Books and Dreary Days!

Greetings, comrades! I hope you all are well. Though Monday and Tuesday were both very hot and humid, the majority of this week has been cold and rainy. On Tuesday afternoon, thunderstorms rolled in, and it has been either pouring or sprinkling ever since. Today, we thought it might be fun to go to a local book sale and see what they had there.

I came home with quite the haul!

I waddled over to my bed...

...Where I threw the heavy books down.

I stepped over to the bureau, where some of my books and magazines were sitting.

I slid those onto my bed as well.

Now that my bed had a ginormous pile of reading material sittin upon it, it was time for me to sort through and stack it all.

I placed them largest to smallest.

I hoisted them up and put all of them on top of the bureau. 

I squished them together and put a piggy bank at one end so they would all stay straight and upright.

Voilà!

I stood back and admired my work. I grabbed one of the books from the stack, plopped down on my bed, and read for the greater part of the afternoon.

Book sales are so fun! There are so many books to sift through, and you never know quite what you'll find. They're also especially great for rainy days! Do you like to read? Have you ever been to a book sale? How do you pass the time on a rainy day?

This has been Dani, dabbling in the purchase and organization of books on rainy days. Over and out!

Summertime Adventures!

G'day, friends of the interwebs! It's been so hot these last few days. Today, it was nearly 90 degrees fahrenheit, with 60% humidity! I've been sweating buckets! Since we don't have a pool, and I didn't feel like hooking up our sprinkler, I decided I would do the next best thing. So, I packed a little bag, and trekked on down to the stream.

To get to the stream, you have to follow a dirt path along some power lines. I wasn't heading up over this hill, though; I was going the other way. 

Along the path are thick bushy areas, filled with wildflowers, brambles, and blueberries! I climbed into a little patch to check out what was growing. The blueberries weren't ripe yet, but there were little green berries forming on the ends of stems!

I looked over and checked out some little white flowers, too. When I touched this one, something very bright caught my eye. Upon closer inspection, it was an amazing little spider! Look at the awesome shade of yellow it is! I didn't touch it, though; as beautiful as it was, spiders give me the creepy crawlies.

I stepped out of the puckerbrush and continued along the sandy path. After a little ways, I came to this fork in the path.

The signs posted around said no ATVs, but I knew there were lots of mountain biking trails. Anywho, I knew the stream wasn't down that way, and I would save the mountain biking for a different, cooler day.

I continued along for another few minutes. Finally, I got to the sandy, rocky hill that would lead me to the cold, watery refuge.

I descended.

When I got to the bottom, I sat on the edge of the rickety bridge and dangled my toes in the water. "Ahh..." I exhaled as my hot, sweaty, sand-caked feet touched the icy water. 

I decided to wade in a little further. I jumped from the bridge into the clear depths. I sloshed through until the water was nearly to my knees!

I waded my way through the water, trying to see if there was a clear way to go further upstream. 

"Hmm, the water is flowing this way," I said to myself, turning around so I was looking in the opposite direction.

I made my way through the tall grasses, and stumbled upon a little pond. 

I spotted a green frog floating in the water, soaking up the sun.

I waded in a little further; the sticky mud was like quicksand, and I sunk in a couple inches more with each step. I decided not to go much further; I didn't want to get stuck.

I climbed through the grasses again to get back to the stream. Not too far, though, because the pond and stream were only about two feet apart. I reached into the little bag I had brought with me and took out some of the pH paper I had brought. I thought it might be fun to see how acidic or basic the water was. I predicted it would be 7, or neutral, as most water is. 

I bent down and dipped the paper into the water.

I went back to the bridge, perched on one of the boards, and got out my journal and pH scale.

I compared the paper to the chart, and to my surprise, found the pH of the water was actually 6! That means that it was slightly acidic. I wrote this down, as well as some of my other observations, in the journal. 

I sat and wrote for a little while before going back up the hill and heading home.

I'm so glad I live so close to such a cool little ecosystem! I guess it just goes to show you how many living things are always around us. I think I'm going to come back again and see how the stream and pond and frogs are doing. *Squee* I love summer! What are some of your favorite things to do in the summer? How do you beat the heat?

This has been Dani, dabbling in summertime adventures. Over and out!

Last Day of School Shenanigans!

Hello fellow interwebs users! Monday was my last day of school, so now I'm on vacation! YAY! Monday was a half day, and we spent it helping clean desks and lockers and signing yearbooks. I was planning on going to Nicki's house once I was dismissed. My bag was all packed and ready to go, so when I got home I got into the time machine and punched in the code to get to Colorado in 2007, where Nicki lives. Something went wrong, though, because I ended up somewhere I had never been before!

 I looked around me. The gardens were spectacular! It looked like Wonderland.

I set off to explore a little more.

I walked through the garden and came to a little clearing. I climbed up onto a rock and looked up over the bushes. "WOAH!" I exclaimed. You could see the ocean!

After looking for a little while, I got down off the rock and looked around the garden a little longer.

A few hours later the sun was setting and it started getting dark. I came to another little clearing, and was able to look out at a little dock, and see more of the cove.

It was getting really dark, so I found a little spot in one of the bushes near the garden, and decided to camp out there for the night. This was turning out to be a real adventure!

The next morning, I got up out of the bush and went into the garden. Lo and behold, there was my friend Saoirse! It was a really weird coincidence. She said she had been on her way to visit her friends Julie and Ivy in California in 1974, and her time machine had malfunctioned as well.

We set off down the overgrown stone path to search for a way out of here, nice as it was.

Before long, we found some really cool looking flowers.

It had the prettiest shades of purple, and was sort of spiky looking. It was huge!

There were a bunch of them, too.

We pulled back the flowers and found an emergency time machine behind the plants. I took one last look at the cove and the garden before climbing into the machine and heading home.

What a way to kick off summer! It was great seeing Saoirse, even if everything didn't go quite as planned. Are you on summer vacation yet? What are you looking forward to?

This has been Dani, dabbling in getting lost and hanging out with friends. Over and out!

Happy Father's Day/Trip to Reid!

Hey everyone! Happy Father's Day! Today, we went to Reid State Park, which has a beach, but also lots of nice hiking trails. We just had a picnic on the beach. After I was done eating, I got up to look around and play in the sand a little.

First I went over to investigate this large sandy hill.

I shouldn't really have been walking there, though, because it looked like the beach was eroding away, and more erosion may disturb the grasses further. But just look at how ginormous it is!

 Then, I searched through the piles of driftwood and detritus for cool stuff.

Look at this cool rope I found! I think the colors look like Halloween colors.

I decided to gather up some larger pieces and build a little shelter for myself.

I put the wood I had gathered down...

...and began building the frame.

My building process was cut short, though, when Skye told me we needed to get ready to go. 

I climbed inside it just to test it out. With a little more work, it would have been perfect! 

 The path on the walk back from the beach to the car was lined with all these pretty roses.

 I stopped to take a whiff. 

Here you can see just how many pink flowers there were along the path.

I had a fun making a little shelter and just hanging out on the beach, even if we didn't stay the whole day. Tomorrow is my last day of school, and I can't wait! Summer vacation, here I come!
This has been Dani, dabbling at Reid on Father's Day. Over and out!