Poem for Sunday and Huntley Meadows

Summer Sun
By Robert Louis Stevenson

Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven without repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad,
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles,
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy's inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes.

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We had a lovely Saturday with magnificent weather and lots of company! Adam had cross country practice in the morning, so the rest of us hung out, had breakfast and did some reading. After lunch we picked up my parents and went to Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, where we saw more snakes than I have ever seen in a single day before, plus many frogs, turtles, dragonflies, butterflies, skinks, herons, egrets, and other animals. I can't overstate how gorgeous the weather has been for August -- not hot, not humid -- and even though the park is under construction because humans have to reinforce the dam that makes the wetlands possible now that the beavers have moved elsewhere, it's quite beautiful with all the hibiscus and cattails growing everywhere:


Water Snake


Green Frog


Great Blue Herons and Other Birds


Dragonfly


Yellow-Eared Sliders and Other Turtles


Owl Butterfly


Parents, Kids and Turtles


My Family By Mom

We came home so Adam could walk the neighbor's dogs, then we went to Tara Thai to meet Sharkie and her husband, with whom we'd had assorted plans that kept getting shifted based on our crazy schedules. We were all very hungry after all the walking, so the three of us who eat vegetarian food shared tofu and noodle dishes while the seafood eaters had that. Then we walked outside, where a band was playing singalong summertime cover songs (Journey, Bryan Adams, "Sweet Caroline," "Walking on Sunshine," even some pretty good Adele) and where there was a huge turtle in the lake. After we all went to Lilly Magilly's for cupcakes, my family came home and watched the Jets-Jaguars and the Broncos-Seahawks games while Adam played us terrible internet jokes.