Good afternoon everyone,

It is another warm and sunny day. This morning it was cloudy and it looked like it might not be a good day to hang laundry outside, with hopes that it will dry. Around mid-forenoon it cleared off and the sun shone and soon it was quite warm.

The gardens are dry and the lawns are starting to turn brown from lack of rain, which is typical for mid to late summer in Ohio. One good thing about warm, sunny and dry weather is that the laundry hung out on the line dries quickly.

I am sitting on the patio on the back side of the house. The breeze is blowing softly, the cows in the nearby pasture are either grazing or laying contentedly chewing their cud. The cornfields look beautiful with the corn being in full tassel. The grass in the field is a nice shade of green, hopefully the farmer can harvest another crop of hay soon.

Schools will be starting again in a week or two, which means summer is coming to an end.

Here are a few events that are scheduled to take place at Mt. Hope:
• The machinery sale is on August 22nd.
• The annual Haiti Benefit auction is to be on September 4th and 5th.

For those interested in birds:
I don’t see any Orioles anymore. Would they have flown south already? Now that I think about it, I don’t hear many Purple Martins either.

On Saturday I was at Lake Erie birding and we had a very productive day. We saw more than what we had expected.

Our first stop was at Metzger Marsh where we got a lot of species. The most unusual was the Black Necked Stilt.

At Howard Marsh we got to see 3 Least Bittern, 4 Marsh Wrens, etc. We saw one Gallinule family consisting of a male and female with 5 babies. It was very interesting to watch them.

The last stop was at Maggee Marsh. Our total count came to 70+ species. There was also a lot of boats on Lake Erie. I suppose folks took advantage of the beautiful weather and calm waters to go fishing.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honest, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.” -Philippians 4:8

Have a blest day, Sovilla