A Leisurely Weekend, Sunday

On Sunday we slept in again and commented on how we could hear the cows mooing loudly behind the house. Almost immediately, we heard and saw a glimpse of Jim the neighbor driving past the window on his tractor. We laughed as this could only mean one thing, the cows were out again, and Jim was herding them back into his field. Later we had our now routine Sunday breakfast, this time a packet of sausages and eggs with toast. Yum! Rob had to help his son move an old car with his trailer so once he had left I caught up on chores then left the house to do some exploring.

 We have a mocking bird nest by the house and I had thought there were 2 babies. It wasn't until I studied the photo that I realized there were actually 4. There are also 2 more nests under the eaves so there's going to be a lot of flying lessons and crash landings occurring in the next few weeks. I hope they all survive.

I had noticed on the map that there is a Lake Gordonsville very close by but had not found the entrance so this was my challenge for the day. I looked on the GPS and found a road that almost led to it, so decided to investigate. I found the road OK but there were no signs indicating a lake was nearby so I drove down for a mile or so then hit a gravel track.

 This ended at a ramp leading into the lake and I saw a lady putting her kayak into the water. We started chatting and before long had exchanged names and info and I had myself a kayaking buddy. I wistfully watched her disappear into the distance and dipping my toes into the warm water, fervently wished I had my boat with me. But my spirits lifted when on the way out I noticed a gazillion blackberry bushes. In a few weeks, I'll have to come back with containers as the harvest here is going to be huge.

I decided to drive down some narrow roads looking for possible cycling routes and saw these plants shining against their dark background. I drove for miles seeing squirrels and deer and many farmers out on tractors baling hay. I ended up having no idea where I was and had to backtrack when after about 2 miles my road ended at a farm.

I stopped again when I noticed bright orange flowers by the verge which were attracting Great Spangled Frittilary butterflies. They showed no concern about me getting close and I even managed to get a wasp in the photo.

 I saw this awesome abandoned house on the side of the road but was too hot and bothered to leave the air conditioned car again and look around. Maybe later in cooler weather...
Rob called to say he was returning home so even though I had no idea where I was I turned around and tried to retrace my route, successfully, thank goodness. Back at the cottage we met Jim and Jessie who laughed as they told us the cows we'd heard earlier weren't theirs but were someone else's bullocks that had strayed onto Jim's land. He'd rounded them up and put them in with his cows. They're very friendly animals but nobody has reported them missing yet so Jim and Jessie may have some additions to their herd.
Later we drove to the only local pizza restaurant which was awesome, stuffed ourselves and then went back to the cottage to sit on the sofa and then stuff ourselves again later with milk and cookies. I'm seriously going to need to start doing more chores and less sitting around if I have to consume all this fodder. But I think for now, I'll bask in Rob's guilt for having worked me too hard last weekend, his words not mine. I like being a girl...