From the News Desk:
*#c#!~#$*(>g#,=+0`d9{[\-":_*/?**!...
... SQUAWK ....e-e-e-e-e...  ...

/o o\

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  oy


From the Weather Desk:

If all this rain we've been having was snow, it would now be piled to the top of the windows. It is pouring--again!--and has been for hours and hours.

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From the Upsizing desk:

Pat and I hit a few errands and wandered through Quakertown Antique Mall this week. It is a memory conjuror place, for sure. Out front sat a Meadowbrook cart that was exactly the kind Wendy competed with when she trained dear old Faj to pull it and later trained Cisco to do it, too. This one has a green finish. Ours had a stained finish.

Inside awaited a memory of my dishes left behind in Tucson...

This one is exactly the same, too, save it is a bigger size. 

Pat got an African violet from a local Telford nursery/florist

A terrific find happened Saturday...

The Care and Share, a Mennonite second-hand store in Souderton, had this offering sitting there. Solid wood, pull-out extensions at each end (that work!). Either 3' x 4'or 5'or 6'. There are actually four chairs; the other two armless ones were already whisked away to the back for Monday pick up after paying and before I could get a snap. Total cash outlay: $43.

A good friend offered to remove the table top and refinish it in his workshop. Pat and I went on Monday with our trusty ponies and loaded up all five pieces, stopped at Bob's where he removed the top, then we took the remainder to the barn at the farm. Today, we purchased a few things from the local Lowe's to begin a liquid sanding process.

I'll bring one piece at a time from the barn to the patio here to work on it.

I had the couch I bought three months ago brought to Marge's living room which really didn't need a second couch. It's a click-clack. I'm sitting comfortably on it as I write to you.

Now I know it is okay and not mouldering in a warehouse with a family of mice moving into it, or worse.

There was time to attempt a rendering of Pat's dog snuggled up to the family cat in his new home at her daughter's...

Freddy. He's smaller than and his new buddy.

The rained upon grass at Godshall Park.

In Missouri, niece Jackie and her two daughters. Hair braiding time...

Della, Harper, and Jackie.

As our Pennsylvania super wet summer wanes, the leaves are beginning to turn but many have been turning brown because of the molds and diseases that plague the sodden landscape. They are the first to blow in the winds that push the weather fronts in and out of the region. Warm temps confuse the season's progression but waning daylight is everlastingly, reliably informing our planet of a northern hemisphere autumn.

Notwithstanding, the big box stores are already dressed out in orange as a plethora of back-to-school items gave way to even more sizable autumn and Halloween colored stuff.

It's not too late for pods to form...

...blossoms yet to smile through fences...

...or, for butterflies to visit...

Red-Spotted Purple Limenitis arthemis ssp. astyanax is the name of this visitor to Marge's backyard as identified with iNaturalist.org. 

...or, spiders to set up housekeeping...

...I just uploaded this spider to iNaturalist. I'll have to wait and see what ID and info comes up.

The Spotted Lantern Fly that sat on my knee and I uploaded in a previous post, turns out to be a local invasive bug that somehow got to Berks County from China and is now spreading into Montgomery County where the soccer game was, and now I've seen three more this week here in Bucks County. The Philadelphia Inquirer also reported on them. They don't harm humans or animals but drill tiny holes into trees and plant life to suck the sap. While doing this they become a vector for tree and plant-killing organisms. So, the article says the Berks County people are trying to eradicate them and please whack them. They're so beautiful though that it pained me to whack the one on our garbage can lid. I was glad the one on the garden table escaped my whacking. Sort of. The one on the car hood as I waited for a red light to change sprang far away when the light changed, living up to its 30 foot jumps claimed in the article.

From the Housekeeping Desk: Marge reports plastic box damage from migrating mice chewing a new door for their winter home in the splendor and plenty of her birdseed container. Hmmm. I thought we weren't feeding birds anymore since local kitty-patrollers lie in wait for birds at our feeders to let their guard down. The stored seeds must be pre-date that decision.

It's all about communication, qué no?

And, what a lot of communication avenues we now have! Whew! I remain off Facebook since Zuckerberg hasn't done enough to redeem himself. Such a short golden age. I'm not ready for the second "Age of Facebook". May it transform itself.

Well, here I am in the blogosphere judging another platform. Ha!

From the Upsizing Desk: A snap of the latest before boxing it up for its future home at Dock...

I couldn't pass up Saguaro and Saguaro fruit salt and pepper shakers and added the dishes from local sale shelves.

Now for word from Dock: I went to visit them a week ago to learn of any progress toward the promised apartment and where I might be time-wise, but received only "it's moving very slowly"..."which is a good thing". Yes, I agree in theory. Still.

Back to the soccer front. The last league game was played. I was the transportation to the game for Aidan while his mom is in North Carolina at the Horse Trials taking place there while Florence has beaten her way to the coast. Wendy appears unperturbed by all the weather news and we here in PA are letting her enjoy the time off her busy life to enjoy her friend Marci and their mutual love of sport horsemanship.

We got there early for the game. Aidan re-checks his messages. The weather held.

Aidan centered in background, just to right of the ref's shoulder.

From the Scribblings Desk:

...and my buddy...

Weather Report: According to data observed from the front porch, it is HOT! Again!

Summer is winding down, kids are getting on school buses in the morning, vacations have come to an end. As my move to Dock has no definite date in sight, I realize I have been to few places other than day trips for a very long time. Not true for Aidan and his dad John. They were in Arizona to see some family and friends. Most particularly, they spent time at Iron Springs in the mountains near Prescott where John's family still has a cabin from pre-air conditioning days when whole families escaped summer, sun-scorched Phoenix for cooler environs. Keoni was able to join them for a couple of days after his summer at Aspen Music Institute.

Aidan, John, and Keoni in John's boyhood "treehouse" next the cabin.

One of the slots they climb through to get to the top of boulder-strewn Iron Springs.

Keoni made it back to Georgia to resume his Senior year studies. Aidan went to his high school Sophomore year the day after they returned. John, of course, went back to winning bread for the family.

Over in New Mexico, Val and Tim went out for another horseback session along the Rio Grande River...

That's the Rio Grande behind them.

Pat's old friend Fran spent a good part of August with us here at Marge's.

Fran from Florida.

During a morning we spent at Lake Nockamixon.

This, at water's edge was later identified by iNaturalist.org as Chicory...

Chicory out of its natural habitat.

Marge grilled for us one evening.

Some wasps checking out the patio to see about moving in. 

Pat, Marge, and Fran. A nice brunch at the end of a fine visit.

The extensive rains we have been having are growing huge, juicy melons but with the loss of the usual wonderful flavors. Tomatoes are affected, too. The corn has been good and so have been the peaches.

Corn and a slice of Peach Cobbler.

I finally tried out the microwave for corn-on-the-cob which son-in-law Tim had once told me about and Zowee! is that ever good! But since it's a one-off, four minute process (2 min on one side, turn, 2 min on the other side), it takes too long for multiple ears. The best part is after an ear cools a few minutes you just pull away the shucks and most of the cooked silk comes right off with them. Mmm-Mmm.

The best of this year's local, summer soft fruit experience has to be the exceptionally flavorful nectarines. I had to eat them over the kitchen sink they were so juicy that it ran down my chin and hands.

My sister Sandy packed up her guitar she no longer used and Fed Ex-ed it to Aidan who has had a hankering to play one. We may be hearing some guitar and piano added to his cello repertoire before long.

The trees at the edge of Marge's back yard have gigantic leaves and their giant seed pods spread them everywhere. Since I have been at this address, the barn area behind has grown two or three tree twigs to a considerable size in only a couple of years. They nearly obscured the barn this summer.

The elderly gentleman that owns this property can no longer keep up with the mowing, so Penn's Woods is steadily reclaiming the space.

These are the leaves on the mature trees at the back edge of Marge's property.

Over at Marge's fave nursery there is another giant-leaf flora...

The iNaturalist app also identified this Lantern Fly that landed on my knee at one of Aidan's soccer games...

And this wild geranium trying to make a comeback in Marge's Lilies of the Valley bed...

And sometimes I work in a sketch or two...

Over at the library.

And, moved now to the barn from the farmhouse living room...

One of the chicks in her headdress. 

I finally was able to snag a shot of this rock stack on a steep, narrow, twisty roadway with no place to pull over. Someone gradually built it only to have a severe wind storm destroy it last winter and slowly it has resumed its former stature.

The Quakertown establishment added this ever-changing, electronic advertising structure to let the world know that there is plenty of activity and strip mall shopping in Quakertown...

Wendy sent over a picture she caught of Toby...

Ah, Toby, I miss you little buddy.