2017 Week 13: Flowers and Fun

The encroaching woods, fallen trees and branches, couldn't keep me from gathering beautiful blooms to enjoy indoors. Always wearing rubber boots, of course. It has rained a lot, the ground is saturated.

I promised last week to share Sunday's photos in my next post. Here they are.

Jimmy's 43rd birthday celebration

We enjoyed one of Jimmy's favorite meals: chicken and noodles.

Fun at the Kerns. Kayla hosted the party

We learned a new game

Monday when we arrived at Stephan's, he wasn't there, still making his way back from Canada. Karen had prepared a wonderful soup meal.
There were three men out back who had just installed a car port as per Stephan's order except that they were not told by their boss that Stephan had requested they come on a different day. Not only would he have been home on another day, but the ground might have been dried out a bit.

And wouldn't ya' know the big truck and loaded trailer got stuck in the mud. It took longer to maneuver the vehicles out of the ruts they dug than to build the shelter. After the meal we all went out to watch and help.
I had fun talking to the workers in Spanish and learned that they live in Warsaw and know my brother!

Tuesday morning I wrote and submitted the report on the Perry Meridian district competition before heading up to Winona Lake to visit my mother.
We had fun sharing, reading old letters, watching a couple shows together.

We invited Aunt Margaret to join us for breakfast in the dining room the next morning, Wednesday. We enjoyed the pancakes and smoky links, and had so much fun talking about the memories from the letters she wrote home in 1950 when they lived next door to us in La Carlota, a town in central Argentina.

In one letter she wrote, "Guess what we had to eat? Sam [my father's nickname] bought otter and gave us some. There is an otter farm near here."  Margaret said it was mild tasting, something like rabbit, but with a little wild flavor.
That is merely one small detail from the many interesting anecdotes. They help me remember and piece together a very distant early childhood, the year my brother Aldo was born.

La Carlota, 1950

Thursday, I saw that my article did appear in the SEGway News, in fact a whole page spread with more photos than I expected!

The milder weather has brought the bees out again, so the bee-man was out checking on them and feeding them some sugary concoction till they find enough flower food.

I suppose we will be as busy as bees this coming week looking forward to Indiana FIRST state-level competition. At the moment Team 1720 ranks very high, even at world-level. That is not to brag. I believe the drive team salute is very meaningful pointing to whom the credit belongs. 

Follow the event Friday and Saturday by going to http://indianafirst.org/events.