Family Time Wraps Up

It was so difficult to come away from family at the end of this break. My sons and their wives were great to see, but the grandsons stole the show. Pictured is Caiden Ashley Hughes, aged 11 months, and pretty much excited about every discovery the world has to offer.

Certainly one of the funniest was arming Caiden with the garden hose and watch him spray to the dog that enjoyed the powerful stream of water. Who enjoyed this more? Marc, his father and me? Caiden shouting and laughing? The dog, barking, jumping, and trying to bite the stream of water? It was 5 minutes of magic.

As Caiden and his parents move to the Dominican Republic for the 2010-2011 school year, I will miss them all. It doesn't seem right not to see them for almost 12 months. Not right at all.

Different Beauties

The San Juan mountains offer beauty from afar, red sun setting or rising over gray mountains. Yet there is beauty all around. Erwins have a beautiful rose bush in their garden, needing care and daily water, but producing such soft and delicate beauty.

Nursing flowers in this dry, sunny climate requires special selection and care. I chose some I thought looked good in the greenhouse. My selections have a mixed review of life. The sun cooked the poppies in 2 days, reducing them to a wilted mass with a spot of color. The others, I'm not sure the name of the yellows, have done very, very well in the long, direct sunlight. Next summer when we choose flowers for our own deck, we'll certainly avoid the poppies and go more to the gold ones. I guess I'd better figure out their name, eh?

Long Light = Evening Enjoyment

When the work is done for the day, the sun is still high in the sky. When energy permits it is great to get out and into the environment for some recreation. The golf course is a great place to go for an hours putting, with who buys coffee the outcome of competition. Mosquitoes discover we're there about dusk, and decide to make us their evening meal, so we head in quickly when the sun goes behind the mountains.

Work on the house goes well, as the paint splotches on my hands and work clothes would indicate. It is amazing how much time it takes to prep a room for repainting, then putting it together after the task is done. Putting color on the wall seems to be nothing compared to the work surrounding it.

Durango art and craft fair today. This will be great wandering.

Durango's Steam Train

Four times each day the Ironhorse steam engine leaves Durango, destination Silverton, high in the mountains. I've taken the train a couple of times, and enjoyed both bright blue sky and gray rain, but the people aboard the passenger cars are happy and communicative. Great rides.

Summer is passing, July already. With the necessity of traveling back to Jakarta on the 28th of this month, the abbreviated summer holiday seems to be slipping through my fingers rather rapidly.

Despite the quickly passing summer, our end of day statement before we went to sleep last night: "It's really hard to remember all the great things that happen each day."

Pretty happy.