Highlands Nature Sanctuary

Monday
We have the promise of a lovely week in store, with pleasant temperatures, low humidity and no rain, so we wanted to get out and make the most of it. We enjoyed breakfast out on the patio, watching the birds at the feeders. We were just finishing, when R’s sister Janet called. She was just dropping off Bernard at the care home, where is going to stay for respite care, while they are on holiday in Canada and then joining us for Laura’s wedding in Wisconsin later in September. She was wanting to check that the iPad was working for FaceTime, since when he was there back in the Spring, we struggled to get the link to work, - we could hear him, but he couldn’t hear us. After rebooting it, we got it to work, so let’s hope it stays working. He will have several people from church popping in to visit, and one of those is good on the technology side, so hopefully he can help us out if there is a problem.
After that, we set out for Highlands Nature Sanctuary, near Bainbridge Ohio, about 90 minutes east of us, in the foothills of the Appalachians. It lies along the Rocky Fork creek, with its sheer dolomite cliffs and numerous small caves and recess caves. I was hoping my knee was up to it after it started hurting when I moved it last Thursday. It’s been gradually improving, and I managed a cycle ride on Saturday, and a swim yesterday, and it was feeling OK this morning, so I decided to try it. I took my hiking poles, which I usually do unless I know it’s going to be relatively smooth and level. I was a bit concerned, since there were quite a lot of steps, but I managed fine, and as I write this am suffering no repercussions!