Any...way....

Many mornings, Charlie and I try to get out for an early walk. Sometimes, we actually make it. 

This shot of Charlie was taken a week or so ago. 

Getting out for a stroll is not always easy. I try to at night but it seems there is always something else to do. Thankfully most of the programming that we watch is rather uninteresting and I've decided not to pay for any more channels.

So evenings are spent reading, or gardening instead of staring at the TV. I often fall asleep if I do find something to watch now. The other half is getting up generally several times a night. He also is getting up between 4 and 5am. 

That used to be my quiet time, as I was the morning person and could enjoy sunrise walks along with quiet time with my coffee.

Charlie looks pretty serious here in this shot. He was just being Charlie, walking along looking for interesting smells.

Froggy Froggy...! I found this guy when I stopped to admire the fading spring phlox.

And on Wednesday morning this was the start to our walk. Whoops! This ancient oak fell over in the night. It's base was hollow and filled with carpenter ants. 

I texted this to our neighbor who lives at the top of the driveway and she sent it to her husband at work. I also sent it to Rich's pal who had planned on coming over to take Rich [and I] for a drive on Wednesday with the message that the driveway was blocked.

And then this happened.

The neighbor came home from work and made sure we could get in and out of our driveway. Steve [in the red shirt] showed up with his chainsaws and we had the drive cleaned up in no time flat.

My neighbor said he would clean up the big pieces for firewood and I said I'd clean up the little stuff and put it in a pile. 

Wednesday was another 'old' guy out day. 

I sat in back and enjoyed the ride and listened to the conversations.

Since we weren't fishing as it was so hot and humid, Steve wanted to find some wildlife for me to 'shoot' and enjoy. He had a grand time looking for turtles. Me looking for turtles amused him as he lives near a river and has turtles and snakes in his yard all of the time.

But. We did find turtles! But only in one park.

The sun did come out and the heat was on as well as the humidity and the smokey air. We drove through a park called Goose Island just outside of LaCrosse. Generally you can see deer wandering about along with a variety of birds, chipmunks, and amphibians.

We did get to see some Killdeer but they were far off as were the eagles.

I grabbed a few shots of the landscape.

It wasn't anything stellar, but I thought the shapes and contrasts were slightly interesting. 

I preferred this in black and white. In the second shot, you can see the extent of the smokey air that hovered above the Mississippi Valley.

By this time Rich was getting hungry so we elected to go back to The Bright Spot for burgers and fries. The effort of getting hubby in and out of the restaurant was the hardest part of the day, but we got it done.

I haven't had much time lately to visit the internet or even get out to play. I'm trying to figure out how to use my time more wisely when I do get Respite Care.

This week I did use most of my time to do a major grocery/supplies shopping for us. Hubby's feet are swollen enough from edema now that I had to find him wider shoes to wear.

I still have to figure out how to get 'time' to take my car into the dealer's to get the work done on it. The issue that needs to be fixed is covered under warranty. The trip to the dealer is an hour one way. So I have to find a solution to extend my 4 hour coverage.

I'll be addressing that very soon.

In the meantime, my pallet garden is producing beautiful Sweet William and an abundance of Daisies along with other flowers.

It is a pretty maintenance free little garden that produces a LOT of color and fun.

We are looking at a few days of rain so it seems I may have some time on my hands since I won't be able to mow yard and work outside.

Perhaps Charlie and I can sneak in some time hunting for fungi and fun.