In Which Darcy Is Kind To Squirrels

Several weeks ago, we went camping outside Brookings, OR, at a state park campground. It was a pretty cushy camping trip because every campsite had an electrical hookup. We took our aerobeds. There was this great snag at our site that Darcy enjoyed playing in. So did a squirrel as we were setting up camp.

When we went hiking the first afternoon, we walked under a lot of oaks with loads of acorns on the ground. The following morning, Darcy woke up quite early and I took her for a walk. Which she didn't want to do until I suggested we collect acorns to tempt the squirrel back to our tree. We took a bowl, she walked all the way back to the trail, we filled it up. On the way back, she kept talking about how she was going to fill up the squirrel's basket. And so she did:

There are a couple cups of acorns in that little nook, along with the leaves she kept putting in my pocket as we walked around camp and hiked the trail. She tried hard to be patient and watch from a distance to see if the squirrel would come get the nuts, but she just couldn't stay away:

Is This Cheating?

I don't really have energy to come up with a blog post tonight. I forgot to do this earlier and now I'm a little more than half asleep. Not good.

Darcy ended up choosing to be a very brightly colored rainbow from head to toe for her preschool pictures today, but decided against the fairy wings at the last minute. It will be interesting to see how they turn out. I'm sure one will show up here.

And that's really all I've got. I'll try to do something fun and exciting and illustrated tomorrow.

Photo Day Tomorrow!

Darcy's first class photos are being taken tomorrow morning and she is very excited. I foolishly asked her (on Monday afternoon) what she wanted to wear for the picture and she said, "Fairy wings!" I dutifully asked her teacher if she strongly objected to fairy wings for the individual picture (not the full class!) and she gamely replied that if we didn't mind, she wasn't going to object.

So today, Michael asked Darcy what she wanted to wear, and got the same response: "Fairy wings!" He pointed out that she had to wear some clothes with the wings and she named her rainbow striped pants and her "cake shirt", a peach shirt with various petit fours and cakes on the front. I think they go together reasonably well in terms of color, but the pants alone are busy on the eyes and a decorated shirt seems over the top to me. I am, however, willing to let her wear what she wants as long as it is weather appropriate.

But it doesn't jive with Michael's idea of good fashion. He is mulling over choices and is prepared to use the wings as bargaining chips to get his choice of clothes on our small fairy. In a few weeks, when the picture "package" (seven 8 x 10s! sixteen 5 x 7s! 49 wallet size! circles and arrows on the back of each one!) arrives at school, you'll get to see the results. Stay tuned!

Just One Of Those Days

You know the ones I mean. It's raining. And very windy. And kinda cold, even in my office that is usually hot. And the work was piled up to the ceiling and will be again tomorrow. It just wasn't my day.

Darcy, on the other hand, got to ride little belly-scooters across the big room at preschool as part of their "we're stuck inside" play plan. And we opened up a big box that came for her yesterday so that she could marvel at the three wrapped (and staying that way!) presents inside. I think she got as much enjoyment over petting the wrapping paper and talking about what might be inside them as many people get from the actual presents. She also (I'm putting on my proud-mama hat now) told me that the envelope said, "Darcy! D-A-R-C-Y -- Darcy!! That's for me!"

Early Spring on the Coastal Drive

Many months ago, we drove a long section of the Coastal Drive between Klamath and the Newton Drury Parkway. It is mostly dirt and often one lane in each direction. It is not heavily traveled and shows few signs of previous habitation. And then we came upon this bank:

Daffodils! My very favorite-est flowers! Daffies make me a very happy person, so we had to stop so I could take pictures of these feral, naturalized-for-who-knows-how-many-years lovelies.

And here's the great thing about the Coastal Drive. It is, as the name suggests, right on the coast for the majority of its length. So when I turned around to take a picture of the other side of the road, this is the view I captured:

Not too shabby, eh?

Don't Try to Bowl On Sundays

This morning, the rain was still coming down. We were planning to go to church because Darcy's preschool class was singing (her preschool is connected to the church) at the 11 o'clock service, but we needed something to do after that if it was still raining. After checking online to see if the bowling alley is open on Sundays (their website said YES, except in summer), we asked Darcy if she'd like to go bowling. We got a very enthusiastic response and so came home after she sang (with gusto!), had lunch, called to invite a friend to join us bowling, and off we went.

Not open. Most definitely not open and it's sign claims not open on Sunday in general.

We headed home to see if there's a bowling alley in Brookings(there is, but they didn't answer their phone, leading me to believe that they are also closed on Sundays) , but while I was inside making phone calls, Darcy set her own Plan B in motion: she fell asleep.

So Michael stayed in the car and read his book while I turned over the compost piles and raked leaves. Then we switched places until she woke up. We ended up doing not much of anything today other than learning that one cannot bowl on the Wild Rivers Coast on Sundays. So don't try it.

Rain, Rain, Rain

I'm home! It's raining!

I had a very swift day of traveling today -- starting at ridiculously early hours again. My flight to San Francisco was so early that we had to wait for the guy with the orange sticks to show up to roll the final twenty feet to the gate. Our pilot said that we had surprised them, being that we were an hour early.

A lot of our flight was in sunshine with scattered clouds, but as we got closer and closer to Medford, the western exposures were all cloudy, with valleys socked in by viscous fog much like that I drove through Wednesday morning. Luckily, most of my drive was pleasant, although very windy.

And now I'm exhausted and I'm done with today's post.