Right before a trip I've made, Aidan came home from Heifetz and a photo was made of him there that I love, so being his grandmother with a blog, I will open with a something and a who that I love...

Celloman.

Since then there has been almost a week of travel without my trusty pony and laptop. In flight, I feel like one of the huddled masses with my center aisle seat and no way to see the earth below. Well, except there is the service cart and I have access to the facility to relieve myself in privacy.

During that week, Wendy texted documentation of the release of the "chicks" from the barn where they were sequestered. It had grown so hot and humid that it was better to risk the hawks ogling from the fence posts and Toby the Predator than have them succumb to summer's heat wave. (That is persisting as I write.)

Aidan and Keoni performing release. Of course, the pullets had never seen outdoors so there was no dramatice rush to the door...

...only suspicion. These are the bravest ladies.

Some of the cousins, kissin' cousins, and one of my sisters met in Iowa at Marilyn and Alan's to take in the Iowa State Fair. It was the two cousins who were seasoned by years of outdoor bike riding in all conditions, including heat, who fared the best walking through the enormous fair. We're sorry Jim and Kathy missed a turn on the most horrible of the midway-type rides due to a shockingly high ticket price--$30. There was speculation that insurance fees had to be covered.

Marilyn and Alan took awfully good care of all. Imagine, stowing away six people in your home and smiling over coffee in the morning.

The visit's purpose, in theory, was the Iowa State Fair among throngs of people eating from 70 different comestibles on sticks and everything fair-related you've ever imagined with plenty you haven't. I made it through three-fourths of a rice crispies chocolate/caramel/marshmallow treat on a stick; Kathy was the champion with a goal of 10% of the 70 food-on-sticks offerings ranging from the rice crispy thing through salad-on-a-stick that she consumed by the end of fair attending. She actually ate eight things but counting her second rib-wrapped-in-bacon-on-a-stick was vetoed.

(Here is where I'd have put Kathy with her last purchase--good ol' cotton candy but, alas, the photo is missing. Feel free if you have it to send it along to me for posting.)

Now that I am back in PA with Marge and have my laptop once again before me. I'll share some of the pictures--there were lots and thanks to those who shared. No chronology remains in my head; nevertheless, I have a smattering of images to share with you...

At the fair...

State Capitol building where there was parking and a shuttle to the fair. Yes that's gold leaf.

A bazillion quilts. Memorable is this one.

Tall cases in rows were filled with jellies and preserves.

Listening to my feet talking to me, I missed the butter cow, but I love this of Marilyn with this one. We all thought of our Christmas Chia Pets.

This cake contest entry is for Keoni and Aidan.

Remembering the goat occupants of Rhapsody Ridge were the fainting variety before Wendy and John, et al moved in...

...and, here is one of them.

Monday the temp stayed down in the mid-80s. Alan, Marilyn and JM with stick.

At the voting booth. One jar for Hilary. One jar for you-know-who. A corn kernel dispensed to each person who got in line and dropped into the jar marked Clinton (or the other one). Can't say which was ahead. 

Rest stop for Kathy and me.

Around Marilyn's...

This was bare two years ago...just some scruffy grass and a tree. Yes, Marilyn is a wonderful landscaper.

Kathy.

Marilyn and Susie with one of several puzzles that went on the whole time.

Alan and Jim contemplating the garage door lifting device repair.

Jackie at her laptop. The smile sustained throughout the weekend about the happy news of a new home purchase.

The garden goddess.

Susie played for us, but the sample song I recorded was a failure because the locusts outdoors were so loud that the sound is far from pleasant as it turned out.

Locust shells on a tree in the back yard.

Jim solves many problems. This one was a clean-up of Jackie's computer.

Listening to Susie...

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We took in the Saturday morning Farmer's Market. Photos were meh, but a sketch survived...

Nancy's old friend is Reverend Jan at a nearby Presbyterian Church where she and I attended to take in Jan's service and message. Later we had lunch with Jan and family...

Reverend Jan.

Nancy and Jan.

Jan's yard...