Weekending

My, what a gorgeous weekend this has been. Cool and breezy, and such a nice break from the heat wave that's engulfed our area for the past several weeks. Late in the evening, sitting on the porch swing, gazing out across the hazy golden light that stretches across the pasture, you can catch just the faintest hint of fall in the air. Everywhere you look, you can see summer slowly winding down. Most of the Queen Anne's Lace have dried up, the birds are holding their preliminary "heading south" meetings on telephone wires, and the days are, ever so slowly, getting a wee bit shorter. Oh, I know it's not quite time yet. I have a habit of wanting to jump the gun on autumn, but I know summer always makes a big last stand come late August and early September. The weather folks are promising a return to temperatures in the 90s this coming week, but that's okay. I'm almost ready to let summer go, but not quite.

Most of our weekend has been spent quietly at home, with the exception of Saturday night. Mark played a 30 minute opener at this amazing listening room in Fletcher, North Carolina, a little town about 45 minutes south of us. Kate and I went along and even joined him for a few songs, midway through the set. This was her second stage appearance, and she's proving herself quite the little performer. Afterwards, we listened to the main act for awhile (they were great!), but then Kate got fidgety so we scooted out and grabbed some Mexican food for dinner.

We slept in this morning, then enjoyed a Daddy-made breakfast of blueberry pancakes drizzled with honey. Yum! Then, Mark took Kate to the park, so I had an hour or so to myself to read my book (which is fascinating! More on that later....), and just enjoy some rare moments of solitude at home. Then, we gave Sally Rose a much needed bath. Unfortunately, since it took both of us (plus Kate) to keep her from bounding out of the tub, there are no pictures. Even the photo below is a pre-bath picture. Ol' Sal is pretty lucky (or we are at least) that her dark, wiry coat allows her to look relatively clean, even when we know she's far from it. The other dogs on the farm, Rocky and Roxy, are lighter in color so we can always tell how dirty Sally really is based on the streaks of mud and dirt on their coats.

We finished off the evening with some grilled chicken, fresh corn, and fresh green beans for dinner. Kate fell asleep early, and as I'm sitting here typing this post, Mark is watching an interesting documentary on Earl Scruggs. Tomorrow morning, Kate and I head over to Nonna's to can tomatoes, another sure sign that summer is coming to a close.

A nice weekend all around.