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!

What I Ate and With Whom

I ate a perfect egg cooked by Dad for Sunday brunch.

It was one of these beautiful blue-green farm eggs.

I ate this amazing lunch cooked by Jennifer in Indianapolis.

Still pretty impressed by how she made the summer rolls. Mine never look that good!

Also, there was homemade coconut-milk ice cream.

I ate another memorable lunch with Mimi and Mom at the Scenic View.

Which does have a lovely scenic view of Lake Monroe.

And I ate dinner with Nola at Feast, which is now one of my favorite restaurants.

I ate the best gazpacho of my life there.

This lemon bar was my dessert.

The Historic Tour of Louisville

Mom took me on a day trip to Louisville to see some of the sites from my family's history. We saw houses where my great-grandparents and other relatives lived, and we visited this house, where Mom and Dad had their first apartment after they were married.

We had a traditional picnic in Cherokee Park.

Then we went to Cave Hill Cemetery, and I fed the geese and ducks.

Some of the geese were terrifying.

I loved seeing all of the little details on the monuments.

Look how intricate the carving is!

And someone even built a classical temple there.

Visited by Kittens

Nola brought over two of her foster kittens, Bobby and Bonnie, for a visit!

At first they were just blurs dashing around the living room. (That blur on Nola's shoulder is a kitten.)

Then they started playing with everything.

 This kitten, Bobby, has incredible eyebrows and whiskers.

 Eventually the kittens crawled into our laps and let us pet them.

And they really loved Granddad.

Helen

A few days ago, David and I lost someone we loved very much: David's aunt Helen.

With Friends

I'm trying to see my friends as much as possible while I'm in town. First I went to lunch with Jennifer.

We went to this completely insane antique store. It was a warehouse piled to the ceiling with weird and cool furnishings: fantastic mid-century tables and chairs, mannequins, huge astrological globes, light fixtures shaped like enormous blimps, a chandelier larger than my entire living room, and -- of course -- sharks with real shark teeth hanging above our heads.

Then David and I spent some time with Mimi, Nola, Mom, Dad, and Granddad.

It wasn't really my birthday, but Mimi brought me a birthday tiara to wear anyway.

 And I made another version of my birthday cake, this one with raspberries instead of blueberries. I think I may be making this cake everywhere we go on our summer trip, so that everyone can try it.

 We sat in the living room and chatted, and then we played an exciting board game (which we all lost).

We went swimming, and then we talked some more. I'm hoping that I will get to see everyone again before I leave.