Category Archives: Weather

Dublin Day Three ~ Sunday

Sunday the 17th of September was our third day in Dublin. We were in for rain most of this day so it was good that we had several indoor experiences planned. We met up in the lobby of our hotel to walk to Lemon Jelly Cafe for our breakfast. We timed things well for getting seated quickly before the crowds started showing up.

We all enjoyed our choices and were happy with this little spot tucked away from the main roads.

We had ordered a taxi to pick us up at 10:00 so that we could make it to a 10:30 AM church service. The taxi came after ten and we drove to the south of downtown Dublin to Grosvenor Road Baptist Church. The taxi had some mechanical issues but we made it to church on time.

The rain continued.

The sermon was taken from I Corinthians 1:18-2:5, True Spirituality, A Cross Centered Church.

The points covered were, The Message of the Cross, The People of the Cross and The Preacher of the Cross. Some points taken; “True wisdom of the cross does not meet the world’s expectations.” “Boast in the Lord-because all we have is because of Him.” “Simply preach the Word of God.” This service was also a Communion service so we ‘broke bread together’. The last song we sang together was ‘My Worth is Not in What I Own’.

It was good to be with fellow believers in Ireland.

After church our son arranged for an Uber to pick us up and take us to our Sunday Roast destination, The Old Spot east of downtown Dublin. We were early and ended up having a little walk around this neighborhood and the rain had died down for our stroll.

We all had our fill of food and we added two desserts to share. I know one was Sticky Toffee Pudding with the most lovely of sauces but I forgot what the second dessert was. Hmmm. From The Old Spot Josh ordered another Uber to take us to St. Patrick’s Cathedral where we would attend Evensong which would begin at 3:30pm.

The rain was coming down again so it was not easy to get some good photos of the outside of the cathedral.

The Choral Evensong was beautiful and moving in song with a special commemoration of the Battle of Britain (1940).

Shout out and thanks again to Laura who took so many great photos and put together collages on our stops each and every day!

We had one more indoor stop on this day with reservations for entry at 4:45. Another Uber transported us from St. Patrick’s Cathedral to The Guinness Storehouse. That will be another post.

Shiver Me Timbers!

What a surprise we had on Sunday evening!

On Sunday after church we made a quick trip to Spokane to pick up my new prescription eye glasses. When we got home closer to the evening I received a text on my phone from Steven’s County informing us of a major Thunderstorm coming through our area. Pretty quick after the notice the rain started to fall. We saw lightning and then we heard the thunder and knew those strikes were very close by.

The rivers of rain starting coming off the roof. We had talked about putting the summer furniture away and taking down the shade cloth the day before but put it off, oops.

A gust of wind blew through and lifted the bar that holds the cloth up. We were fortunate the bar didn’t go flying into our patio doors. Down came one end of the cloth and the chair and a decorative lantern.

This was one of the stronger storms we’ve experienced since moving here. The power only went out for a few seconds which is very fortunate. The lightning and thunder continued through the evening hours even after the rain died down here.  That was an exciting Sunday evening at our country bungalow.

My plans to mow our acreage on Monday have been changed to later in the week.

On Monday (Labor Day) we put away all the patio furniture and took down the shade cloth and cover on the gazebo. Everything is stored for next summer.

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!

 

This World Is Not My Home Hodgepodge

 

It’s Wednesday and I’m rolling in a little later than usual for Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thank you, Jo!

1. Hello August. What’s one thing you’re looking forward to this month? 

I’m still soaking in the last four days of July. So much to share about our time in Texas.

In August I’ll enjoy watching our Grands play soccer.

2. What are you doing to beat the heat right now? If you live in the southern hemisphere are you enjoying cooler temps or counting the days until summer? 

Oh goodness me. When we stepped out of the airport in Spokane on our way home from Dallas last night, we were relieved to be in 90 degree weather instead of 100+++ weather. What I do to beat the heat is to work in the early morning hours and stay inside in air conditioning for the other hours. If I’m outside I always navigate to shade!

Today the high in Colville is supposed to be 95 but right now it’s a cool 53 degrees! Woohoo!

3. How do you see the world? 

I see the world as a training ground in my Faith and walk with Jesus. The song that popped into my head when I read this question is the title I used for this post. I’ll share the full song here because another thing we enjoyed the last 4 days of July was singing together at my sister’s home, at the Twins birthday bash and in church on Sunday morning.

This World Is Not My Home

This world is not my home, I’m just passing through.
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.

Chorus
O Lord you know I have no friend like you
If Heaven’s not my home, then Lord what will I do?
The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.

They’re all expecting me and that’s one thing I know.
My Savior pardoned me and now I onward go.
I know He’ll take me through, though I am weak and poor.

Chorus
O Lord you know I have no friend like you
If Heaven’s not my home, then Lord what will I do?
The angels beckon me from Heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.

Just up in Glory Land we’ll live eternally.
The Saints on every hand are shouting victory.
Their song of sweetest praise drifts back from Heaven’s shore
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.

4. What food product do you think is better store bought than home made?

Fried Chicken or donuts. I don’t or wouldn’t even attempt to make those items at home.

How about something you refuse to buy because it is so much better homemade? 

So much is better homemade and fresh from the stovetop or oven. Anything my mother made could not be bought. Growing up our family always had homemade. Once in a great while our Pop would bring home pizza.

5. Are you easy to get along with? 

For the most part, yes. I do hold my ground on my strong beliefs and don’t appreciate being identified with movements or ideologies I’m opposed to.

6.  Insert your own random thought here. 

We are home from a wonderful birthday celebration with family and friends in Dallas, Texas. We also took a side trip to Waco in the heat while in Texas. I’ll be gathering my thoughts and my photos and photos from family and friends of the wonderful time we had and will be posting soon. Here we are on this last Sunday in July singing along with 3500 voices praising our LORD! It was glorious!

Thanks for stopping by. I’ll try and visit between laundry loads!

Back on the Trail

Last Saturday we left our house early to see how the Rotary trail had shaped up after our Winter and Spring snow. We were hoping for the trail to be free of mud. We were happy to only encounter a very small patch of mud on our three mile course. It was nice to get out in the sunshine for our walk and we hope for many more early walks to come.

Boxing Day 2022

On Monday, Boxing Day, the travelers loaded up and braved our Colville kids mile long snowy driveway for some fun in the snow. It was above freezing and they wanted to get some sledding in before things got too mushy. Baba and Gramps stayed home and had a quiet recuperating day until dinner time.

Uncle Andrew and Uncle Josh used their muscle power to speed up the fun. Daddy was at work this day but he groomed the trails anticipating this fun day.

Addy wanted the snowman to be super big! Olaf the snowman is super big. Great job everyone!

When the fun was over they had a wild ride back to our Country bungalow through all the slush and ice. We enjoyed leftovers for our meal.

These are all Auntie Lolo’s photos and I love this shot of Main Street Colville that she got looking North towards Colville Mountain. The shot of the beautiful sunset is from her phone, too.

One more post coming of our time together celebrating Auntie Katie’s birthday.

BTTP (Back to the Present) It’s snowing again this morning. Our road has been cleared nicely of the snow and ice from the previous storms but the city side streets are still a mess with bumps and ruts and sheets of ice. It made for a very interesting ride to get Dear to Occupational Therapy yesterday. Our Westside kids all are home safe and sound and their snow is not an issue anymore. We had a couple of days of rain and above freezing temperatures that left us with a clear deck but today it is white again. Temps in the 20’s are predicted again for the first week of 2023 so our views will continue to be white for a while longer…

How are things in your corner?

Deep Freeze

Winter has come in frigid.

We venture out for a very short time and only if necessary. Our faces start feeling the freeze almost immediately.

We did venture into town today to the post office and to the grocery stores. Since we were in town we decided that Chinese Food would be a treat and something different for lunch. Back home safe and sound. We have our interior doors to the bedrooms all shut including any other room that has a door to conserve our heat to our sitting areas. We continue to throw out seed for our feathered friends.

On Wednesday at dusk we were startled by a large bird landing on our deck and taking off quickly with a fat quail in it’s claws! It was a huge hawk. We were stunned. Birds of prey need to eat, too.

We are hoping our kids from the west will arrive safe and sound on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We’ve got some wrapping and a little baking yet to do. We’ll also mop and steam the floors that have seen the worst from snow covered boots here and there.

Hope you all are ready to enjoy this joy filled time of year.

All Creatures Great and Small…

 

 

What a treat to view this kind of critter wonderland out our window sitting on our couch and recliner on Sunday afternoon.

Earlier on this Sunday we enjoyed our Children’s Musical and Play, It All Happened in the Country, for our church service. The presentation was so well done and so much fun with the meaning of Christmas presented so well. My photos aren’t the best but they will help me remember.

 

We sat in the front row with our two little grands to enjoy the presentation.

It was a good day all around with God’s goodness showering down on us.

Our Entertainment and Lesson

Matthew 6:25-34 (ESV) “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,

yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 

 

This is a quiet weekend and mostly quiet week leading up to Christmas.

I’ll be linking up with Saturday Critters hosted by Eileen at Viewing Nature With Eileen.

Snowshoeing 2022

Our snow is getting deeper with no significant melt off so it was time to pull out the snowshoes and to practice getting them on and trekking through the deep snow to retrieve the mail.

Mail retrieved and heading back to the homestead. The only treacherous part of this journey is crossing the street to the mailboxes.

I decided to blaze some trails in the back acres, too, since the shoes were already on.

Snowshoeing is a great winter exercise and the only way we can walk on our property when we get significant snow like we’ve had this year.

Current tidbits: Woke up in the wee hours to temps at 9 degrees F, brrr. It’s in the teens now and the forecast is for a 26 degree high today.

Our Colville kids are coming for dinner. It will be nice to catch up with them. Pot Roast is going in the oven for a slow cook this afternoon. They’ll bring along a salad.

I’ve been watching World Cup Soccer and the championship game will be played on Sunday between Argentina and France. I’m rooting for Argentina along with our Russian Argentinian friends. The game is early enough on Sunday that I will be able to watch before it’s time to head to church because of the time difference between us and Qatar. They are 11 hours ahead of the Pacific Coast. Any other soccer fans out there?

Our church service this Sunday will consist of the Children’s Play. It is called It All Happened in the Country. The children have been practicing for a couple months. I’m looking forward to the story they present. Another round of snow is predicted on Sunday.

The days are ticking down to Christmas. Ten more days to Christmas and sixteen more days in 2022! Hope all is well in your corner of the world.