..wistful weekend..

Ahh, that all weekends were long ones.  I took a paid day off on last Monday to extend the weekend and ended up with Tuesday as my day off this week!  So, I had a lovely four day weekend.  Saturday we drove up to Eureka Springs for our friends' wedding at beautiful Blue Spring.  Congrats to Jason and Julianna!  I was amazed by the park, it was so cool, the pics don't do it justice.  Other than the blazing Arkansas heat, everything was lovely. 

 We stopped on the way home to feel out how hard it would be to transplant some local wildflowers.  Next trip we will bring a shovel.

 By this point I had shed a few layers, and my heels :)

Since Mike has been getting into growing things that are indigenous and useful, we have decided to start keeping an eye out for some hardy plots of Echinacea, so we can transplant and/or harvest seeds.  Echinacea is a natural immune system booster and can be used for mild localized pain relief.  If you have any of the plants handy it is actually kind of cool to test out the latter.  You take a pinch of freshly harvested seeds and chew them in between your front teeth for a few moments then spit them out.  The tip of your tongue will have a strong tingling sensation.  Unfortunately, at this point in the summer it seems that much of the plants are starting to succumb to the heat.  

On Sunday afternoon, Mike and I headed out to Cove Lake to camp for the night.  Somehow the weather was just perfect and we had a really nice relaxing time.  My stupid little camera has been flaking out a bit, so we didn't get many good photos, but you can take my word that Cove Lake is really nice. The swimming area is well maintained, there is concession most days in the summer, and they have bathrooms with showers in the concession building.  Sounds a bit luxurious for camping I know, but don't get your hopes up too much.  The actual camp sites don't have individual water spouts and they don't have electric hookups.  I kind of prefer roughing it a bit at least. 

So, we tried to fish, swam a bit, made hotdogs and smores, then hit the sack.  In the morning we had a early swim, packed up our stuff and hung out on the grassy beach a while before we headed back home.  And, yay! on our way home, we found some echinacea that we were able to take a few starts from and plant at the house.  I love them almost as much as all the butterflies and bees do.

..a fair day..

In all my years of good intentions, I had never actually gone to the Renaissance Fair that is held in Muskogee, Oklahoma just an hour from where I live.  It is held every weekend in May and this year Memorial Day, too.  So, you still have two days left if you haven't made it yet!  Our friend Stinky Pinky had been talking about how much he wanted to go this year, being a weapons connoisseur and history buff.  Even though we have been relatively low on funds, we decided that
..the time had come to put on fancy garb, and travel not too very far, to watch and dance and laugh and eat and roam Castletown in the hot May heat.  We all had a very nice time!  Our friend Shawn was actually very reluctant to leave, he was asking for job applications.  I am already looking forward to next time we go!

 I theoretically learned how to milk a cow..

 Some armour was tested.

Some leg of turkey was enjoyed.

And some more lessons on belly dancing are probably needed.

 Amazing beautiful birds of prey.

we met Gandalf!

 The dress I wore is one that my Mom wore for Homecoming in '77.  It works perfectly as a medieval princess gown too.

..last week's fun..

This week it was really difficult to get back to the routine.  We drove back from Ohio Sunday.  Fourteen hours in a car was definitely hard on the bum.  And after a week of having to get up at a decent hour to get back to work, I was having a hard time getting around to sifting through and editing all the photos we took on our trip. 

Today has actually been quite a productive day.  I caught up on some much needed sleep, then got up and took some outfit pics which will probably go up later on, then I worked out in the garden until the sun went down while intermittently chasing down my cat who desperately wants to catch himself a cute little bunny.

Well, I finally compiled some of the pictures we took one day when we went into Frankfort.  We went to the local Amish Market.  I love that place! Mike was picture happy.  We got some dry goods and snacks to take home, then Mike got some bacon cut from slab while I got us some made to order sandwiches. We drove downtown to the little park by the creek to eat and waste some time. When we made made our way back to the house we had to stop and look at the adorable tiny lambs. I can see why Lisa Simpson went vegetarian after she saw one. They were actually cute enough to make me squeal a little with glee :)

 I recommend the Mustard Pickled Eggs, Mmmm.

Above is some of Historic Frankfort

 Northfork Creek

So many sheep, makes me sleepy.