And one more flora shot

I think I kept mowing over these last year and we never saw the blooms. Three 8 inch clumps in three different places in the back yard. The leaves by themselves look dangerously (for them) like wild onions, so I whacked them down every chance I got. we haven't taken time to look up in the garden books to see what they are; feel free to weigh in with your opinions.

This year, Libby begged for mercy to see what they might do. Low and behold, they have really pretty, dainty flowers. Still looks like a weed, but I've transplanted them to one mower-safe locale.

More flora

I don't remember how ferns got connected to my dad so firmly in my mind, but they are forever linked. I seem to recall him being fascinated with them especially when they were in their very early stages of leafing out. We saw this last year, long after it had sprung up. I remembered it this year early and have been keeping an eye on it. I think we caught this plant at the perfect "fiddlehead" stage of leafing out. (Ignore the weeds.) Enjoy, Dad!

Flora

Last summer at our open house Charlotte S. and Betty H. gave us a gift certificate for peonies from their yards when transplanting time rolled around in fall. We transplanted 10 plants over winter. They all seemed to survive. We also discovered this spring an unusual (to us) variety of peony that did not bloom last year. Three nice blossoms this year. Several of the plants that Charlotte and Betty gave us have buds, though none have bloomed yet. We'll update when they do.

The Confraternity of Derby Dads and Boys

Rod Dreher (aka the Crunchy Con) shares his experience with getting ready for his son's Pinewood Derby.

He then posted this summary. Power to ya, bro'!

Then he shares this follow-up with a long response from another of his readers.

Finally, there was this nice article in the Greensboro N&R forwarded from Uncle David.

The number of comments is testimony to how many of us approach Derby Day with enough baggage to fill the Hogwarts Express. Libby and joked that I, like Rod, would probably be better qualified to teach a proper Bechamel sauce than anything involving wood and tools. My dad remembered building a few cars with me and Greg; no idea where they ever wound up. He was a far better craftsman than I'll ever be; I'm sure those old cars looked great and won lots.

Rainbows

Tuesday was a turbulent weather day. It rained hard most of the day and there were strong winds later in the day. There were tornado watches in places the next county over. At dusk though, the sun broke through the clouds way off to the west. It was enough to create this double rainbow near us. One end was just across the interstate and east of us. The other end was just up the hill from us in the Kerlee Heights area. We took 5 pictures in all.

Derby Day

Eli had Pinewood Derby today. When I asked him if he wanted a car that looked cool or one that would win, he said he wanted both. Of course.

He selected an ambulance; Eli was most impressed with the word ambulance on the hood of the car, reversed just like in real life, so it reads correctly in your rear-view mirror. It looked pretty cool, and it did okay in the races.

Eli came in third in his den (Webelos). He raced 4 times and placed 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st. His fasted time was 2.48 seconds, an equivalency of 199.3 mph.

It was enough to allow him to move on to the Council race (first time Pack 50 has ever participated in that), one of ten boys to move on. It will be a race with 300 cars. Pray for us!

New Look

Snip, snip, snip went the scissors and 4 years of fuzz fell to the floor. Briggs had his first big-boy haircut in 2006 with Miss Elsie in Richmond. But he had not had anything done to his hair since then and dad had grown weary of the moppy look. Miss Kim took a couple of snips last month, but yesterday was a major whack job. Briggs did great in the chair, having watched dad and Eli get haircuts for years. He's pretty pleased with the results!