An Early September Adventure!

It was one of the stranger weeks on record, full of dramatic ups and downs, sometimes with several occurring all in the same day. There had been rumors floating around about a pretty sweet Penn State retirement deal that might be made available to long-term employees, involving a full year's base salary offered as severance pay, and I'd been holding my breath all week, waiting to learn whether I was included in it.

When I jumped out of my car on Thursday morning at Millbrook Marsh, I landed in a bed of FOUR-LEAF CLOVERS. And I assure you, friends, I was certain I'd sealed the deal. For how much good luck could I possibly have now, covered in four-leaf clover goodness? But when I got to work that day, and read the news story about the retirement deal, it was clear it didn't include me. So much for my "good luck."

But I have some things lined up for myself that I haven't talked about here yet. I am celebrating 30 years of full-time employment with Penn State in the month of September, and in October, I will be taking advantage of a policy that allows me to retain my full-time status for many practical purposes, but I will move my work schedule to four days a week.

It will be the first time since I was about four and a half years old that I didn't have some kind of full-time, five-days-a-week gig going, and I am thrilled as can be about it. I'll work at home Mondays and have Fridays off, mostly, and will be in the office just three days a week. It will mean less travel in bad weather in mid-winter, for better or for worse (for I have found that even "bad" weather yields its beauties to the intrepid photographer)!

And then on Friday morning I woke up, and the first thing I read online was a comment by a friend on Facebook, telling me she'd seen the news story that I had just won the Penn State summer photo contest. I have never won any sort of contest in my life (well, I did win a quilt at a raffle once, but that's not quite the same thing), and I was giddy with excitement, as cheers of encouragement arrived from friends, co-workers, and acquaintances on Facebook and email. What a thrill!

Pretty soon, ALL the Fridays will belong to me. But for now, my husband and I had scheduled this particular Friday as a vacation day, with plans to head off to visit a favorite swimming hole and then go on our first fall backpack trip of the season! So Thursday night had found me packing up my gear, and Friday morning, we took off for the wilds of north-central Pennsylvania.

We didn't get too far before we realized we'd forgotten something important: the chairs! We usually take a couple of folding chairs in bags that you carry on your shoulder, but this time we left them at home by mistake. I had a smaller folding chair but my husband had none. So our first business of the day was to stop and buy a chair. The first store had none, but WalMart came through for us. Half an hour and about $9 later, we were on our way again; this time WITH chair.

We were heading to Hyner Run State Park to swim, a place we had talked about going all summer long, but somehow (though my husband swam there once alone) I never got there yet. So excitement was running high, but when we got there, the parking lot was empty and the swimming pool gates were locked.

We stopped by the main office, only to be told that the kids were back in school that week. So the pool would only be open for Saturday and Sunday, and the last day for the pool would be the holiday, Labor Day Monday.

So we punted and went to Plan B, and headed for the swimming hole on Young Woman's Creek. You've seen it before, but not from this particular angle. The creek itself was rather low but the swimming hole itself was cool and fresh and lovely, with water well over my head in the deepest spots (though it doesn't look it from here!). There's my husband in the main shot, enjoying a gorgeous late summer/early fall afternoon!

Several butterflies were hanging out at the plants near the swimming hole; more in one place than I've seen all summer, in fact! I took many pictures; I've seen so few of them this summer. Some were fritillaries, and several of them were white admirals, which I've seldom seen for whatever reason.

Do you see that huge rock to the left in the main photo above? My husband walked behind it and found a butterfly lying on its side, not looking too good. He called me over to see if anything could be done, and when I got there, I saw its foot move. I picked it up gently (see the extra photo - it is also a white admiral) and placed it in a nice, shady spot, on a tiny rock right by some damp sand.

Butterflies love wet sand and they obtain nutrients from it in a process known as "puddling," and so I thought that might be the best way to give it a chance. By the time we left, it might have been looking a bit perkier, but I'm no butterfly doctor; a lover of butterflies, an enthusiast, surely, but not necessarily an expert.

Then we left the swimming hole reluctantly. And I admitted to my husband that if I'd have been given a choice, I probably would have CHOSEN this spot for its wild beauties and its butterflies over the main pool at Hyner Run State Park. From there, we took off for the hills to go make our campsite for the night, but I will wait and tell the rest of the tale in tomorrow's blip.  :-)

For now, here's a song about a swimming hole: Breathe Owl Breathe, with Swimming.