Continuing on -- Canada Anemone, Smooth Sowthistle, and the very beautiful but scarce, Wild Iris. And now the Lady Slippers are waking up and are liberally sprinkled along the roadsides. Ours at the cabin are slower, but they're beginning to show up.

The last picture is of the Old Ferry Dock Road. It and the Channel Road and our rocky beach are our prime spots for wildflowering.

What to look forward to: the White or Pink Lady Slipper should be here in several days. Hopefully, it will be on the next blog.

And a final note: while looking for flowers several days ago we spotted a Bald Eagle circling overhead. Exciting!

The Flower of the Day is the Wild Strawberry, and while it is common, it is nevertheless very pretty and quite plentiful this time of the year. But new flowers are beginning to appear and will be available for future blogs.

Greg and Lori were here over Memorial Day Weekend. They left for Oak Park and home today.They were a big help with our flowers, cleaning gutters, gifting the cabin with a Mizzou Banner, and joining us in several exciting (sometimes frustrating) Euchre sessions. Overall, the girls won, but just barely. Greg and Lori plan to be back in October to help us undo the flowers and for more Euchre.

The last picture is of the town of Detour as seen in the fog on Sunday as we were on the ferry on our way to church.

The Flower of the Day is the Round-lobed Hepatica -- one of the early risers on the island. But this is also the time for the Large-leaved Trillium that can take over a hardwood forest with its ever-spreading beauty.

This past weekend we were in Marquette, MI, on the south shore of Lake Superior for the ordination of our new bishop, Rayford Ray. It was a fun and exciting time and St. Stephen's was well represented. Our Presiding Bishop, Kathrine Jefferts Schori, was present and visited with a group of us Friday morning talking about our relationship within the Anglican Communion -- the challenges and opportunities. She is a very lovely lady -- graceful and bright and we are very fortunate to have her as our PB. Sandra was also fortunate to have her picture taken with her.

The ordination service on Saturday was a good service -- well done, but cameras were not allowed, so there are no pictures of the service. I was able to get a picture of our new bishop with the PB and the consecrating bishops. The last picture is of four members of our St. Stephen's group. We were eating a light lunch that was provided by the diocese. As one person said early Friday, "Don't say there isn't a free lunch anymore -- you're getting two this weekend." And our friends at Christ Church, Lexington, will be interested in knowing that Bishop Field and his wife were there and we had a quick minute to say "hello" (Bishop Field is second from the right in the picture).

All of us from St. Stephen's felt fortunate to have been present for the ordination, for being with so many Episcopalians, and for the opportunity to visit with and get to know other people from throughout the diocese.

Sorry, no Flower of the Day, although I'm told that several are beginning to show up. I'll check them out.

We drove to Chicago (Oak Park) on Friday. Missouri was green and beautiful -- much like Ireland. And, of course, Spring has not arrived on the island and may not show up for another two or three weeks. It's strange to leave Spring and in 48 hours be in not yet Spring.

We spent Friday and Saturday night with Greg (Lori was in Denver with the new grandchild). Greg celebrated Mother's Day with his Mother on Saturday evening -- I tagged along. We left Chicago very early Sunday morning and before we knew it the Mackinaw Bridge was awaiting us as was the Drummond Island Ferry and then the cabin.

The weather has been wonderful. We had a fire Sunday night, but it was not necessary on Monday. We put out a large wash Monday -- how can we dirty so many things in 16 hours, and we began unloading the shed and putting things in order inside and outside of the cabin. Even got in some deck sitting. Today it's overcast and rainy. We will stay in. The ocean and lake ships are on the move. Several have been by today.

Candice and Jurgen had us for drinks and dinner Sunday evening, and Carl and Irmie were here for drinks tonight. What the heck, it's a life, and we feel so fortunate to be here, although there is always that part of us that very much misses those back home. We send our love to all -- family and friends, and please know that we always keep you in our prayers and thoughts, and although we plan to stay here until the middle of October, we also look forward to that time when we will be back with you.

The Flower of the Day is the Redbud. The Redbuds first appeared about twenty miles north of Springfield and were with us, along with the white Serviceberry, all the way to Mountain View. The Dogwood was just beginning to come out in Arkansas.

On our way to Mountain View we went through Branson. Quite an experience. There are now two new 6 to 8 floor hotels on the Branson waterfront. Everything looked quite prosperous except the former Eubank Doll House, which is now an information center. On our way out of Branson, we stopped at the Stalwart House. Interesting, just not the same, but the view of Table Rock Lake was still spectacular.

John, I'm sure you remember our camping trip to the Mountain View/Blanchard Springs Cavern area. It was very warm and to cool off we went in the cave and we also spent some time in the water under the large bluff. The second picture of this spot has a rather large rock in it that your mother is sure you and I were sitting on when she took a picture. We don't have the picture but may have given it to you in a "collage" of sorts.

The Thing of the Day is a nest that a Carolina Wren couple built in Sandra's front porch wreath. It, along with some lovely flowers, says that spring is here, and we're so ready for it.

Greg and Lori were with us this past weekend and on their way home to Chicago they stopped by Hannibal and saw where I lived for some 14 years of my life -- from age 6 to 20. I appreciated them wanting to see Hannibal and I would like to visit it again, if I can find the time. I've never been sorry that my life has taken me to many places away from Hannibal, but I still have memories (mostly good) of my time there.

Sandra and Mary Jane Bailey and I spent this evening with Gertrude Innes. We had drinks and good conversation and then salad and pizza. Gertrude is a most interesting, kind and amazing person. It is an honor to be able to know her as a friend, and ---- she will be 100 years old this September 3. So, if you haven't met her at some point in the past, I introduce her to you with the included picture. I rather doubt that I will make it to 100, but if I should, I would hope that I could do it with the grace, love and good humor that defines Gertrude.

We leave for Mountain View, Arkansas, this Friday and then to Ft. Worth on Monday. We should be back in Warrensburg by the following Friday or Saturday. Much love to all who are reading this.

Our trip to California was a fun and varied trip. We arrived in time to celebrate my birthday, and it was extra nice to be with John, Terri and our two wonderful little girls. Terri made me a very special birthday bread pudding with lemon sauce. I can still taste it. The weather was chilly, but we were able to get out and one day John shot off rockets -- one was left in a tree.

We had a great weekend at Truckee/Donner in the Sierra Nevada Mountains -- seven feet of snow on the ground when we got there. The weather was perfect. John, Terri and girls had fun at a snow park -- Sandra and I sat and watched. The next day we drove to Lake Tahoo and then to Truckee for lunch with John, Terri and girls. While we were at Truckee the eastbound Amtrak came through -- quite a climb to cross the Sierra Nevadas. Another six inches of snow fell our last night. John and Terri snow shoed for several hours before we left. The journey home on I 80 was interesting -- but very slow -- sometimes 10 to 15 miles an hour.

The flights out and back were uneventful which was good, but flying is not a happy venture. One thing we did notice is that the security people at the Oakland Airport were much nicer and more helpful than the KCI group.