The family is gone, as of yesterday afternoon, and the house is quiet again, except for the always excited barking of Buddy and Buster, because they just can’t hear some random noise outside without telling me all about it!  I love having my family home and the visits are always too short.  It just leaves me looking forward to the next visit.

Monday afternoon while my youngest son, E, was taking a nap, N, my oldest son, H, his wife and I took a walk along the bike trail on the outskirts of my little town to take a close up look at the beautification project that was recently installed.  Somehow my town was the recipient of a community art beautification grant.  H’s mother, who lives out of state, had read an article about them and H wanted to go grab some photos of the metal sculptures.

The grant and art selection was quite a lengthy process and the grant money was almost returned because the powers that be here couldn’t agree on what they wanted.  After a small public uproar about returning the funds, they agreed upon the six metal sculptures of native wild flowers, wheat and potato blossoms that were placed along the bike trail where not too many residents actually get to see them. 

The cars traveling along the adjacent highway have a nice, but quick, view of the sculptures, however.  It actually took several trips along the highway after their installation before I even noticed they were there.  Why they weren’t placed along our main street where everyone could enjoy them is beyond me, but it wasn’t my call.  Can you tell I’m not entirely pleased?  Another odd thing is that they put the marker explaining the project in the center of the bike trail, rather than one at each end.  I just don’t think it was very well thought out.

There will be a small series of photos in the next couple of weeks of the different sculptures.  If I’m energetic enough, I’ll go back out and take note of what each sculpture is supposed to be – kind of forgot to do that when I was taking the shots.  The shots aren’t the best, it was such an overcast, cloudy day, but it’s just that time of year.

PS  The hand continues to improve after the carpal tunnel surgery.  The numbness and tingling continues its improvement by lessening every day and is almost back to normal, while the actual surgical area is nicely healed, but still sore (and will be for several months, according to the surgeon).  Thank you for asking!

PPS  I got a new camera!!  I’m so happy! Can we say happy dance??  Oh yes, happy, happy dance! [Edited to add]  Canon 7D – mighty fine, let me tell you! 18 Mp, 12800 ISO capabilities, and more focal points than you can shake a stick at!