Flowers

I went to Indiana last weekend to see the fam.  (Vinny is my new favorite extended family pet.) 

Jen and I went out on another photo excursion and we met up with some lovely flowers...

At Purdue's Horticulture Park...

(and Chis?  What the heck is this??)

...then there was the cactus bloom at the cemetery.  I'm not going to deny our weird thing for photographing cemeteries  (next post!) but it's beyond odd when you find a HUGE patch of cactus growing - no - THRIVING in any part of Indiana!  Jen still has the cactus thorny-thingy in her foot to prove it!

...then we went to the park.  Nice flowers there.

Busy bee...

Another busy bee!

Then I went out to the country to see my brother.  He lives across the road from The Homestead - where I grew up. I NEVER remember seeing a hummingbird in the 18+ years I lived there.  But my brother literally gets hundreds to visit his feeders every day.  (I'm depending on Jen and her telephoto lens to capture them in all their glory)  I could only get the slow moving butterflies on the flowers.

OK - out of a hundred photos, this is the best I could get with my limited lens.  It's SO FUN to sit on the porch and literally be buzzed by humming birds!!!

Love our photo excursions.  Can't wait for the next one. 

 Coming!  Spring 2012!  Jen and Joanie's photos of the Williamsport junk yard! 

(Can't do the junk yard now...  too many snakes, too many spiders, too little nerve.)

Vinny

My brother and sister-in-law, proprietors of Clay Knob Farms, have adopted a baby.  Like any proud aunt, I had to take a lot of photos upon meeting the newest addition to the family.

Vinny, the donkey is a cousin to the horses residing at the Farm.  Get it?  My Cousin Vinny?  Love that.

Vinny is about a year old and still has his baby fuzz.  He's like a puppy with hooves.  

Hey.  How you doin'?

We'll meet other members of the family later.

The typewriter

Hannah has wanted a real typewriter for some time now.  She says she wants to really use one.  I expect her to change her mind once she actually tries to produce a paragraph with one.  Remember correction tape?  White Out?  Making an uncorrectable mistake - at the bottom of an otherwise perfect page?  Carbon copies?  Yes, I'm that old.  They still used punch cards for computers when I was in college, but I'll save that bit of technological reminiscing for another day.

I want a typewriter too.  I want to use the keys to make jewelry.

But we found a really old one at our church garage sale that amazingly enough, still works.  I can't bring myself to rip apart a working antique typewriter!  How old do you think this thing is?

It has a working ribbon and even has the original cover!  Since I can't bring myself to take it apart, I thought I would at least try to take some artsy fartsy photos of it.  So here you go.  And if you ever get a typed note from us (with lots of corrections) you'll know where it came from.

Father's Day

Jim making John a Lebowski (white Russian) for Father's Day.

Two of my all time favorite men in the world, on Father's Day.

June

A lot has happened so far this month and it's just over half over.  John turned 51, I turned 50, my family threw me an awesome birthday party, Thursday was our 27th wedding anniversary, and tomorrow is Father's Day.  Whew.

I want John to have a really nice Father's Day, since this is the only special day out of the occasions mentioned above (other than my party) that he will be home for.  Let's see if he reads this blog, shall we?

I'm making a Chicken Marsala recipe for dinner tonight that he emailed me a couple weeks ago.  It's from a restaurant that he likes in St. Louis.  Hopefully the kids will help me.  I'm making him Eggs Benedict tomorrow for breakfast, and getting Fresh Market ribs to grill for Father's Day dinner.  (Hmm.  I detect a food pattern here...)  Jim got him a new shirt a couple weeks ago that John accidentally found, but Jim claimed it was his, and John likes it - so it's all good.  I got him the good bottle of Marker's Mark (bourbon?  whiskey?)  Maybe we will take him out for a movie or something tomorrow afternoon.

It will be nice regardless, because we will all be home.  Hannah surprisingly came home Thursday from camp and doesn't have to go back until Tuesday morning.

Happy Father's Day, John.  And happy birthday and happy anniversary too.  You're the best.

And for Father's Day, my all time favorite photo with my Dad.  I thank God for good men in my life.