Aunt Reta, left, celebrated her 40th anniversary on Saturday by sending my uncle off on a camping trip and putting her feet up at home. He would only be gone for the day so I told her she should tell him not to wear himself out because she'd be waiting, in her best negligee, for his return. She laughed and said, "That'd be the day!"

The photo above was taken just before she left Wadena on her way back to Phoenix a couple weeks ago. I had picked her up at Grandma's and brought her home with me to spend the night.

Emil and I went to town this afternoon and found Grandma laid out in her cool room.

"Want to go for a drive?" I asked.

"Mmm... not really," she said.

"I have to fill up the gas tank and buy some drinking water. Thought you might like to come along."

Her mind was easily changed. "I guess I could do that." She jumped right up.

When we got back, after a leisurely driving tour of the streets while eating Rolo ice cream on a stick, Emil crutched ahead of us across the small parking lot and Grandma wondered why we were "going here."

I told her, "You live here."

She didn't remember leaving from there, she said.

A handsome gentleman has moved in next door to her place, into Pearl's old room. While Grandma was unlocking her door I noticed his was open and there was new lino that had been recommended to Scott and me, so I meandered over to have a look and introduce myself. When Grandma got there he said oh yes, he knows her; he sits beside her most days.

The bird feeder stuck to Grandma's window is a busy place. I can't keep it full of seeds, having only stopped in once a week for the past while. A few weeks ago there were several baby birds in the little tree right outside her window, and their parents were still busy feeding them although they weren't in a nest. I couldn't get much of a picture unfortunately.

Uncle Neil told Reta he'd seen a wren feeding one of its young, only it wasn't a wren baby, it was the hatchling of a cowbird (they will lay their eggs in the nests of other birds), which is much larger than a wren. The little wren was having to jump up and hover in the air in order to get food into the much larger hatchling's mouth.

***

The swathers and combines are out in the fields, which have turned to gold. Emil and I went over to the other place on our way home. He walked around the farmyard while I set the sprinkler to run for an hour on my flowers. Before leaving he remarked how good it smells over there. Though he couldn't specify what had the scent he likes, my guess is that it's the ripened or cut crops. It's drying leaves — I saw the first ones hit the ground outside the kitchen window on Saturday. It's fall.