Nice Holiday

For once our weather was ideal. It was not hot, it was not muggy, even though the morning started out foggy, it ended up being the perfect weather for a Holiday.

I decided I was going to take a Holiday too. Why not?

The dogs convinced me to take a day off from working.  

So we did.

I grabbed a book and we walked out to the campground and I hung out in the hammock and read a book and looked a the Mushroom Book I have.

The dogs found vole or mole runs and decided to enjoy hunting them.
They don't do this in the yard and I let them do

it in the forest as much as they want.

To them, this is a playground of things to dig and 

smell.

It is their internet and playground.

We spent hours. I read, they sometimes jumped up on the hammock to join me and sometimes ran off a ways in the meadow to find what scents enticed them.

I felt like camping but didn't feel like putting up the tent and taking it down Tuesday [heavy rain]. So I did the next best thing.

I shoved the camp cot against the bench and made a wide bed for us on the porch. 

We piled up blankets and pillows and settled down to watch the day fade away and the first stars come out.

This is called Dusking: The purpose is to intentionally watch the day fade away and clear your mind with no electronics, internet, or cell phones.

I've done this before, but sitting on a hard bench isn't that comfortable, so we did it from the camp bed under the porch roof.

By the time the stars actually started to dot the sky, my brain was in chill mode and the warm bodies of dogs hugged me.

We fell asleep probably early as the sun sets now around 7:30. We watched the sky fade from blue to a darker blue very slowly. 
The hoot owls called out.

The crickets sang, some quite loud somewhere on the porch I assume.

I counted stars as they appeared and was up to 10 when I must have dozed off.

A lone coyote barked in the distance west of us. Soon a chorus of coyotes started their nightly hunt east of us in the neighbor's woods. They were loud and sounded much closer than they really were. Their voices echo off the hillsides surrounding us. Hannah and Charlie were silent.

Those noises faded away as we drifted back into sleep.

I woke up slowly, it seemed still dark, but it also seemed as if it were brighter. I checked my watch and was surprised to see that it was after 6AM and the dogs were still quiet. Hannah wasn't nagging me for her 5AM or earlier breakfast.

I felt more rested than I had in days.

According to the Garmin watch thingy, I slept 8 1/2 hrs but it was light sleep with a few times awakening. [Garmin doesn't feel I had 'good' sleep, but I feel like I did. So there Miss Garmin!]

As daylight started to creep in, I laid there comfortably, cuddled by my two buddies. I wondered why sleeping without proverbial walls seem to be so much nicer for me.

Maybe I just have gypsy heritage, though that is not confirmed as far as I know. I wonder what it would feel like on a colder night? 

I got up and bundled up the blankets and pillows and tossed the slightly damp ones in the dryer for a few minutes. The dogs were not impressed by me whisking things away and breaking things down.

We are due for some heavy rain along with thunderstorms today. Let it happen. I had a good night.

I'm ready to get going on my short 'work' week.

I leave you with my favorite spider, the Garden Spider or the Orb Weaver or Banded Garden Spider. She is absolutely stunning.

Monday Monday

Yesterday we took a short excursion into the neighbor's woods. I meant to see how far the loggers had gotten around this section of the forest.

We got part way into the new forest trails and we heard the skidder start up as well as the chain saws. That surprised us as it was Memorial Day.

Maybe not surprising as they'd lost 3 days time last week to heavy rains and rains were now predicted from Tuesday through Thursday.

Charlie and I chose a deer trail to get back to the ridge top. We passed this tree and I had to stop and look it over. I believe from the shape of the tree that it is what we call Musclewood or American Hornbeam.

I've never seen any of these trees this large before as they are very slow growing trees. It made me wonder how old it was.

The trunk was fascinating with ripples and twists in it. Charlie was in no mood with trees falling in the distance to hang around while I took photos. I'll have to go back and find it on my own so I can look up into the canopy and see what kind of leaves this tree has.

I love the shape of it, very unique.

Just before we left the forest, I couldn't resist a bit of fun from my bag of goodies. 

"Wow Hank! Look at those big tracks! Whaddya suppose they're from?"

"Hmmm, dunno. Yah think there might be some really big deer out here?"

As promised to Hubby, I decided to take the day off. I hadn't even put the mower away from the day before. I'd mowed with the zero turn and the little mower ...then spent a while weed whacking some places. 

Since we had no company planned, no visit, no ... nothing. I moved my camper cot outside on the porch and grabbed a book to read.

Charlie and I read, watched birds, watched the clouds float by, and fell asleep.

Tuesday was going to be busy enough. I'd spent Saturday re-arranging and deep cleaning the living room so we could move hubby's current bed into the living room and the hospital bed can be placed in the downstairs bedroom. 

But Monday was reserved for relaxation after chores of course.

This cot is so easy to move that I may do this again. It felt nice to recline and read a book with all the bird chatter around me and the wind whispering through the pine trees above.

Cool wildflower of the day:

Virginia Waterleaf:

Shot with the Lensbaby SOL 22.