Up, Up, And Away

For the past 30 years or so we've had an event in Ashland called "Balloon Fest". Believe it or not, Ashland used to be the balloon capital of the world...or so they tell me! We had factories that made balloons.  This year there were about 30 balloon folks who arrived to fly the friendly skies.  Thousands of folks descend from all over the country and there are tons of activities and food and fun for all.  But balloon races, flights, and "glows' are subject to the whim of Mother Nature.  As I've mentioned before, it's been a very wet Spring and now Summer is shaping up the same.  We had only one day, Friday, that the balloons were able to fly.  Although it wasn't always raining, the wind and the pop up thunderstorm threats rained on the balloon parade.  It was also hot and humid, but that's Ohio in the good old Summer time!  Friday I was "asked" to go to our endoscopy unit at our other building about 10 minutes from the hospital.  I wasn't too thrilled since I wasn't originally scheduled there.  It's not my favorite place to spend the day, but work is work and I headed over.  When I entered the parking lot I spied this:

What?? A balloon was being reinflated after landing a few minutes before.  So I hopped out of my car and snapped a few pics:

Soon it was ready for takeoff:

Bye Bye!

Over the building...

And off to the next stop.  So it may have been a wash out for the weekend flying, but I was excited to witness this take off early on Friday.  It made me smile and I wasn't so grumpy about "guts and butts" for the day!  As the song says:  Up Up and Away, in my beautiful, my beautiful balloon!

Water, Water, Everywhere

We've had some pretty impressive rainfalls these past few days.  Father's Day was a real gully washer..literally washed out our driveway and made it a gully!

It looks worse in real life.  We've been planning on getting it fixed this summer with asphalt but you need warm, sunny days for that and we're a bit shy on warm and sunny.  Last week we had some sun but the morning temps were only in the 40's!  So we'll put up with it for now and with rain predicted for the rest of the week I'm sure it will be a bigger mess.  The folks I really feel for though are the farmers.

This may look like a nice lake for some fishing but it was covered in corn a few days ago..now...what a disaster.

Driving down the road to our house it looks like a causeway with lakes on both sides...yep, farmer's fields.

This was taken Sunday afternoon after the rain passed by...only to reappear this morning.  Many roads are closed and some businesses are closed as the parking lots are under water.  We even had flooding in surgery this morning. It wasn't in the operating rooms but my bosses office was a mess! Maybe it's time to build that Ark!  On a lighter note, Father's Day did turn out to be a nice afternoon and Jackie and his family, and Jordan came for lunch. We missed Phil but he had plans with his kiddos and stopped over today instead.  Craig, our son out west, called Saturday to talk to Jack because Sunday morning he was heading out to Europe on business.  All in all it was a nice day for Jack.

Our son Jackie and his son Cameron.

Our beautiful Granddaughter, Driana, stopped by too. Future nurse here!  So happy to see them and spend some fun time together.  So I hope all Dad's had a great day.  Here's my tribute to my favorite Dads:

My sweet Dad who always had a smile on his face and story to tell. I miss him every day. He passed away in 1976 at age 56...gone way too soon.

My hubby's Dad...also named Jack! He passed away in 2001,  just a year after Jack's Mom...miss them both very much.  He was a Chiropractor too and he and Jack practiced together.

These 4 characters are my brothers...(lft to rt...Rick, Jim, Greg, and Phil)...four of the best Dads ever! Love these guys!

Last but not least..my hubby and my sons who are Dads...Jackie, Craig, and Phil...These guys have wonderful families and are so much better at being parents than we were! Ha!  Happy Father's day a day late..but never too late to honor fatherhood...it's a hard job, especially these days! (Glad mine are grown!)  Have a good week and pray for those who are so devastated by flood waters.

Blog Lag

I've been lagging in my blogging.  It's been a weird past few weeks. We've been doing many projects around the house to get ready for visitors this summer.  We may have over done it a bit.  Jack redid 2 ceilings, helped me paint the spare bedroom, put new tires on the zero turn mower, built new raised bed boxes, just to name a few of the things.  But life has a way of making you slow down and for him it was the uproar of a back injury he had 30yrs ago.  Yep, the Chiropractor had his back go out. It's been a tough road for him and not being able to do what he had planned to do makes it even worse...at least for him.  However, he's been going to work to help others with their spine and joint problems and suffering quietly.  The remaining things that need done aren't that crucial and our boys have offered to come help with stuff that needs moved.  Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and stop and rest.  In the end it will all be good...at least he's hoping for that!  Our weather has been pretty nice and the rain has eased up a bit. Last night the temps were in the 40's and tomorrow we'll be close to 80.  Never know what to expect.  Then Ohio had an earthquake yesterday!  We're about 60 miles south of Cleveland and didn't feel it but I'm sure those north of us had a shaky surprise!  Well, this is a short post and I don't even have any recent photos.  I decided since today is my baby brother's birthday....he's 59...here's a favorite pic of me and Rick...

Some how I don't think we'll recreate this one any time soon! Happy birthday little Bro!

Out And About

Having a fairly uneventful week I was thinking of what to blog about and decided a quick walk in the Whispering Pines would be good.  Not really walking in the pines however, but strolling into our "Creepy Woods" I snapped a shot of my recent efforts to keep the paths open up there.

Come on in..the woods are waiting!

The path leads up to this spot that I mowed down. It would make a good spot for a little cabin getaway don't you think? 

At the top of our hill, right before the Creepy Woods, we have some poplar trees.  I didn't realize until a few years ago that they are tulip poplars.  They flower in May and I snapped one of the few remaining at the tippy top of the trees.  These trees have gotten very tall in the 18yrs that we've lived here. Can you see the pretty yellow and orange blossom?

Here's a little sitting area I put together this Spring.  I had a couple of wicker chairs that I almost threw out but decided to put them under the pines as you enter the driveway.  I had Jack cut me some stepping stones from some fallen trees in the woods. Come on over and have a rest!

My peony bushes should have been tied up but I didn't get to it.  We've had some storms come through all week and yesterday afternoon some hail came down and I think the bushes were not pleased! I'll work on these this week.  They smell wonderful and make pretty bouquets.

Loving my fresh flowers!

These big flowers aren't very fragrant but they do spin nicely in the wind!

Can you spot "who's" looking at you?

I spotted this little guy by the raised beds and then spotted Momma:

As cute at they are, they better leave the garden alone or the results won't be very nice.

We have a lot of land but don't put in a huge garden, only a few raised beds but we get a good crop out of them...tomatoes, cucumbers for pickles, carrots, green beans, and different peppers.  We were going to add another box this year but decided not to...too many other projects to complete first. Thankfully the Farmer's Market that starts in July will provide many of the items we don't grow.  Well, that's about it as my journey "out and about" ends and so does the weekend.  On my journey this evening my faithful companion, Arnold, found his out and about was more an on and stay put:

Here's where he prefers to enjoy the view.  He's no dummy.