About 47 years ago, I spent my 16th summer working with my cousin Jimmy Nason and his family at
Nason's Stone House Farm in West Boxford, Massachusetts, a bit north of Boston...fond memories. The Stone House is well over 100 years old and on one of the stones over the front door there is a fossil imprint of a butterfly. This is the location that both sides of my family gathered for family reunions several times during my childhood after my immediate family moved from Massachusetts to Missouri because my dad changed employment from manager of Flying Feather Chicken Farm in Andover, Massachusetts, which closed, to Research Supervisor of a poultry farm south of Kansas City, Missouri. The Stone House is foundational in my sense of family and purpose in a lifetime in which I have moved over 15 times back and forth across the United States. Up until a few years ago there were pretty pink hollyhocks that bloomed year after year by the side door and they inspire me to try to grow some by my front door now.
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| Cousin Jimmy telling me about life at Stone House Farm in the Fall of 2014 |
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| In the kitchen, Boston Baked Beans and Brown Bread, Meat Pies, Blueberry Pies and more yummy food is prepared. |
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Cousin Jimmy is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and long ago he made a beautiful wedding cake for me.
From West Boxford, my youngest son drove us for an overnight stay with my cousins Jan and Charlie in Sturbridge, MA and then on to Saugerties, NY, where we lived for 15 years in the house pictured below, although it used to have yellow siding when we lived there. We enjoyed sharing this one acre of land having access to the mighty Hudson River, with deer, fox, raccoons, 12+ inch snapping turtles, snakes, and a host of annoying insects. Geese, swans, cardinals, robins, crows, hummingbirds, sparrows, and other varieties of birds flew around us.
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| In the winter the Hudson froze solidly and the kids tried ice skating on it! Behind the trees on the point is a Lighthouse. |
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| South of Saugerties this is a view of the Catskill Mountains looking West toward Kingston from the Rhinebeck Bridge. |
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| In Kingston, a friend treated me to delicious dairy free sorbet :-) |
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| I tried the Blueberry-Pomaganate, and Chocolate Mint sorbet. Yummy!! Then after four days of wonderful visits with friends in the area, a friend drove me a bit northeast to New Skete near Cambridge, NY. |
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| It was so lovely and peaceful here, with time to try to listen for God's direction for this season in my life. |
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This was part of the incredible view from the balcony off the living room. The weather was perfect for sitting in the sunshine, listening to the birds, chirp and twitter and caw. Crickets offered a steady foundation of crickety sound, while the wind gently wafted through the leaves on the trees with soothing waves of rustling from time to time. In the distance I could hear some barking from the German Shepherd dogs the Monks and Nuns train for service. Occasionally I heard a small plane fly overhead, a reminder I was still involved in modern, busy life in 2014.
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| The distinctive golden domes of the Eastern Orthodox Church seemed especially at home in the autumn light at Vespers, to me. |
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| The icons painted on the walls of the Sanctuary are strange or depressing to some, but I am learning to appreciate them as serious, but uniquely beautiful reminders of others who came before me and lived their faith in God: Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit and challenge me to do the same. |
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| My youngest son, Tim drove me from New Skete south to Yonkers, NY, where I attended Education Day at St. Vladimir's Seminary, and my oldest son, David [in the photo above] and my oldest grandson, Kenny, picked me up and took me to their house for a visit. :-) |
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| My daughter-in-law, Julie, helped me feel so loved and welcome! <3 |
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| David, Kenny and Aron took me for a tour of their neighborhood, including their school and the Bayside Marina. |
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| The boys and I enjoyed playing Uno and Bananagrams. |
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| Kenny took some good photos for me, including these swans at the Marina. |
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| Our time together FLEW by way too fast! I took this photo as the boys were headed off to school and I headed to the airport. |
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| Mount Jefferson ? just before we landed back in Portland, Oregon. |
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| My youngest grandson, Aron commissioned me to knit a bunny for him ! |
And now that I am back home I have been playing catch up on sleep and bills and cleaning, and exercising. But
Teresa invited me to spend last Friday with Dayle and her grandsons and her to find Lost Lake near Hood River, Oregon. We had a wonderful time and we found Lost Lake!!! Isn't it beautiful?
Have you found anything beautiful lately?
Gracie xx
