Sweets For The Sweets.

We turned a calendar page – the first of August felt more like a September day, with a cool and refreshing breeze. I watched the crumpled, yellow poplar leaves skittering along the pathway. Although I’ve whined about oppressive heat, (and the heat will creep back in early next week), I’m not yet ready to concede that Fall is on the way.

I hustled down to the Park, intent on getting at least five miles in. The sun is getting up later every day, so I must push myself to get out to walk timely while the good weather is here – yes I'm still chasing my goal of 1,242 miles/2000 kilometers.

Since it was coolish out, I was not only the Peanut Lady, but the Nutter Butter Lady. I held off sharing these tasty tidbits when it was hot so they wouldn’t go rancid on the pathway if the squirrels weren’t running about due to the heat. I must admit, after I polished off that entire package of Oreos the evening of my smashed finger fiasco, last week when the garage door slid off the tracks and then when there was no hot water Monday morning, I thought maybe I “deserved” Nutter Butters. I eyed them, but decided I’d leave them squirreled away for my furry pals instead. For a minute, I even eyed the Ferrero Rocher hazelnut squirrel my friend Ann Marie gave me for Easter. I knew that chocolate would help cure my angst, but he looks too cute on the corner cabinet, so he’ll just stay put.

Parker greeted me in the parking lot. His furry butt had been plunked next to some sparrows eating crumbs of cookies or crackers that perhaps a car had run over. “Really Parker?!?!” I said as I proceeded to ply him with treats to get him out of harm’s way. For those of you that have followed my blog for a while, you know that he was named “Parker” because he used to park himself in the parking lot on the days I drove. He’d get peanuts on the perimeter path, but then he’d sit and wait by my car for more peanuts when I was finished with my walk. He followed my lead and it was then that I noticed he was favoring his left hind leg, leaving it up in the air as he scurried after me. I didn’t notice that last Friday. His foot was not broken or mangled in any way, and I saw no blood, so I guess, and hope, it is not serious. But, nonetheless, he got an “oh you poor baby – I share your pain because I did an ‘owie’ on my finger.” He quickly sorted through his treasure trove of peanuts and cookies, and cast aside the Nutter Butters in favor of peanuts and began munching happily.

The other squirrels were energized from the cooler weather and two gray squirrels were playing tag and came over to see me, so I emptied the remaining contents of the Nutter Butters onto a park bench for easy access for them.

I made the most of my outing, 5 ½ miles walked and I hated to come into the house as I knew I had a long workday ahead of me. As to sweets and me … this weekend will be like a pie: a portion devoted to walking and taking pictures; a portion devoted to work as it is month end and the invoices need to go out; and the largest portion will be spent here catching up with posts by fellow bloggers. As to housework, it may be the crumbs of that pie. I think things will calm down a little after next week.

Meanwhile I’ll just keep my face to the sun and mosey along on these good shadow days.

You can catch up on my blog posts before I started blogging at Patch in August 2013 by going here: http://lindaschaubblog.net/