Did I Ask For Your Opinion?

I have just shooed three very vocal hens off the porch where I am sitting with my faithful hound Freddi, drinking my Maple Iced Coffee (Bentley"s), and trying to finish my oatmeal that I started to eat earlier this morning.  Morning walk has been accomplished and I am grateful for the much cooler temperatures. For now. It has been a busy week with a visit to the Dermatologist on Tuesday with Youngest Child. I am now equipped with a bag full of ointments and lotions and an overwhelming list of instructions to go with it all. There is the potential for Dupixent in the future, if Youngest Child decides it's worth getting a shot every two weeks. Or if he gets tired of me being in his space too much just trying to keep up with the ointment/lotion/bleach bath regimen.  But it was a good week overall, complete with a 251 Adventure with Eldest Child's partner yesterday, and the usual afternoon Tarot reading with snack in the Rec. Field with my D & D mom friends. Moss Glen Fall...

 It's raining now, and I'm sitting on the porch with Freddi by my side trying to get my thoughts and feelings in order after a rather busy weekend. I had agreed to follow Eldest Child and his Partner to Jay on Saturday morning so they could drop the car off, and then I drove them to Montgomery to the trail head for their weekend overnight hike. They are both into hiking and do this sort of crazy thing all the time, but this was the first time they had set it up so they had to cover 15 miles in the space of a weekend in order to get back to the car. And my maternal instincts hesitated a bit as I watched them walk away from me in the middle of nowhere. But, I had my own challenges to overcome getting my directionally challenged self home with google maps and spotty cell service. It was a beautiful day for a long meandering drive on winding back roads, full of great mountain views, with and without wind turbines. Google maps pulled through for me and I got home safe and sound. Att...

  I'm sitting on my porch with a gin & tonic in hand enjoying the solitude and peace that comes at the end of the day knowing that the day is almost done. I'm watching one of the chickens peck at our visitor's license plate on his truck, I'm assuming bugs?, and am feeling relieved that my tomato in a hanging basket has been hung up once again, safely out of chicken reach. As they all carefully observed my husband moving the tomatoes out of harms way I shook my finger at them as I scolded "See, this is why we can't have nice things!" Nothing can destroy an unprotected garden faster than a handful of chickens. But I digress. This post isn't about the chickens or the vulnerability of my garden. This is a post about my family. Or one small branch of my family anyway. Confession time. Even though I live an hour plus drive away from my mom and brother and the family farm that I grew up on, I am often in the area (10 minutes away) to visit my son and his ...

  I've never been very political. And until just the other day I had never been involved in any form of public protest. My son's partner changed all that. Suffice it to say the world is a complete shit show right now. The Ukraine. Mass shootings. Roe v. Wade. As a young woman (preferred pronouns they/them/their) not even of legal drinking age yet, they are angry.  And so very disappointed in the direction our country has rapidly been going down. And so it was because of them that I found myself standing on the sidewalk watching the parade go by standing next to them all dressed in black holding their sign. The woman in pink just to the right of the sign was very supportive and even helped to brace one side of the sign while I did the other whenever the wind would kick up. After the parade was done it was decided we should walk down the street to our neighbor/friend's house to say hi. As there was no room on the sidewalk we just followed the last vehicle in the parade lineup...