Laughter in the night.

I've not said a lot about this latest venture of taking the last child off to college.

Largely, because it's sort of side swiped me and I'm not sure what to say... most days.

Perhaps we'll discuss that a different day.

But the experience has gone to prove that old adage that every child is different than it's siblings and hence you must react differently as a parent.

Now, this is not to say that things aren't going well... they are, but one of the differences is that he's been home both weekends that have comprised his college career so far.

Last night, quite late, he came grinning through the door... and regaled us with tales of the week and all that entails.

And then, really quite late, from my bed,  I could hear the laughter of two brothers... one of whom just graduated from the same institution and one, who's career there has just started.

Low, adult male voices, serious by turns and then the laughter... until the early hours,,, when I drifted off to sleep.

Oh, preciousness ... this sibling love.

Regardless of how busy I find myself, I've nearly always got my camera in my pocket.

While uploading the photos, I realized that the photos were sort of an essay in and off themselves.

I made myself a birthday apple pie... cute.. huh?

Young 'jakes' in the early morning, out for a stroll.

A celebration to honor those who fought and those who died in the American Revolution.

A frequent reminder that people still die for our freedom today...

And I caught my favorite fellow, rocking and reading on a Saturday afternoon...

August

So, here I sit on the eve of my fifty-first birthday...

taken quite by storm of having the last child leave home this week for college...

I will admit to the house being much too quiet, just now.  But we'll adjust, as we always do.

Physically, I am rather very tired of the extreme heat of the summer and looking forward to a few things.

... the fall garden, which begins to be my 'favorite' gardening season, while there's still warmth and sunshine to get things growing to carry into the late fall and after the crisp toastiness of the summer has worn off.

Gardening is so very different now than just a few years ago... we practice a 'graze' style harvest...

Instead of picking huge bushels and baskets and canning and freezing, I find myself living more seasonally.  I head to the garden and pick 6 collard leaves and 3 tomatoes and a single squash and make a pasta sauce... just enough for a meal.  A hand full of peppers, a small onion and a zucchini, tossed in with a chicken breast and some white wine or lemon juice also make a  nice pasta sauce.  A hand full of basil or two twigs of rosemary... two fresh hen eggs and a ripe tomato.

I've had to force myself to work on knitting projects for a knitting class of very special women at my church.  I love teaching others to knit, but simply haven't wanted to knit anything at all in the heat.  I look forward to cooler weather when sitting and knitting 'feels' right and the race gets on to make some new caps in advance of winter's chill.

I realized that it's been weeks since I sat on the porch... so long, in fact, that when I sat in the rocker over the weekend, it was 'dusty' and dirty from lack of use.  So it's time to dust off the rockers on the porch and rock a spell.

I look forward to planning Thanksgiving and seeing friends and loved ones gather in for what can only be described as a very rambunctious affair.  It's a highlight for me, and I very much look forward to it.