♬ Summertime  .. and the corn, or in our case the rye-grass, is high ♫
Or was high I should say, since it's al cut and waiting to be dry enough to get bailed.

I guess we're in the middle of summer. The weather is pretty perfect, mornings are cool enough to go for walks, like tho one that leads me to the little lake behind us.
It's waters are so calm it's like a mirror ..



It's heating up in the afternoons, but 'our' backyard (soon now, really soon!) is nicely shaded by maple trees and I spend quite some time there reading or spinning or just lounging around and I might close my eyes for a little every now and than as well ..
Yes, 'the living is easy' ..

Summer in Newberg means it is time for the yearly 'Old Fashioned Festival':

              

Of course there was to be a parade, which only I had seen last year since James had to work, so we decided to go again ..



Prior and during the parade there's a pancake breakfast put on by the Rotary Club which our landlords are members off, and that they participate in by flapping the jacks and grilling the sausages.
They encouraged us to come over and gave us free tickets! Count us in!



This is not our landlord, by the time we arrived they were already done with their shift, but this is what they had been doing ..

                                                       

                                                   

Scrambled eggs, sausage and blueberry pancakes. They were very tasty, especially with the delicious Marionberry syrup that was offered.
Around 10 am people were lined up and ready for the parade to come by!

  Soon the first vehicle arrived: 

                  

Followed by the Yamhill County 'Sheriff's Posse' .. too funny, for me the image of a posse is from the Old West, of a group of armed cowboys on horses, in pursuit of an outlaw.
They are in fact a group of people who help the police force when necessary and that's sort of what they did back than as well ..

             



They were followed by the obligatory 'Royal Court' .. the Queen and her Ladies ..

And, for such a small town, a looooooong line-up of very interesting floats:

Also not to forget: Marching bands and cheerleaders:

              

This particular band 'The beat goes on" was made up of band members and cheerleaders of the past, many of them now in their 60s, 70s and even 80's!

They even performed  'on stage' at the end of the parade:

                                         

                               These 'grammie' cheerleaders still showed their moves!

And than of course there were the horses, always a favorite in any parade (at least for me):



Pretty much all of these were ridden by Mexicans, who make up a big part of Newberg's working force in the vineyards around here:

We have a lot of Mexican restaurants in town, La Sierra being of them ..

The Mariachi band was was accompanied by the Latino Stage Charreria Mexicana dance group in their colorful outfits:                                     

                                                

         

And 'that was all folks'!



Afterwards we took a little time walking by all the booths and vendors set up at the Memorial Park:

By this time it had started to get rather warm and after a short stop at the Newberg Habitat for Humanity Restore, where we scored 2 doors and a window for James' 'he-shed/office' he's going to build, we went back home. 

We spend the rest of the afternoon in our comfortably air-conditioned RV and had dinner under a shady tree in the backyard:



We'd heard the fireworks at the festival were something to see, as in they're really good, so we went back into town that night. Ten o'clock is kind of past our bedtime (god, we're getting old..) and I was doubtful we were going to make it, but we did!
We had to park quite a ways away, this really is a favorite event, but we arrived on time, set up our little chairs we had the foresight to bring, and enjoyed the show!

   

        

It really was pretty good, for such a small town, and we were glad we'd made the effort to go! So there you have it, another item crossed off our bucket list ..

“Oh the places you'll go! There is fun to be done! (Dr Seuss)
Who knows what will be next?

Look at that! I finally managed to get a few better shots of the two Quail families, although the morning light and the blah brown/yellow of the dead grass still make them hard to see.
As I predicted, the chicks are about as big as the adults already, but they're still predominantly brown and lack their parent's pretty grey tones and patterns ..

That male in the foreground of the picture above diligently stands guard over the flock while they're foraging. If there's only the smallest sign of danger he calls out and everybody scatters!
He often seeks a perch where he can oversee a larger area from above, like the cattle-panel in the raised bed below:

                                                                     


They're so much fun to watch with their constant scratching and pecking and getting all excited when somebody finds something good. I can watch them for hours!

But, there's work to be done! Now the site-permit has been approved we're working on getting all utilities ready.

   

Finding the septic tank took forever (lots of probing and digging holes that turned out to be duds) but we finally managed to hit pay-'dirt'
Hah, ha, quite literary 'dirty' it is!

Almost just as difficult to find ... the distribution box for the leach-field. But we eventually found that one as well:

The inspector will be out on Monday. Let's hope everything is fine!

In the meantime, the blackberries are ripe and we've already picked a storm. Look at all these gorgeous, plump and sweet beauties:

Photographing blackberries close-up reminds me of taking pictures of our black dog Sadie .. they never come out very well! On top of them being black they glisten as well. Oh well, you get the picture ..

        

We've eaten them by the handful already while picking of course, dumped loads on our cereal and in pancakes and I baked a buckle as well:

                                

This was a new recipe and I really like how light and fluffy the cake came out. I'm going to make an effort to save the recipe! (i'm notorious for forgetting to do that)

Blackberries are not the only thing ripening at the moment of course. There's loads of Zucchini, and 'Cuces', and our landlords are happy to share the bounty ..



They have a little orchard where the apples and pears are starting to getting ready to be harvested as well!
Unfortunately the birds have gotten most of the first batch of figs .. the buggers!

 

And there you have it. Another week went by like nothing.
I keep my fingers crossed that by next weekend we'll be able to move the RV but I'm not holding my breath.
We know from experience that things almost always go different than we think .. that's life, James says .. yeah, well, but maybe once in a while it could go like planned?

Any-who, life goes on .. whatever happens, happens .. que sera sera  .. etc.etc.