Across the River and Around the Bend

All the heat has turned me into a lizard-like creature.  I come out in the early morning and then hide from the sun until evening.

The grandkids came for a few days and we all waded across the river.  I regret to say that I was not leading the pack, being a wimp where deep water is concerned.  I can swim, but only well enough to not drown immediately.

Carolyn, age fifteen, led the way and coaxed me and her mom, Izzy, to cross the Grand River.  Jason and Molly are good little swimmers. We all wore shoes for the rocky beach, which turned to lovely sand halfway across.

It was never deeper than my waist, and I am a short Grammie. Whale rock doesn't look so much like a whale when the water is this low.

The water was warm, with refreshing cool currents toward the far side, where it was shady.  Izzy and I walked upriver on the sandy shore, going around the bend. The kids appeared to be swimming in the deep middle of the river.

However, when we told them to stand on the bottom, to allay our fears that it was quite dangerous, we had to laugh.

It was getting dusk by then, so we took our sandy selves up to the house and had BBQ'd hamburgers.

When it got dark, I got out the telescope and showed them Saturn and M7, a beautiful open cluster of stars, above the Cat's Eyes in Scorpio.  They loved the Butterfly Cluster, M6. Now they can understand when I mention that I was stargazing until two in the morning.  Once some of the sky goodies are found, we stargazers want more and more.  They could see individual stars in the Milky Way, which was a big surprise for them.  Saturn's rings are a huge draw for getting people hooked on astronomy. People can only resist it until they look in a telescope, and then they are goners.

At the very least, I now have others who know what I'm talking about when I say M7.