State Park Visit

We were watching the weather reports last week which seemed to indicate that by the weekend we'd have lots of rain. Thankfully, the rains held off and Saturday was a perfect day for our third trip of the year to an Indiana State Park.

On Saturday we headed south for the 45 minute drive to Brown County State Park noting that the temperature was 65 degrees at 9:15 a.m. I wonder now why we haven't visited the park more often since it is an easy drive.

We parked and began our hike hoping to end up at Ogle Lake. We walked for close to 30 minutes but weren't sure we were headed in the right direction so retraced our steps and returned to the car. Then we drove to the trailhead for Ogle Lake and enjoyed a leisurely hike.

A fallen Beech tree

We had a few stairs to climb

We saw carvings on many Beech trees

Beavers have probably worked on this tree several times

The 1.5 mile trail around Ogle Lake is considered moderate

When we finished the circuit around the lake, we had time to enjoy a picnic lunch before heading home. I think we'll be returning sometime soon. There are other trails to conquer -- the Ogle Lake Trail is #7. On another visit we can choose from the remaining trails: #1 to 6 or 8 and maybe the dogwoods will bloom when we return.

March Madness

I'm not sure if we watched as many basketball games as in past years, but we were happy to see Northwestern, Butler and Purdue win their first round games. Northwestern wasn't up to a good Gonzaga team and was defeated in the second round. Butler, Purdue and Wisconsin (upset win over Villanova) plus Michigan's win over Louisville, all reaching the Sweet 16, makes next weekend's games interesting.

Before the games began both Ray and I had our annual wellness check-ups.  As a result I'm now scheduled for a mammogram and a colonoscopy by the first week in April. Also, had a visit to the Indiana Skin Cancer Center last week and had one small pre-cancerous spot on my cheek treated with liquid nitrogen. Ray also had a similar treatment during our wellness check-up but on the opposite check than mine. Mirror image!

I had time to work on two more pages for my digital scrapbook:

I wrote about our visit to Angel Mounds on Blogger last May

These are two examples of Designing in Thirds

On Sunday evening the women's group at Concordia hosted our third Spring Social. My contribution was a pan of bar cookies and some help in the kitchen. We had six or seven men who served the meal. Entertainment was provided by a quintet of local men that call themselves "Credo" which means "I believe." Two of the men are brothers and the other three are father and his two sons.

Credo sang with gusto!

The committee provided a beautiful setting for the Social

My birthday celebration was quiet; received many wishes by email, U.S. mail, Facebook, Skype and a phone call. We had corned beef and cabbage on March 17 with enough leftovers for some sandwiches. 

Signs of Spring

When I chanced to look out the window yesterday afternoon, I was surprised to see all the Canada geese swimming in the retention pond at the center of our complex. During the summer, we might see a few geese but mostly Mallard Ducks. I found my camera and took a couple of photos and a few minutes later, the geese were gone. Were they a migrating flock or some local stay-at-home geese who stopped for a few minutes?

Can you count them?

Late afternoon and a bit overcast

The past week has been ordinary with most activities as usual. We didn't have a yoga class on Thursday since the instructor was out of town. I had a chance to work on scrapbook pages from last October and now I need to move on to May 2016.

Joe is hiding in the back. 

Dustin has abandoned this haircut since last October.

We would love to return for Dinner on the Bridge in August 2017.

The site was a trove of photo opportunities.

Welcome March

The first of each month seems busier than days later in the month and March has been no exception. I have several to-dos during the first days of the month and with Ash Wednesday on the first day of March, my list was a little longer than usual. Our women's group at church traditionally serves casseroles for the Wednesday night supper. I started my contribution on Tuesday and finished it Wednesday noon and headed for church at 4:00 p.m. Several volunteers had been working for the previous hour and the tables were ready when I arrived. We had about 10 or 11 different casseroles and an assortment of salads, veggies and desserts. No one should have gone home hungry. Again this year we had the imposition of ashes as the service began which I found very humbling and moving.

Last evening Ray and I enjoyed an evening of Trivia at church. We sat with another couple our age and had the distinction of coming in last place, scoring 60 out of a possible 100 points. Some tables had the maximum six contestants. Our worst round was when we had to identify, from photos only, the names of game consoles; e.g., Nintendo, X-Box, Wii, etc. We scored 0 and wished that we could have borrowed one of the young people from another table or had invited someone from Generation X or a Millennial to partner with us. But we did very well when identifying 10 different states and the capitals of each. For our losing effort we were awarded "Dum Dum" suckers!

Our mild winter had the daffodils peeking out weeks ago and just lately I've seen a few blooming in sheltered areas. They may be a earlier than normal. I've also noticed forsythia blooming in a few places but the lawns are still in their winter sleep. When Ray left for his afternoon walk, I asked him to see if he could spot some; when he returned home, we drove to a nearby subdivision where I was able to take several photos.

Closeup of a small bush that can only be a year or so old

Interesting weather coming including some rain and even some snow showers before this week is over.