Back Home

 We are back home again. It was a lovely time, but always so wonderful to get back home. We did so much exploring this trip. We saw things that we have never saw before. The little town this was in is called Los Osos. This was a hike we were going to take, but the ticks were too bad and we didn't want to chance it with Polly, plus I hate ticks! This picture above is at Black Mountain.

We found this lovely little walk in a place called Elfin Forest. Its at the end of a neighborhood. If I lived there I would come here every day. 

It gets its name from these oak trees. They only grow here and they are so old but so interesting. So we walked and walked there and did this walk twice. It smelled like sagebrush. There are tidal marshes on the other side and its a bird sanctuary. 

I couldn't help but call it the dead marshes after Lord of The Rings. I could see in my mind all of those faces that Frodo sees in the movie. I had to turn off the video in my mind every time I looked down at it. On the other side is the ocean so it would be interesting to see what it does in a storm. 

As we were driving through the town, we ran across this adorable house. I love the fence.
 

All the way around it the fence had tulips. We drove around it to see it and we found this on one street. 

It had a windmill on the outside of the house. It was really very Dutch. I wished I could have walked around it. 

That was the cutest house I have ever seen before. The streets were all up and down hill. It was so fun to find it. 

Then we drove out to Montana De Oro. There was this lovely farm house, which like everything now is being owned by the park service. But at one time was a family owned farm. One of the first settlers in the area. Now its a gift shop.
 

I thought it was such a sweet little farm house. What an incredible place it must have been to grow up at.

But then the view from the other side of the house was incredible. Imagine waking up every day to see this.

It was lovely to stand there and see how pretty everything looked and maybe hasn't changed to much.

My brain feels so rested and so happy to be home. We planted flowers today and it was so nice to have work to do. I think that is the problem with me and vacation. I think I just enjoy work. It was nice though to have no work except walking Polly and seeing if I could try and sew and hook and read all of the stuff I brought to do. I couldn't. 

I hope if you celebrate Mother's Day its a lovely one. 

~Kim~
 

Let Summer Begin

 

Its official! My first day of summer vacation begins now. My goodness what a year! You know I have these thoughts, first I would just like to sleep late, then the thought comes, " but I love early morning before the sun comes up, the sky and it turns from dark blue to pink and the sun comes up over the mountains. To sit in my chair, listen to the birds and drink my first cup of coffee, has to be my very favorite time of morning. To miss that is just not something I ever want to do. I think its because I am nosy and I might miss something important. 

I have all kinds of projects that I have been putting off. I have patterns coming out my ears. 

I want to finish this rug. I feel like I have neglected it. Nothing should ever take as long as I have taken hooking this rug. Notice my very cute helper.

She is bored. She doesn't normally do this but I didn't feel like moving her. She is such a very nice dog and I don't have to leave her now. She gets so depressed. 

I thought I would do some embroidery. I am so rusty not having done it in a few years. I found this cute pattern and I am going to work on that a bit.

Isn't that cute? I just had to sit down and do a few stitches the other day. Its so nice to do what I learned to do as a little girl sitting next to my Mom. She was such a amazing woman. She made all of her clothes on the treadle sewing machine I have. I still remember the sound as she would sew on it. 

Now I have to talk about a book. Have you read or heard about The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower? They are on Kindle Unlimited for free right now. There are currently eight volumes.

" The year is 1883 and Emma M. Lion has returned to her London neighborhood of St. Crispian's But Emma's plans for a charmed and studious life are sabotaged by her eccentric Cousin Archibald, her formidable Aunt Eugenia, and the slightly odd denizens of St. Crispian's."

I am afraid I have become such a fan girl. My goodness, I have read them I think five times now. I don't know when I have read a book that I finish and I go back and start over. If that isn't bad enough I have it on Audible and I listen to it in the car. I keep pondering why this series has captured me so much other than its just a sweet story. I can't get anyone to read it so I decided I would write about it and see if I can get anyone interested just to see if I am off my rocker. Beth Brower posted this picture in her latest substack and I just yelled " Oh my gosh, Ron its Emma!" He just raised his eyebrow. He already knows I am around the bend. Other than my My Bible, if I was stranded on a desert island, If I had the Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, I would be content. The ninth volume should be coming out this summer. 

The tablet works wonders. I was able to get current pictures on it so I will be in business. I hope this post finds you well and happy. 

I am currently making lists of all of the summer things I want to get done. Life is so nice right now. After the storm, comes that stillness that fills my heart with joy.

~Kim~

 

April Showers

 

This is a practice post

I got a new tablet so I wanted to see how easy it would be to write a post. I think it would be nice to blog when I am not home.

So far except for the keyboard.  It seems very compatible. 

This might be fun. I hope you have a lovely day. May is almost here. Two more days and it's summer for me.

Trial is now over, I can do this,

Kim 

 

When Life Gives You Flowers.

I think the best part about April are the surprises that show up. When the lilac is doing its job of quietly blooming in the part of the yard I rarely go, and then there it is the sweetest smell and the lovely flowers just blooming for all they are worth. I was telling my daughter why its so hard to take pictures here. At our other place, the light was this buttery golden color. I loved the light. I couldn't stay away from it. I would look out the window and all of the light would be calling me to come and see it I could capture it with my camera. 

I don't want to say that the sun is wrong here. But it is. At my other house and all of the other houses I lived in before, they faced the rising of the sun in the morning and the sun setting in the back of the house in the evening. Here this house is sort of north/south,east. When the wind blows it goes around and around as do the clouds. The sun never glows like it did because I can only see it if I stand on something. Its things like that I have never noticed before and I sit and think about it. Especially, in the morning as I try to see the sun come up, but I can't unless I go stand on the end of the driveway like a weirdo and look to the sunrise.

Its spring and of course, my mind turns to chicks. I have even thought about sneaking off to Tractor Supply to look at them. I had a friend that lived in New York City and they were from another country and she said, that when they moved to New York, her mom kept three hens under her kitchen sink. I guess that is kind of like Robert Lee who kept a chicken with him while he was on the battlefield when he was in the War of Northern Aggression. ( I read that in a book, I had never heard that before.) I don't know if I could keep them under my kitchen sink.

This is our Comfrey growing in our garden. Aren't the little flowers with tiny bells sweet? Most amazing plant ever. Which reminds me, we will be celebrating our 46th wedding anniversary this weekend. What a incredible and fast 46 years! I told Ron today, thank you for putting up with me these 46 years. He said, that I had to put up with him too. We are agreed its been way more interesting that we originally anticipated. He was going to be a songwriter and we were going to live life out of a hippy van on the beach. We were going to ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. I am so glad we didn't end up living out of a van on the beach.  We had such a normal, fun life. If you can say, that homeschooling six kids for 25 years, and having 15 grand children. Well you know.  

I am certainly glad that I am right here, right now. Even if the light isn't always golden, the days are mostly full of smiles and dreams that are beyond anything that I ever thought of and life does like life does, it sneaks up and surprises me when I least expect it and laughter is always around every corner. 

Thank you for stopping by to read my rambles. 

Happy April,

~Kim~