More Things I Did in Bloomington

I ate as many Indiana tomatoes as I wanted (which was a ton).

I saw a flock of egrets on the mud flats at Lake Griffy.

I went to the Farmer House Museum in downtown Bloomington, which was so cool!

And saw their amazing collection of hats.

My friends TammyJo and Emilie invited me to a burlesque show, and I tried to find something vaguely retro-looking to wear.

Mom and I hiked along the bluffs overlooking "Lake" Griffy.

We saw gorgeous green moss.

Amazing shelf fungus.

And this mysterious blob, which I thought might be a bryozoan colony or a jelly fungus. Mom didn't think it looked like either of those things. Someone needs to go back to investigate further!

We had a wonderful time seeing Brenda, Will, and Chacko.

And we had fun just hanging out at my parents' house.

Bloomington, Round 2

Our second week in Bloomington was lovely. I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to see as much as I wanted to see them because I got a sinus infection and also bronchitis. But I did get to spend some time with all of these guys, and it was fantastic.

The Very Belated Birthday

You know what the best way is to surprise someone with birthday presents? It's to wait almost two months after the actual birthday.

That's how David and I surprised his mother for her birthday. We had such a fun time getting together all of the presents, and David did a great job of wrapping them all.

Here are some of them, including a picture of us that Jennifer took at the beach. Happy belated birthday, Ann!

The View From my Recliner

I've spent most of my time in Hillsville sitting in a recliner and recovering from this virus. Fortunately, there are lots of beautiful flowers to look at. (These marigolds are just outside the door.)

 From the recliner, I can see lots of gorgeous arrangements of flowers in pots. Above them are birdfeeders and a birdbath. I've seen lots of birds, including an indigo bunting! And a huge crow comes to take a vigorous, splashing bath every day.

Hummingbirds love this hanging plant. It's been great entertainment for me to watch them fly around it and drink out of each individual flower.

The Bamboo Bookcase

So I've been sick with a virus almost the entire time we've been in Hillsville. I started a book blog to help entertain myself while I'm getting over this illness, based on the kind of books represented on this bookcase. (The bookcase is in my parents' house, and the picture in the center is my grandmother.) These are wonderful old books for girls, and they are now all in the public domain, which means that you can get them all as free ebooks. If you like book reviews, especially of girls' novels from the late 19th/early 20th century, you should check out the Bamboo Bookcase!