PHLOX

First I want to welcome home our veterans of the Iraqi War.

Thank you for your courage and bravery. You did a great job and we are proud of you.

You and your families sacrifices are most appreciated.

God Bless you one and all.

Now to the picture of the Phlox. When I see it blooming it reminds me it is the beginning of the end of summer. What I like to call the waning days of summer.

Mid-August and the hustle and bustle for getting everyone ready for back to school begins.

Families hurry to get in a last minute vacation.

Moms hurry to the stores to buy school clothes and supplies.

College kids are rounding up all their dorm needs.

Dads brace themselves for the bills to roll in.

It's also fair season around here.

Tonight the Pittston Tomato Festival begins and runs through Sunday evening.

The Little League World Series begins it's festivities in South Williamsport this evening.

Next weekend it's the Kielbasa Festival in Plymouth.

The Wyoming County and Luzerne County Fairs will begin a week apart starting the end of August.

Can you smell those funnel cakes? Yum-Yum.

I'm sure high school football will be starting in a week or two.

The end of September will be the grandaddy of all them all, the Bloomsburg Fair.

Tonight I noticed the sun is setting farther away from it's maximum western site.

There is cool nip in the air in the evening.

The hummingbirds are scrapping with each other more than usual, slurping up the extra sugar water to increase their stamina for the long trek south.

The experts are saying the leaves won't be as colorful this year because of the drought. Time will tell that outcome.

The days are still warm even hot, which I like.

The sun sets earlier each evening, which I don't like.

These last days of August remind me of getting new clothes to go back to school. Inevitably they would be wool skirts and warm sweaters. September would still have warm days, but we wore the woolens anyway.

I can almost smell the oil scented floors of the classrooms.

Enjoy these days while they are here.