It's Autumn!!

 Yay! Autumn is my favorite season!  This is my first Friday Fave Five for Fall.  These are just five of the things that I am thankful for this week.  Follow this link-- Fave Fives with Susanne --to join in expressing your thankfulness.

1.  As I just wrote, Autumn is here.  I love fall!  Truly, I am thankful for all the seasons, but for me, fall is best.

2.  Now that we are retired, The Professor and I often take an extended trip during autumn.  This year, we planned a road trip to visit our son, Chaplain Dan, and his family in Arizona.  So yes, we are on the road.  I am thankful that we can do these trips.  (Yes, Ohio, we'll be back soon!)

If you see a photo of that arch, where was it taken?*

*St. Louis, Missouri (crossing the Mississippi River)

3.  The Professor and I love botanical gardens and nature reserves.  So, obviously, we would find gardens to visit on our journey.  This garden, Shaw Nature Reserve, is west of St. Louis, MO.  We spent almost two hours there, hiking and driving around the areas.

Eleanor always finds the best places to sit and rest during our hikes.

4.  We chose this route so we could follow the Santa Fe Trail, which started out on the same path as Lewis and Clark took for a ways into Missouri.  Then the Oregon Trail, California Trail and Santa Fe Trail split off.  Already, on our first day, we have learned so much about these Pioneer Trails.  I am thankful that my husband loves history like I do and enjoys nerding out about this kind of history.

5.  While we are away, we have several different people keeping watch on our house, our garden, our bee hive.  I am so very thankful that we live near our two daughters and that they take care of things while we are away.

More Barns of Ohio

 I just can't stop snapping those photos of barns.  More barns from our trip to Bellville.

Some barns aren't in exactly great shape.  But they are so picturesque.

Nothing's better than a sheep barn.

A patriotic barn

Sometimes a farm needs more than one barn.

Lastly, a blue roofed barn in a soy bean field.

Which barn do you like best?

Joy of the Edge of the Season

 Middle of September.  Literally.  Less than a week until Autumnal Equinox.  Time is flying.

Here it is Friday already.  And I am pausing in the rush toward fall to think back on this past week and remind myself how blessed I am.  On Fridays, I join Susanne and others to post my Friday Fave Fives.  If you click on the label below, it should take you to her blog where you can join in.

1.  I am ENJOYING this beginning change of seasons.  The weather is cooler and we even had a couple of rainstorms.  If it rains, I don't have to water the garden :)

2.  The tomatoes and raspberries are still producing, so our meals and freezer are ENJOYING the yummy fresh homegrown goodness.

3.  On Monday, The Professor and I drove an hour north of us to meet halfway with long time friends who have just moved back to the Cleveland area.  They are from Ohio and when they retired, they chose to return 'home' and brought their daughter and grandchildren with them.  Land I worked at the same school and were in a women's Bible Study together for years. We ENJOYED lunch and two and a half hours of conversation with them (and our husbands enjoy each other's company, too).

4.  As you would know if you regularly read my blog, I love old barns.  So on this trip through the country, I ENJOYED  watching for barns and taking photos of them as we sped past.  Here are a few samples.  There will be a longer post later in the weekend.

5.  Bible Study classes (two of them) started up this week for the fall term.  I ENJOY studying God's Word and connecting with friends.  My heart is just full from those hours on Wednesday evening and Friday morning.

That's just FIVE things I ENJOYED this week which truly blessed me.  How was your week?

September Keeps Sliding Along

 Oh my.  I just realized that it is FRIDAY!  On Friday, Fave Fives happens and here in a hurry are mine.  My Friday Fave Fives (follow the link for more!)

1.  Our warm hot weather has moderated.  That in itself is a blessing.

2.  Because the temperature is more amenable to being outside, I have been able to work more in my garden.  If you know me, you know that the garden is my happy place.  Mostly, I am doing some clean up although I was able to give some extra black-eyed susans, wooly lamb's ear, and other plants to a friend who is working on her new garden (she recently bought a new home).

3.  Little bits of rain.  It smells so refreshing and the plants certainly enjoyed it.

 4. Coffee with our friends T and S.  Yes, I often mention our coffee dates in my faves.  We just enjoy each others' company, and we never know where our conversations will lead us.  This week, we talked about vocabulary and word origins as well as gardens and birds and a host of other topics.

5.  The current afghan I am knitting is nearly finished (photos next week?).  Now I have another baby blanket to make for a baby boy who will join the world around Christmas. (I wonder if his mom will name him Elf...)  AND. I was given some very lovely yarn (mostly merino wool, with some alpaca and silk) and I think it is going to become a winter sweater for me.  I love to knit and I appreciate quality yarn.

That wraps it up for this week.  I am sure that there are many more blessings that I have not noted here.  How about you?  Are your blessings just piling up?

September Has Arrived!

It's September!  The ninth month of the year!  So much has been happening which on one hand is fun and on the other hand is a bit tiring.  No matter what is happening, I choose to be thankful for my life.  That's why I post my Friday Fave Fives every week. (follow the link to join!)

We decided to spend the last few days of August at a fairly local state park campground.  It was wonderful.  It was relaxing.  These are a few of the happy memories we made.

1.  We love driving through the countryside to arrive at our campsite.  And one day we drove around a bit and took the off roads.  Of course, I just had to grab a photo of a barn!

2.  In Zanesville (yes, that Western author Zane Grey was from this town), there is a Classic Denny's Diner.  One morning, we left the campsite and drove there to meet our friends T and S for breakfast.  It's right on Hwy 40--the National Road.  We've been wanting to visit this Denny's ever since we saw it a couple of years ago.  It was a great breakfast time!

3.  Camping after school starts and during the week, almost all of the campers are retired.  That means quiet.  Usually, it also means empty spaces around us.  We enjoyed chatting with several of our 'neighbors'.  We even bumped into someone we know!

4.  Camping means campfires.  Morning and evening.

5.  Camping gives us more opportunities to be out in nature.  We rode our bikes almost ten miles one morning.  And we hiked a couple of the trails at the state park.  The trails were steep and a bit rugged.  But it was fun.

Which way should we go?

On the evening of the super moon, we were able to capture a few photos since there was not much light around us.  There were lots of trees, though.

And I found more hearts.

Can you see the heart shaped light spot on the upper left of the fire pit?  I noticed it when I downloaded the photo.

In the shadow of the tree on the trail

OK, now it's September!

Enough-- Fave Fives

 I feel like I should just post something for Friday Fave Fives (the link takes you to Susanne's blog where you can add your own FFF) that states, "See last week. Repeat."  Almost.  But there is always something that I can choose to what I am thankful for.  Food.  Water.  Safe shelter.  What I have is Enough.

1 and 2.  Rainstorms.  One of them included lots of lightning and thunder.  In fact, one lightning bolt must have landed within 200 feet of our house because the light, noise and shaking of our house were nearly simultaneous.  I am thankful for all the rain to water our land and I am thankful that as far as we can tell, there was no damage from the lightning strike.

3.  Other days have been very very humid which make me thankful for air conditioning.

4.  The Professor and I took a three and a half mile walk on Monday evening.  My physical therapist has challenged me to take more lengthy walks and hikes to improve my strength in the ankle I broke in March.  Then on Tuesday night, the Trail Life troop did a walk in the same area and Younger Daughter and I tailed along and did more than two miles.  I am thankful I am regaining strength and mobility in that ankle (and that I have walking/hiking buddies).

5.  My garden is producing tomatoes and more tomatoes.  Just this week, I have made two large pans of roasted cherry tomatoes.  I put them in the freezer and use them on pasta all winter long.  What a yummy way to taste summer in the winter.

Yes, contentment is choosing to say, I have enough.

Mid August Faves

 August in the northern hemisphere is hot.  One way to describe it is Dog Days of Summer.  By now we are all ready for fall.  That includes me.  I'm tired of hot days.  Are you?

But even so, I need to focus on the good stuff.  Here are Friday Fave Fives, my way of looking back and around me and reminding myself the week is full of blessings. (The link takes you to Susanne's blog so you can read more of our good stuff.)

1.  Friday night we took Younger Daughter and the grandkids to the county fair.  We chose Friday night because it was Rough Trucks.  Flips, turns, mud, big old trucks and cars.  The Professor and I enjoyed talking with some of the people in a couple of booths.

2.  One booth in particular was focused on gardening.  We discovered that our county has a Pollinator Pathway group.  We have been working all summer on changing much of our back garden into a pollinator garden.  And we didn't even know about this group!  Excited we are!  And then I found out that a good friend of mine is part of it!

My Pollinator Garden

3.  I have been working through more of my to-do list.  One chore is doing the mending.  I worked a bit last week and did some more this week.  See this adorable puppy?  No, he's not real.  He's a stuffie who was attacked by a real puppy.  But I was able to sew him back together, and he looks almost new again.

4.  I made a batch of pickles!  My first time ever.

5.  Knitting continues.  I am working on another afghan.  Yeah, I love to knit, and afghans use up quite a bit of my yarn stash.  That's a win-win.

Bonus:  we had two lovely rain storms this week.  I didn't have to water the garden!

These faves may not be exciting, but they reflect the blessings in my life.