Where Has The Summer Gone?

Nearly End of Summer Willow's Week Friday Fave Fives with Susanne.

Summer is almost over.  Sad but true.  In fact, The Professor has already spent a day in his office at the university.  I, also, am gearing up with prep work for the school year.  But mostly I'm ignoring the fact that it is the end of summer.

1.  We spent part of last week visiting little ones in San Diego and doing all the usual summer things.  The main reason for our visit was to be present at the two little ones' baptisms.  (Unfortunately, no recognizable photos are allowed to be posted in a public media place.)  But we did many other fun things such as our usual visit to San Diego Zoo.  The baby flamingos were adorable.  I forgot my camera but The Professor snapped one shot with his phone.

Hikes with friends.

Trolley rides

2.  Summer is not the time to knit warm sweaters.  It's the time to knit socks.

3.  Summer is bike riding time.  Thirteen miles one day with a stop for coffee.  Of course.

4.  Summer is a time for (more) reading.  Yeah, I'm still reading Louis L'Amour books.  Louis L'Amour wrote A LOT of books.

5.  Summer, and specifically August, is the time for more birthdays.  Son #1 and Daughter #1, both in early August.

Many years ago

So. Cute.

I don't know about you, but I am savoring every moment I have left of summer!

A Montenegro Day

When a friend lived in Montenegro for a few months, she found that her dramatically simplified life allowed her to focus more fully on creative outlets.  A group of us have adopted the title 'A Montenegro Day' to describe a day or hour set aside for pursuing something creative.

Today was one of our Montenegro Days. We chose Carpinteria, a beach town on Highway 101. They took their watercolors.

Predictably, I had my camera.

 a study in subtle shades of blue

details

macro setting

And of course, I never go anywhere without my knitting.

What do you do on a Montenegro Day?

Fast and Fair

This will be quick.  I am in Phoenix, Arizona for two days to attend a funeral.  But even in the midst of a crazy weekend, I want to pop in to remind myself to be grateful.

Willow's Week for Friday Fave Five

with Susanne

1.  One evening we enjoyed dinner with long long time friends.  It's wonderful that we now live in the same town, but we realized that we hadn't been together for MONTHS.  So we just decided to have dinner.  We've hit on the perfect solution to make it easy to get together:  choose your own meal and bring it:  BYOM.  Fellowship and friendship doesn't have to mean a big dinner.  All we want is to hang out together and this way takes away all the stress of being the host/hostess. 

2.  Fun afternoon at the Ventura County Fair.  Every year, I volunteer to demonstrate spinning at the Ventura County Weavers and Spinners Guild booth.  It's so much fun!  Four students/parents wandered past and were surprised to see me 'outside of class'.  One boy asked, "So, is this your hobby?"  So cute!  Of course, in all the preparation for the trip and the demo, I forgot my camera.  Not. One. Photo.

3.  Safe and uneventful drive across the California and Arizona deserts to Phoenix.

4.  Comfy arrangements at the home of my son and daughter-in-law.  And that bit of extra time to spend with them.  (Added blessing:  we will be here for a couple of hours on his birthday!)

5.  Happy Birthday this week to my youngest child!  She has always been a delight and has blessed us so very much with her personality, her love for her family, her love for God, her love of justice and mercy.

Everyone agreed she was a beautiful baby!

One hour old.

On her wedding day

Still beautiful

There it is.  My week in Five.  I hope you've had a great and grateful week.

Summer Time

Whoa.  Seven days, a whole week, has passed and I haven't posted anything, any words, any photos, here.  That seems to be how my summer is shaping up.  Just a lot of down time.  Not that that is a bad thing.  In the slow slow summer days, I am still finding blessings to share for Friday Fave Fives.

1. Summer time gives me opportunity to read and read and read.  The Professor and I are continuing our fascination with the novels of the late great Louis L'Amour.  Lonely cattle and cowboy country.  Brave heroes.  Black hatted villians.  Beautiful strong western women.

2. Summer time also gives us the leisure to search out fun walks in our area.  One day we decided to walk along a bike trail neither of us had ever seen before.  It wasn't a pastoral or mountain hike.  We crossed the Santa Clara River on the overpass which we shared with Highway 101.

Eight lane freeway on one side

(Almost) dry river bed on the other.

Tumbleweeds and nasturtiums by a still small pool of water

3.  Another walk we chose this week was at the beach.  We had never walked along the beach or pier at Port Hueneme (pronounce Wy-NEE-mee).

4.  Summer time is prime smoothie time.  Unfortunately, our blender broke.  Its little motor just couldn't keep up with our green smoothie making.  So, we ordered a new one and used some anniversary present money toward it.  Ordered and delivered.  We're back in smoothie goodness business.

5.  Summer time is Wednesday Night Supper at our church.  Every week it's the same menu.  We love to attend mostly because of the fellowship we enjoy around the large tables.  Usually, we will sit with different people each week so we have an opportunity to meet new (to us) people and also to chat with old (to us) friends.

Oh, I love summer time!

A Week at Home

It seems like when you return home from an extended trip that it takes awhile to recover.  It's like having to rest up after coming home from vacation.  I had planned to be productive and post more photos of our trip, do garden work, clean the bathrooms, scan more photos.  Well not much got done.  And that is where Friday Fave Five with Susanne comes in.  Even during a non-productive week, I can find ways to be grateful.

1. I am thankful that I have the flexibility in my summer schedule to take the time to rest.

2. I am thankful for books to read.  Browsing in the library, I picked up a Louis L'Amour novel partly because we had been talking about how he wrote about the places where we had traveled in the Southwest during our road trip--places like Texas, New Mexico and the Arizona desert.  This week I've revisited those places through the eyes and words of Louis L'Amour's books.  It's not deep meaningful literature but it's perfect for rest and relaxation.

3. I am thankful for the gift card given to me at the end of the school year which provided the opportunity for me to purchase two books.  (Yes, the theme here may be sitting around reading)  I bought another Newbery Award book.  Ginger Pye (1952).  Also, I had read some reviews of a book about eating vegan.  Great recipes.  Good advice.  So I decided to buy it.  I seldom purchase books, especially cookbooks, but this one includes lists of restaurant chains which offer vegan friendly options and several other helpful lists like daily and weekly menus.

4. I am thankful for easy knitting.  My brain just didn't want to work on anything intricate this week. So I found easy 'brain-dead' knitting:  simple dishcloths.

5. Last, but certainly not least, I am thankful for my faithful husband.  On Sunday we celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary.  Our wonderful road trip was our gift to each other, so our actual anniversary was rather low key...church, farmers market, lunch, hang out, pleasant walk.  Weren't we cute forty years ago?

How was your week?

I'm Home!

Didja miss me?  Or didn't you notice I was MIA for three weeks?

5,853 miles.  Fifteen states (and four of those states twice).

You can read some of my daily posts below, but today I want to focus on Five Faves from those weeks of travel.

Willow's Three Weeks for Friday's Fave Five (click for the link to Susanne's blog)

1.  Safety.  All those miles and no accidents.  A couple of times I know we were spared at least a fender bender because of The Professor's excellent defensive driving and God's care and protection.

2.  The Professor and I have now visited forty-nine of the fifty states in the United States of America.  The only one we are now missing is---

Alaska.

Plans are fomenting in his big brain.

Maybe a cruise?

My forty-ninth state!

3.  Visiting historical spots.  As history freaks enthusiasts, we loved including points of historical interest in our daily destinations.

Route 66

Click here to see my post about historical places we visited related to Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Natchez Trace Parkway

Also, we visited the River Walk in San Antonio

as well as two Spanish missions

(come back later to see photos)

Yeah, we love history!

4.  Spending time with Our Boy!

You know how it is--you can only take so many photos before the inevitable happens.

5.  At the end, however, no matter how much we love to travel, how much we enjoy visiting fascinating places,

there's no place like home.

It's lovely to be back.

On The Way Home: Day #4

No new states today.  In fact, we didn't even drive to another city.   Late last night we arrived in San Antonio, Texas, and all day today we spent in San Antonio visiting

The Alamo

 Mission Concepcion

Mission San Jose

 and strolling the San Antonio River Walk.

On The Way Home: Day #3

A momentous occasion:  State #49!

Louisiana!

The state line is actually in the middle of the Mississippi River.  Obviously, we didn't stop for a photo shoot.

And now we return and pass through the last four states on our journey:

On The Way Home: Day #2

Many miles today.  516.  Although we started early (for us), we did not arrive at our night's destination until 7pm.  Our way took us from Kentucky to Alabama  (see photo below), through Tennessee,

 and into Mississippi.

We followed the Natchez Trace Parkway from Fly, Tennessee to Tupelo, Mississippi.  It's beautiful and chock full of history.  The entire parkway runs for 444 miles, but we drove only 160 miles.  Someday we'll return and spend more than a part of a day exploring.

Of interest to me was the burial place of Meriwether Lewis, explorer of Oregon Territory as leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806 since I am an Oregon native and grew up knowing the stories of the expedition such as his fortuitous meeting with Sacajawea and visiting the places mentioned in his travels like Fort Clatsop in Astoria and the Columbia River.

Today, I added two more states to the total number of US states I have been to. 

 #47:  Alabama

#48:  Mississippi.

Tomorrow we will drive through Louisiana and I will add it as #49! (The only state remaining is Alaska.)

On The Way Home Day#1

A quick explanation:  my maiden name, before I was Mrs. Professor, was TRIGG.

 

I knew of the existence of Trigg County, Kentucky but had never visited it.

That's what road trips are for!