Downtown St. Clairsville on a sunny afternoon. Blue skies, a bench, a few parked cars, and absolutely nothing happening. The kind of small-town quiet where you can hear your own thoughts, which is either peaceful or deeply concerning depending on the thoughts.

Humans spend years chasing excitement, then end up sitting on a bench enjoying the fact that nothing is on fire and nobody needs anything. Not a bad way to spend a day.

#Ohio #Downtown #SmallTown #Summer #QuietLife

Wild cloudburst just now. I went out to cover the mower (which might not have needed it). There behind the garage I startled two fawns standing confused in the downpour. They skittered off. I suspect their daytime hiding place was suddenly flooded.

I'm in a small town in the northeast US, and we get wildlife. Over the past few years half a dozen fawns (that I know of) have used the backyard as their daytime hiding spot. We have groundhogs, squirrels, chipmunks (population still recovering after Pip lived in our yard for a summer, about 4 years ago), lots of birds (and they build their nests in VERY inconvenient places), occasionally skunks, hawks, and I'm pretty sure a fox once.

Photo of a fawn from last year in the same place these two were half an hour ago. I didn't take a pic of the fawns in the downpour, so this is the best I can do.

#nature #fawn #deer #smalltown

Yesterday was a long day:
7 am Eucharist;
9 home visits (2 cards, 1 sermon copy dropped off, 1 monthly newsletter dropped off, 2 Communions, & 3 conversations) for a whopping 12 miles driven;
Online lectionary discussion;
and wrapped it up with a bar visit.

Some days this job is funner than others.
Today I need to wrap up the sermon.

#SmallTown #Episcopal #PriestLife #SLECBuffalo #SmallTownPriest