What happened?  Summer has gotten completely away from me.  Let me tell you it has been a busy, busy season.  Gardening, quilting, playing with the pups, going to a shower, painting and various other things have monopolized my time.  We managed to freeze over 25 quarts of sweet corn along with a few of the cherry tomatoes I grew from seed.  My first ones in my green house.  We moved everything out of the greenhouse for Summer and in a few short weeks, we will be moving things back in again.  It is a constant job of one sort or other around here.

We also managed to take a few short road trips.  We took one today and almost ended up in Illinois, but we had to be home in time to feed the dogs so we had to turn around.  I have taken several pictures of our road trips and will include them here, some with description in a little bit.

David and I celebrated our 57th anniversary this Summer which we still cannot believe.  We met when I was sixteen and he was seventeen.  He was a transplant from another city, the cousin of one of my best friends.  I had met him when I was twelve at a basketball game, but hadn’t had him in my thoughts before that fateful day at a Dairy Queen when me and my girlfriends went there for lunchbreak from school and I saw this boy sitting, smoking a cigarette, with a short haircut(all the other boys’ hair was long and shaggy like the Beatles), wearing a worn leather coat and I asked my friend, “Is that your cousin?’  And she told me he was, in fact, the boy I had met years before.  He captivated me at that moment.  That Friday, at a football game, he sat behind we girls tormenting us and I really thought he was interested in another girl. But that weekend, his cousin called me and asked if I would like to go to a movie with her and her cousin and I said, “yes.”  So we all went to see “Joy in the Morning” with Richard Chamberlain and he held my hand.  The rest is history.  I fell for him bad.  When I got home my mother actually looked at me and her very words were, “You are in love, aren’t you?”  I couldn’t deny it and from that moment on, David and I were together as a couple right through his graduation, my graduation, him going to the military, me going to college and when he got out, getting engaged and marrying by the time I was nineteen.  I have never regretted one day of making that life choice.  I have been very blessed in having a mate who loves me as much as I love him and we like being together all the time.  We have been through good time, tragic times, sad times, happy times, poor times,  richer times, and everything in between and I would not have had it any other way.  I wish everyone could have a relationship like we have had.  Sometimes I think we leave others out of our little cocoon we have made for each other, not on purpose, but because we just like being together.  I have even been told by some to get away from David for a while, but I really don’t want to be away from him.  I had a girlfriend in high school who told me I was too good for him and I told her no, he was too good for me.  It is funny how people don’t understand a relationship like we have had.  Anyway, another year and I pray we have several more before we are separated.

Here are some pictures from our road trips.

You don’t see these much any longer.  We had a drive-in theater just down the road from our house for years and we would pack up the kids and a big bag of popcorn and take them to the movies.  Most of the time they were asleep before the movies were over, but that was okay.

We went to a town that I had seen on one of my murder shows. Yes, I picked it because I saw the town during the show and thought it looked like a nice little town despite a murder having taken place there and it was a really nice town. Old houses and this restaurant had good food.

I love taking pictures of flower gardens when we travel.  This one was in front of a little house and it was just full of flowers.  Pictures never do justice, but this was a very pretty garden.

We see some different structures in our travels.  This was a little log cabin with a moose beside it. The last time we saw a live moose was leaving Alaska fourteen years ago!

Gorgeous.

Some history along the way.  Not sure where this was, but the sign was in Indiana.

 

Ate at our favorite pizza place on one trip.

This double decker bus is inside it and you can eat in the bus if you like.  We never have but there were children enjoying being in it.

The little church where we were married.  I still have family that goes there.

I am always baking and this was the best rhubarb pie I believe that ever was!  I don’t usually brag about my cooking and I am not the best cook, but I can bake and this pie, well, it looked wonderful and was so delicious.  I hope I have not reached my peak in baking.  We froze a lot of rhubarb this Summer also.  So I will be making more pies.  Which is a story. I went to the doctor a few days ago and we talk about a lot of things and he was talking about baking peach cobbler and asked me if I baked and my exact words were, ” Look at me. Do I look like I bake!”  I love to bake and I love to eat what I bake.  So I am not a string bean by anyone’s imagination.  But, hey, I am getting old so I don’t have to keep up appearances any longer!  I feel sorry for older women who think they have to.  We have earned the right to be ourselves whoever that is. If you want to be skinny, fine.  Like to eat.  Fine.

David picked a lot of strawberries from his new bed this year.  Next year should be even more bountiful.  They were so good.

This is the young couple who will be marrying in a couple of weeks.  My oldest grandson and his fiance. Don’t they look happy!  A match made in Heaven.   I had made him this quilt a while back for his first apartment, but he decided to live at home until they got married to save some money so I gave it to them both for their first apartment.  It is full size, they just have it folded here.

Here are some pictures of our drive today.

You see the strangest things on Indiana backroads.

We passed this old barn in the middle of nowhere, nothing else around.  Look closely.

It had this beautiful barn quilt on it, but something else not expected.

Someone hanging from the hayloft window.  Poor soul.

Then David said. “Look cat crossing!”  He meant this…..

But I saw this….

A real cat hiding in the weeds. When it realized we were looking at it,  it slunk off.  A real cat crossing.

So many back roads to travel.  So many things to see.  It really is fun to travel the road less taken.

I joined a little quilt group on Facebook and we make one small quilt of our choosing from this particular author’s quilt books and show them to the group each month. We started back in October and I have made a small quilt every month.  Since next year is our country’s 150th birthday, I am making patriotic themed quilts now.

Here is the one for August.  I got some really patriotic fabric from a line by Lori Holt called Americana.

This is the quilt I made for July.  I am working on some more I cannot show as they may or may not be gifts at some point.  I am also making patriotic potholders to give away or sell.

This quilt wasn’t for this group, I just like chickens and made patriotic ones.  This is a Country Threads pattern from way back.

Here is another.  I am having so much fun making these little quilts.  You can almost make them in a day and feel like you have accomplished something.

And I liked this pattern so much, I made another in reproduction fabrics.

Some of my potholders.  Miniature quilts that can be used for baking or cooking or as a friend told me she did with hers, she put it on the back of an old antique chair she has and just looks at it!  Whatever makes you happy!

Here are some scenes from our soon to be granddaughter’s bridal shower.

She got a lot of nice things.  I remember how rich I felt after my bridal showers when I got so many nice, new things for my new home.

Here is my grandson who also got a gift at the bridal shower!

This is my darling, little granddaughter whose marriage we celebrated just a few years ago. She just got a job at Conner Prairie, a reenactment town of the 1820’s.  People dress up and speak as they did back then. There are several buildings to go through, an old school house where the school marm puts you through your paces and just lots of historical things to see. She works behind the scenes. Not exactly sure what she will be doing as she just started, but I hope to hear more about it.  We took her and her brothers to see it years ago when they were all little.

I think I am pretty well caught up with the news although I am sure I will think of something else after I sign off.

I will leave you with this sign.  We here in Indiana have our dark secrets, but then we put them on signs for all to see.

Saw this sign just outside where the bridal shower was held!  Perfect ending to a fun day!  Bye!