Lovely weekend up north, but a little chilly. We spent most of our time next door at Rogers. He cooked for us, let me use his shower, provided many other goodies. Without him, our weekend would have been cold and dreary in our own, now miserable cottage. The place is falling apart, still. The furniture has been pretty much cleared out, except for a few pieces in the living room and the beds. The kitchen is full of mouse shit, and there are nests in Mom’s old desk in the bedroom. When we weren’t at Rogers, enjoying a fire in his fire place, we were in Mankers’ front yard, enjoying the view from there (it was warmer in the sun down there). Later, we broke into their garage, and helped ourselves to the horse shoes. We couldn’t find the darts for the dart board. Roger decided to light a tent worm thing on fire. When it wouldn’t go, he grabbed the Mankers lighter fluid and burned the baby out of the tree. We figured we’d have a forest fire.
On that same day, a man came down the lane in an Amish carriage pulled by a retired harness racing horse, a beautiful chestnut horse named Chester. We all ran out of Roger’s cottage and asked if he could stop. He did, and handed Bethy’s girls and I pieces of carrots to feed him. His name is Russel, and we talked to him for a while, and found out he was a caretaker for some horses down the Flat Road somewhere, and staying weekends, or something, in the tiny cabin at the end of Simmon’s Bluff Rd. We told him we’d love to see the other horses and go for a ride sometime. He was in a small carriage, so he took the girls for a ride down the end of the lane and back. (we joked while he was gone about whether or not this strange man would bring the girls back; somehow we knew he would). On the way back, Melanie had the reigns! Very exciting. This horse could trot a mile a minute. Very fast, very graceful! The girls loved it and so did we. I hope we see him again.
We spent a lot of time laughing this weekend. Very fun, very relaxing. But somehow, we missed Lindy, Rose and Madelynn.
