The Mower, The Hats, The Flowers and The Ducks

Jo and Bob have a riding lawn mower which we couldn't resist trying out. Bob uses the mower to mow his lawn (naturally), while Jo likes to drive the mower (just for fun, of course!) and, when we had the chance, we decided to hop on, too. But, before we started on this adventure, Jo gave each of us a hat to wear. The one she picked for me is a Corrections Officer hat.....probably because Mom calls me The Warden since I'm always watching her and trying to get her to take her pills. Dad got a safari hat to wear which looked pretty darn good on him and Mom got a NY Yankee baseball cap....After all, we are in New York! The mower is quite large, especially when the grass catcher is on the back. Mom even thought she might need a step stool to get up on it, but she was able to do just fine without one. It was fun to sit on it and take a few pictures.

Jo brought Mom a really pretty iris from her yard to replace the pilfered lilac that was on its last leg. The iris was beautiful and we had fun taking a couple of pictures with it, as well.

For the last week, Jo and Bob have been keeping their eyes peeled for baby ducks. During the last couple of years, they have had a pair of ducks that make their home in the tall grasses near the lake and raise their babies just a few yards away from Jo and Bob's back yard. Jo and Bob knew that it was about hatching time. The day before yesterday, they spotted Mama Duck and probably 6-8 little ducklings. The babies are so small that they keep in a tight ball really close to their mom as they walk behind her or go for a swim with her. One of the pictures shows Mama and the babies. The babies are on top of a tree stump, but are kind of difficult to distinguish because they are all huddled together.

Jo told a cute story about the duck family that happened last year. One of the babies took off into the water by itself when Mama and Daddy duck weren't looking. When Mama noticed he was gone, she sounded the alarm by quacking and quacking very loudly. Other ducks in the area came from where they were nested, bringing their babies with them. One of the mama ducks "ducksat" the babies while the other mamas looked for the lost duckling. Only the missing duck's Mama made any quacking noises. When she located the missing duckling, he got scolded loudly and had quite a few pecks on his ducky behind as his Mama herded him back to the rest of his duck family. Then, all of the other ducks took their young and dispersed again back to their own nesting areas. Pretty interesting, huh?

A couple of days ago we had some thunder and some great lightning over the lake. It was beautiful. That storm broke the couple of days of near-record heat that we had here. (Close to 92 degrees...yowzers! ....even Mom & Dad thought it was warmish!....Jo & I thought it was really, really, really warm). Anyway, the following night we had a harvest moon. I've never seen a harvest moon before that I recall. The sky was dark and the big moon was full and cast a full beautiful reflection onto the lake. My picture doesn't do it justice, but hopefully, you can get an idea of what it was like.

We are having fun and relaxing while enjoying Creamies and the other ice cream stands in town. We're just experiencing the upstate New York countryside and all of the beauty that it has to offer. It's modified country living, I guess you'd say.