I started the day with a 6'ish roll out and then my usual's of a cup of hot green tea after my handful of vitamins and supplements, a few quiet moments with my LORD and then the postings of this ramble before a breakfast of oatmeal with a banana and honey. I'm off the cereal for awhile in hope's I may reduce this spare tire and the extra 5 pounds or so I carry around with me. I find it's most difficult to achieve this reduction as I mature especially as my taste buds find most everything pleasurable to eat, oh well.
I teamed up with neighbor Gerald and we headed off to Roaring Gap around 9:30 to meet up with Ted and Rick. The morning was somewhat overcast with a slight breeze which made for awesome play outside. We played hard for 2 plus hours with switching off partners and the points were fast and aggressive. We all walked away around noon with wet shirts and the feelings of a great workout. Playing outside at this venue is awesome with the smells from the woods that permeated your senses and with the exception of an occasional bee that was drawn to our sweat it was ideal.
After dropping Gerald off next door I headed up the drive. We were eating large later in the evening so it was a salad for lunch as we knew Kathryn would prepare a delicious feast and we were not disappointed. I headed down to the basement to rescreen a window screen that was damaged during the winter and then hand watered the gardens. We were still waiting for one of the rain showers that was in the forecast the past several days. Nancy and I took off on our daily hike to the top of the mountains and ran into our old friends John and Shirley. We haven't seen them much the past couple years as they were dealing with her aged mother and now John is getting over bladder cancer. He looked great and they caught the problem in the early stages with surgery and chemo. Shirley looked great as well and they have sold their large property and are about to move into a new house they had built in the Mocksville area.
We headed on across the top and saw Roddy and visited with him for a few before heading back down. We haven't seen him as much the past few years but a huge oak blew down over the winter nearly wiping out his shed and we discussed the possibilities of the how to remove the rest of the tree that threatens the power lines. After getting back to the cabin we rested on the porches while I actually read for an hour or so before getting ready to head out to Patrick and Kathryn's rental cabin they have rented for the summer.
Their rental is set up on a hill with a great view of the surrounding countryside. There are porches for both the upper and lower floors. The cabin is furnished with all the modern conveniences and is quite quaint. The setting is fabulous with the mountains in the distance. Kathryn did have a very tasty supper of roast turkey breast, smashed tater's, corn, dressing and gravy with crusty bread, yikes did I say I needed to eat only one helping but my taste buds deceived me again as I wasn't sure which entre tasted the best so I had to have seconds to decide. We watched the Belmont Race on the big screen T.V. while dining and was disappointed California Chrome failed to make the first Triple Crown winner in over 35 years. I was in agreement with his owners that only the horses that ran in the other 2 races should be allowed to participate in the third race. Why should a fresh horse be allowed to run when the other horses had races within weeks of each other, oh well.
We took another much needed hike down their steep drive and into the woods were we saw a couple of wild turkey's as we walked through the beautiful wooded area within the sound of a babbling brook. The water was cold from the brook. We seldom venture out to that side of Sparta and the ambiance was magnificent with the hard wood forest beside the Christmas trees that are grown for commercial purposes and the fireflies or as we call them lightning bugs are everywhere just about dusk. The trees alongside the cabin looked as it they were strung with blinking Christmas lights.
We sat outside enjoying the somewhat cloudy sunset but was still magnificent as Kathryn served a delicious strawberry shortcake until the dew started to fall. It was close to 10 before we got back to the cabin after an enjoyable evening with Patrick, Kathryn and his brother Howard who was visiting from Arizona. We had a grand time and look forward to many more this summer, LATER
