Happy Summer!

Summer!!!!

 Wahoo!

The portfolio review ends our formal school year, it's 94 degrees and we are ready to relax and have fun!

We school all the time, in real life, but summer feels different.   It's a hard stop: a closing of the books, and a time to wonder what to read next.

This semester was the best of times and the worst of times and I'm not too sorry to get some distance from it.

Dad catches fish

He always throws them back

The day after the review, I went off to visit my folks.

I went to help them, but it turned into a relaxing vacation: fishing, playing cards, long talks, prayerful moments, watching weather, stars, and wildlife.

 It's such a blessing to spend time with them!

The herons catch fish too, but never throw them back

 For the second year, my parents have a pair of Baltimore Orioles building their curious balloon shaped nest in their New Jersey backyard.

Orioles are the Maryland state birds, but I've only once seen them in Maryland in the 25 years I've lived here!

The picture is a Great Blue Heron, but we've always called them pterodactyls. They have a very similar size and shape in flight (a 2 meter wingspan), or at least, so my Dad tells me.  I haven't actually seen a pterodactyl in flight.

This one is walking about the yard in the morning, answering the question of what was flattening the sedges.

These are my favorite birds on the lake (even beating out the Bald eagles), mostly because it's so fun to watch them eat: you can see the fish all the way down their long necks!