A Walk In The Park

The past few weeks have been a tad hectic with all the prep for Vika's bridal shower, but I'm finally caught up enough to post. I hope you all really like nature, because this year I've decided to photograph my garden throughout the growing season, so you'll be seeing a lot of it.

Before I get to all of that though, several weeks back Network God and I went for a light hike around Evansburg State Park. A few weeks prior to that there were heavy rains and the creek flooded and there was quite a bit of debris.

I googled Pennsylvania wildflowers to see if I could find some of the names for what we saw, but I wasn't terribly successful. The flowers were very pretty though.

A duck followed us along the creek.

There were some spectacularly large mushrooms. I'm thinking its a good thing Vika wasn't there because they probably would have been taken home for dinner.

These I did find the name for. They're called mayapples. I had seen the foliage later in the summer, but I had never seen them in bloom. They're quite pretty.

You can see how high the flood was from the debris caught in the trees. I don't know exactly how far we were from the creek, but we were above it and could see or here it from here.

I'm hoping Vika can help me with this one. It seems like it could be an orchid, but I couldn't locate the name. I thought it was lovely.

Surprise!

More mayapples.

More wildflowers.

After our hike we had incredible hoagies from the Skippack Village Italian Market and did some shopping at Ott's. As much as I'd always thought I'd end up a city dweller, I have to admit that I love where I live!

Of course I get to the city a lot as well :).

Note to the Network God*

* Which is now officially my blog name for my husband.

I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE!

So there.

An Early Christmas Present For She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed

An entire site devoted to her favorite phrase: passive aggressive.

I expect the undying thanks to come pouring in any second now...

Awesomely Bad Fashion

Although I know that this jacket is destined for the back page of Glamour or a Random Fug, I still LOVE it because it is just so crazy.

Delayed Random Thoughts on the Royal Visit

• I want her jewelry, and I'm not even into jewelry. But it's so pretty and sparkly (In my head it's like a five year old is saying that).



• I want her hats too. Also I'd like to have an occasion to wear them to.



• Dude - He winked at the queen. It's like the Mr. Bean sketch has come to life.



• Apparently one of the downsides of not having formal state functions is that when you do your staff is so out of practice that they make it look like the most cliche cheesy wedding from the latest issue of Bride's.



• Do you think if the Founding Fathers had a time machine and were able to see what this country has elected as president that they would throw up their hands and say, "Screw independence! Tea tax? Sure! Stamp Act? Why not? Crazy George III is still a more reasonable and less embarrassing ruler than 43, even if he does talk to trees!"

As Long As You're All Making Fun Of My Awesome Sunset View...

...you may as well have some extra ammunition.

Until recently we had no working outdoor lights because every time we changed the light bulbs in them they would pop. So we would have friends come for dinner and they would have to, like, bring flashlights just to be able to get to our door.

So a few weeks back we got a new set of outdoor lights.

I don't think you can really get a clear idea of this from the picture, but let's just say that we have received several notes from the Coast Guard thanking us for our commendable efforts to keep ships clear of the New Jersey coastline, which is a mere 100 miles away from my front door.

Seriously - does it not look like a mini sun?

One Louder

So I can't remember all the details because I was navigating into the unholy mess known as the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but while I was listening to Morning Edition on NPR my brain registered part of a discussion about the DOD budget and some sort of list of things that the DOD needs to pay for. And when Steve Inskeep made reference to the list, the person he was interviewing said:

It goes up to 11.

Of course it does.

Of Night And Light And The Half-Light

I have the very good fortune to live in a house that faces west. So on a regular basis I can look out my front door and see sunsets like this:

The same night there was a beautiful full moon peeping out from the clouds:

So lovely and serene, isn't it?

COLORS

College Glassblower wanted me to post this picture with the above title.