Daddy's Home!

Mark is home from a four day/three night survey at Lake Cushman.  We missed him so much.  As soon as Daniel went down for a nap, we hauled Mark down to the pond...

The blackberries are starting to get ripe!  Yum, yum, yum!  I still have two gallons frozen from last year.  It was nice having blackberry pie porridge all winter.  But nothing compares to sun-warmed ripe blackberries, fresh off the bush.

We watched Fiona swim slowly across the whole pond.  Watching her struggle, I wondered if the swim was too much for her.  As soon as she reached us, she popped her arm out of the water and exclaimed, "Look at this leaf I found!"

 But Evie found something cooler...

I had to make this picture extra large so you can see the scratches on her face.  She was attacked by a baby guinea this morning!  She was just trying to catch it, but it obviously didn't want to be caught.

This is a predaceous diving beetle.  Evie found it on the far side of the pond and Ian brought it around in a cup.  (Shane had been sent to the house because I didn't want him swimming with that open wound on his knee)

Daniel woke up from his nap and was very cranky that he had been left behind...plus he still hadn't forgiven Mark for leaving him for four days.  You can see Lula under the green hat in my new...

...homemade K'Tan-style baby carrier.  I found a lovely piece of knit fabric at the local thrift shop for $.75 and threw the carrier together on my serger this morning.  It works so much better than the Moby-style wraps.  Plus I can tuck things like pacifiers and bottles in the folds and go to the pond!

Daniel fell in the mud and ended our lovely afternoon at the pond.  And yes, Mark has decided that after five years of blogging, we can start using our REAL names.  We have not had any obvious stalkers or kidnappers and Mark is tired of remembering who is who on the blog.  I will never go back and change the previous blog posts...