Anyone notice it took me more than a week to get around to responding to your comments on my last post?  That’s right, I am the sort of blogger who dares to unplug for days on end and then ever so slowly dips her toes back into it because man, being unplugged and avoiding the noise of the internet is delightful.

The view of the Cow Pasture River from behind the cabin where we stayed.

After hitting the publish button last week, Pat & I headed up to the Cow Pasture River for a few quiet days.  Technically, it was a bit of a work trip for him, as we did attend a ribbon cutting ceremony on a new park and boat landing on the Jackson River in Covington, VA.

The new boat launch on the Jackson River

If you have never been to the Alleghany Highlands of western Virginia, I highly recommend it. The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful up there.  The headwaters of the James River – the Cow Pasture and the Jackson Rivers – run through there.

The area is home to the George Washington National Forest as well as The Homestead. A little more than a hour away from Charlottsville, I cannot say enough how beautiful it is.

Since returning home from that trip, my camera has mostly sat in its bag, as I have been enjoying the moments rather than capturing them.  We picked Edie girl up at camp on Saturday.  I get asked the entire time she’s gone if I miss her, which of course I do.  She is after all, my mostly companion.  Three weeks away is both a long time and the blink of an eye all at once.  I spent the first few days (okay, week) that she was gone checking for her texts, as that child is always in touch with me.  One of the things about camp is that she is completely unplugged for three weeks – the only means of contact we have with each other is snail mail.  I have gotten some wonderful compliments on the letters Edie sent to people from camp this year, some of whom marvel that a child of today’s world even knows how to write a letter.  I chalk it up to that being her only means of communication for three weeks every summer.  Everyone should try it.

Since bringing our girl home, we’ve been catching up, marveling at how much she’s grown and changed over the last three weeks (a good inch in height at least).  She’s rearranging her room, I’m trying to get the laundry caught up.  There was an amazingly productive day where I cleaned out the fridge, then moved onto the two chest freezers in the basement all while doing laundry that day.  We’ve had visits with friends, I taught a canning class, attended a PTO event I put together (while I’m involved again this year, I am NOT in charge), more visits with friends and now are enjoying the last moments of summer before the big yellow angel comes back at 8:07 next Wednesday morning to take my seventh grader away.  How does the summer go so quickly every year?