4th of July...

This year Independence Day was quite tame. We cleaned up the garage a bit, getting ready for this years hay delivery.

We cleaned all the animal houses, and cooked a tasty supper to share with Rachel, Evans and friends Scott and Marion. I baked focaccia bread and made a new vegetable salad recipe. Chris grilled chicken. Marion brought their zesty home made salsa and a pretty garden salad that was decorated with little edible purple flowers, all of which grew at her own farm. Rachel and Evans made us S'mores for dessert. There were fireworks from two different nearby places after dark settled, so we sat by the fire ring and watched to the left and right of the house to see very respectable displays. Poor Bravo hates the explosions. I gave him soothing medicine but he refused to come outside. Instead he parked himself under the dining room window, as close to us as he could be, but still "safe" inside.

 We have had more eventful July 4 weekends. Chris and I met in '83 on 4th of July weekend. Those fireworks were real! Here we are last month, in front of the building where we met that fateful holiday.

This weekend in '88, while living in Massachusetts, we discovered that baby would soon make three. 

Independence Day '89 found us with an infant and our every worldly possession moving to our first house in Memphis. Memphis Independence Day's were a lot of fun. A group of our Mayflower Avenue neighbors would all gather, each bringing a favorite dish to share. Many of us had little kids, some had grand kids. We would set little wading pools up in a variety of front yards up and down the street, and grill out. The adults would gather in the shadiest yard, because it was always incredibly hot. A gang of happy children would race from yard to yard, hopping from pool to pool. Most years we would end the day sitting on the bank of the Mississippi River, watching epic fireworks displays from a barge out on the water, while patriotic music floated through the soupy air from the symphony.

In '03 for the 4th we reversed routes and headed north to move to Maine, which has been a happier chapter than we could have ever imagined. 

It's all been rather serendipitous, but I know that I take an extra moment or two on this particular holiday, while I watch pyrotechnics light up the sky,  to count my many blessings. We have so much to celebrate.