Weekend

 Friday Adam and I drove to Nevada.  The sky was glorious.

The land of the setting sun.  Nevada sunsets will always be my favorite sunsets.

All was peaceful at our house--the owls have been awol and there were no furry friends in the traps which I'm still low key nervous to check every time we arrive.  It was windy though.  One of the big poplars in the front yard is basically a hollow shell being held up by its bark and that is a little unsettling when it's outside the bedroom, but we are living dangerously, I guess.  Dealing with trees is on the list.

It's a long list.

Saturday I cleaned the entire house from top to tip.  It's both not that dirty because nobody lives here and dirty because no one lives here.  It makes sense in my head.  I hung up a clock in our bathroom.  I puzzled about which wall to hang it on.  Do I want to be able to see it when I get ready at the sink?  Do I want to be able to see it from the bathtub?  Do I want to be able to see it from the bedroom?  In the end, I told Adam I let my grandparents make the decision.  There was a nail hole in one of the logs so I hung the clock there.

Marianne and my mom and I went to Olivia's to work more on Ruben's quilt.  Olivia gave me some fresh peach pie which was delightful.  Adam went to town to buy a ladder.  My mom, Marianne and Olivia all said, "We have a ladder!  He could have borrowed it."

I know.  Adam knows.  We all know.  That guy does what he wants.  I told him he needs to embrace the borrowing lifestyle there, but maybe like dealing with the trees, he will get to it later.

My next job after cleaning the house was to edge the front steps.  That maybe seems like not a top priority, but I started it anyway.

Started it, but then my dad came over on his buggy and I stood and visited with him and pet his horse and asked him what the weird looking bug thing was that I found.  He said it was a crawdad.  I said it was too small and too far away from the water.  Nevertheless, that is what he said it was.

It was about the size of my thumb and the crawdads I used to try to catch in Boulder Creek were about twice as big.  I don't know.

My uncle Drew drove up and he said that that poplar has been hollow for years, the home of the starlings.  That makes me feel better that it's held up this long and worse that maybe it can't hold up much longer.

I abandoned my step edging project because I was supposed to be at Marianne's.

At Marianne's we convened to get ready for Carolina's surprise party.  Marianne assigned me to assemble and frost the four layer cake.  Carolina decorates and sells amazing and artistic cakes and Marianne wanted me do her cake?!?  It was like her telling me to make some spurs for my dad and reconcile my mom's bank statement!

So it was with some trepidation, but I did the cake.  My dad and Olivia and Marianne made a balloon arch, Robert set up all the tables and chairs and Marianne kept giving my mom jobs that she would sit down to do.  It is a constant battle to get that woman to sit!  Everything came together and the party was in good order when kids started arriving.

Marianne didn't know who would come because teenagers aren't exactly the stalwarts of RSVP-ing, but more and more kids kept coming.  Everybody loves Carolina and that is all.  Marianne started worrying she didn't have enough food (and she had a lot of food-- also I texted Marianne later, and she didn't run out of food!)

Carolina arrived with some friends who had taken her to town and she was sufficiently surprised.

While I had been involved in all of that, Adam had tried to repair the roof where an ice dam had curled back the roof (it will need more help, but it's good enough for now), had trimmed along the brook some and had done some mowing.  

We were both pretty tired!  It's not always the most restful place to come to, but we also love it.  It's beautiful and it's ours and I love the neighborhood!

Sunday we went to church, which I always enjoy and came home to a terrific thunderstorm.  There was wind, rain, hail and a leaky roof (not by the ice dam, but in the bay window).  It was something!  Here is a hailstone I picked up on the back steps.

We were having everyone over for dinner and it was such a dark and moody sky, I wished I had tea lights for the tables.  Instead I went out by the garage and cut some of my grandma's cutleaf coneflowers that were drooping after the storm.  (My sisters call them goldenrod and I didn't think they were goldenrod, so I googled it.)

Whatever they are, they brightened the table almost like candlelight.

I also put a little crabapple at each place.  Even when it is decidedly unfancy, I love setting the table and my dad makes fun of me for taking a picture, but the heart wants what the heart wants.

We had a nice evening eating (everyone brought food, which is the norm around there and makes everything easier and better) and visiting. 

Monday morning I worked a little more on my front steps project, but was impeded by some big tree roots.  I took a walk with Clarissa...and some others.  (She told me she wanted to be featured on my blog so she was really an integral part of that walk!). Adam and I did exciting things like label the breaker box and we also watched some deer who came to sample the apples.

We made it home in time for dinner.  It was such a nice long weekend.  We had our projects, but enough rest too.  I love being there.  It never fails to remind me where I came from and that even after a big thunderstorm, the sun always comes back out.