Another July....

....and we wait patiently to see if our across-the-road neighbors will be assaulting us all with fireworks on Tuesday. I have to say that my opinion of fireworks has changed greatly since the neighbor's explosions sent Savannah deep into the woods for twelve days last year. Savannah will still not walk past our barn, and I am sure that she remembers what happened up there on the neighbor's property.

The baby deer that we thought was safe and sound with its mother.... I looked all over the grounds around the house and the cottage and the barn when the little fawn wasn't in its spot under the trees. We knew for sure that the mother had come to reclaim her baby. Not so.... even though I searched for that fawn the day after.... it was not on our lawns around the house. However, on the third day, Savannah would not walk on the grass near the gazebo... she kept smelling the air and would not move towards that area. I brought Savannah into the house and went to look near the gazebo, and there was the fawn, spread out lifeless under the trees while three buzzards waited up in the pecan trees. I could have just cried. My husband put the fawn into a huge bag and we put that in a box and it now waits for the trash pick up. So much for the theory that a mother deer will always come back for her fawn. She must have indeed come back, but then abandoned the baby a second time... unless the fawn was sick and she just left it. We will never know. So sad.

I have been busy collecting books for the Book Club.... over five hundred books so far and I am totally ready for the first club meeting in mid-September. I am hoping that the students will want to keep the books they choose to read, and will start their own libraries. The thought of kids not wanting to read and have books of their own is just impossible for me to imagine. I have a good selection of fiction and non-fiction titles, and my plan is to bring thirty books to the school each week--- thirty for each grade, so the students will choose their own books. "Choose wisely.... and earn your magic wand!"

Tomorrow is my friend Fran's birthday.... she is celebrating up on a cloud somewhere. Her granddaughter has just turned six, so it has been six years now since Fran's passing. That precious granddaughter was born just two weeks after Fran died. I have been sending books to that little girl for years... for birthdays and Christmas, any holiday that you can think of. Fran loved books and wanted her grandchild to love them also. I am doing my best, Fran... and yes, your little granddaughter does love to read.... and the sparkle in her eyes reminds me so much of you.

I have just finished re-reading "The Little Prince."  One of the most beloved quotes in that book is "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.... what is essential is invisible to the eye."  Such profound words, to be remembered always, especially when Bible-quoting self-proclaimed Christians stand in judgment of people whose lifestyle they don't approve of. Give me a blessed break. LOVE and ACCEPTANCE are essential, and both are invisible to the eye. Some people need to stop hiding their heads and their hearts in their bibles. And all of that is my opinion, just based on a story I heard in town this past week that broke my heart because the actions of ignorant people are just beyond the realm of humanity.