mycology 101

a beautiful start to the day
it has been just a little wet

starts the day looking like flowers - ends the day black and stinky!

reminds me of coral

just needs a fairy

fungus, lichen, fern

these are sooo cool...and so tiny

harvest moon

LATE SUMMER FLORA & FAUNA

This little guy, along with his buddy, lives under one of the blue slate steps off the back porch. After your Dad reset the steps, they promptly moved back in...er under. We see them many evenings.

I found this lovely web glistening in the morning sunshine in the front garden by the oak tree.

Arlo and Harley enjoying a dip in Medina Lake on their last run before Harley headed for Wyoming with his people.

Miss you guys - hope all is well.

Good morning, Glory! I wonder how many Morning Glory pictures I've taken?

Very cool bug at Medina Lake.

The bees were very busy! The good gathering days are numbered.

This beautiful dragonfly was basking in my fern garden.

Wow. What a marvelous place!

Love you all, Mom

Summer Time 2011

Well, here it is the middle of August (almost Maribeth's birthday) and we have not posted since spring break! My, my how the time flies. You may need a large cup of coffee to get all the way through this post. Or, you may want to take an intermission somewhere along the line. Yes, this is a long one...

Our summer starts on May 1st when Megan and James arrived at our house. They needed a place to stay and we needed some help due to my up-coming surgery. In the end, their plans didn't work out, but it was wonderful to have them stay with us for the summer. It really was a blessing to have their help while I recovered and even more of a blessing to have just the time together to really get to know each other.

Megan celebrated her 22nd birthday while she was here. She got to experience the traditional family celebration. It was fun for all of us:-)

Anyone want to go to the beach? says Pat.

Me! Me!! says Sarah.....hummmm, I think it was actually the other way around!

So, off to the beach went the Harrington/Bassmans.

This year we beached with Vaneta, Jen, Bob and Zora and had a royal time. No, this is not the royal wedding, but Zora's first (of many, I'm sure!) carriage rides, in honor of her #1 birthday.

Here is the birthday girl, in one of her many beautiful "frocks", with her Mom. (Thank you,

Aunt Sarah.) We partied on the porch of their beach house when the carriage return.

We had more overcast skies that usual this year, not all as pretty as this one, but, we didn't loose any beach time. The water was warm, the food was good, and the company was awesome! I'm guessing we will go again!

As soon as we go home from the beach, Ian arrives for his summer visit. Eleftheria was not able to come due to her work schedule and Ian wasn't the only one that missed her. We did enjoy every minute of his visit though.

And! Right after Ian got home, Adam arrived. LeAnna had been home for awhile, already, while Adam finished up a stint in Alaska. Can you tell they were happy to see each other?

All three of the preceeding pictures are taken at a restaurant (the name of which I can not remember) on Portage Lakes where we spent a wonderful afternoon eating and visiting by the lake.

This is a picture of a surprised LeAnna. In spite of someone who shall remain anonomous, LeAnna's parents pulled off a surprise (30th) birthday party for her. It was fun. We got to meet lots of LeAnna's family and, to me, the craziest part of it all is that LeAnna has 3 Karen Sue's in her life!!

My dear, dear friend Jill was in for a weekend. A sad occasion for her, as the primary reason she was here was attend the memorial service for a long time friend. The good part though, was that she was able to catch up with friends. We spent a delightful Sunday afternoon together on the porch swing.

So, woke up one morning and found this sign in our yard. Pat and I had a good laugh as, due to my surgery, the yard was probably in the worst condition it had been in in several years. It did look pretty good from the street though!

We think the dry riverbed that James and his helpers put in beside the garage was probably the reason we got the recognition...it really does look cool, even if there is no waterfall or even any flowing water, much to James' dismay.

If you look to the left of my backside, you will see that I am wearing my "Power Ranger" belt. This picture was taken shortly after I was released to resume my "normal activities". We have been working like crazy trying to get the yard pulled together so that we will go in to the spring with it looking good! Stay tuned for the "before & after" pictures.

So, those are the highlights of summer 2011...at least the ones that are ours to tell. We love you all so much and are looking forward to the next time we see you in person. In the meantime skype and post and call as often as you can and we will do the same.

Love,

Dad & Mom

Mothers' Day Weekend

Vaneta and I made our annual Mother's Day visit to Ithaca to spend a couple days with Keith and Sarah. We were blessed with nearly 3 days of no rain and actually quite a bit of actual sunshine. Thay are a few days behind us season-wise, but Sarah has her garden seedlings growing inside and these wonderful garlic scallions are already up. We actually ate them and they were yummy!

Keith got in a little slack line practice.

This is their bird tree right outside their door. I am going to attempt to list the birds I saw: chickadees, sparrows, cow birds, finches, red winged black birts, wrens- house and barn, grosbeck, woodpeckers, cardinals, bluejays, bluebirds, and I am sure I missed some. There were these tiny, smaller than finches, gold birds that I forget the name of. Keith and I walked down the street Sundany morning. The water in the lake is really high and there out a ways was a beaver lodge with the beaver working away! It was cool to see.

We went out to Pat's house so I could meet the horses. Vaneta and Sarah went for a nice long ride. Keith and I did a little walk-about and then went into town for a bit to eat. All in all a delightful couple of days.

A very big hole in the ground (AKA - The Grand Canyon)

We arrived in Flagstaff Tuesday afternoon, stayed overnight and headed north for a little more than an hour to the south rim of the Grand Canyon Wednesday morning. The weather was perfect. Blue skies and temps in the high 60's, low 70's. I don't think we could have planned it any better. We hiked along the paved rim trail all day with a stop for lunch at a turn of the century (20th) lodge. We resumed the hike after lunch, rode the tram to the western-most point, hiked back some more and then caught the tram again back to our starting point. I know its trite, but this is a place to put on your must see list. The pictures just don't do it justice.

Day One - Blue Diamond

We left Cleveland 7:00 (ish) and arrived in Vegas at 9:00 (ish) - love that time change! The plane trip was uneventful, although Pat did not have fun. I had a full body search - I'm telling you, I am going for the trench coat/flip flop approach! It was 35ish when we left home and 60ish when we got to Vegas...nice:-)

Monday morning: The King of his domain.

"Why do you think it won't start?" "I don't know. Why do you think it won't start?"...

This is the new Joshua Tree Guest House at the Conley/Harrington home. It is not open yet. LeAnna and Adam more than graciously gave up their bedroom and slept on the floor in the living room. Thank you so much for the hospitality.

Recognize this guy? He is in retirement but looks good!

After a gentle start to the day, we went for a walk around Blue Diamond. Just as we were heading onto the trail at the edge of town these guys walked out. I wanted to take one home, but they wandered off across the road and down the way.

(Cute) Middle aged, baby boomer, hiker tourists (posing).

Very cool fallen tree - perfect for picture taking.

Back in town at the end of our walk-about we passed the Blue Diamond Fire Department - awesome truck!

In the evening we dressed up and went into town to the Wynn to see Le Reve. It was spectacular and there is no way to do justice with description or photo! If you google Le Reve you can watch a clip and get a little idea of the show. It was awesome!

Adam and LeAnna pretending to be "at home" in one of the many beautiful, over-the-top salons at the Wynn.