12 July 2009

Our neighborhood association decorates for the 4th of July by planting flags around the neighborhood.  After the holiday, Abe, Helen and Gibson helped gather the flags.  They raced each other to see who could get the most flags and made a cute procession marching down the street with as many flags as they could carry.  Abe was too busy grabbing flags to stop for picture taking.  In the photo are Helen and Gibson. 

Friday morning we went to help our friend, Zachary, with his Eagle Scout project.  He organized planting a hummingbird garden at a local park.  Zachary is the boy in the back of the photo in a scout shirt.  Abe is helping Eric fill a wheelbarrow with bark dust to spread on top of the newly planted garden.

Gibson and Sophie picked up clods of dirt after the flowers were planted.  We had great fun helping with the project.  The garden is a beautiful addition to the park and we look forward to watching it grow.

So much for cayenne pepper deterring cats.  Our neighbor's cat dug up 3/4 of Helen's vegetable garden, leaving a clump of zinnias and a couple of beets.  Helen and Brandan replanted the rest of the bed with carrots and more flowers.  We ate the beets this weekend in the tinfoil dinners we took camping.  They were beautiful chiogga beets- delicately striped and completely delicious.  Drat that cat!

We went on an overnighter this weekend to a little campground along the Rogue River.  Other campers serendipitously left their campsite just as we arrived and we scored a large campsite that backed up against Elk Creek.  Favorite memories of the weekend: Sophie catching minnows and crawdads, Gibson throwing stick after stick into the fire and calling "That's a good one!" after each one, Brandan skipping rocks across the creek so fast that they looked like tiny motor boats, Helen's hot chocolate goatee Saturday morning, Abe's zest for exploring, Becky's tasty food.