Another misty morning

We had a two hour delay due to fog today. It is kind of fizzing outside, as Liam likes to say. Happy Friday!

Naturally, I'm sitting here listening to Led Zeppelin's Misty Mountain Hop, which you can hear here if you so desire. I had nothing to do with it, just borrowed the link from YouTube. 

Anyway, misty mornings are fabulous for finding spider webs. There were various filters used on these photos, notably Vivid and Dramatic Cool, for visibility purposes. 

We have very industrious spiders. If only my children could take lessons, heh...

These are the lovely flowers PaPa planted for me. I had picked out perennial, shade loving, native plant seeds and he planted them for me... and then we had a torrential downpour in which the gutter overflowed and all my seeds washed into the pond. 

This pond.

You're saying, "that's not a pond. That's a jungle." While you are correct, don't judge. We rarely go in and out the front door and I forget about the pond (obviously) and should probably throw what we call mosquito donuts in. They're these donut shaped crisps (a bit denser than a Samoa from the Girl Scouts and minus the chocolate stripes, but that'll get you close enough) which knock off the mosquito larvae or whatever so you don't have bugs from the standing water. I can still hear the pond pump running, but it sounds asthmatic and I'm not sure that it isn't full of algae or baby lily pads. 

And then there's the back forty:

Lalaith Havens, signing off and wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

First day of school 2016-2017

                                    Ready or not...

Here they go!

I feel like summer whizzed by and forgot be three months long. I also feel like summer is when you try to squash 12 months worth of fun into three months. 

In other words, I'm bummin'. I can't believe they'll have been in school three solid weeks before Labor Day. 

Hellooooooooooooooo? Who's in charge here? There are SUMMER OLYMPICS happening, people. SUMMER. Not back-to-school Olympics. Good luck with the tired teachers, tired staff, and tired kids who've been up late watching history being made. The tired parents are sending them off, guzzling more coffee, trying to sneak in naps around the piles of paperwork that are accumulating (yes, already!) on every flat surface and making dinner plans with sleep-deprived brains. Nobody should be in school while the Olympics are on, ever.

But as I am not in charge of the world, off they went and came home contentedly enough. Nice teachers, lots of sitting, locker combinations ironed out, new supplies, old friends. 

Carrie got to comfort a distraught-to-the-point-of-tears sixth grader who feared missing the bus home. Seems she starts every year with a good deed. Way to go, kid. 

Today is officially Day 2. Carrie forgot to set her alarm and Damon was lamenting his lack of sleep and Liam has already begun scattering belongings from Hither to Yon.

Ahhh, back to school.

The fog itself wasn't bad, but the camera fogged up as soon as I took the cap off. 

Weighed down, as usual. At least they won't blow away.

  

Down on the Farm, post-party

Here are some post-party shots of my husband's family's homestead. It is always beautiful, no matter the day or the light or the weather, but it was especially pretty that evening. I very much miss rolling hills and big trees and some kind of elevation for your eyeballs to look at when driving around. This refreshes me. Not as much as woods do, but it is still restorative to my spirit!
 

 

 

As soon as I saw that one of Damon, I wished he was holding a 3. My mother is going to love it.
 

I've always loved misty mountains, whether it's Tolkien's version or Led Zeppelin's version, so I was excited to take pictures myself of the encroaching mists...
 

 

 

I think this last one is my favorite. =)