The Avant Garden

as everything I had stacked in moving water is down. The River is in its fourth day of high-water mudiness, taking our driftwood downstream and bringing us driftwood from upstream.

Speaking of streams, last weekend we went to see the folks in Georgia, and (4/5 of the Avant Family, anyway, as one member was smart enough to turn around before we got into the really deep poison ivy) foolishly followed my younger brother on a hike in Little Gum Creek, a cute, clean little stream near the family farm in Oxford, Ga., about 35 miles from Turner Field. Wow that was a long sentence. I'll pause here for a moment while you go back and read that monster again.

OK, where was I? Oh, yes, the walk in the creek. It started out as an ankle deep stream with a sand-n-pebble bottom that was pleasant to the feet. Soon, it got deep. and murky. And not so fun to walk in. People fell. My phone now has funny lines across the screen. Soon we discovered the source of the problem:

 A beaver dam. That's the Avant Daughter on the left and the eldest Avant Son on the right, though the youngest Avant Son went as well. The rest of the hike was easy and fun again.

 Just for fun, here is a pic of a magnolia blossom from the tree in my grandma's yard: Grandma Ellington was as beautiful as this bloom on her magnolia.

 Remember the quilt top? It is ... not almost done, but we're creeping toward the finish line. The Meditation Garden looks so nice right now, with the amazing rainfall we've had ... I keep trying to invite people over to see it, but everyone either has a busted knee or is going to the Beach or just not speaking to me. So come by, if you like. It's free, as always, though if you come by tomorrow I might hand you a mower.