the castle is worth the hassle

We're in a bit of limbo as these mid-August days pass.  We are moving toward a house, but still in temporary housing while inspections and negotiations take place.  We are moving toward a big business expansion, but those plans are on hold until we get into a new, larger space.  So while planning, phone calls, and general settling in take time, we still do have more free time than we're used to. 

Thankfully, there are some amazing hiking trails here.  I found about 8 trails within 10 miles of our apartment, so we're out almost every day.  Yesterday's trail, Porter-West, is part of the Sycamore Land Trust.  A portion of the trail wound through the woods, but huge swatches of it were just mowed paths through overgrown meadows.  I love the sweet smell of meadow grass in the sun, and the sweet-spicy smell of wild honeysuckle and sweet peas.

Plenty of insects...

I've become pretty adept at spotting these bagworm moth cocoons.

We even found an old graveyard with inscriptions dating back to the mid-1700s!

It hasn't been all hiking, though.  We tried out Bloomington's famous Saturday farmers market!  It has been on top 10 lists for markets nationally and I could see why.  Live music, fresh produce, meat, cheese, honey, syrups, herbs, flowers...

...plus local bakeries set up booths for coffee, pastries and miscellaneous sweets.  Food trucks serve all sorts of international dishes.  Artists have booths at the far side of the market, selling pottery, handspun wool, jewelry, prints, etc.  I wish I would've gotten more pictures but I'll save that for next time!

For fun, we also decided to take a cardboard cat-castle building class for adults this week too.  The library provided the cardboard and the art supplies, and we chose a blueprint. 

Oh, and the library also provided the cats!

They waited patiently while we completed our creations...

...and then tried them out!

We had a great time.

We've got many more fun things planned over the next few weeks, but the best feeling of all would be the completion of the house stuff and a definitive move toward closing!  There are so many things that could go wrong right now.  We've got some pretty pricey inspection-driven requests for the sellers, and if they balk, it could be back to the drawing board for us.  A pretty dismal prospect.  So this week it's crossed fingers, prayers, and distracting activities.  Bring on the cat castles!

Have a great week! 

bat wings and cat things

We had a delightful little visitor at the apartment last week...a little brown bat!

Myotis lucifugus eats half of their body weight in insects a night so really great to have around.

I was curious about the etymology of the name. Myotis means 'mouse eared,' and lucifugus is a combination of two latin words that mean, literally, he who flees from the light.  I think I just found my next pet name!  :) 

We've gone on a few hikes this past week, seeing more bag worms...

...snails...

...and caterpillars (this is Spilosoma virginica, the Virginia tiger moth caterpillar)...

...but we don't have to go into the woods to see nature.  We see plenty at the Indiana University campus!  I lost track of how many rabbits we saw there this week.

We both agree that it's the most beautiful campus we've been to.  So many wonderful walking trails...

...beautiful buildings...

...and nice landscaping.

It has certainly welcomed us home!

Downtown is so pretty at night.

The cats are certainly making themselves at home...

...and Borga, too, is learning the ropes!

Have a great week!

twig sprigs and whirligigs

Despite needing to finish some important work (taxes, etc.) at the apartment, we've gotten away for a few nice walks this past week.

Water, water everywhere!

One of our hiking locations has iron grid steps down into a gully.  Borga was not a fan and needed a little help!

The weather has been amazing - warm, but not very humid.  Perfect for hiking.  I've seen a lot of insects, which is nice.  Box elder bugs...

Japanese beetles, which are destructive, but still beautiful...

Bees...

Our old friend, the woolly aphid!

Bagworms, who carry their houses with them, like snails.  They're quite destructive, especially to evergreens.  Each one of these little houses, when created, can contain over 1,000 eggs!

I even saw some new-to-me insects, like this Beautiful Wood Nymph moth.  Aptly named, I think!

I called these "water-churn beetles" until I discovered their true identity, the Whirligig Beetle.

They have compound eyes, so that one set is above the water surface and one set is below.  They use this superior feature, plus a primitive 'radar' with water ripples, to evade predators and find prey.

We didn't hike for more than an hour or so at any one place, but these little jaunts are great for stretching our legs and flexing our amateur naturalist muscles.  I'm looking forward to more lengthy hikes soon!

Meanwhile, I'll enjoy the short hikes and beautiful sunsets!

what a long, strange trip it's been...

What a strange feeling!  Instead of facing a bank of windows with a view of a tree-edged pond, I'm facing a blank tan wall as I sit at my computer desk.  Borga is chewing noisily in her crate at my right, instead of being on another floor.  Tall stacks of cardboard boxes clutter the room.  Still, I'm glad to be here.  We're finally in Indiana! 

I don't know how to do justice to the move itself, other than to say that nearly everything that could have possibly gone wrong, went wrong.  Movers called in sick, a major underestimation of the amount of stuff we had, a millipede invasion, mysterious power failures, terrible hot and humid weather, daily rain, injuries...ceaseless work, sleepless nights, sleeping on the floor, etc., etc.  After spending an entire week on the garage (where we kept a lot of our business merchandise), THIS is what it looked like...24 hours before the buyer walk-through, and 1.5 days before the actual closing.

But we were given a miraculous reprieve when, because of a bank error, our closing was delayed by 3 days, giving us enough time to finish up.  What a delight it was to see Todd carrying out the very last box!

I was too tired to take more than a cursory last look at our place.

Do you see Clotilde in the driveway? She stayed close to the Uhaul as we packed, sleeping in its shade or rubbing against our ankles.  I'm happy to report that several neighbors volunteered to take over the care and feeding of our little strays.  We'll miss them, though!

The long drive to Indiana!  We were completely exhausted and had to take at least one 30-minute nap, but didn't want to linger too long.  We wanted to make the trip in one day.

Because of road construction, it took about 13 hours to make it home.  But we made it! Todd had a helpful co-pilot...

...and we made sure to take a few silly pictures on the way.

For the first several days in Indiana, we were so exhausted that we spent a lot of time sleeping.  I don't ever remember being so tired after an experience!  But slowly, we're adjusting.  I joined the gym, Todd arranged his office space and made sure that all the trucks and Uhaul were unloaded into our storage units, and we're now looking for a house.   I think it will take a couple of weeks, at least, until we have some semblance of a normal schedule...but we're getting closer every day.  We took our first hike yesterday, too.  There's a nice trail about 5 minutes from the apartment.  What a great feeling to have a camera in hand again!

Looking forward to more hikes, kayaking, farmers markets, new experiences, and new friends!