Tag Archives: Driving Country Roads

Adios April Hodgepodge

We’ve had some beautiful days as April ends.

May is coming and the Hodgepodge is here. Thank you, Joyce!

1. Are you feeling more reset, restart, or full speed ahead as we move into May? Tell us why. 

We have to reset. A dear friend of ours passed away and we will now be traveling for his memorial.

Other opportunities have arisen this month, too, and we are shifting our plans to accommodate. We can plan but we do not know what tomorrow holds.

2. Painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, cinema, theatre, music…what’s your favorite form of art? Elaborate. 
Music is at the very top for me but the kind of music is specific. Music that honors God is what I appreciate the most. I’m not a fan of music that yells or goes down roads I don’t want to follow. Story music isn’t at the top of my list, either.
I also appreciate painting, sculpture, architecture and literature. These forms are most appreciated outside of the modern realm. I’m not a fan of modern art in most of these forms. Cinema and Theatre are my least favorites.
These photos are from the House of Strauss in Vienna and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England.

3. What time is dinner at your house? How do you feel about leftovers? 

These days we call it Linner. We tend to eat between two and three unless we are meeting up for dinner or having our kids over for dinner. If that is the case dinner is usually between five and six. I’m a fan of leftovers!

4.What’s the last thing you fell down a rabbit hole investigating? 

When I research places to visit or have visited, I can go down many rabbit holes! I was doing some extra history searches for Český Krumlov this past week. In travels, you can’t learn all about a town in a four hour visit. I try to learn what I can before but when I work on a post, after the fact, there is so much more to learn! It always makes me want to go back to places we’ve been for a second look. 🙂

Vienna will be the next place I’ll go down rabbit holes for my research and my next river cruise post.

5. And now for a question from the book Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me…

At what are you ‘self-taught?’ 

Our mom cooked 99% of all our meals growing up and she did a lot of baking but it was never with any help from me. I didn’t do a lot of watching of this process, either. I ate all the good things she made but I had a lot of learning to do on my own. My mom’s efforts and her being open to try new things gave me confidence but the hands on learning came after I was married. Trial and error has worked well for me. Our sister Vera has preserved many of our mom’s recipes and I’m thankful for that.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I’m so thankful to the LORD for these two and the fact that they have so much room to roam and enjoy the outdoors!

They peddle to the end of the driveway to wave goodbye when our visits are over and we are heading home. See you soon!

Welcome

The welcome sign is something I purchased that found it’s place on our detached garage/shop. The rest of these photos are scenes we see driving into Colville or Kettle Falls. Welcome to my country life. We are slowly but surely settling in and soon I’ll be able to share indoor photos since we are finally finding the time to hang our art work. On Sunday evening we were together with our family and our DIL’s family for the grandbaby gender reveal. As soon as our kids announce the gender of our new grandbaby on social media, I’ll share that news on my blog.

We have some good family times planned for this week so I’ll be scarce again.

More Chewelah Barns…

I’m pretty sure these are the last of my Chewelah Barns.

Linking up at the Barn Collective with Tom the Backroads Traveller.

Dear and I took a road trip up to Canada yesterday and didn’t get home till midnight so I’m a bit behind the ball right now. I’ll be sharing about our trip soon. While on the road I managed to take some drive by shots of more barns in the U.S. and in British Columbia that I still need to upload. We are cooling down a wee bit today and it feels nice to feel that breeze. Have a good first week of August!

Cheers From England ~ #3

Today is Sunday and we had a late start in our adventures out and about. I stayed up late to watch the Netherlands vs. Costa Rica World Cup Soccer game that went into overtime and a shoot out to determine the winner. Finally laying my head on the pillow at midnight made for a later than usual rising. On this Sunday morning we made ourselves breakfast at the cottage. We had eggs, handmade sausages from the butcher, sauteed mushrooms, fried tomatoes and toast.

Sunday-Banbury 001Delicious. My toast was spread with a lovely Damson jam. We have been enjoying our French Pressed coffee each morning, too. We are glad we thought to grind some beans and pack them in our suitcase not knowing when we’d be able to make it to a grocery store.

Sunday-Banbury 020I’m going to have an extensive post about our destination this Sunday and the reason I wanted to visit this town. This is a little clue of the name of the town and the statue I wanted to see. Think…nursery rhyme.

Sunday-Banbury 049We are huge fans of country roads with a nice white stripe down the middle.

Sunday-Banbury 052These roads with no white lines and inadequate space for two small cars to pass each other have caused us a bit of stress. My poor Dear is doing a fabulous job of driving but he is being stretched out of his driving comfort zone. I’m trying hard not to make terrified noises in the passenger seat that is really the driver seat and just plain weird to be seated in it without a steering wheel in front of me and to see the hedges up close and hear the branches brush upside my head. The scenery is gorgeous and I wish I was brave enough to drive so Dear could enjoy some of it.

We are so thankful and grateful to God for our time here and for the quiet country cottage where we can relax in the morning and the end of our day of adventures. It is so so quiet here and it gets so dark at night. There are no city lights, street lights, etc. that light up the sky here. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to see an owl while we are here.