Peace

It was a lovely three day weekend. Very few commitments and lots of quality time at home. Bud and I don't get much time to see each other so it was definitely a good time to reconnect;)

We went yesterday to the nursery and bought some flowers to plant in the front yard and to soften the edge of the new driveway (more commonly referred to as "our vacation"). And the dogs got a bath! Hurray!! We had to go and buy a new flag for the front porch too as the last storm broke the pole and ripped the flag. Bud also discovered a mockingbird's nest in the honeysuckle in the backyard. They have a couple of babies in there and it's fascinating watching the parents guard it. The dog next door got too close and they kept swooping down to chase her away. I might try to take a picture, but the minute they start to attack, I'm outta there!!

I hope everyone had a restful weekend.

Prayers and thoughts to the families of those fallen in the service of our country.

Not for laughs, with my apologies

Wearily, drearily,

Half the day long,

Flap the great banners

High over the stone;

Strangely and eerily

Sounds the wind's song,

Bending the banner-poles

While, all alone,

Watching the loophole's spark,

Lie I, with life all dark,

Feet tether'd, hands fetter'd

Fast to the stone,

The grim walls, square letter'd

With prison'd men's groan.

Still Strain the banner-poles

Through the wind's song,

Westward the banner rolls

Over my wrong.

William Morris

So I thought this rather expressed how I feel about my life at the moment. Nancy and I were talking today about the word "weary". It's a word that is weighty, it drags at you, your entire being. It is more than tired. It lays heavy about the shoulders, pulling down on your soul. It laughs at you for striving forward, even as it smothers you. It is such an enervating word........ and feeling. And it almost blames you for all wrongs, even as you know that cannot be, but the weight will not let you escape. You must take the fault for you cannot find the energy to fight. You are drained and trodden upon.

"weary" is unpleasant. "Weary" is a long journey down, and a longer journey back. "Weary" happens when there is so much....... so many......... so.................. oh my. Tired is physical, exhausted can be emotional, weary encompasses the soul.

I am weary.

A day with Nature

So last weekend I had 2 full days with no commitments having to do with any kind of work at all. It was amazing;) I got to read for fun and not scripts or textbooks or angsty teenage journals. And last Sunday Bud and I went for a hike at Fountainhead Regional Park in Lorton.

It was a beautiful day and I took my camera thinking I could take some artsy fartsy forest with the sun peeking through pictures. So I will post some of them for you to see.
The park is nice, they have one hiking trail, a horse trail and a mountain bike trail. They also have access to the Occoquan River for boating and fishing. It was free,( nice ) and it looks like they have some nice picnic facilities too.

The hiking trail was not too long; 2 miles I think, but it was hilly. Because it's been so dry the stream didnt have much water, and there were lots of downed trees in odd places that hadn't been cleared.
It was a nice walk tho. There were a few other people on the trail, but we didn't really come much into contact. One set of people we had pass us and then we passed had a black lab with them and a baby and the 2 guys had their compasses out and were being all "We're checking our direction and we know what we're doing in the big bad forest" and stuff. Ok, if you've ever gone hiking, you know that trails are marked with colored blazes on the trees. All you have to do is follow the correct color and you can't get lost. Unless you are bushwacking, you don't need a compass. When we passed them the 2 guys were arguing about the direction they were going and where they were supposed to be according to the readings on the compass. It was kind of funny.

There was this one rest stop type area that had been an Eagle Scout project. There were benches and stuff. I took this one picture lying on one of the benches.
Ah, the artsy fartsy ness of it all;)

We did see some wildlife. A box turtle just hanging out, and there were two fish trying to swim upstream a little to get to some deeper water. I don't think the picture is the best, but you can just see the fish in the center of the picture. It was a fun day.

I enjoy being able to spend time outside and not really have to think about anything. Hope you like the pictures.