Communion

After a very pleasant evening in good company last night , we bid good-bye to our 'dinner group'  and even fonder good-byes to Sue and Terry who will be heading home to England tomorrow.  They promise to be back next year and we will hold them to it!  Sue made her famous fig appetizer with a big bowl of figs we had.picked from our tree in the morning. It was quite appropriate as it was cut open figs topped with a spoonful of honey from Dan's bees. Some feta cheese was added on top and they were popped into the oven for 15 minutes. Talented woman that she is, she also brought me a selection of cards made from her charming drawings which I'm sure will make an appearance here from time to time. Dan brought chicken sliders with little rolls (including gluten free ones) he made himself, Gail brought her famous artichoke dip, I contributed a Chinese Chicken salad and Terry made a lemon meringue pie.

After all that (or perhaps in spite of it) John and I both slept better last night and as the heat wave drags on, decided we really had to get ourselves and Spike out for a walk before it got too hot. John, on some kind of autopilot drove right past the familiar turn off to Spring Lake and the Spike Walk so we carried on to Howarth Park. Between the children's playground, the tennis and pickleball courts and Lake Ralphine the large parking lot was already full and by the time we walked from where we parked the car to the beginning of the trail around the lake I was ready to sit on a bench and watch a man fishing on the lake and an egret stalking along the shore amongst the ducks, while John carried on with Spike. *

We repaired to Trail House, which was also quite busy, and as we were somewhat illegally parked, I sat outside with Spike next to the car while John went inside to get our coffee. There was a woman there with her dog named Cooper who came over to suggest that she had a very large fenced back yard and wouldn't it be wonderful if we brought Spike over to play with Cooper. By this time, I was not functioning on a very chatty social level, but I accepted her phone number and listened to her verbal directions to her house, knowing I would forget them within minutes. John came back with our coffee at this point, and reunited after five minutes, Spike seemed to be exceptionally happy to see him again. I couldn't resist making this my main image for the day.

I am now seriously fading and contemplating a nap....

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