An Unexpected Evening Away

I spent the night at Mum's, a rather unexpected divergence from my planned evening.

Yesterday was a long day, and I was looking forward to spending a quiet evening at home filling out papers (oy, don't get me started!) and enjoying the crockpot roast I started in the morning.

Alas, it was not to be.

You see, in the morning before I toddled down to the courthouse to file papers for the big D, I had to drop the van off for some minor work - the A/C hasn't been acting right, and I'm about to take a trip somewhere I'll want cooling down. After three-and-one-half hours sitting on a wooden bench, I found out there was more paperwork to do before I could file, and had to come home. Sigh.

Once home, Mum informed me that Rosie the Mule (my beloved Astro Van) needed a new compressor. Yikes!

In order to pick up the van in the morning, I needed to stay at her house overnight, so she could give me a ride...unless I wanted to walk the fifty or so miles. Umm...not so much.

So I rode up to the cabin with her...and it was lovely.

We had a nice dinner, watched some of her TiVoed shows, chatted a little while I filled out and corrected paperwork (As an aside - Dear Goddess, please let it be right and complete this time or T's head may explode, and I can't blame him. Thank you.), and then I talked with a dear friend on the phone as I wandered around Mum's yard snapping photos. I can think of worse ways to spend an evening.
The moon was lovely, her face clearer up here than at home.

I want to photograph these flowers during the day - the picture doesn't do their scarlet and vermilion coloring justice.

This thistle charmed me...I adore thistles, and since I ate one of its cousins with dinner (artichokes, yum!), I thought it only fair to give the pretty thing a moment in the spotlight.

The moon again, this time above Bird's tree (the Birch tree we planted at his naming ceremony when he was one-hundred days old).

Mum's cabin as seen from down the drive. It's bigger than it looks, and that front porch it two storeys up!

Periwinkle sky and lace flower...it looks so delicate, but it's a sturdy plant. Its head was bowed, so I had to put the camera underneath and snap blind. I like the results!

A geode on the wall - Mum has these all over, on wood slices in the garden, on retaining walls, wherever she felt like placing them.

I sat on the porch a while, too, watching the humming birds flit about, pipping at me when they disapproved of my proximity to their dinners. More than one buzzed me. I could hear a hawk in the distance, and cicadas chirring in the woods. The breeze was light, gently stroking the wind chimes, coaxing a sweet song from them.

I do love it at Mum's, and hope one day to live here among the trees and wild things, where the air is clean and the stars are sharp and brilliant at night, and the water really is sweet...surrounded by Nature and not too many humans, perhaps with a garden to tend, a place to drum, sing, or play flute in the woods, a fire pit to dance around or roast things over, and a measure of content.

Well...if one is going to daydream during an evening away, one may as well daydream big.