Catch-Up Time

I've been home in North Carolina for five days, and I still feel like I'm catching up from my time away with my mother. Here are a few more pics from last Friday. My brother, sister-in-law, and a friend invited me to go on a brisk walk along the river trail in Renick, WVa. Only patches of snow remained, and it wasn't cold.

 A large tree had fallen in the path. They continued with their exercise, but I took this as my sign to rest a bit and turn back for a slow stroll toward the car.

 Here's a quick video of the spot:

Another brother came Friday night with his family for dinner. We're not the houseful that we used to be before so many of the children went off to school.

 The delight of the week for all of us was surely having my niece Kayren there. She's below, smiling in the middle -- what a lovely girl! We had interesting conversations together. 

 She didn't want me to take a close-up, I think, so I got a photo of her hair. Kayren has the most gorgeous, curly, thick hair.

 My nephew is among the younger of the crowd of 25+ cousins in my extended family. Anne enjoyed playing Battleship with him, but I think he was missing his cousins.

 Anne sets a lovely table always. February flowers:

 And she makes a fabulous blueberry pie.

 The drive home was very long, and in rain the whole way. I left at 4:30 a.m. and stopped often to check GPS/Google Maps. I was quite glad to pull into my own driveway and find very friendly faces like this one:

See that rope? She's saying, "Play rope, please. Rope says, 'I love you.'"

More in the next post of the watercolor cards I'm still doing -- so if you are mightily tired of seeing them, that's a hint to avoid the next post, haha. 

We've had two fairly warm, dry days and have worked hard in the garden. I have onions and peas up, and basil seeds started in the greenhouse. Spring is coming!