Monday

Well I made myself get up when I awakened around 6:30, although I wanted to roll over and snooze awhile longer. There was a nice gentle breeze and some cloud cover which held the temp's down into the middle 60's. After my quiet time and a bowl of oatmeal with some blueberries and a banana I headed out to check on the gardens.

There was no damage except for 5 very beautiful caterpillars that were chowing down on my dill plant. I almost didn't noticed them except that part of my dill plant was missing and then I spotted them. They were green striped with black and yellow, very ornate but the number 9 1/2 took care of them as I picked them off and placed them on a flat surface.

I then headed down to the outside shed with a can of stain and proceeded to give it a coat. I finished up the upper side and then Nancy was ready for our morning hike to the top of the mountain. We finally got to speak with Norman and he actually looked much better than the last time we saw him. We took him a piece of my birthday cake and he seemed delighted. It was good to see him with a smile and in better health. His leg is healing and his color looked good and the idea that we thought of him seemed to perk him up as well. It was starting to heat up on top so we were ready to get back down to the cabin. Nancy headed in to make a salad for lunch and I painted until it was time to eat lunch.

After lunch I worked on finishing the lower side of the shed as Nancy took off on the golf cart to check on the mail. She stopped and talked with Linda and Russ(our Ohio neighbors) who are building a small cabin about half way into our lane. Linda is suffering from a brain tumor that has been operated on several times but she has a remarkable attitude and is determined to not let this infirmity get her down. Today was one of those days when she was having a hard time as she was trying to paint their bathroom so Nancy brought her back to our place and they sat on the front porch sipping iced tea. I had finished up painting the shed so we headed down to their place and we painted the bathroom for her; she was most appreciative. That was our good deed of the day.

We fixed cabbage out of the garden, 1/2 runners from our garden and Jetta's and parsley potato's for supper with sliced tomato's from the garden as well. Wow was that ever a yummy supper especially with some jalapenos in my spuds and fresh thyme on the 'maters. It finally clouded up and rained a nice soft rain for half an hour or so, did we ever need that rain as it dropped the temp's back into the low 60's, should be good sleeping tonight. Tomorrow I go for my yearly check-up and physical in Sparta so I have to fast until around 11 then we will have lunch at a really neat small town eatery called the Mustard Seed in town. We really enjoy eating there, LATER Here are a couple birthday pics from Saturday's get together!!!