 others in the group will join you. How about a trip to the beach? Off go 4. Shopping? 3 girls and 2 credit cards (otherwise known as Moms) will do that. Various combinations of kids, parents, some related, some not. It is comfortable and fun.

About 2 weeks ago, I mentioned I was making a cork wreath from wine corks I had collected over the past few months. It is pretty big and I miscalculated the number of corks I needed. So far at least 300 corks have gone into it and I had just about run out. So I just mentioned to a few people I needed more corks. This is what my cork jar looked like before last weekend (on Thursday):

This is what it looked like today, after I included the corks from the weekend and some brought by our friends:

And that is what I love about our friends. No, not that they drink a lot of wine (although that might be one of the reasons). You can count on them. Whether it is to bring you corks to finish a a project or to take your kids to the beach when you might not want to go or to provide a bed when you are on your way to the airport or to give you a hand to hold when you literally need one to go forward or to listen to your work problems or to go on a hike with when no one else in your family will or to give you aloe when you are sunburned or to share a favorite new wine store or cook a fabulous dinner while you sit around and enjoy nature. Thanks guys! XOXOXO