Cream Cheese, Butterflies and Bylaws

Over the weekend, my daughter came home and made some no-bake cheesecake. She even let Bow lick the bowl.

There was just one stipulation, that the bowl not touch the ground. So the little folding table was brought in to Bow's side

There was nothing about not putting his head inside the bowl, though.

It is a funny thing about rules: there are always ways around them, and there are always loopholes.

I was preoccupied with rules that weekend. There was a Bylaws Committee meeting in Kansas City, and I had sent in a proposal for a change in the rules. Of course, I could not go to attend the meeting, but it was going to be streamed on Facebook.  On Thursday the fourteenth, I was uploading a twelve minute explanation of the proposed change, but the internet was very slow that day. In Licking, the local paper's news room had no internet service all day.

It had started out as a foggy morning, but turned into very nice weather later on. Nature is just outside the door, and while things were uploading, I went out into the field, where I came across a very accessible Monarch butterfly.

Because it was still morning, the sun was in the east, casting my shadow on the butterfly as I drew closer.

The entire encounter did  not take long.

I should have been thinking about the Bylaws, but the butterflies in the field distracted me. There was a pipevine swallowtail, too, and it had a damaged wing.

At first I filmed the pipevine swallowtail from a distance, afraid to frighten it away.

But the swallowtail did not show fear when I came closer.

When I had had my fill of butterflies and was on my way back to the house, I noticed there were strange green seeds embedded in my pants.

I went back inside, but the twelve minute talk about the LP Bylaws was still uploading. All afternoon, it was still uploading. After a while I went back outside, and I saw a turtle.

As I came closer, it went back into its shell.

.My friend Pam estimates this turtle, who appears to have suffered a serious injury to its shell, might be over sixty years old. As I was returning to the house from the field, I saw a deer in the front yard.

I thought surely ,my twelve minute video would have uploaded by lunch, but it didn't.  It didn't upload until two pm. Bow had a some pickle ice as a snack about then.

The internet continued slow all that day. Bow's friend Charla came with the bananas, and Bow had a nice time socializing with her. In the evening,  I was able to just catch the sunset after putting Bow to bed

The next day was very exciting. Sword came home for the weekend, and a man came to repair the lights in the pens. Bow was so excited, he is barely visible in this action shot of him flying through the air on his rope while the repairman was on the ladder.

And then there was the preparation by Sword of some thirty-odd no-bake cheesecakes, and Bow licking the bowl, while I remotely listened in on the Bylaws Committee meetings. That was quite a weekend!

 When Sword went back to college, we had leftover cream cheese, so I made blintzes.