What I've been up to

"Summer's on the wan, the poet says...."

I could have sworn I was quoting Maine poet Edwin Arlington Robinson in the passage above, but a quick google search yielded nothing.

But summer certainly IS on the wane, regardless.

It's been a busy but lovely one for me/us. To recap:

Violet visited us for two nights, not her usual one night. She mentioned to me twice the first night she was here that she'd be staying TWO  nights. I guess she was afraid we'd take her back to her parents too early.

I let her hold Molly's leash as we went for our daily walks. Both Violet and Molly enjoyed that.


We went to the Dorcas Fair in Buxton, our annual tradition. This was the third year Violet and I have attended it together. Violet got to see how wool roving is spun into yarn.

That same day, we drove up to Bridgton to the Art in the Park event. I'd love to have brought home any one of a number of paintings.

I told Violet I'd make a back-to-school dress for her, so she and I visited a fabric store, where Violet spent considerable time choosing exactly the fabric she wanted.

The dress is under way, but I've neglected it for a week now. I need to get back to it soon.

While perusing the Sunday paper and reading about Maine's Open Farm Day, I discovered an alpaca farm nearby, so of course we had to check that out before delivering Violet back to her parents. The alpacas took a shine to Violet, as you can see.

Ken and I took a day trip to Camden. We like to get up there at least once during the summer. The day was picture perfect. We enjoyed a nice lunch on a restaurant patio with this as our view.

 One of my brothers, his wife, their son (who lives in Illinois), and their son's two younger children spent an afternoon with us, so we had a lobster feast to celebrate the occasion.

The deer continue to stand at the edge of the woods and eyeball my vegetable garden. This time the deer brought Junior with her. Junior still has his spots, but the sunlight is making them impossible to see in this photo.

Last week, on Thursday, we flew down to Washington, DC with our good friends Jim and Lynn. Their older son, Erik, was graduating from the Physician Assistant program at The George Washington University, so we were there mainly to celebrate this major accomplishment.

One morning we went to the top of the Old Post Office Pavilion and viewed the city from every angle.

In the afternoon we took in several major monuments, such as the new Martin Luther King Memorial....

...and the World War II Memorial...

...and the FDR Memorial...

...and then we went to the Kennedy Center for the grand tour. This is the balcony where the President and First Lady sit during the Kennedy Honors.

We were exhausted at the end of this day, for we had walked almost eight miles in all (I wore my pedometer all weekend), but we mustered the energy to go to the Old Ebbitt Grill for a delicious dinner in the evening.

On Saturday, the White Coat Ceremony was held at GWU. Here's Erik receiving his white coat.

And here is Erik, with his wife, as they were leaving GWU that day.

Erik and Janessa had us over to their apartment on Sunday for a lovely brunch. Here Lynn and I are sitting comfy.

On Monday we flew home.

On Tuesday I went to my garden, pleased to see it's still there despite the nearby deer, but disgusted to see the hornworms got the memo that I had been away.

I've been scouting around the tomato plants daily, on the lookout for more hornworms. I think I'm currently ahead of the battle.

So that's what I (and we) have been up to this summer.

(P. S. I just located the Robinson poem I thought I was quoting. Right poet, inaccurate quotation. In "Mr. Flood's Party," Eben Flood says, "The bird is on the wing, the poet says,..." Regardless, summer is winding down.)