MOSTLY TREES

Neighbor Kermit has been hacking away at the maple corpse for two days now. He brought reinforcements today, one of whom said, "This tree is a whole lot bigger than I thought!" Yeah, well, DUH! I do not know how old it is yet, but I'm guessing at 60+ years. When it was first cut, the rings were not distinct but as it dries I'm beginning to see them. It's raining at the moment or I would rush out and count.





From what I understand, there used to be two of these sugar maples on either side of the sidewalk leading up to the house. One fell on the porch roof way back, maybe forty or more years ago. And once, there were five linden (basswood) trees lining the driveway but now there is only one pitiful survivor. Part of him fell on the shed two years ago, so his time is also nearing. The only thing holding his guts together now is a whole mess of english ivy. When this basswood blooms, (which it didn't this year,) the flowers smell so lovely and the scent hangs heavy in the humid air. At the moment, the northern catalpa trees are blooming. These trees are native to this area - southern Indiana and southwest to northern Arkansas - and they are also known as the cigartree because of its fruit. We are lucky to have several of these catalpas close by.

I didn't attend yesterday's Barefoot Spinners meeting, and now I am sorry because Nancy and Lynne (among others) were there. But it was very hot and I knew I would be miserable and no fun. I heard that Kathy has suffered numerous weird injuries over the weekend and that Carol and Debbie are both dealing with bad mojo. My heart goes out to you all!

Tomorrow I will be leaving for lovely Franklin, Indiana for the 2nd Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival. Lynne will be selling her hand dyed rug yarn for felted bags and I will be shilling knitting needles and assorted angora blends. Guess what I need to be doing this very minute instead of nattering on -- yes, getting my shit together and packing it. This is a sample shot of my blends.



In the morning, I have to attend not only the regular Laconia town counsel meeting at 9 am, but also a special executive meeting at 8!!! You all, I am barely coherent, not to mention civil, at that hour. Some of you may know why I have to attend - I AM THE CLERK/TREASURER OF LOVELY LACONIA. (Tell me, who thought this was a good idea?) I tried desperately to resign over a year ago. The rub being, though, is that the clerk/treasurer needs to reside within the town limits and there was no other sucker willing to take on the task. Remember our huge population? I don't want to go into the details of WHY I wanted to resign from a position that I initially loved and tried to do well for practically no pay. Let's just say that my perceptive doctor told me that I needed to. My workaround has been to hire a deputy to do the actual work and I mostly just sign the checks - and attend meetings. Sigh. I don't even want to think about it.