Another Summer Gone

Technically summer won't be gone until later this month, but the "tourist" summer has ended.  It was a very good summer, just a little bit short.  As usual, fall looks like it will be very busy as well.

I spent the Labor Day long weekend hanging out in the corny state going to 'vention with Uncle Bex and Jax and Jenx and a few cousins and Brenda C-O-S.  Some of the highlights:

1. Heart spoken to quite clearly.  It's nearly impossible to get a picture of that, but probably most of you know what I'm talking about.  If I tried to explain everything here or summarize my notes, it would get too long.
2. Uncle Bex and I were in charge of cookies.  We may or may not have eaten a few of the "better" ones we came across while filling or emptying the containers.  We were smart enough not to take any pictures of THAT.
3. Good talks with good friends and family.
4. I think I've said this before, but Malcom 'vention has some of the best sweet corn ever.  Possibly only rivaled by Hunter 'vention sweet corn.  And, I think I also nominate Malcom as having the best vegetable salads.  Along with some other pretty delicious food too.
5. We made homemade lemonade with mint and sipped it while sitting under the wisteria playing cards and board games.  And we weren't even below the Mason Dixon line.  If we had been, maybe we would have sipped mint juleps.
6. Clumsiest hike ever for me I think.  I somehow tripped while my hands were in my pockets or something, so I landed chest first in the dirt.  Luckily not much got dented or scraped or broken.
7. Beautiful scenery.
8. Some nerdiness may have occurred.  Such as researching the types of sugar.  Do YOU know the difference between fructose, glucose, and sucrose?  The brief summary is that fructose and glucose are both simple sugars that can be absorbed directly into the blood stream, but sucrose cannot be and is made up of one fructose molecule and one glucose molecule with covalent bonds.  The usual "table sugar" is sucrose.
9. Coolish nights and air conditioning in the meetin' shed - we were spoiled!  It sure beat last year when it was in the 90's almost every day without AC and the nights were anything but cool.
10. Some fresh garden treats from Uncle Bex - fresh basil and cucumbers.  And some delicious cookies.

The early morning walk scenery - usually while the dew was still quite heavy.

An old grist mill museum thing.  We didn't get to tour it, but it looked cool from the outside.

Check this snail out - he was hanging out on a caterpillar web thing on a tree branch.

Instead of a black hole, we found a shining orb.

What was it Jax said?  Naughty and Nerd?  Something like that.....