Zoo Talk: Trip to Mom's

I took a little trip to visit my Mom, Sister, and Brother-in-law last weekend. I arrived there on Sunday evening, just around suppertime and stayed until Wednesday evening. I make this kind of trip once a month. My heart wants to go more often and for more days, but I have to work to pay bills which means many days away from them.

I always find rest and relaxation on the visits. I need that. My job is fairly stressful at times so I really need the down time.

While there, we went to an outdoor movie over at the college in their town. We saw "Secretariat", which is a very fine movie. I highly recommend it. The weather, though warm, wasn't unbearable. Sis provided snacks of home made trail mix and ice cold bottled water.

One night we played rounds of Skip-bo, Mom's favorite card game. It's a simple game but fun to play. Luck wasn't really with me as far as winning, but I don't even care. For me, it's more about the conversations around the table than the game itself.

Tuesday, Sis and Brother-in-law headed to another town for a visit with family members and shopping. Mom and I spent the day mostly working on a jigsaw puzzle, which we completed that evening. I enjoy the puzzles and it's something I do while there. I don't set one up at home because of lack of space but also because it's something I can look forward to while visiting them.

We did get a couple of strong storms while I was there. One woke everyone up in the wee hours of the morning with a loud clap of thunder. I'm guessing there was a lightning strike nearby, maybe in the patch of woods near Mom's house. The heavy rain was welcomed, though, as the state has been experiencing drought conditions through part of June and all of July.

When I got home, Son told me it stormed here, too. The soil is still quite damp, but that's ok. It's helping my little garden patches. The turnips, lettuce (two kinds), radishes, collards, spinach and cucumbers that I planted before I went to visit Mom are already sprouting. I planted the cukes in old hay bales and I think that's going to be a success for the fall. Beans and peas are blooming like crazy so soon I'll have those to pick. After having so much other garden stuff fry in the heat, it's good to see things growing well.