Blue Farewell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As they head home today we put up Mackenzie's favorite bird, the blue jay. It was a busy, tiring, but fun week.

Return Visit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lonnie and Sara came back to get Mackenzie late last night, we blew up the inflatable for them.

Another Flutter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a third kind of large butterfly visit (we gets tons of little ones, some orange, some white, some black). But no Monarchs yet this year.

One.

Two.

Tea and Gargoyles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But there were plenty of other activities, board games, a wading pool, and of course tea parties with dragons and gargoyles.

More Tiaras

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We played it. A lot.

Tiaras

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got her a board game called Gabby’s Dollhouse, Meow-Mazing Board Game which involved wearing a tiara and putting pretty "gems" into the slots. She loved it.

One Week

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mackenzie is in town and will be staying the week with us.

Against All Odds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little bit of trying to keep democracy alive.

Heroes In A Half Shell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This game is a sequel to the extremely popular 1989 TMNT arcade game I pumped a whole lot of quarters into as a kid. It was fun and nostalgic, but not having to pay 25 cents a play kind of took some of the edge off.

Mo Pretty Fly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another lovely butterfly visitor.

Candle Garcia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Complete with candles.

Birthday Trifecta III

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Cherry Garcia for my "cake".

Birthday Trifecta II

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dos Margaritas dinner with Mari and Dad!

Birthday Trifecta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hot chicken lunch with Dad!

Furry Terrorist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mari got this really good snap of one of our sciuridae friends.

The Final Frontier

 

 

 

This one of the very first pictures taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful such instrument ever built. The colossal telescope orbits around 1 million miles from Earth, and is positioned to peer at some of the earliest galaxies and stars ever born.

"This first image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail," NASA explained in a statement. "Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground."

 Who knows what wonders will be discovered next!

Tasty Feast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Casie and John sent us some Chicago treats for our birthday. 

Never Really Gone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy birthday Mom.

The Butterfly And The Bee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I kept this one just because I liked the juxtaposition of the butterfly and the bee.

Pretty Fly II

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The side view.

Pretty Fly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a particularly pretty visitor to the butterfly bush today.

Birdthday Bath

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a combined birthday gift Mari and I got each other this copper birdbath to complete our little wildlife menagerie. We reused an old solar fountain we had and it seems to be happy in it's new home.

Something To Wine About

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Capturing a new favorite.

York Rising

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For our birthdays Dad got us a heritage tree. This is a tulip poplar grown from the seeds of the one planted at Alvin C. York’s gravesite.So of course we have named him Alvin. Let's hope he grows big, strong, and throws lots of shade.

Raft Redux

 

 

 

Raft came out quite a while ago. I played the early access version with Payton during his long COVID era visit. I put it on the shelf until the developers actually finished the game so I could see the end content. Well they did, and I did. Good, solid survival game with some unique elements. Slightly let down by some quirky decisions, but well worth the time I spent on it.

Design Wall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A quilt to be.

WOTM

 

 

 

It's too damn hot.