Nature Woman

First, I am so sorry to those people who lost family members or are badly injured from the bridge collapse in MN this past Wednesday, but am glad that my blogging friends in MN are okay. Bridges, and anything man-made, freak me out. This bridge collapse has prompted NYS to look at similar bridges in this state. Huh? Okay, how about all of the freakin’ bridges? Especially ones that go over water. Especially the one I go over at least twice a day.

Okay, speaking of bridges, around July 15th they renamed the new Troupe Howell Bridge which crosses the Genesee River in Rochester to The Frederick Douglass – Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge.

So guess what the name one of the traffic guys on the radio uses for this bridge? The Freddy-Sue. Alrighty then. And the other thing is they want to paint it lilac for the lilac festival. I really hope that is a rumor.

Here’s a pretty fuschia flower for you:

Part of the reason why I was out of touch is I was taking care of my Mom’s home while she was hiking in Yosemite with my older brother:

She is my inspiration on many levels. The woman just lost her husband, and she’s hiking out in Yosemite at her age. It was actually very good for her to get away!

When she came back, we went to the last RPO (Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra) performance for the 2006-2007 season. It was at FLCC’s CMAC (Constellation Brands Performing Arts Center) in Canandaigua which is an open-air center, and the seats I ordered were in a nice breezy part (I have to remember these seats)!

If you’re thinking RPO, snorze-ville, it wasn’t! Hmmm, I have to find my brochure, but for the last piece they performed Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and had five (I think) real cannons go off at the appropriate places. Talk about chills going up and down my whole body!!

And then they had fireworks, which we couldn’t see from where we were sitting, so we went on the lawn in back and since there was a mob there already, we didn’t get to see them all, but here’s one of them:

And there was a full moon and it was orange, spooky, freaky orange:

Hmmm, it wasn’t orange at my house.

One of Mom’s trumpet vines is in blossom. I love the stripes on the inside of the flower:

She’s also grown the most beautiful snapdragon I’ve ever seen. My niece and Mom started these seeds indoors during the whole ordeal with my Dad. I encouraged them because I knew Mom and I would need these and other flowers this summer. My niece was a big help!

I almost got into big trouble with this bee as I was getting real close to it and must have touched it with my camera because it got mad. But I’m getting braver with these stinging things:

I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but these are some of the highlights from the last couple of weeks. I hope you’re enjoying these dog days of August. I don’t mind them too much, as long as I have air blowing on me and lots of water and juice to drink!