Hike, again - August

What a glorious day today - getting warmer, but not unbearable.  We went hiking again, in the favorite park.  For me part of the attraction is going swimming.  And not to make the Germans jealous, our weather and water is perfect for swimming.  You can just slip into the lake without a yelp because it's not cold at all.  Water silky soft and smooth, and lovely.

 We didn't swim at this spot, there were too many young people around, some of them with bee-bee guns, which put a damper on it for me.  These type of things aren't allowed in the park, but people bring them in anyway.

 A gorgeous spot, that required some climbing, and yes, I did it!

 Canadian honkers came up to the rocks, and tried to bite my toes

 in the water...

 and while trying to take a nap, a group of hikers came by, said a hasty 'sorry' and jumped right into the lake, merrily splashing us.  We beat a retreat, and hiked back to the car - it was late enough anyhow.

 The swimming spot from across the lake

 and said group of hikers

in the woods, and below:

a sweet smelling flower on a bush, which was loved by the

bees.

Oh, and anyone know the name of these flowers/bushes?
More impressions:

Rain today

The walk this morning was sweaty, it looked like it was going to rain, but didn't.  Lucky me!  Very humid, but this is the East Coast of the US, and that's what summer is like.

I ran into the doe with her two bambis, the buck however was not with them - looking for another family, perhaps?
Here they are, last week:

 Isn't he handsome?

 holding still for a family portrait

Just across the street.  They could be in my garden as well,

where they will eat anything in sight.  Love hostas, love tulips (which I haven't planted in years because of this)

And here  the little robins, they've flown off since:

I will have better photos next time, they are in the other camera.

And photos from our hike last week:

Checking to see what could possibly be hiding under the root.

Heat wave

Last week was a record breaking heat wave.  108 d F in Newark, NJ, that's 42 C!  With high humidity, it was terrible.  Thank heavens for air conditioning!  My brother was teasing me, saying we'd probably wouldn't care if they built 3 nuclear reactors, and I had to agree.
No air conditioning at work made for a sluggish day.
It cooled off a bit today, but is supposed to heat up again.  Tonight it rained, and the parched poor plants are so happy!

My robins left the nest.  Poor little robins, got photographed because they were just so close to the stairs!  The wrens are still here, since we still get scolded by the parents.

The weekend was too hot to hike.  We babysat for a dog, and when the dog got picked up yesterday, a little boy was left behind, who wanted to spend the night at grandma's.  When I came to work this morning, Linda, my co-worker, asked what happened - I left with a dog on Friday, and appeared with a little boy on Monday!

The little boy wanted spaghetti for breakfast.  Since I had some leftover, I heated it up with plenty of butter, and that was his breakfast.  That's what grandmothers do.   Wanna come over and have spaghetti breakfast? No problem!

The weekend was needed to rest up from a hard work week, it's tough battling the heat day in and day out.  It felt good to be in the cool house.

Yes, I owe you photos from last weekend's hike, and of the robins, I know.  But you'll have to wait until next time!

birthday one more time, and a hike

We celebrated one more birthday on Saturday.  Evan turned one!  Yes, it's already one year ago that he joined his brother.  His parents put on a fabulous celebration, with hay bales, hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, pasta salad, and ice cream cake.  Evan got a whole cup cake all to himself, and loved it.
His dad worked hard to make the hand made fun signs, and my family actually made it for a family portrait, I think the last one was years ago!

 Enjoying his cupcake

 baseball among the haybales

 the chocolate pudding eating contest

 love the sign!

 balloon race

 the party

the family

 the John Deere toy tractor, which set the theme of the party

 more hand made signs over the food table

 and handmade JD sign on the shirt (by me)

and the birthday boy with his hand-applied John-Deere t-shirt

(applique by me)

Pictures and story of hike will be in my next post.

This was a great party, like the last one, for the simple reason that we were all together.

Summer week

Last weekend on the day we hiked, we also went to a firework in the evening.  We did have to wait until after 10 PM for the firework to start, but it was worth it.  The meadow in the little town was crowded, it also had a small midway, and the firemen, who sponsored the event, waited until the last possible moment to get the fireworks started.

Not bad, right?  No, I didn't have the patience to take these pictures, M grabbed the camera and went for it, a little Canon, and did great!  Turn off the flash and go!
We have some bird action going on at my house as well.  The little wren came back, and again made its nest right next to the deck door.  And until we got used to it, flew at us every time we went into the house.
Under the deck in the beams is a robin's nest, with gorgeous blue (my favorite color) eggs in it:

And the eggs look like this now, with it looks like only 3 babies hatched:

Since we are gone all day, and sometimes for a couple of days, the birds are mostly undisturbed.
On our wanderings, and on my morning walk (which I am skipping this morning to entertain you - anything for you), I run into this family:

I guess the whole family is in the other camera.  It's a buck, a doe, and two fawns, like a real live nuclear family!  And they really are that close to the camera.  No, we don't see any deer while hiking in a huge park.  We see them in my back yard.  Or crossing the road in my neighborhood.
We are celebrating a first birthday tomorrow!
Happy birthday, Evan!

Hiking

Saturday was a little humid, but the weather was nice.  Not like today, hot and humid today, with the heat index way up there.  So Saturday we went hiking.  And it was lovely.

We only hiked about 5 plus miles all together, but had a nice swim and a nap in the middle of the hike.  Unlike my brother, when he meets two people on his hike, he won't go to that area again for years, we don't have that luxury.  The park is huge, but it's being discovered by more and more people.  While on the approach to M's favorite swimming spot, we ran into a group of 20 hikers from the Appalachian Mountain Club going for the exact same spot.  Luckily they only stayed about 15  minutes, and then moved on, leaving us to take our nap on the rocks and go for a leisurely swim.

I didn't grab the camera during our swimming pause, this is a searose covered pond we saw on the way.

And we ran into this little fellow:

And these fun looking mushrooms, however, none of which I am familiar with, so no mushroom stew for us!

Didn't know this kind either, but loved the color.

But did eat these:

On the lake we swam in was the home of the beaver:

Nope, we didn't see him/them.

Lovely overlook, right at a swamp, with mosquitoes swirling around us:

(man with yellow towel)

Love that shot of the water.

I'll be back!