We’ve been having camp for a solid 10 years now, can you believe it? The grandies were so little, one not-yet-born, and we were go-go-go to the zoo, the museum, New Harmony, Henderson fests, downtown extravaganzas, and movies. Back then, Melissa would ship Emma here for a month, usually in June; once Eliza was about 3, she came, too. Melissa would show up and stay a week, a couple of times we went to Disney at the end of their visit. Irish Dance began to take up more of their time (National competitions are always July 4) and the visits were moved to two weeks, end of July-first weeks of August.

We’ve all gotten older now and our time together is more precious. The highlight of the New Yorkers’ visit is the morning run to Donut Bank for strawberry milk and French crullers, with the evening bed-time ice cream snack a close runner-up. The grandies changes have been faithfully recorded on the wall as they grew, but there’s so much more to them than their height and that growth can only be observed, as each year two different kids visit me, though still powered by the same sweet souls I have always known.

Of course, we painted birdhouses and canvases, shucked corn and snapped green beans for a picnic, but our Big Project was to restore our old Signs. The older Words had seriously faded, so we used some bright markers to bring them back alive…

Here’s an example of how faded they had become…

Ten Signs, ten years of growing hands and important Words…

You have to take the funny face pictures…

I’ve got more pictures for the movie and I’ll be working on that, but the house and gardens have required my attention. While the kids were here, we had a big storm that blew down several large tree limbs and one large tree. Casey has the limbs cleaned up, but the trees were old and it will take a while.

In the meantime, Now the weather is perfect and outside is where I’ll be…

Peace