Crafting a Welcome to Autumn and You!

 "Of all the roads both East and West, the one that leads to home is best!"  After traveling 8000 + or - miles in the last two months, last Saturday night I landed in a very smokey Portland, Oregon. Rainy days during this past week have helped to douse the forest fires around us and clear the air of smoke.  Mt. Hood has even collected some early fresh snow.  That my mind is still awhirl from traveling was obvious to me on Thursday when I showed up for a meeting that is not scheduled to happen until next Thursday :)  However, I am settling back in, and have put out some Autumn decorations.  The first day of Fall I made some vegetable chicken soup sprinkled with hot Italian sausage crumbs and sweet potato chips.  What is the last soup you made?

I at age 66, drove with my sisters Carolyn, age 75, and  Margaret, age 73 from Portland, Oregon to the Omaha, Nebraska area in July.  We stopped at Little Bighorn National Monument and were sobered as we thought of the lives lost in the battle over land rights between Native Americans and the US government.

In the Black Hills of South Dakota, we stopped to admire the mountain in the background that is being carved in the shape of the statue in the foreground to honor all Native Americans, although conversely, some feel that the project is dishonoring Native American sacred ground.

We drove to Nebraska, near Omaha to visit Carolyn's oldest daughter and son-in-law at their farm. We managed to get all but one of their children in this photo. 

Although Nebraska is known as the Cornhusker state, we were very impressed that they are growing a pineapple in their kitchen :)

From Omaha, we flew to Boston and met Margaret's youngest daughter, Holly, who drove us around the area with great care.  One place we stopped was the Nubble Lighthouse in York, Maine, where Holly took this photo.

In the Fox restaurant nearby we had fabulous lobster dinners.  I like lobster best boiled without anything on it, or in a salad with a little mayonnaise on it.  Do you like lobster and if so how do you best like it prepared?

In Lawrence, Massachusetts, we saw the Ayer woolen mill where our father worked as a manager of a drum carder nearly a hundred years ago.  The clock tower is just a bit smaller than Big Ben in London, England.

Then Holly drove us to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where we visited 97-year-old Uncle Arthur. During the visit, he mentioned that our dad helped him get hired at the Ayer Mill which was news to us.  Uncle Arthur told us again of being on a plane assigned by the Airforce to get photos of the horrible devastation in Hiroshima after it was bombed in WWII, which still seems a vivid memory for Uncle Arthur.   We are grateful for his service and grateful for the love he has given us always.

After visiting Uncle Arthur we boarded a ferry and floated over to Nantucket Island south of Cape Cod to take a bus tour of the island.

The Hydrangeas were especially beautiful on the island.

Holly took this photo of us.  In the background, you can see the old brick and cobblestoned streets that were bumpy and challenging to walk on during rain showers. 

Delightfully, while on the Cape, we were able to dine with Holly, her older sister Heather, Heather's husband, Jeremy, my grandsons Aron and Kenny, my great nieces, Maddie and Lauren, daughter-in-law, Julie, and my oldest son, David.  David and his family drove back to NY where they live in Bayside and all the rest of us flew to Michigan from Boston to visit the family of my brother-in-law, Larry, for the first time since his death this past winter. It was a sad, but sweet time as we celebrated his life.

Carolyn and I then flew back to Omaha and spent another two weeks on my niece and nephew's farm.  We attended the county fair, went out for lunch one day and helped out where we could.

We left on August 21, 2017, and saw the total eclipse from a farm west of Lincoln, Nebraska.  This photo was taken at the time of the full eclipse...a time of brief twilight!

We drove over many miles of wide open spaces that helped us feel wonderfully free, and we admired gorgeous cloud structures, like these in Fort Bridger, Wyoming.

The cliff in Fort Bridger, Wyoming was especially striking to us.

Once back into Oregon, we had a wonderful stop at Cascade Locks where we ate lunch and admired the sternwheeler and the mighty Columbia River, never dreaming that days later a forest fire would scar the land, destroy homes, and rob folks of their livelihood. 

Along the way, I finished crocheting a new pocket for my cell phone. With Lizbeth size three cotton thread I chained for the width of my cell phone and then single crocheted around and around until the pocket was big enough.

With this bargain cotton thread that I had made my first cell phone pocket, I made a tiny facecloth from the leftovers.  The first pocket I made for my phone is in a safe place...[lost on the trip :( ].

Carolyn and I spent a week at my house in Boring, Oregon, and then Margaret flew us down to her home in Burbank, California, to help her celebrate her birthday.  We had a wonderful time together this summer, visited cousins, and sites I have not shown you but we made memories to treasure and I hope you have made good memories this summer, as well.

This morning as I meandered home from church I stopped in Sandy, Oregon, at Jonsrud viewpoint to get a photo of Mt. Hood with its fresh coat of snow to show you.  It is a gorgeous early Autumn day with a just right temperature.  I hope you are having a lovely day wherever you may be!

Thanks to those of you who checked up on me because I have not logged entries on my blog for several months, nor visited your posts.  I look forward to visiting with you soon!

In these times of forest fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, mudslides, and political discord, may you know the Lord's peace; love and support everyone you can; and enjoy loving creative pursuits.

:)  Gracie xx