It's July???

We took Eliza to camp this week.  Camp! Summer camp! Holy wah, we are already there.  We got to giggling over the sign etched into the old brick school building in the tiny crossroads near the farm where her camp is being held.  Charm School. Indeed.  This camp, from the sound of it, is not exactly charm school, but more like a learn to milk a goat, muck a stall, make some butter kind of place.  She should be in heaven.

our awesome kid

We stayed in the same place we had when we visited in May, so there were old friends to reconnect with - Rosalie, the long swing, the horses...

The flies were really bothering the horses, so many of them had face masks, and the cheese-maker who also owns the horses gave them a vigorous brush-down during their evening stroll around the grounds.

(Yes, most of my photos are from the safety of a gazebo.  Shall we say that I have a healthy respect for the animal that is the horse? Yes. I like a safe perch from which to admire their grand beauty...)

goofy girls and - who IS that guy?

Eliza had a few days of cold feet last week.  She has planned for and dreamed of and saved for this camp for a year - she has read and re-read the brochure so many times she has "a typical day" memorized.  She is a farm girl at heart and everything we've heard about this place makes it sound so special, and the girls we met the night before drop-off were so excited - not to meet with kids they'd met previous years, but to be at the farm.  By the time we got to dropping her off Monday morning, she was so comfortable with the girls she'd met, and so very very excited that she went off happily with her bags, with no hesitation.  Wow.  Dan reassured me that this - this age, this confidence - is a great place for her to be right now, and he's right.

After drop-off we headed into Charm to walk around the Amish-owned shops (the arrows! the wood! the fabric!) and then on home.  Pick-up is on Friday...

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It wouldn't be July without blueberries, would it? Not around here...

On our way to pick, we saw signs of the storm everywhere.  This farm, on top of a ridge, was particularly hard-hit.  In the photos below you can see metal wrapped around a tree, and a barn that completely collapsed, sadly killing the two goats housed inside.

After berries we caught up with our friends - summer has a way of disrupting that regular hang-out routine - and tried some whittling.

And then, of course, it was the Fourth this week.  In our tiny town, that meant the four minute parade!! Yes, I'm exaggerating, but only by a few minutes...

First there are the pick-up trucks with local politicians and the sheriff.

There was a sweet surprise of some friends who interrupted the line-up of trucks, trucks, tractors, and trucks to pedal and walk their message down the main street.  I wish there were more of this...

And for a welcome break in the shower of candy pelted out of every window, this owner of the local bakery gave out sprigs of rosemary.  Ahhhhhh.....

We've got the shriners...

...and all of the emergency vehicles...

...yes, and the tractors...

(oooh! a roll of smarties, perilously close to the tractor wheel!!! the family next to us kept shrieking at their youngest child to stay back from all of the vehicles in her mad scramble for candy, and unfortunately she shares my name...it was really unnerving to keep hearing my name screamed over and over in high-strung panic!!)

We have the princesses...

And last, but not least, there were a few horses, gussied up a bit for the occasion.

Yup, that's it. What's that? Where was the music? The drums? The baton twirlers and the clowns? The crepe paper floats??? Yeah, it leaves a bit to be desired, but since there's nothing stopping me from putting together some class-act marching band, I should really not be complaining.  Hmmmm....we have another year here...maybe we should do our part to turn the four-minute parade into something more like a 10-minute parade...hmmmmmm.