Beautiful summer weekend

In spite of the humidity, we've had beautiful weather these past couple of days.  The temperature has been in the mid-90's (which isn't bad compared to the past two years of temperatures above 110 at this time!) and we've been able to spend some time outside.  There is a cool breeze that sweeps past us on the front porch as we sit in our rockers and listen to Eric Clapton on the CD player, drinking raspberry lemonade over ice.  That was after an afternoon of driving through town (Watonga) in the Desoto with our guests from Tulsa.  David and Christi were here to hike at Roman Nose State Park in training for a trip to Spain next year to walk the Camino de Santiago. They rose early to have breakfast before hitting the trails at Roman Nose Park. 

Andy spent the morning mowing yards in town.  More and more people are starting to take care of their yards by mowing and clearing away weeds and trash and the town is looking better, though there are still a lot of dilapidated buildings that need to be torn down.  Mowing the weeds and tall grass in the yards of those houses just serves to reveal the blighted condition of the buildings. But in another week the weeds will be grown back up to hide the buildings.  

 In town we stopped at the Whirlwind Winery and introduced them to Brad and Don, proprietors.  I think Christi liked Brad's Wild Sand Plum wine best.  Brad told us that next weekend is harvest day.  Don had brought in some clusters of grapes from the fields to show off, and they were beautiful.  

Our new friends left the Retreat right after a breakfast of rosemary bacon and French toast with cinnamon apples.  Andy and I went to church services and I reflected on how meeting new people and sharing our retreat with them renews my faith that we are where we are supposed to be.  All of the children are back in school, both locally and in college, so most families are back from vacation.  We have a new minister at the Methodist Church and he is full of new enthusiasm, not only for our congregation but also for the community.  I was able to put out of my mind the upcoming battle with the City, if only for a little while.