A Delightful Swim at Greenwood Furnace/Cool Bug

A few days ago, I received a notice in the mail from the township stating that my trees are a road obstruction, and that either we must trim them ourselves, or the township will do it. We decided to take care of it ourselves, so for three hours on Sunday, my husband and I trimmed trees.

We started around 8:15 and finished around 11:15, and we put chairs out in the road with orange stuff on them; I wore an orange hat to be visible. In those three hours, my husband mostly did the trimming and sawing and whacking, and I was the clean-up, drag-away, ladder-holder girl.

It was an unpleasant task, to be sure, and the last time I did such a thing was probably the last time a tree fell. It was hot and gritty work, and there were some Very Unhappy Bugs and Birds, who were critical of our efforts on all fronts. I frequently got sawdust in my eyes and down my back, in spite of wearing a hat.

When we were done, we put away our whackers and trimmers and saws and chairs and ladders. I swept the road, and I took some photos (should have thought to take BEFORE pictures too, but no). I was covered in crud from the trees, and when I stepped out of all of my clothes including my undies in the (empty) bathtub, dead bugs and sawdust fell out!!!!!

We had a quick lunch and headed for a swim at Greenwood Furnace. After last week's experience with Black Moshannon's swim area being closed, we will now CALL FIRST before expecting to go swimming anywhere. The bonus is that Greenwood Furnace is really cold and fed by fresh water, so it hardly ever has water quality problems, even in late summer.

The good news is that the water was chilly and delightful, and in spite of the fact that there were tons of cars and people (mostly hefty ladies carrying casseroles; and little kids complaining about how hot and how hungry they were), there was hardly anyone else in the water. So we had a grand swim and went home, refreshed. Above is a picture of the beach.

When I'd been participating in the tree trimming, I had found some cool pods and set them aside for the Moose and T. Tiger to play with. When I got home, I found that somebody ELSE had an interest in playing with them too. I believe it is one of the assassin bugs, and you may see that bug with its embarrassment of riches in the extras!

Now, I've got two photos, and I want two songs. One has to be about the cool water, and the other is for the cool bug. First is the Little River Band, with Cool Change. Second, for my assassin bug (which is not as mean as it is made out to be), here's Queen, with Killer Queen.