Kathie Case>

508-627-5349

(kathleencase@comcast.net)

I hope everyone is surviving this heat wave. Everyone is watering their yards so they don’t have a brown front lawn. Hard to believe that September is just a week and a half away. We find ourselves telling people to “keep cool.” Isn’t that what we use to tell each other in the seventies?

Happy birthday to all who celebrated their day this past week. Big balloons go out to Joseph Davies who celebrated August 20; Brandon Steigelman, August 18; Taylor Fauteux, Ryan Sawyer and Nicholas Vukota, who all celebrated August 20.

Special wishes go out to Jenny Rose, who celebrated her day August 14.

Bob Carroll celebrated his 80th birthday last week. His daughter Jane said the whole family was present to help celebrate the day, and then she had the whole family for a grand Island seafood feast. Happy birthday, Bob, and here’s to many more.

My brother and his wife, Linda, came Wednesday to go to Illumination night. After coming to the Vineyard for over 40 years Linda had never been to see the grand affair. So when their friends were going to be renting a cottage in the Camp Ground we thought this would be the year. So off we went and once again, Ralph and I found ourselves enjoying the evening with family and friends and all those people. The children’s eyes as they watched the candles being lit! Right down to the Mickey Mouse lantern on one cottage. I think they even enjoyed the sing-along and thinking, what were all these adults doing standing at the band conductor’s instructions and what were those songs they were singing? It was a grand night for all ages.

Sitting in the audience I saw that Becky Luce was the band conductor. Becky and I found each other through Facebook and I knew that she was involved with the band, however I did not know she was conducting. We were both in our high school band, and I knew that she would follow her heart in music — needless to say she was in her element with the baton in hand. It brought back a lot of memories, and I noticed that Martha Mosher Childs and Shauna Davies Nute were playing the instrument they had in high school as well.

As the weather gets hotter, we have been watering more at the nursery, but when we stop, the birds start to gather back around us. The catbirds enjoy the fresh water in the birdbaths, the sparrows are now on their third set of babies, and we have especially enjoyed the hummingbirds that have gathered around the red salvia topiaries on the grounds. Last week there were four hummingbirds buzzing in and out of the flowers.

Our favorite furry friend is the bunny that our nursery dog, Roscoe, found. His owner, Ernie, is the manager of the tree plantings, and Roscoe, a golden retriever, has become “our” dog as he roams the nursery making new friends, especially children, and sleeping in his favorite spots. He found a nest of bunnies in the bonsai shed, and Megan and Ashley rescued them and put them in the bathroom for the day. Megan looked up the habits of bunnies and found that the mother leaves the nest for the day and returns at night to be with the babies. So for the next few weeks the girls would take them in the morning and return them in the late afternoon. When the bunnies left the nest we were relieved but also wondered what happened to them. So one day the girls were working on the tables and one of the landscapers was loading the truck and mentioned a bunny that was eating in one of the paths by the poly houses and wouldn’t move. The girls went to check it out and we swear it recognized their voices as it came closer and didn’t hop away. This occurred for the next few days, and every once in a while it shows up to visit.

We say farewell to the college students who are returning to their classes, and good luck to the students on their first year away from home. Have a great year and study hard, and we look forward to your return for the holidays.

Have a great week, and keep the home candles burning.