Here we are.
The last day of July. The last day of a very active month.
A quiet day. A day filled with little activities like receiving phone calls (including one with a friend to whom I haven’t talked in a long time), walking along the road surrounded by Queen Anne’s Lace, boiling potatoes and eggs for Potato Salad for dinner, talking with Barry on the deck.
A happy day.
Here are a random batch of photos taken during this fair month. Photos not used in this blog for one reason or another. Skulls and plants, puddles and trees.
And something almost invisible if you don’t look closely at the next photo.
OK, have you peered closely? Know what it is?
Let me back up and set the scene. I walked down to the lake one day. Settled beneath a tall white pine to look over the Huron Bay and dream. On a whim, after maybe five minutes, I looked up at the branches overhead.
And there–directly above my head–was the rear end of a bald eagle. I was sitting beneath a bald eagle. Any moment that eagle might decide to—-
Well, you get the drift. I paused to snap a photo and got out of the way of the white tail feathers. The eagle squawked up into the sky with righteous indignation. I was happy to survive that little episode without a dumping.
I spent a half hour deleting and filing photos this afternoon. You–go. You–stay. You are the blurriest thing in the world. Hey, you’re not half bad lookin’.
The above photo was taken the morning Christopher flew out toward Chicago and then San Diego on an airplane just past dawn. The picture below was snapped–hastily, I might add–as Kiah and I ran through the woods to escape the killer flies on Point Abbaye a couple of days ago.
Interesting, isn’t it, the memories that photos evoke? How they return you to a scene complete with memories and sounds and smells and thoughts and sights.
I hope you all have enjoyed your month. Some of my favorite things during July:
1) having the kids both visit for almost ten days each (one at the beginning of the month and one at the end of the month).
2) A four day spiritual retreat in the middle of the month when Barry went fishing at Isle Royale. Don’t know if I told you about that…but it was truly lovely.
3) The warm sultry beautiful summer weather we’re experiencing this year. I can remember years when it almost snowed in July. It’s a good year. Life is good.
What are you grateful for during the month of July?
That’s a great puddle! I love the fact that the blue sky and green trees are captured in the reflection. Very interesting. I’m grateful that the physical symptoms I experienced for quite some time have settled to a more manageable level and I feel more like getting back to the projects I began working on before this last episode. However, I’ve also learned through it that I focus too much on wanting to get well so I’m never living in the moment. Always wishing stuff will go away. Now, I’m learning to be in the moment no matter what is happening to my body or to my situation. Pain can teach us a lot.
What a great realization, Marianne. So glad that you are able to continue working on some of your projects~~and learning to be in the present moment even more. I am too! And, yes, you are so right. Pain can teach us so much.
I am grateful that my cat, Moses, is still living after a diagnosis that is very serious….50% of the cats with this liver condition die within three weeks of diagnosis, but Moses is not in his 5th week and gaining weight and acting like his normal self….
I am most grateful.
Fountainpen
That is such a gift, fountainpen. Blessings to Moses and his continual healing… I am sure you are so grateful to the precious time you can spend with him.
oh that’s very good news!
Great photos. I especially liked the puddle.
-Josh
Josh, thank you. I am glad you stopped by.
“Any moment that eagle might decide to—-Well, you get the drift.”
You’ve done it again. Sent me into belly-aching laughter. Thanks!
Love the “Sunrise” photo. Something symbolic about the fresh dawn sunlight (hope) and the departing son…
This passing month of July has been the best one I’ve had in years. I’m not usually a fan of July. This one, though, brought wonderful times with family, healing with friends, fun with friends, time with young men and women seeking guidance, time to reflect on “what’s next” for my path, and time to gift my daughters with information on their “Durham” heritage.
A busy, beautiful month – July 2010. I’m so grateful that part of it was spent with you – literally and figuratively. Love you!
Susan, after I pressed “publish” I thought…oh no!….have I gone over the edge discussing eagle droppings? But if you got a belly laugh out of it, it was worth it! 🙂 (Of course you laugh so easily…I could probably talk about…muffins or something and you’d be side-splitting laughing. ha ha!) Sounds like you did have a wonderful month. And we got to see each other! So wonderful.
Hey Miss Sue,
Sounds like you had a most lovely month – yahoo!! 🙂 And ‘Sunrise’ was my favorite, too! Great minds, hey?
I am not sure if I see anything in the picture?
I will try to look at it on a bigger screen.(Using my cell right now!)
The month of July has flown by with all kinds of ifes joys and also challenges. The last tow days have been Jou! I has my first ever chiropractic adjustment and have not felt better in my neck years, today I felt wonderful. Today we went to two farmers markets, believe it my hubby is hard to get to one! Tonight we saw the movie “Charlie St Cloud” I highly recommend this great movie.
Now I am trying to figure out how to finance the other Chiropractic adjustments.Have been evaluated and I have TMJ, jaw totally out of alignment arthritis and degeneration of my upper back due to stress, and last but not least missing a vertibrate in my lower back and having a degenerated support in the lower back. One more thing…neck issues.Boy it is interesting how long we can go and just compensate for pain and not even realizee I.
Kim
Kim, don’t look too hard, cuz it’s really hard to see it. It’s in the lower right hand quadrant. And it probably is upside-down, because I snapped the photo looking up into the pine.
So glad to hear that you are feeling better after your chiropractic adjustment, and that you are taking some good steps to relieve your pain. Hurray! I am so happy for you.
I am grateful for experiencing another July. I am grateful for another visit from my kids and my grandkids. I am grateful for every flower that blooms and every weed that grows (although I’ll not tell them that!). For every sunrise and sunset. For loved ones and friends, furry and otherwise. For being able to read blogs like yours.
Wow, Carol…every weed that grows? You are awesome! (I have to get out in the garden today to do some of that weeding…will tell those weeds hello from you). I like your list of gratitudes. And, yes, aren’t we lucky to have good blogs to read? Like yours too! I am heading over there right now.
Ok. I’ll go back and look in that lower right quadrant again…lol.
I am grateful for being able to float around on a lake and be with family for most of July. And for making it home safely. And for being able to read blogger friends like you!
Good list, Dawn! Floating around on a lake is very good. Making it home safely–wonderful. And blogging friends–superb!
I’ll bet no one can see the eagle very clearly. I could hardly see it!
It has been ages since I last saw an Indian pipe plant. The memories that evokes are of West Virginia and long hikes in the mountains.
I am grateful for the weekends spent with my granddaughters, the almost-completion of Project Patio, all the lovely vegetables that started coming in during the month of July, and a bazillion other little things. 😀
A bazillion other little things! I love your gratitude list, Robin. Grandchildren, a project nearing completion & the harvest: oh-so-wonderful!
How lucky you were to have seen an eagle so close by. I tried to see it in your photo, but had some trouble. I saw one soaring quite high about a month ago, but had no hope of catching a photo. I love your sunlit leaves and the reflection in the puddle.
July has just flown by unbelievably quickly, hasn’t it? And now today, Aug. 2, my baby becomes a teenager! Talk about time flying.
Karma, yep, it’s just as I feared…it was hard to see that eagle. If it wasn’t for those white tail feathers, I wouldn’t have known what Creature sat perched over me. But when it flew squawking, identification was confirmed. But enough talk about eagles!! Your baby becomes a teenager today. Oh, mama. Oh, sweet mama. I bow deeply to you…and wish you well during the upcoming years. Every child (and parent) reacts so differently to the onset of growing into themselves. Oh mama. Blessings to you an dthe young one!
I mean the one who isn’t-quite-so-young any more…
My gratitude is for long, hazy-lazy days of sunshine – the smiles of my kids and time well-spent with Kenzie and my mom, laughter shared, the depth of summer greens and my gardens for playing…..ahhh, there is much to be thankful for!
Loving your gratitude list, Cindy Lou. Are we grateful for 90 degree days, too? LOL! It IS a little hot today…
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