Damp

Damp, dank, mosquito-y, and downright wet are the best descriptors for the past week.  Arming myself with shoes, long pants and repellent, Maisy and I went for a walk Thursday morning on the greenway.  The area was busy bracing for the arrival of tropical storm Andrea and the air felt much like the calm before the storm.

I'm sure this creek was a raging torrent on Friday.

That's the sideways glance over the shoulder why-are-we-slowing-down-for-a-picture look.

It was dark and cool under the trees.  We couldn't venture off the pavement though.  Not even thinking about what critters are there, the poison ivy is rampant.

The house has disappeared into the summer green.  Note the stand pipe in the pond.  Water is a little on the high side, but not excessively so.

Easter lilies!  Almost.

Grrrrrrrr.  And persimmon tree sprouts.  Everywhere.  Sigh.

And our own batches of poison ivy.  If it ever stops raining we can treat all the unwanteds.

An exhausted Maisy being watched over by Charlie.  :-)

The storm moved in overnight and the pond filled up and turned brown.

I finished putting the borders on this t-shirt quilt and went out to deliver it.

Look.  No stand pipe!  Well, it's under that barely showing blob of debris in the center.

And the water reached the road.  Not too bad.  They recorded 5.14 inches of rain in our area so we did very well considering.

On Saturday we drove up to Virginia to go on a house hunting trip with the Sailor Son.  The grands were well behaved and quite enjoyed themselves, though they were a little confused about the whole concept.  The hard hats were especially fun when we visited a new construction site.

On the way home from Virginia the GPS had a hiccup and when I reprogrammed it I made the wrong route selection.  It turned out to be the right selection though as we avoided the major interstate highway and went the country road route instead.  Very pleasant.  No huge trucks and almost no cars!

In between the farmland the road was cool and shady.

Hay, cotton, tobacco, corn, and peanuts were spotted, and probably plenty of stuff we don't know how to identify.

And little cemeteries in the fields.

We passed through several small towns that were previously unknown or just names to us.  This one had a fascinating main street with the parking spaces up the middle of the road.  :-)

Knitting kept me busy.

The Tramp's car was sporting new tires, the new radio and a new way of using our phones for music, GPS and phone calls.

When it got too dim to knit I amused myself with the camera.

Just as we turned off the highway near home I spotted this duck in the clouds.  :-)

It will take some time for the brown sediment to settle in the pond.  It's never clear, but it usually looks much nicer than this.  The stand pipe has a large pile of debris on top.  Now the rushing water has calmed someone will take out the neighborhood boat and clean it off.

The Easter lilies opened!

While it's been raining this evening, yet again.....I finished putting all the blocks together in rows and the first three rows sewn together.  Wild!  :-)  I'm hoping my bee will help me audition fabrics for the borders on Tuesday.

Despite my initial really bad cutting job that resulted in lots of triangle trimming and blue language, and sewing parts together on at least three different sewing machines, points are coming together reasonably well.  Anyway, I'm not making myself crazy over it.  Somewhat by chance and somewhat by planning I've also managed to have all my seams pressed in the proper directions to make it all snug together properly.  I am amazed!

And lastly.......LZF posted this picture of The Viking.  So cute.  The tax deduction is just a little icing on the cake.  :-)