Abby decided she wanted a Halloween pumpkin, so rather than just picking one up at Kroger, we decided to go in for pumpkin getting experience. We headed out to Garner Homestead Family Farm in deepest Garland County. The Web site promised a petting zoo, a corn maze, hayrides and a pumpkin field. This place has pretty good PR, but the actual experience is a bit of a letdown.
Arkansas has a split personality. High country and forest lie in the north and west and to the south and east it’s as flat as Kansas. Little Rock sits right on the dividing line. You can drive 30 minutes in one direction and climb a mountain; or drive 30 minutes in the opposite direction and see the curvature of the earth. On Saturday, Abby, Gina, Aunt Jodie and I loaded up and headed to the flat lands, where row-crop agriculture dominates.
On an earlier jaunt I had discovered a country road lined on either side with huge walnut trees that formed a leafy tunnel for a mile or so. We headed back there because I wanted to get a photo looking down the road in some nice afternoon light. That photo idea was a bust. It was still too early in the afternoon and the light was too harsh. We stopped near what looked like an old sharecropper shack to let Abby get out and play in the dirt. A man in a snazzy BMW showed up directly and told us we were on the end of his crop-duster landing strip and needed to move along. So we did.
We took a day trip to Texarkana on Sunday to visit my Grandmother and see her new digs at Cornerstone, an assisted living community. She actually has a very nice two-bedroom house in what looks like a regular suburban neighborhood. Apparently the assisted-living part of the deal is that she gets a certain number of meals at the main building and housekeeping services. Abby and Mur-Mur, which is her cutsey-itsy name for great-grandchildren, had a great time playing with Pickles the Plastic Dog.
I told them to look at the camera for this one. Abby evidently didn’t know where I was and Grandmother evidently didn’t know I was going to take her picture.
It rained a lot on Tuesday, so to get out of the house, which was driving both of us to madness with Gina out of town for a few days, we went for a drive. Eventually we found ourselves at Harris Brake Lake in Perry County, west of Little Rock. The clearing storms created some cool clouds. For the photo I metered on the clouds and then threw some light on Abby with the pop-up flash.
After the photo session we walked down to the water’s edge so Abby could throw some rocks. She asked if she could put her finger in the water and I nodded. Just before she got her finger wet she looked up and asked, “Are there any sharks in this lake?”
I don’t know. She was making some kind of fish face.
Gina wanted to get some pictures of Abby in honor of her reaching the milestone of becoming 3 years old, so we headed out to the little historic homesteader cabin at Burns Park with my picher takin stuff. This is some of what we came back with.
Abby and Gina fixed me breakfast in bed for Fathers Day. I’ve never had BIB before. It was nice. (Photo by Gina.)
Abby had her 3-year doctor’s visit on Thursday and she’s apparently healthy and everything. The nurse cruised through everything so fast I almost didn’t get any pictures. She put Abby on the scale and weighed her before I could get the camera and flash in position. She weights 32.5 lbs., which is in the 70th percentile. Next they went to measure her height. She is 38.5 inches tall, which is in the 80th percentile.
We gathered at Funland in Burns Park to celebrate Abby’s 3rd birthday on Saturday. No drama like last year. Abby announced that there would be no traditional singing of Happy Birthday. I didn’t get very many decent pictures. I was too busy jacking around with the video camera and other tasks.
