While out in the Conservation area where I was walking Ruby, I was looking for the leaf I got a shot of the other day. Of course, I have no idea exactly where it is any longer, but I found another one just as interesting.
So, while I was messing around with it trying to get a really magical shot, I became enamored of the way it looked against the sky. I also noticed that I could look at the half moon through it. Too bad the camera can’t do the same thing my eye and brain do, but I got a sort of cool shot anyway.
Last night we got our tickets for the cruise we are taking in November. This is a repositioning cruise from a port on the Mediterranean Sea, through the Straights of Gibraltar and across the Atlantic to Florida. We make only one port of call at Funchal, Madeira. We are absolutely excited now, somehow actually having the tickets in hand makes it all more real. Jim’s leave papers have been signed, and we have paid for all of the vacation except for the sea food we intend to enjoy in the port city where we embark.
So, last night we went out to dinner to celebrate the fact that we got our cruise tickets and have a whole entire weekend with the house to ourselves (the niece has flown off to CA for a family reunion and her grandmama’s 80th birthday). We got home at a decent hour, and retired to enjoy a good full night’s rest, only to have the telephone ring about two hours later, which disturbed our sleep patterns badly enough that neither one of us really got back to sleep for any extended period of time before the alarm clock went off at it’s usual time: the ungodly hour of 3:15 a.m. Apparently the existence of time zones is something that has escaped the notice of the caller.
Hopefully, Jim won’t be so exhausted after his eight hour day that he falls asleep at the wheel of the car on his way home. That would just ruin my week, which hasn’t been that great anyway.
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Falling asleep at the wheel has been a theme around the Havens for the last few days. My father did it early in the week, crashed his car into a tree which flattened the tree and totaled his car but thankfully, due to the use of seat belts and the proper deployment of his airbag, he was uninjured. The uninjured state only lasted for a day or so; he tripped while on his way into his house and fell into the rock retaining wall by the door, sustaining major bruising. Not a day later, he seemed to be having a lot of difficulty catching his breath, and my sister (Thank heavens) was able to convince him to seek immediate medical attention. The emergency room ascertained that he was suffering from pneumonia and immediately incarcerated admitted him to the hospital.
During the triage and x-ray procedure, the medicos discovered that during his fall onto the rocks, he managed to break one of his floating ribs. Fortunately, it did not wend its way inward and puncture his lung.
Mother is wondering if his lack of appetite, unsteadiness and proclivity for dozing off at inopportune moments might have had something to do with the pneumonia. He, of course, is positive that he has only had pneumonia for a couple of days. Yeah sure, you betcha.
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Tomorrow is the memorial service for Jay Cahail, the gentleman who died down in Costa Rica earlier this month. That should be — interesting.
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I was heartily amused by a couple of things Mallory did yesterday. She inserted herself between the glass and screen of the living room window in an attempt to catch a fly that was back there. Carefully obeying the rules, she did not climb the screen, but merely stretched herself out along the window sash as she attempted to reach the insect. That is a very lean and long cat.
Then later on, when I was taking a nice soak before bedtime, she was appalled and fascinated by the fact that I was actually submerged in the water. The horror was so compelling she could not tear herself away, but watched me for the entire bath. When I let the water out of the tub and it went DOWN THE DRAIN, Well!! I could see her little cat brain spinning madly in astonishment. People are So Very Weird.
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I am trying to figure out why they call this grass bluestem.
I shall leave you with a few architectural shots of the water lily colchicums in the herb garden.
the havens 