The Dog Days of Summer

The calm before the storm of company - yippee!

The yard is looking good, the garden is growing like crazy, Marianne is checking recipes - it must be time for family visits!!!! Check out this schedule for the next 5 weeks:

Tuesday - my Uncle Bob, Aunt Nancy, Aunt Claire, and cousin Judy arrive. They're mostly here to see Grandma and Grandpa, and the Mannings, but we'll have them all over for dinner Wednesday night.

Thursday - Sierra arrives and stay til the 21st. Patio time here we come! Peru stories and pix too.

July 23-27 - Marianne and I go to Chicago for her cousins son's wedding. While there, we'll go to Cirque de Soleil with Laurel and Freddie, and visit with Diane and Dick, Chuck and Marge, Scott and Jen, Emmie and Andy - and who knows who else!

August 1-11 - Justin and Juliana come and we'll camp for two nights at Moraine Park campground in Rocky Mtn park, and visit, and yep, more patio time!

August 9-14 - Laurel and Freddie come and we'll hang out, catch up on news, and of course, have some time on the patio!

Then in August 18-25, I'm off to Alaska for work and will stay a few extra days to explore with my friend John from Minneapolis.

And on top of that, in early October Marianne and I are going to Barcelona Spain for a work conference and fun! We already reserved a nice apartment in the Bari Gotic area.

And then in six months I'll be retired!

Yowza!

Baby robin and calla lily

We had a nest of robins in the maple tree right out the back door - well actually a nest of one robin. They usually have more but something must have happened to the eggs or other young. The young bird fledged in the last day or so, and has been hanging around the yard making a pretty good "feed me" racket. It doesn't really hide and was just sitting on the lid of the hot tub, so, Marianne decided to play wildlife photographer! While she was at it, she snapped a photo of the bloom on the calla lily on our patio - quite beautiful with more to come. Our yard is looking great thanks to all her hard work.