Hot Day For a Big Time!

One p.m. and it's hot here today! Gonna get even hotter today though in more ways than one though.

Sammy and I went for a walk earlier -left about 11:30 and got back to the sort of cool house about 12:15 and my lovely little pedometer says we walked 3.12 miles. For us to walk that far, in this heat, and stopping here and there to take some pictures too -we didn't make bad time at all!

Here's some of the things we saw today that interested me. Sam could have cared less about any of these except on item. Tell me when you finish reading this if you know what item he liked.

We walked down towards my favorite ghost town -Peale. Why am I so interested in this ghost coal mining town? Well mainly because when it was initially settled, my great-grandparents and six of their 12 children moved there with just about everyone else from the town of McIntyre, PA (another now ghost town down in Lycoming County) and they all came to Peale by train on a weekend in early October of 1884. Why did they all come at the same time? Mainly because these folks were employed by the coal mine -probably one belonging to the CBC Coal Company -and when a new mine was opened or another closed because it was mined out -often entire villages were moved out to other areas then.

So that's the main reason this ghost town fascinates me. Plus the fact I grew up hearing my grandfather and my uncles too talking about the early days in Peale, the mines in the area, the difficulty of the work and the dangers therein as well. And, anything my grandpa did -well that always held, and still does, my interest. (Yes, I was "Grandpa's Girl!" For sure.)
This picture above -taken from Peale Road -is where the electric line crosses the road and cuts down the hillside into the valley below. It's a scene that I find very pretty. Wish I could get a better shot of this but that's about the best my little camera can do.
This picture -taken from the same spot as the one looking down into the valley -is an overview of the valley and the mountain behind (and around) it. The Red Moshannon cuts through here approximately about in the middle section of this shot. Again, my camera isn't geared for trying to get good pictures from a distance like this but again, this is a view I really love seeing -the forest here, all green and beautiful.
As we headed back to the house I got some pictures that really interest me as this is something that maybe as early as next week we can go down there with some pails and come home with some freshly picked blueberries -or huckleberries -which is what we generally call these scrumpdelicious fat, blue berries that make into great pies and/or cobblers, maybe even jam for some folks!
Just another view of some more of those lovely huckleberries growing!
I've been watching the blossoms -pretty little white flowers -blooming for quite some time now along Peale Road and waiting, fairly patiently, to see some fruit begin to form. Still loads of blossoms for these plants alongside the road but today, finally, I saw this where there's actually some tiny little fruit beginning to form. Won't be long now -I hope -before we can also go down there and pluck that yummy fruit too -wild strawberries! Makes the best strawberry jam ever -if you're one who knows how to make that stuff, that is. My Mom and Grandma always went picking the wild strawberries to make that kind of jam -along with the other strawberry preserves they made from the berries in the big strawberry patch my Grandpa used to have way back when I was a little girl. (Yeah, a long, LONG, time ago, that was!)
I've been trying for a long time now over the past couple of weeks to get a picture of a butterfly but darned old Sammy always managed on those few occasions to startle the poor little things off and they'd fly away, out of my range.

Today, I hit it lucky though and got this shot as well as the next two pictures of this pretty little creature. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to try to hold a leash taut enough to keep one small dog fairly still long enough to catch a butterfly on film? Trust me, it's no easy task to perform!

Seeing this beautiful butterfly, so delicate, so graceful too in flight, reminded me of the big event in this area today.

My neighbor and life-long friend's youngest daughter is getting married this afternoon! Yep. Little Susan is getting "hitched" and Mandy and I are going to the wedding and of course, to the reception.

Kind of like the butterfly, getting ready to take flight, maybe? Well, not quite because Susan has taken "flight" if you will a couple of times already -high school graduation, college, work, more college but now maybe one could compare those other things, as small flights -a puddle-jumper perhaps for the first one, then maybe a commuter flight but now, she's ready for the big long flight on a jumbo jet perhaps.

Anyway you cut it, it's a big move, gonna be a big happy (and really hot) day for sure!

So here's to you, Susan and Ken. May this flight be as graceful as that of the little butterfly, as filled with lots and lots of interesting plants to visit and sights to see as that butterfly takes in too and may it bring you loads of huckleberries and wild strawberries too plus green valleys and lush thick pines, hemlocks, oaks and maples to keep your life bright, colorful and as free from strife as any marriage possibly can be.

Congratulations to both of you on this, your wedding day!