Senator Ted Kennedy "Teddie"

I am 60 years old; yet, I can still remember the crazy 70's when I was a young adult, a new community social worker, full of passion and belief in change. I had friends who worked for Ted Kennedy, and they all spoke about working 15-16 hours/day, simply because they believed in his causes and him as a person. They all reported that he wanted every detail of the research and his mind for these details and sources was impeccable.

I worked for elderly persons in the Boston community. When Senator Kennedy came to town, thousands of elderly people were bussed to Boston to speak to Senator Kennedy about their concerns and needs. The hundreds of buses that clogged Beacon Hill were a testament to this man's charisma and following.

When I took my bus load of "elderly" to the building, I was able to watch these proceedings. Senator Kennedy would stand in the front with a microphone while people asked him questions. He answered each question respectfully. Periodically, he would ask, "Do you trust me? If you do not, then I will quit this job, because without your trust, I am nothing." These amazing people stood cheering, clapping and weeping.

Despite the fact that his brothers had both been killed, he stood in front of this huge crowd all alone. It was amazing.

Teddie, rest in peace, and hopefully enough of us still believe in your causes. Thank you for the many Kennedy Bills that have made the lives of millions better. What will we do without your tremendous dedication.

More Creatures Bridge and Sunset in Mountains

This has been a summer of creatures in the mountains. Of course, the hummingbirds are the most important, but the other uninvited guests have certainly been ever present....the snakes, the bat, the birds clogging the vents! Now some new ones, whatever they are, they seem to eat fruit.

gross green bug eating a tomato

gross orange bug eating grapes

Beautiful Monarch Butterfly

The project that consumed some of us, was to sweeten the Beech Builders up in order to persuade them build a little bridge to make access to Sara & David and Judy & Gail's house easier. Well there it is, and very cute at that! Complete with little hand written signs, it graces a little tiny creek that supports the water supply. At the end of the day, the beauty of the sunsets make the mountains one of the most special places in the world!

Completed Bridge Bridge under construction

Hmmmm Russell Dog sunset

And what sunsets we have here in the mountains!

Weeks in the mountains

Ok, these halcyon days have been anything but! I really thought that I would work, weed, admire the hummingbirds and flowers and have a glass of wine at the end of the day. I also planned to wash all the windows (ha) and be a really well read person by the end of the day.

The wine thank goodness has been plentiful. The hummingbirds are loyal (all about 200) as long as I have the feeders filled. They are in fact mad right now because their favorite feeder, which they drain in one day, is now nearly empty and they have to stick their little beaks way down to get the nectar out. How troubling is that for these birds, perhaps I will not feed them today! Sadly, the daylilies are nearly past, but the other flowers are happy with all the rain.

Stella Doro Salmon Fragrant Late Daylily

Black Eyed Susan Butterfly Bush and moth

Bee Balm

The other aspects of the summer however have been time consuming and not much fun. First, it was the "copperhead" in the basement. John happily took care of that snake, and the debate is on about its' true identity. Most people are agreeing that it is a rat snake but all have the peculiar question about "did you look at its' eyes to see if they were round or slitted. Hmm, that would not have been in my mind as something fun to do.

Next, I found a small snakeskin in the loft and it was lying right next to the folded up crib of my beautiful young granddaughter. Horrified, I threw it out, but made the mistake of telling daughter Chrissy about it and swearing her to secrecy. Immediately she put the picture on her blog and her terrified sister saw it and pondered the wisdom of visiting grandma and grandpa in the mountains with the afore mentioned beautiful granddaughter.

A few days later, a bat suddenly started flying around the INSIDE of the house. I opened the doors and hoped that it had flown out. But the next night around and around it flew. I took a broom and tried to encourage it to go out, but it would have none of the doors. It seemed to want to alight at the highest place of the house. I managed to budge it but that only meant that it flew with greater flurry around and around. Doors open, lights outside on. Perhaps it left.

The following day, I was talking to my sister-in-law and she told me that I should look at the beams to see if there were a sign of the bat. What I found instead was a very long snake skin hanging from the beam (still in the loft where the granddaughter had been). I really felt that my tolerance was being tried for some unknown past indiscretion. I called the pest control man who came a few days later and began to instruct me on all the holey places that we have in the cabin which let mice in, lady bugs in, snakes in, bats in, birds in, and whatever living creature should dare to enter in. He gave me a list of things to purchase and fix. I purchased, caged, covered, pushed steel wool in, and satisfied that I was no longer in impending danger, bragged that the house was tight.

That very night the bat returned. He was clearly in good form. He made lots of noise, flew all over the house, and looked for a way out. I turned on the outside light, locked the kitty in my room, and opened the door yet again. The day had been stormy and cold so no windows were open. The bat kept flying for the windows, so I opened them and suddenly it flew into one of the open windows. Quickly I closed the window but there I was. Daughter Chrissy helpfully said that I needed to get the screen open, but that would have required opening the window and the bat had now turned over to look straight at me. Chrissy was helpful in telling me to get something flat and push the screen open. A spatula partially did it and when I went out and pulled the screen off (in terror I might add as this particular bat looked just like a draclea). The bat fell to the porch with its wings fully expanded. Within seconds it flapped up and away into the night looking exactly like all the draclea's (Chrissy's pronunciation) I have ever seen in movies.

Am I free? I hope so. This has been an eventful few weeks.