Back to Nature Walks

Harrison is our mail retriever. 

He brings in the local paper on Thursdays and proceeds to read me the news like a little old man. 

I love that we have a local paper. We regularly see names we know. Phillip sometimes shows up in the Yesteryear section. 

I am realizing that you can't hide out in a small town. The newspaper guy has shown up at times with a camera, and I wasn't really prepared for pictures that might show up in a paper. 😬 If you're going to an event in a small town, you might want to comb your hair and prepare to see people you know.

We finally made it on a nature walk in Missouri. This is something we'd gotten into a habit of doing before moving, but I hadn't yet made it to any place around here that had hiking trails. We prepared for an afternoon at Mark Twin State Park, and I was very pleased with the trails there. It's really not that far away ~ maybe 20 minutes or so. We used to drive 40 minutes to go to nature trails in Boerne, TX. Of course there were also some closer to our house. Maybe we'll find some closer ones here too. 

The kids were good about humoring me. I think they actually enjoyed it a little. I'm the one who loves hiking, but they didn't complain this particular afternoon. 

I texted Elizabeth a picture and she said, "I probably would have loved to take the raft out there." That's about right. I'm glad she made it through her raft/water phase without drowning.

These boys have a typical brother relationship. They mostly get along, and they are so funny to watch when they tease each other.

The trees in our yard coming up out of dark pools of dirt reminded me of the pools in The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia). Do you remember those pools that you jump into to enter different worlds? 

Harrison suggested I take my walk across the newly harvested bean field, so I got a picture of the house and sunset from the East this time instead of the usual South.

Three Ashfords in a row. 

Paul, Phillip and Jonathan: their middle names are all Ashford. Ashford Gore was the first Gore to settle around here, I believe.* 

Phillip has good plans for spiffing up the front porch. He took down the wrought iron railing yesterday. It really opens up the porch! He's going to work on putting white posts up soon. Then figure out why the porch lights won't work and put new light fixtures up. And paint over the porch and so on. I'm so excited to see how it turns out!

* Ashford settled in Palmyra and eventually moved to Center. James Henry Gore came and settled in this area. Ashford is buried in the Vandalia cemetery though.