Gee Whiz, Gotta Wrap Up

this vacation story.  It's almost Fall.  School has long since started.  Halloween junk is beginning to fill the store displays.

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So, here's the fond farewell to the vacation house in the Shenandoah Valley, way back on Labor Day weekend, and a few details to the story that I neglected to tell:
On the lawn of the vacation house, standing peacefully under a shade tree, was a statue of the Holy Mother of God (Madre de Dios, Reader Dear).  I don't know when she arrived, but she was still there when we left. 

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During our stay at this vacation house, in addition to the caterpillar (who may or may not live there) we noticed another fine creature moving about. Was he one of the caretakers? I wondered.

He didn't say.

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Elder Brother brought a fig bush to the vacation house for me.  Together we named this type of fig 
the Warwick.  He has many of these fig bushes at his farm.  They were all started from the bushes that grow at the old home place.  The place, Dear Reader, I've shown you many times.  It was our growing-up home by the Warwick River.* 

I carried the Warwick along home, and have been eating from it ever since!









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Our very final event-slash-food-slash-fun as a group of vacationers was lunch at an Indian Restaurant,

and a visit to Shirley's Popcorn shop, just up the street.

Three of my small actors left the shop with plenty of fortification for the long trip home.

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Only HM and I returned to the vacation house for one final night.  I sat up late, diligently attempting to capture the sound of a train whistle for you, Listener Dear.  Failing, I tried again in the misty morning, which was filled with sound, but nary a train whistle.

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At the end, approaching the "check-out" time of ten a.m., I was still scrambling around, cleaning up the kitchen, emptying the refrigerator and the dishwasher, sweeping the floors, emptying the trash cans, transporting dirty laundry, dealing with the garbage, texting my children, "Does anyone know the whereabouts of the combination lock that was on the gate to the pool?!", searching-searching-searching for the lock, watering my newly-begotten fig bush, packing to go home.  By the tine the HM and I were driving away from the vacation house, down the long, sloping driveway...I needed a vacation!*

*It's just a joke, Reader Dear.
Only a joke.  After all, all the cleaning up was simply labor that I hadn't done the day before, you know--on LABOR Day!