Dragon and Chicken Take a Bath

Adventures in dog-sitting.  Tucker's favorite stuffed toys were smelling a little "ripe" from accumulated doggy drool, so they took a dunking this morning.  Hand washed, spun out in the washer to remove the water then left in a sunny window to air dry for a few hours.  Ahhhh, that smells much better.

Kingdom Come VBS

Vacation Bible School starts tonight and runs through this Friday at WEPC Kingdom Come VBS
This morning I gawked in complete wonder at the ingenuity of the volunteer artists and beauty of the signs, sets and props all around the building:

 The artist even applied pseudo pearls to mylady's gown.

Yep, duct tape gate.

 Love the flames

 Where the serfs live?

 Look for a Royal Barbie above the flames.

Totally amazing.  God-given creativity and tons of hard work.

Successful Week at the Boomer Gym

During the last week of school I only went to my boomer gym one time, which was pitiful.  This week was much better, getting there the minimum three times--yippee! 
Very interesting to do the strength training and cardio in the morning instead of late afternoon.  Lots of hard-working, sweating buddies lifting very heavy weights and racing through the cardio sessions.  Motivating!
My Boomer Gym

Ellen Foster is an Interesting Read

Well, it's been a little hot and muggy to be working outside most of this week, so I've puttered around the house all day and in the late evenings I've been reading one of my "almost new" books from the thrift shop. The author sure has a great scheme for avoiding the use of quotation marks...

"Ellen Foster" by Kaye Gibbons

Sad in parts, of course.  My favorite line, spoken by the main character about a teacher who helped her along the way: "She lived in the sixties.  She used to be a flower child but now she is low key so she can hold a job."

I'd love to put that in the signature line of all my e-mails.

Lovely Father's Day Post

My work buddy, Fiona, wrote her Father's Day essay from a unique perspective:

http://www.timesdispatch.com/entertainment-life/columnists-blogs/in-my-shoes/in-my-shoes-a-new-view-of-father-s-dream/article_71757d0c-33c1-56a1-8c89-b7a3840b1772.html

Looking Forward to Summer

Photo by J.G. Collier 2014

This photo of Tucker says it all--summer is full of opportunity.  Exercising, cooking healthier meals, getting together with friends; all great goals for humans and canines.  Started off this morning with lifting weights and whittling down the soles of my shoes at my boomer gym, sweating along with new and familiar friends. Worked on two goals in one!

Cloudy Day = Cooler Temps at the Botanical Garden

Hit Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden with Joan at 9AM sharp this morning---sure had heated and humidified up by the time we left at 11.  We both had been to nature classes over the summer and Joan had been to Andre Viette's conference in Virginia last month, so we were psyched for learning Latin names of plants. That's what garden nerds do for fun...

The cloudy sky didn't make for great photos, but I had to record the elephant ears along the path to the conservatory.

 This was just about our favorite plant of the day--Eulalia.

 Thanks to my dragonfly class in June I could enjoy the Blue Dasher by name.

This is a type of Magnolia--great vertical growth.  Maybe they prune it off later but it looked so geometric in the sunlight.

Loved the bamboo plant marker.  Mark Y. gave me begonias just like these several years ago and they are blooming near my back door right now.  The reddish stems highlight the light pink blooms.  Begonia Grands Alba (Hardy Begonia)