Swarm

There is a reason for the paucity of posts of late - we were preparing for and going on a pseudo-vacation. I say "pseudo" because poor JP was stuck in conferences all day and didn't get to play as much as the girls and I did. This is one of those times when Cyber School is really great: we packed up our lessons and took them along. We did some on the road, and some in our Hotel room...easy peasy.

Now we have returned, and are trying to return to some semblance of normalcy at home. The dogs were happy to see us, and we had been missing them.  They fell asleep almost as soon as we got home, and slept most of the day today, breaking to eat very little. I think they got worn out playing with all the dogs at Pandemonia Acres, where they stayed.

We were in Williamsburg, VA, and stayed at The Great Wolf Lodge.  They not only have an indoor water park there, but 4 floors of an interactive video game called "MagiQuest". We spent our days doing lessons in a hurry, playing in the water park, playing the game, and reading in our room. In the evenings, we went out for dinner, walked through an Outlet Mall (and found Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream), walked through Colonial Williamsburg (and found Haagen Dazs Ice Cream), and inadvertantly crashed a prom.

Obligatory Colonial Williamsburg pictures in the stocks...

On our way home, we stopped at the Frontier Museum in Staunton, VA, which is a favorite for all of us. They now rent electric golf carts to tour the grounds in. JP was thrilled to drive us around, and it allowed us to spend our time seeing ALL the exhibits, instead of walking to a few of the best ones before leaving.  Isn't it just GORGEOUS there? (This is the 1800's American farm.)

JP and the girls in the golf cart.

JP creeping through the tiny door in a house in the West Africa Igbo Village.

The gentlemen at the German farm, who always plays the Scheitholt for us.

A handsome cockerel at the German farm.

After our return home, we picked up all our random animals from my parents house: a goldfish and tadpole that the girls adopted the week before from a local nursery, and 3 dozen peeps.

These girls are Barred Plymouth Rocks, and should grow into handsome hens in a few weeks! (Picture courtesy of Wikipedia.)

Today we noticed bees swarming in great numbers around my perenniel garden.  (Click on the picture for a better view.)

They eventually settled on my Harry Lauder Walking Stick tree.

We called the Bee Man, who came out tonight to see if he could catch them.  They mysteriously disappeared while we weren't looking, but stayed several hours, clustered on my little bent tree.

My Father turns 70 tomorrow, so we took my parents out for dinner tonight. We came home for ice cream and pie made from the last of the sour cherries that I picked a year and a half ago.

Bzzzzzzy, bzzzzzy, bzzzzzy around here