Really Feeling Like Summer Now!

Katie called after her Dr. appointment and sounded so excited with how things were progressing, I wanted to ride down and visit.

The weather was perfect Monday, cool and sunny, as I rode the Kingpin south. Just stopping for gas once and some espresso at Dunn, I rolled into Slayton in the early afternoon. Good times!

It was nice to have a "list" of things she wanted to try and get done while I was there, and we did accomplish a few things... yeah! Also nice to just visit and have her cook for me. Son Charlie called
and invited us all up to Marshall for supper..
perfect, and I got to see Charlie and Kaylee's new house.... very nice. Great dinner and fun later, talking and playing Nintendo. Time went quickly, Katie and I went for walks around town and visited the County Fair Grounds (still setting up), and did some painting and stuff. I rode back home to Brainerd on Tuesday afternoon, and again the weather was perfect, sunny and breezy, and I got back to our cozy home early evening. So good to be home with Peggy!

This last Monday was a Mission Ride with the Minnesota Patriot Guard. A battalion of National Guard Engineers from Brainerd is being deployed
to Afghanistan, and we were to escort and provide a "flag-line" for the events. Very touching ceremonies, a lot of hand-shaking, great people and a good day. We stood in our flag-line at the "Drill Center" as the soldiers boarded the motor coaches, escorted them to the college for the ceremony and their family time, stood in our flag-line as they again boarded the coaches, and then rode escort as far as Saint Cloud... rolling thunder indeed! Very appropriate that their motto is "Clear the Way!"

After pulling off the highway and saluting as the soldiers rolled past, we went for lunch in St. Cloud. Good times and a nice ride back to
Brainerd with good things to think and pray about.


Our vegie gardens are thriving, a little late, but thriving now! Cucumbers climbing up trees, tomato plants as tall as us and lots of beans.

We planted some extra stuff, squash and cukes along with tomatoes along our new back fence line... it must be magic soil and sunshine back their because some of the plants are monsterous.


Like ornaments hanging from a tree, cucumbers are dangling inside this pine... pretty cool, but we cannot eat them all.

Slicers and "burpless" varieties, more every day and they continue to grow and blossom.













Squash and cukes spill out beyond the fence, our calla lily is really sprouting too.

I'll post more pictures of our now Massive Passion Flower Vine!... it is huge and Peggy is getting about 5-6 blossoms a day with more buds on the way.







Peggy loves her string beans and we have lots to play with. Last night we stir-fried them with slivers of ham, water chestnuts, onions, ginger and garlic and then glazed with a hot pepper sauce... we sat on our deck and ate our supper in the cool breeze and sunshine.. what Summer nights should be!







Scooter and Charlie love being in the yard with us. Scooter is guarding the green beans that Peggy picked.

Peggy was fiddling with the passion flower vine yesterday morning, jumped and screamed... seems a "bud" she held in her hand was a small, bright green 3-toed tree frog... what a cutie, climbing around in the plant... after being startled, we put it back into the plant.

Just as it should be, I was down on my hands and knees painting under the deck while Peggy sunned in a lounge, and I jerked and went "Whoa"! as a much larger brown toad jumped from nowhere onto my hand...
We must have 5 or 6 different kinds of frogs and toads hopping around our yard, trees and gardens... I always "mow slow" and watch for them, returning them to the gardens if they are in the grass.

Romantic plans for us, Katie's baby (Lydia Grace) on the way, hot summer days and cool summer nights, Blessings and Guidance filling our lives.........

Peace!