A Week of Walks and Dogs

Happy Friday, everyone!  Here at Willow's Cottage, it has been a busy week and a busy Friday.  Now it is Friday evening and I am resting and thinking back on all the blessings of this week.  Five Faves to share with you.  If you are a regular reader here, you know that Susanne hosts us every week at Friday Fave Fives. (follow the link)

These are my faves for this second week of September.

1.  I walked/hiked every day this past week.  I am really working on walking every day.  So far this month, I've missed only one day.  This may be a record for me.

2.  Two walks in the local arboretum, Dawes Arboretum.  We are blessed to have a wonderful local arboretum just a few miles away from our home.  Dawes Arboretum is made up of almost 2,000 acres.  So many paths.  Acres and acres of trees.  Japanese Garden.  And so much more.  The granddogs love walking here.

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3.  First Bible Study of the season.  We started back this Thursday on our weekly studies.  I am blessed to be able to be part of this group.

4.  Phone calls with my brother.  We try to talk to each other most every week because we live 2,400 miles apart.  I treasure those conversations.

5.  A photo that made me happy this week.  PAL's flipflops and Chaplain Dan's boots by the front door.

AND... Senior Photo of Tall Boy...

Fave Fives Whirlwind

 Yes, my week has been a whirlwind.  Our calendar was crazily full every day.  Last night, as I was checking to see what we had on the schedule for today, I realized that I needed to stop and take a breath and jot down my Friday Fave Fives to refocus my attention away from chaos.  And so I wrote my FFFs on a 3x5 card before I fell asleep.  These are what popped up in my memories.

1.  Friday night, we joined our two daughters on a night at the local theater for a musical performed by all local actors.  I knew two of them! One was our former mail carrier!  And we enjoyed the play, too.

2.  During the past week, I have walked/hiked six days.  Sometimes, we walk in our neighborhood in the evenings.  Three times this week.  Our other walks were with Nurse Daughter and her two dogs.  Athena and Sawyer love to walk and it gets their wiggles out.

3.  This week our featured birthday boy is Older Son, Chaplain Dan.  Happy Birthday, Chaps!  This- is what I wrote on Fa-ebook:  

Today is our oldest's birthday! Happy Happy Birthday, Dan! You have gone from Southern California (and other places in the US) to Indonesia, to Oregon, back to Southern California, to Arizona, and various and sundry spots all over the world for military assignments. There's more to come, I'm sure. And everywhere you go, your smile brightens everyone's day.

One of my most favorite photos of him.

Sitting on a basketball in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia

4.  A friend texted me and asked, "Do you want basil?"  "Yes!"  (mine is under performing this year)  She picked a bunch of me and handed me a kitchen trash bag FULL of basil.  I spent the evening processing it all and making pesto.  I think I have enough frozen cubes of pesto to last me until next summer.  Yum!

5.  Honey!  Our bees provided abundantly again this spring/summer again this year.  You can't have more local for your honey than your back garden.  It tastes SO SO SO good!

Bonus Fave:  I spent one afternoon at our daughters' home and helped Nurse Daughter do some organizing in the garage.  Double joy for me-- spending time with her and doing an organizing project.

I hope you can slow down and step out of the whirlwind of life and remember the blessings.

Family, Flowers, Faithfulness

 This past week, it has been hot and humid here in Ohio.  Too hot to walk most days until late evening.  I have spent most of my time inside (more on that topic below).  But there have been blessings along the way.  Friday Fave Fives is how I share some of them each week.  Susanne is our faithful host and she leads us by example.  The link takes you to her blog and to where and how you can participate in FFF.

Here are mine.

1.  I didn't mention this last week...my bad.  Our Fifty-second wedding anniversary.  Yes, you read that correctly. 52 years.  I am thankful for a faithful husband who has always been through life with me.  We were so young fifty-two years ago.

Many of our wedding photos were damaged when they were in storage during the years we lived in Indonesia, but a few escaped the rats.

2.  Back to current times.  We grow old together.  Dr. appointments become faves.  The Professor had a very encouraging physical therapy assessment.  I was able to schedule a quicker than usual appointment to find out why I am having allergic reactions (and to what).  I am thankful that we have excellent insurance and options to help us with our health.

3.  The Professor is improving and we were able to walk two miles one evening.  And the one morning when the temperatures were bearable, we enjoyed a shorter walk with our Nurse Girl (younger daughter) and the two granddogs.  (According to Nurse Girl, we are the grandpawrents)

4.  As I mentioned above, the weather has been so hot and humid.  Because of the testing I am undergoing for the allergies, I am not supposed to be exposed much to sun or get all sweaty.  So mostly I have been sitting inside reading or knitting.  I'm thankful I can stay cool(ish) in the house.  And I don't have to weed the garden.

5. My view into the back garden is of potted plants on the patio, and just behind them in the garden bed, sunflowers!  The sunflowers are so tall and blooming huge flowers.  I love them.  The birds love them. (photos taken in the evening after it cooled a bit)

And I have a few growing in the front of the house, too.

I am thankful for my garden!

A volunteer daisy among the potted nasturtiums.

A solar light dragonfly among the wildflowers. 

This week I hoped you stopped to smell all the flowers, not just the roses.

Home Makes Me Happy

 And Friday Fave Fives Make Me Happy, Too.  I'm back after another busy week.  I've been home since Saturday evening, readjusting my schedule to 'home'.  Now I need to take a few minutes to write down my five blessings from this crazy week.

1. The health conference we attended last weekend was great.  So full of good and helpful information.  

2.  We've gone from blustery rain and thunderstorms to sunny spring weather.  I am thankful for the gentler days because we have been able to do some garden work in the afternoons.  Areas are being weeded, some seeds have been sown, one of three rhododendrons has been planted (the other two should be in the ground by this evening), the raised bed has additional soil added.  I love being in the garden.  A bonus here is that the two teenage grandsons came to help.

3.  One early afternoon the weather was perfect.  Younger Daughter, the Nurse, and I took a long walk/hike with the two dogs. The dogs hadn't seen me for almost three weeks and stayed as close as they could during the whole hike.  (my daughter's photo)

4.  Our wonderful next door neighbor is a musician.  He sings as a community member of the local university gospel choir.  Their concert was last weekend.  Wow!  It was beautiful!

5.  My last fave involves another neighbor on our street.  Sunday morning, just as we were turning off our dead end street/cul de sac, The Professor's phone rang.  He answered it.  "You have a ball of yarn hanging out the door of your car!"  We pulled over and checked.  Yep.  My cream yarn from the afghan I'm knitting right now was trailing us all the way from our driveway.  Oops.  We jumped out and gathered it all up while we laughed.  Of course, that neighbor was laughing with us.  And another neighbor family on their way to a soccer game saw us and giggled.  So now evidently we're 'famous' on our street for having yarn balls following us through the neighborhood.  Anyway, it made a funny story.  (But I was able to untangle and rewind the yarn, and didn't lose much at all of it.)

I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!  Watch for all the blessings every day.

May Has Arrived!

Welcome to May!  This Friday, the weather is a bit under clouds and I'm a bit under the weather, too.  So it is a day of rest for me.  The quiet time today is a good time to focus my fuzzy brain on all the wonderful ways I have been blessed this week so I can post them as my Friday Fave Fives.  Several of us join together with Susanne on her blog to post blessings from our week.  Join us!

1.  Again this week, we got in a couple of four mile walks.  Because I miss the beaches in SoCal, I try to walk near water, preferably creeks and rivers (water needs to be moving!)  We decided to walk with younger daughter at a new to us spot-- the other end of the Black Hand Gorge Trail.  It was beautiful.  And the granddogs loved it, too.  [NOTE:  not sure why I am not able to upload any photos.  If you are having issues, too, please let me know.]

2.  I am slowly putting the garden together.  Cucumbers and basil were planted in this week and soon I will be adding replacement tomatoes for the ones that died in the frost.  I also have borage and parsley, lettuce and kale to add, too.

3.  I love when I get a text from our former neighbor in CA.  World's Best Neighbor is what I call her.  She catches me up on all the neighbors and on her life, too.  And of course, knitting.  I am so thankful to quick and easy communication.

4.  Libraries!  Tall Boy requested a visit to the local library this week.  I took him after his piano lesson.  The library allows any adult to sign him up for a card, as long as they take responsibility for any costs like lost books.  I accepted the conditions. So now he has his own card.  Our plan is to drop by the library regularly.

5.  I know that I often mention our friends T and S who we meet for coffee weekly.  This week was extra special because Younger Daughter had a a few days off work and joined us.  We laughed so much and talked for so long.  We never fail to just enjoy each others' company.  Our friendship is a hug blessing to us. (And I love that our girls and grands love them, too.)

So, my friends, think about your week and remember the goodness in your life.  Be blessed.  Be well.  Be thankful.

Marching Along

 I'm late!  I'm late!  For a very important date!  Friday Fave Fives!  But at least I'm here now to share my five blessings from this first full week of March.

1.  The weather has been moderate all week.  Although we have had rainstorms blowing through, most days have been walk worthy.  We even had time one day to move three wheelbarrow loads of mulch and drop them on the raspberry bushes before the rain returned.

2.  As I mentioned, the days were walk worthy.  We managed three good walks with the granddogs.  Four miles.  Three miles.  One and a half miles.

Deer frolicking at the edge of the creek

3.  The best thing about walking with the granddogs?  We walk them, and when we are done, we give them back to their mommies and don't have to take them home, feed them and clean up after them.  We do love them.  Two of the three:

Sawyer

Athena

4.  Signs of spring.  Daffodils everywhere.  Forsythia starting to bloom.  (and would you believe it?  I got no photos.)

5.  Coffee meet ups with new friends.  One lady is a weaver and we had a great time talking about all things fiber.