Category Archives: Our Country Bungalow

Remember When Hodgepodge

Jo has worked on some more questions for us to answer for Hodgepodge Wednesday. Want to join in the fun?

1. What’s your earliest memory?

With this old brain this is a tough one for me. I seem to remember being in front of a wonderful bakery with cookies displayed, a Jewish Bakery, in East Los Angeles. Bakeries always draw me in and that brings me to my biggest first world problem!!

We moved from East Los Angeles to Montebello Gardens soon afterwards and most of my ‘early’ memories are connected with that property. I remember things like an incinerator in the back yard. A cement slab where our new family room would be built where we played jacks for hours. Our first black and white TV, watching Engineer Bill, Chucko the Birthday Clown, Ed Sullivan, The Mickey Mouse Club, and other Disney shows that included the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew? The only books we owned were Bibles and Encyclopedia Britannica. I remember having to sit for what seemed to me hours in front of a bowl of borsch, not wanting to eat it, after everyone else had left the table. Stopping by the seed man after ‘Big Church’ to buy packets of ‘plain’ sunflower seeds that came in brown paper packets and pumpkin seeds that came in clearer paper packets.

I better stop there, you really got my old brain going.

2. What’s something about you today that the old you would find surprising? 

The old me would be surprised that I moved away from the Southern California Beaches to Washington State and now I’ve left the city girl life for the country far far away from the coastal beaches!

3. Do you like to fish? Are you a fish eater? Favorite fish (to eat)? Favorite way to prepare fish? 

You know, I’m not a fan of fish unless it’s Fish and Chips or fish tacos!

4. What’s your biggest first world problem? 

Keeping that bakery weight off is my biggest first world problem!

5. What one word would you use to describe your year thus far? 

Sanctifying. Growing in the Word of God, the work of the Holy Spirit and fellowship of Believers. This is a life long process that got sharpened this year after Greg’s stroke last November and the state of our world. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We got rain on Tuesday and what a wonderful sound that was to wake up to. We’ve had such oppressive smoke filled skies because of fires and the rain should help. Hopefully the rain will fall on all the fires in the region and help the Fire Fighters with their seemingly endless task!

Another good day to stay in and make a dent in the sky of this puzzle!

 

Smoke and Puzzles

All these sets of photos show what our view could be and what we usually enjoy contrasted to what those similar views look like with our smoke filled skies.

As you can guess the air quality is not good for working hard or exercising so I’ve added putting together some of my puzzles to my daily ‘things to do’ list.

 

I finished this one which was very enjoyable to put together.

This next one is a lot tougher and I don’t gravitate to the dining room table as often as with the London puzzle.

This one is of Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland. Hopefully I can face the sky in this one soon.

What’s new in your corner?

Update: I just woke up to the glorious sound of rain! Thank you, Lord. It’s been raining steadily for a while and there are already puddles. Hoping the rain will make a huge dent in the fires in our region and that the rain continues north to British Columbia to help with their fires, too. 

Chipmunks

 

 

These photos of the entertaining pests were taken last month. They are cute and entertaining but they can cause a lot of problems, too.

We are still smoky here and surrounded by fires from Canada and in our state, too. We are sorry to hear of those who have lost their homes. We are praying for all who are fighting the fires and rescuing people. We have mostly stayed in during this past week because of the very unhealthy air quality. We are also keeping an eye on the tropical storm coming up from Mexico into California and neighboring states. If that doesn’t rattle you the 5.1 magnitude earthquake close to Ojai will. We are hoping there won’t be any tornadoes!

Walks North and South

Sunday the 16th of July we headed out our door and walked north on our road until we reached this private drive that leads to many houses (see the mailboxes) and walked down across the stream and back to the main road again. On Sundays our road has a lot less traffic and very few if any log trucks or large chip trucks.

 

A week later on a Saturday we decided to try walking south out our door and onto a less traveled street for our walk. We’ll be doing this walk on the weekends from now on since the traffic is very quiet there on the weekends.

We try to get out the door at 5:30am and that insures even less traffic. Things start picking up at 6:30am.

Caravan Guests

Thursday last, one of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook and her hubby arrived for an overnight stay on our property. Judy and her hubby were at the beginning of a road trip from B.C. to Manitoba via a highway in the U.S.A. We had dinner together and enjoyed dessert, too.

Blintzes with huckleberries ( a new taste treat for Judy and Elmer) and strawberries and raspberry syrup.

After dinner we braved the heat and mosquitoes for some conversation on the deck.

Friday morning we had some coffee together before it was time for them to hit the road to their next overnight destination in Idaho.

Till next time happy trails!

During this same time our kids were all together on the other side of the mountains enjoying some special time with each other.

Summer at it’s best.

 

I See You!

Hope y’all are doing okay with the heatwave hitting just about everybody. We are so thankful for our air conditioned bungalow. We had guests arrive yesterday in their little RV for an overnight before they head further East. I’m typing this before they get here and I hope we have the clarity of mind to get a photo.

Happy Friday to you all…

Cupping and Clapping…

…the unique movement of a butterfly.

 

 

 

This Tiger Swallowtail entertained me with movements around the garden.

We had a business meeting right after church on Sunday July 16th for our membership to vote on whether to call the Pastor Candidate who we were introduced to a few weeks ago. Our church constitution calls for a vote of the membership to determine to proceed in this step. The vote was counted and we overwhelmingly voted yes to proceed with the call. It was a relief to us that the vote went this way. Finding a new Pastor/Shepherd can take months or over a year. To find a candidate so quickly was a gift from God and we thank God for His care for us in this way.

Pastor Kraig between his son and daughter on the right and his wife on the left between two sons. Their adult children will not be re-locating with them as they all are busy with careers, schooling and service in other parts of the country.

We’ll be welcoming Pastor and Laura at the end of the Summer months.

The Fawn

Gimpy mama and the fawn appeared a couple weeks ago and since then they both have spent time in our back acres. The doe has a broken leg and limps so she gets more grace from us on what we let her nibble on our property. We put water out on these hot days.  Healthier deer get run off when they come after our flowers.

Fawns are so much fun to watch when they are on the go.

Our quail population has increased with baby quail looking like teenagers and a whole new batch of baby quail, too.

We are looking forward to the week ahead. What is new in your neck of the woods?

Simple Pleasures Hodgepodge

Jo is back this week with some new questions for us to ponder for Hodgepodge Wednesday.

1. Is your life simple? Elaborate. 

For the most part my life is simple since I am retired and do not have every day responsibilities. The only set in stone activities in a given week are prayer meeting on Wednesday mornings and church services on Sunday. The rest of our schedule is free for us to fill in the blanks with weekly keep up of our home and property and any church activities that involve the church kitchen. We typically have our Colville kids over for an evening with dinner once a week. We will throw in a card night with two other couples maybe once a month. We always welcome overnight company that happen to travel our way. We just started up walking on the Rotary trail again with a 3x a week goal. We want to add in 3 days of strength training for our arms/shoulders.

2. What simple pleasure are you are currently enjoying?  

I enjoy summer fruit, especially nectarines.

3. Travel by…

Plane or go on a cruise? Plane

Walk or ride a bike? Walk

Swim or ski? Swim, although I’m not a fan of putting on a bathing suit these days.

Ocean or mountains? This is a tough one. I like to walk along the ocean and drive through the mountains.

4. What’s the last thing you bought online that you really loved? 

The latest is this ‘Sing’ Cd by Keith and Kristyn Getty which I’m enjoying but recently we ordered our new internet service totally online and installed everything to get it up and running. We are so happy with the purchase of Starlink and the improved quality of everything to do with the internet.

5. What’s your ‘back in my day we__________’ story? 

Back in my day girls had to wear a dress or skirt and blouse to school. Those dresses or skirts could not be shorter than knee length. If our girls vice principal thought a skirt or dress might be too short, she’d have us kneel and if the skirt or dress did not hit the floor we’d be in trouble! Photo is of some of my high school friends. I’m taking the photo.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

These two have super powers! Love the slippers they find when they come over for dinner with their parents! Super Heroes love slippers! It makes me smile and thank our Lord when I find those slippers under the dinner table.

Early July Blooms

 

Thank you, Laura, for this collage of the blooms you took close-ups of during ‘Baptism’ weekend.

We had a good 4th of July celebration with several families from our church. Thankful for such generous hosts to open up their beautiful yard and barbecues for cooking. A potluck of sides and desserts and everyone cooked their own meat on the 3 barbecues available. We all got numbers as we arrived letting us know which barbecue to cook our meat on. A great system for a crowd of 75+ people! A Corn Hole tournament, volleyball and fireworks were all part of the afternoon and evening fun. They also rent a porta-potty which is very smart when servicing such a crowd!

Enjoy the rest of your week trying to figure out what day it is! That always is a challenge for me when a holiday lands on an odd day of the week! Today is Wednesday BTW!