Saying good-bye

I had meant this to be “Saying good-bye to summer” – which in my case is not all bad, as I am a fool for autumn – but I have spent a good part of the afternoon trying to deal with internet strangeness/WordPress goofups and I am having deep thoughts. We Shall See. If you do not find me around these precincts again, you will know that I have thrown in the towel and gone back to writing with a stub of pencil on scraps of paper. I will post the results on the bulletin board at the Eastport Market, where you can read them at your leisure, or until Russ plasters something else over them, whichever occurs first.

While we Await Developments, you might like to know that:

• Rob the Firefighter and the Lady Alicia, along with grand-dogs Lucy the Sleek and Baxter the Benevolent, came up to visit and brought their friend Joanne. This was all good. It caused a great fluffing up at the Writing Studio and Bait Shop, and we are all the better for it.
• In honor of their visit, I went so far as to purchase a gas grill from Gilroy’s, along with some nice salmon and chicken breast and homemade brats (from Chris and Sonny’s Torch Lake Market, but you knew that).  Then I took a fit and invited more company.  Thank goodness, as Gary Dawson kept me from blowing myself up with the grill and Lois calmed me down and Katy brought plums from her plum tree and it was all just right.
• Elva Cowell celebrated her 90th birthday in high style over on the Peninsula, with leventy-thousand of her nearest and dearest in attendance. If I am half so energetic at 90 I will count myself a lucky woman. I have made note of the clever party favors, and if I manage to survive the aggravations of Up North internet long enough to be an even older bat than I already am, Rob the Firefighter is on notice that we should steal the idea. Meanwhile, I have committed myself to 90 hours of community service over at the Central Lake Library–one for each of the years that Elva has been in charge of things around here–and I suspect that Dick Williams and Carol Stoutjesdyk are already making lists and checking them twice.
• Speaking of RTFF et al, after Elva’s party I met them over at the Skegemog Pathway for a little hike. I would show you photos, but I have been unable to extract them from the miscreant photographers. Perhaps this will shame them into action. In any case, we saw quantities of wildflowers and a few little frogs and toads, but not a single Massasauga rattler, for which I am grateful. I pranced along the pathway in my party clothes, eyes scanning the ground with great intensity, and spotted only two little garter snakes. Good.

Now then.  On to your Possibly Final Post.

This was a lovely week to go shopping at the local farm markets, as everything I like is at the peak of perfection.  Well, everything but apples and pears and pumpkins and chocolate chip cookies, but that only means that we have those to look forward to.  So I thought, well, maybe I can manage to cobble up a post that (a) shows you what you’re missing if you’re not from Around Here and (b) fulfills Karma’s August photo hunt.  (I have been almost completely absent from the blogosphere lately, but I do pay attention here and there.)  Karma opined that we should be able to find worthy photographic subjects that would say “SUMMER!” and would also incorporate the colors of the classic rainbow.  OK, we all knew blue was not going to be a problem for Torch Lake Views, right?  But I think I’ve managed all the others, too.  Here you go:

In addition, Karma mentioned that there would be bonus points for a self-portrait. Naturally I thought of many smart-alecky approaches involving statues of the Venus de Milo and so forth, but I settled on this.

I suppose it isn’t really a self-portrait, as the Cowboy snapped it, but I did all the setting up and this is exactly the way I look at the Cowboy when he is being his best self, and is pretty much how I look at you, too, when you leave cunning little comments. (OK, now Miss Sadie is making a retching noise in the background. She thinks there is altogether too much made of the Cowboy.) If this is the last photo I am able to post on WordPress, well, it could be worse. And if I’m back tomorrow it probably will be.  Hold a good thought.  Did I mention that Charter technicians are in the neighborhood installing things and checking things and eating up all the breakfast provisions at Sonny’s?  Well they are.  And if it will help, they can stop at the Writing Studio and Bait Shop for nice drinks of water and afternoon snacks.