Sven Loves Danger Girl

Found in Claytor Lake State Park, Dublin, Virginia.

We are in the beautiful Shawnee State Park in Pennsylvania. When I took Max for a walk this morning this old tree stump caught my eye.

It is covered in little nut or seed shells as though the squirrels were collecting their cast-offs after a long night of binging acorns.

Miss you Mom! I love you ❤️

Here is a poem about friendship. I think it applies just as well to my Mom…

Friendship
Oh, the comfort —
the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person —
having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words,
but pouring them all right out,
just as they are,
chaff and grain together;
certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them,
keep what is worth keeping,
and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

Dinah Maria Craik (1826–87)

We are driving through the Midwest just as the trees are budding and it seems like an extraordinary number of them are covered with blooms. They are just beautiful. I saw this tree growing on the campus of Paul’s alma mater, Spring Arbor University in Michigan.

Coincidentally I just read this very pleasing poem about budding cherry trees.

A Shropshire Lad 2: Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
BY A. E. HOUSMAN

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

Outside a local eatery in South Haven, Michigan, we saw this group of behatted merrymakers.

Paul thought they were probably decked out in honor of today’s Run for the Roses, the 144th Kentucky Derby.  In addition to the hats, I like to think they toasted today’s winner, Justify, with icy cold Mint Juleps.

We spent a few days in Forest City, Iowa. On a trip to the local grocery store, in the prepared foods department we found these two unusual salads…

Snicker Salad, made with Snickers Bars

and Keebler Cookie Salad.

The very friendly grocery store employees had a good sense of humor about it and encouraged us to try a sample. We tasted the Keebler Cookie Salad. I’d say it was more pudding than salad. But if we call it salad it sounds healthy, right?

We visited an historic fort in Oklahoma near Durant.  Naturally we planned our visit on a day that the Visitors Center was closed. But we enjoyed walking around the grounds. I particularly loved this old log cabin with it’s chinking and hardware.

A sturdy metal ring to tie your horse up?

A pretty fossil cleverly embedded in the chinking…

Found in the grass, Durant Oklahoma. Seems like a pretty fancy olive set-up to be chucked out onto the ground.

In Glen Rose, Texas. They have all the standard flavors and then one mysteriously called “Barbie”. It’s a mix of strawberry and “wedding cake”.

This pretty gate is just up the road from us on Highway 46. I’ve been driving by the gate for the last 13 years. Every spring it has a pretty vine growing on it.

It makes me think of the dirt road that led us to my Grandparent’s farm near Fort Worth. So the gate feels like a childhood memory to me.

It may look nothing like my Grandparent’s farm. But in my mind it does.

I stopped today to take this picture so that I can ask my Dad.