Day 912: Quest leader party

What a wonderful party!  So much to tell about today, but it's nearly midnight.  The kids stayed late, swam, ate all the food, laughed and enjoyed!  That makes me so happy.  Poor Steve missed much of the party because of two serious calls.  The first was a chlorine leak at the water treatment plant in Dunkirk and the second was a house fire near Silver Creek.  Both events were threats to the well-being of the firemen because of the chemicals and the heat.

I swam 230 lengths to hit 20 miles for the month of June!

Five lilies bloomed today!  We sprayed again so perhaps the deer will not eat any more!

Nothing is labeled anymore, but this was a lovely lily blooming today.  

Day 911: Graduation 2014

Graduation 2014:  A lovely vocal performance by Michaela, strings by Emily and Devin, and Alex on the marimba, lively speeches, moving tributes, many awards, an empty chair for Nate, caps tossed in the air, pure joy.

The principal presented an honorary diploma to the Polisoto family and students saved a seat for him.   Very touching.  The guest speaker was nearly impossible to hear and focused too much on himself, although he did offer some valuable advice.   We felt it was a happier, more upbeat ceremony than usual until the final student speaker.  His sarcasm and cynicism were not amusing, except when he referred to Mike, the Board President, as a middle aged man.  

We scrubbed down picnic tables and hosed the pollen off the front porch in preparation for the Quest leaders party.  It will be really hot and muggy tomorrow so I hope we can keep everyone comfortable.

I swam another 250 lengths which takes me just over 19 miles.  If I can squeeze an hour out of tomorrow for swimming, I can reach 20 miles for the month of June.  

School officials

Brie

 Jake

Michaela

Day 910: Thomas comes to visit

What a treat!  Amy, Liz, Alison and baby Thomas came to swim today.  Thomas, who will be nine months old tomorrow, is a sweet, laid back little boy.  He enjoyed splashing and playing in the water with his mom and aunt, then he sat on my lap and ate cereal.  Such a joy to have him here today!

Two of our outstanding student leaders from Brocton,  Tyler and MaryAnn, graduated today.  Tyler was the valedictorian of his class and leaves tomorrow for VMI.    MaryAnn had invited us to her graduation party, so we joined her there for lunch.  Her mom was so very proud. Both helped the program grow in Brocton and we will miss them and their contributions to Quest very much.

The water temp was 75 today.  Even at 9:00, it was still 78 outside.  Heavenly!  I swam until 8:00 and finished 300 lengths!  Last year, I didn't reach 300 until July 26.  That gives me just over 17 miles so far this month.

Twenty-nine Siberian iris bloomed today.  They are spectacular!

Tomorrow is Fredonia's graduation and I have thought for hours about my speech.  I have fallen back on the same speech for the past few years, but there is something different and special about this class that necessitates some changes.  I will miss these kids.  We have hiked many miles together and sung many songs together.  For Brie, Jake, Maggie and Dustin, we have hiked 250 miles together!  Those miles reveal a lot about a person. That concept must be included in the speech.

Thomas and his mom

Amy, Alison and Thomas

Tyler and MaryAnn after their graduation

Day 909: Hydroseeding

Swam 1.2 miles, walked 2 miles, finished weeding and mulching dogwood garden and Puddle's Garden.  Gardening in sandals is not a great idea because some invisible critter stung my foot and it felt like it was on fire.

Chautauqua hydroseeding  came by this morning and soaked sections of our yard with a starchy pulp containing grass seed.  Grass should pop up in about five days.  We have put tons of seed on this yard, yet some parts have never had grass.

First lily of the season: Red Rum

Day 908: Last day of school

9:30 am.  We slept till 9:30.  I guess we really are retired.  Of course, our level of physical activity is pretty intense for old folks.

Today, 2.2 mile walk and 1.25 mile swim.  Finished weeding and mulching the stone wall garden.  Raked the fill in preparation for hydroseeding tomorrow.  The new redbud looks great after heavy rain in the past two days.

Siberian iris

Stella

Stone wall garden

Day 907: Wings

Whiskey Hill Saloon:  Whoever would think I'd hang out in a saloon?  Why not? It's relaxing, casual, reasonably priced and has delicious wings.  We've been talking at our monthly dinners about shifting to Whiskey Hill because we've been raving about the wings.  Our classmate from Florida took one bite and said, "OMG! These are amazing!"

A ferocious storm went through and knocked out the power for a hour early this morning.  The yard was too wet to do any yard work, which was fine since we were both tired of weeding and hauling.  I only swam 100 lengths, but that was ok too.

At 6:00, Steve was notified that there were ninety hikers stranded in Chautauqua Gorge.  Couldn't be ninety, must be nine. The dispatcher must have misunderstood.  But no, it was 96 Jewish students from all over the US and Israel.  They are staying at a camp in NW Pa, and came to Westfield to hike the gorge.  Then, they couldn't get out and one girl got bonked in the head by a branch.  Several departments responded to aid them in climbing out of the steep gorge.  Some were dehydrated and cold.  Two were transported to the hospital for ankle injuries.  Several did not speak English.  One of the fire departments ordered a few pizzas for the hungry teens, but they couldn't be consumed because the food was not kosher.  What an operation!  And what a small world.

Day 906: New redbud

Doug delivered a red-leafed redbud and two variegated dogwood bushes earlier today.  Quickly, Steve planted the ten foot tall tree in the new bed and I tied it to supports with old panty hose.  A huge storm swept through this evening and watered it thoroughly.

It was a steamy hot day, very humid with just a touch of a breeze this morning.  We walk a couple miles early, but were dripping by the time we got home.  Steve was off to meetings, so I kept swimming off and on till I reached 260 lengths!  13 miles. I weeded the stone wall garden so we can mulch it tomorrow.  Next, is Willy's garden.

We had ice cream with Amy and Annie just before the storm hit.  I've switched to black raspberry Mexican sundaes.  Delicious! Amy loves root beer floats and Steve got a chocolate soda.

Patio in rainstorm

Redbud

Day 905: Steve's garden 2014

My brother Steve had a rock moving party this weekend and is creating a new garden.  His friend has a loader that they used to carry the giant boulders into place.  His place on Webster Rd. has no shade so his lilies and hostas are huge and brilliant colored.  He has surrounded them with borders of boulders.  Many years ago the property had an old barn with a rock foundation.  A past owner tore down the barn and bulldozed the rocks into the creek.  Over his many years there, Steve has been retrieving the rocks and building incredible structures.

Today, I did 240 lengths.  I had to cut it short because the storm was moving in rapidly from the west.  Thunder was rumbling in the distance as I finished and closed the pool.  My grand total is 11.7 miles!

We finished up the mulch when we finished the back deck garden.  More will be delivered tomorrow along with a beautiful new redbud tree.

Asiatic lilies

The picnic area

One of the stone benches.

Day 904: Ten miles

It was a peaceful day that began with Penelope meeting at Linda's.  She presented an exceptional poem that I think will be published and a personal essay on a friend's death.  Several of our members write about death and it always makes me feel uncomfortable.  Each of us has experienced losses, but none as sad as the friend who lost her son when his car was hit by a train.  She was present today and silent as the poem was discussed.  I tried to focus on punctuation and rhythm rather than the content because I knew she was struggling.  The years since the accident have been so difficult for her that I hate to cause her a moment's pain.

The crescent garden is now weeded and mulched.  Five more gardens and the entire property line to go!  We have to order more mulch!

250 lengths put me just past 10 miles.  What more can I ask?  Strenuous exercise, a yard full of gorgeous flowers, thought-provoking friends and a wonderful family.  Today, as always, I feel incredibly blessed.

The crescent garden

My pool

Red  non-stop begonias

Day 903: Summer Solstice

Fabulous first day of summer!
I swam 240 lengths for a total of 1800 or 9 miles for June!

We finished weeding and mulching the most challenging daylily bed.  It was backbreaking work and the mulch is nearly gone, but it looks fabulous! Just in time for the lilies to bloom!

Bleeding heart

Delphinium

Lettuce

Not sure

The last columbine

Day 902: Clematis and primrose

It was a lovely relaxing day filled with swimming, gardening, and walking.  I only did 100 lengths or 1/2 mile to give my body time to rest.  Steve hauled dirt to the side yard and then we created the new garden bed at the site of the old sycamore tree where a new redbud will be planted.

For dinner we traveled to South Dayton to dine on the porch of the Mustard Seed.  The menu is so good that we try new dishes each time we visit.  This time I had an asiago chicken and artichoke ciabatta while Steve had a barbecue chicken wrap.  When we arrived, we  spotted a single slice of lemon meringue pie left in the dessert case.  We claimed it immediately and gobbled it down quickly as our appetizer.  A crispy salad with salsa ranch dressing was next.  The first two courses were so filling we only ate half of our dinners.

Our evening concluded watching Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel.  Delightful!  It's curious that the movie was inspired by Stefan Zweig, an Austrian author whose collected works are housed at Fredonia State!

Lovely clematis

Happy daisies

Prairie primrose

Hauling dirt

The last of 8 cubic yards.

Now onto the mulch!

Day 901: It's all in the pod

At 2:30 pm, the guys put the last container in the pod and Rachel locked the door.  Now, it's all up to the insurance company and the contractors to put things right.   She found out that the bathroom will have to be gutted because of the high moisture content under the linoleum and behind the marlite wall covering.  She was happy about that because she's been wanting to update that bathroom anyway.  In addition, the flood forced her to very rapidly downsize and throw away a lot of old teaching materials that were cluttering up the basement.  After 8 years of retirement, it was time to let go.  We also tossed all of Jon's college notebooks.  He graduated 12 years ago!  It's clear that a disaster can actually have some positive outcomes!

All packed up!

After I left there, we took a long walk through the college to check on the construction progress at Rockefeller Arts Center.  It was a gorgeous, humid day so I couldn't wait to get into the pool. Steve was off to another meeting, so I just kept swimming.  240 lengths for a total of 1460.  Just a little tired tonight.

Day 900: 900 Days!

900 days writing a blog!  It's been a good outlet for my favorite photos, a record of our travels, a showplace for the school musicals and Quest.  I've counted laps, miles, words written and chapters completed.  Tracking progress helps motivate me.  Some nights, I've been so exhausted that the entries are short and stilted or maybe just pictures.  The only days I left out were from the week when Glenn died last November.

I've done very little deep reflection here, but that is by design.  It's a public forum and I don't want to reveal too much.  However, since I am rather thin skinned, it has helped me practice for a bit of public exposure before I publish my book.  I've enjoyed the discipline and regimen of writing each day to record my thoughts and many of our activities and also editing photos to share.  Seven friends follow the blog, but the page views number over 25,000!

Rachel's house is under control.  A crew of three arrived this morning to pack up the contents of three rooms to place in the pod.  However, the pod never arrived till 2:00 when it was supposed to be delivered at 9 am.  They were held up on the thruway by a traffic check of all trucks.  That means that the crew must return tomorrow to load the pod.  Then we should be done.  The floor boards are cupping badly in the bedrooms and a bit in the living room.  The representative from Gallivan's said all the boards have to be replaced, but the insurance adjuster wants to wait and try another method of extracting the moisture.  I was surprised at how well the fans dried the floors, rafters, carpets, and furniture.   What she has to throw out is mostly papers and books.

Steve worked for many hours today and yesterday hauling dirt to the east side of the yard.   He moved 32 loads and then raked it in preparation for seeding.  The loss of the soft maple is all positive.  It's roots were reaching for the basement and rippling on the surface and no grass would grow.  Now he has graded the whole area and it looks terrific.

Today, I swam 220 lengths and went for a walk while Steve as at a meeting.  On top of hauling containers upstairs at Rachel's, the grand total of activity today has done me in.

The lilies are coming!

Baby yellow squash growing in pots

My herb garden:

Sage, celery, Italian parsley, rosemary, curly parsley, basil, thyme, and cilantro, along with some kale.

The east side yard

A lovely petunia

Day 899: Green sky

Green sky? Isn't that an indicator of tornadoes?  It was a strange and eerie sky tonight as the front moved through.

The good news came at the end of Steve's three year check up this morning.  PSA numbers continue to go down.  He's all clear for another year!

The grand total for this month's swimming is 1000 lengths, or five miles!  Finally, the water temperature hit 70 degrees. I was beginning to think the thermometer was broken.  I need 1620 lengths to tie last year's total for both May and June.  I think I must have been too wrapped up in gardening and preparing for the garden show to do much swimming.  This year, the garden is playing second fiddle to the pool.

Day 898: Surprise disaster

Poor Rachel's house flooded again!  Two years ago, while she was working at Chautauqua, the water supply for the refrigerator ice maker sprung a leak and ran for days before her contractor happened to discover the damage.  It ruined her hard wood floors, some of her brand new kitchen cabinets and flooded the basement.  It took a lot of hard work to do all the repairs.

Now she has to do it all again.  This time the culprit was the water feed to her toilet.  Fortunately, she decided to come to book club last night after a day of cleaning at Chautauqua and then visit the house to drop off some things.  She was horrified to find water spurting on the bathroom walls and her living room, both bedrooms and bathroom with two inches of water.  The basement was even worse.     She called us and we went right over.  She also called VerHague's Disaster Response and Daryl arrived there immediately.

He vacuumed up the standing water from all the floors, hauled in ten industrial strength fans, a huge dehumidifier.  Steve, Rachel and I poured water out of her storage containers in the basement while it rained on us.  We got home about 1:30 and tried to sleep a bit.  Then she was back at it this morning and I joined her in the afternoon.

Tomorrow, movers are coming to remove all the first floor furniture and load it into a pod.  The insurance adjuster and floor contractor are going to see if they can salvage her hardwood floors.  A dumpster is also being delivered for all the damaged items in the basement.

Nevertheless,  I swam a mile yesterday before book club and then another mile today after I got home from working.

Day 897: Father's Day

Although we are not fans of Father's or Mother's Day, this was actually a pretty nice one.  We are always soothed by walking in the Arkwright woods. Birdsong, rustling leaves and our footfalls were the only sounds, until trucks or motorcycles reminded us that we were not far from the roads.  We ambled along familiar paths, snapped a few pictures and marveled at the sunlight piercing the treetop canopy.  Since our lesson yesterday, now we spy the Japanese knotweed, periwinkle and garlic mustard everywhere.

At the end of the trail on Center Rd., we found the tree where we had gathered for a photo back in October 1996, the day before my dad died. Escaping long hours in the hospital room and Dad's deteriorating condition, we had taken the kids for a long walk.  Colin and Evan climbed the tree while Mary and I watched from the ground and Steve snapped the shot.  The happy moment was a brief reprieve from months of sadness and grief.  I still find great comfort in walking along that trail.

Dad and me in late 1949 or early 1950

I can't recall ever going for a walk with my father.  That might be because he was a mailman and he walked all day, until he got a truck route.  But he did love to be outside, especially fishing Cassadaga Lake.  He and mom spent many evenings in their small boats casting for bass.  He really hated having his picture taken, unless he was holding a giant bass or muskie.  Then he was all smiles.

My dad and mom on the left and Steve's mom and dad on the right

at our wedding on August 21, 1971.   My parents were only in their forties (Mom 43 and Dad 45) then and Steve's were ten years older.

We stopped in Cassadaga at King Kone for cherry cordial ice cream cones.  Delicious!  It's Steve's favorite way to cap off a hike or any activity!   I was able to swim a mile this afternoon since the weather was so perfect and the water temp actually moved up to 67 degrees!  It's surprising that two degrees can make such a difference in how the water feels.

Nancy and her family had a very difficult day, their first Father's Day without Glenn.  Although he was not Jennifer and Jeremy's biological father, he was the the father present every day in their lives for thirty years.

Day 896: Canadaway Creek clean up

Alberto Rey, John Straight and a few friends run a fly fishing club in the Fredonia Middle School that teaches kids how to fish.  In winter they make flies, then in the spring there are excursions and events to put their new skills into practice.  It's a wonderful way for families to bond over shared experiences of creating colorful lures and catching elusive fish.  I'm for most any activity that brings families together and gets kids outside.

For the past eleven years, they've also been organizing a clean-up of Canadaway Creek.  This year we were free and decided to join in.  John Titus from the college spoke briefly about invasive species in our area.  They had divided the creek into eight segments and teams were assigned to each section.  Another group was designated to plant seedlings along the edge of the creek to prevent erosion.  That's the group we joined.

A landowner in Shumla hoped that planting trees would hold the bank along the creek and prevent further loss of his property. When we spoke with him, he said erosion had already taken an entire potato field.

Unfortunately, the pathway to the creek bed was thick with poison ivy.  I wasn't willing to risk it with my sensitivity and the parents of several kids also were wary.  We moved to another site in Burnham's Hollow instead.

There were lots of people and little space so Steve and I left to do our own invasive species pull: the garlic mustard in our own woods.  We filled a large garbage bag of seed laden plants.  Our timing was excellent.  If we had waited a few days, all those seeds would have been scattered.  We were also horrified to discover that the northwest corner of the woods is overrun with poison ivy.  It's growing up two of Roger's pine trees and several of ours.  It will be too dangerous to mow because the oils would be sprayed around and caught on the lawnmower.  We'll have to research to figure out how to handle the spread.

A beautiful, but injured, luna moth

Day 895: Paddy poses

Since we were out of town for Memorial Day, we missed tending to our family graves in Forest Hill.  We made a quick run today, before the rain hit hard.  We had to cut short all the traditional stories and prioritize as the clouds rolled in.  Steve dug, Mary planted and I carried plants.  Still no bending over for me.  Just getting out of the car was a trick.  Vacuuming, ironing, cooking were fine, but reaching for the phone, getting out of a chair and sneezing were not.

Nevertheless, I was able to swim 150 lengths and walk 2.5 miles.  It would be so nice to swim in warm water, at least something higher than 65.  Yesterday, I swam the last twenty lengths in the pouring rain.  Today, the water was the same, but a cool breeze was blowing, so it felt better to be in the water than out.

Paddy barely left my side while we were out on the deck so I got him to pose for me.  Usually, as soon as I point the camera at him, he comes to me.  This time, he stayed on the top step, turning his head when I called him, just to catch the wind in his whiskers.