Now you see it...

and now you don't!   Sleight of hand isn't only for magic shows - there have been some interesting disappearances around here as well! The first story comes from our August trip to Iowa, where we spent a lovely day discovering all the covered bridges of Madison County.  I took this picture of my husband at our first stop - Hogback Bridge.  See the couple at the back of the bridge?  By the time my husband and I strolled to the back of the bridge they were gone. 

As in, vanished.  We were completely mystified - there was no logical explanation as to where they had gone...no dust stirred up on the gravel road at the back of the bridge and no way for a tourist car to access that road anyway. No bicycles pedaling away. It literally took us only seconds to walk from the front to the back of the bridge and in that time they had completely disappeared. We finally decided that they must have been the ghosts of Robert and Francesca (even if they were fictional characters and it was not "their" Roseman Bridge - small details in a ghost story don't matter.)

Now you see them...now you don't!

Coming back to the highway after visiting the Hogback Bridge, we came across a century old schoolhouse nestled in a cornfield.  The doors were locked, but peeking in the windows it was easy to imagine a room full of little boys and girls, ready to recite and do their sums on their slate boards. Can't you hear their giggles while the teacher's back is turned? 

 

 We discovered a delightful English garden maze at the lovely city park in Winterset, Iowa.  

Phil was brave enough to give it a try.  I still have flashbacks about being lost in the Hampton 

Court Palace maze outside London - not a fun memory!!

Poof...gone!

But fortunately, this was also a re-appearing act!!

We've also had a few "magical" disappearances around the house,  but ones that are definitely more prosaic in nature. The over-sized, out-dated, broken jacuzzi bathtub in our teeny tiny master bathroom? 

Poof!  Gone!  And in its place a lovely new shower that makes the room seem so much larger and definitely makes getting ready for work early in the morning much more pleasant!

There is simply no way to take good pictures in this room - it's way too tiny!

The rusty basketball pole/backboard that I've hated since day one and declared must go over twelve years ago?  Thanks to a handy neighbor, poof - gone!!

And here's the big question of the day.  I made this lovely apple pie on Sunday, and poof!  Where do you think it went?!

I hope your day is filled with a little bit of magic and a little bit of awe for this amazing journey we all share.  Instead of a poem today, I'll leave you with this picture from my garden.  October roses...they will soon disappear as well, but the magic of spring will bring them back to us.

Have a beautiful day, my friends!