Cross Country Adventure

It's been a long time time since I sat down to write a few words on this blog. Now I'm going to put my thoughts together and try to take you along on our trip.


We decided to drive to the Grand Canyon. We would like to visit all the National Parks in the country. We'll see how that goes. The states outside of New England are soooo big. Took a long time to cross them. We were away from home for four weeks. Missed our kids and grandkids so much even though we talked almost every day.

We packed up the RV and headed up the Mass turnpike to New York. It's a beautiful ride in the fall. Leaves of all colors. Hay bales rolled up for the winter. We made it to Pennsylvania the first night and set up camp near Lake Erie

We continued on through Pennsylvania and Ohio stopping along the way to enjoy the country side. Had to hit a few antique shops but we new we had to keep going. Lot of miles to go.

 

Wish I could have stopped in Indianapolis to visit Stacy Nash but I don't think she has a retail shop. Love her patterns.

Crossed into Illinois where my husband grew up. We planned on visiting with family on the way back home. So across the state to Missouri.

We have been to the Gateway Arch before but it's always beautiful to look at sitting near the Mississippi River. The floor at the top of the arch is glass. Quite a feeling when you look down. (I don't even like to climb ladders!). We drove through the Ozark Mountains. Found a cute primitive shop where I found old blue calico fabric. I was going to use some of it on some projects to sell but haven't been able to part with it yet.

 

The next state was Oklahoma. Every state we went through had it's own beauty. The earth there is so red. Much flatter landscape than I'm used to. We went around Oklahoma City and would like to have spent more time there but it's a big city to take an RV into.

This seemed like a very wide state and we were taking our time looking around so I won't go into all our stops but we got pretty good at hooking up the RV and packing up in the morning.

 

Texas was our next stop.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

They really know how to do a welcome center and rest stop!

We walked around at the welcome center  to stretch our legs and send some pictures to the kids.  

We were crossing the Texas panhandle and I know there is a lot more to see there but we were pushing along to New Mexico to visit friends in Angel Fire.

I've never been to the Southwest before except to fly to Las Vegas. Such a beautiful part of our country. We were lucky to have beautiful weather . Very low humidity. Days and days of sun. I know it's dry there and they need rain but we felt fortunate. We traveled to Santa Fe and Taos. Just loved these cities. The adobe buildings are so beautiful!

Made our way to Angel Fire in the mountains of New Mexico. Such gorgeous views. I have many pictures but I'll only post a few. 

This is the view from the top of Angel Fire ski resort. 10,700 feet above sea level. Lot higher than home and we could feel it.

We had a great visit with a friend from school and his wife. What fun. We hadn't seen each other for 35 years! Lots to catch up on.

 

We left there and pushed on to our final destination. The Grand Canyon. Incredible!!! We stayed for three days and you could spend a lot more time there. I'll post a few pictures but we took many.  

The elk and deer just wander around not paying much attention to all the people.

We went through the painted desert on the way out of the park. Just beautiful. This is a tower that over looks the canyon and desert.

From here we started the trip home. Round trip mileage 5,320 miles. Don did a lot of this!!

We had a wonderful time. Lots of places I like to go back to and spend more time.  This should be on everyone's bucket list.

 

This is certainly a lot longer than I intended it to be. Thought I would blog on my way out there but too much to see.

 

Thanks for coming along with us.  Take care.  Jan

 

 

 



Summer has flown by!

Summer is just about over. Where did it go! It was hotter than usual this year. Made us want to stay in the air conditioning.

Our family was doing fun things. We went to Wells Maine for a week in our camper. Just beautiful there.

Our granddaughter Heather traveled to Germany with Operation Friendship for three weeks. She had a great time. Came home with some beautiful pictures of Bavaria. She saw some friends that had been to the U.S. last summer and stayed at her house. This is Heather touring an old building. Lots of castles there.

 

My oldest Grandson rode in the Pan Mass Challenge. 192 miles on a bike! From Sturbridge Mass. to Provincetown Ma. Can't find my picture of him crossing the finish line. Blogger still seems hard to use.

 

Our youngest grandson has had a busy summer. He's been out on the boat with Mom and Dad. He's a little fish.

 

He also got a new swingset and loves to have Grampie climb the rock wall and get into the playhouse with him.

 

 

 

 

 

This is Nicholas with my daughter and son-in-law at the Steak House in Wells Maine. MMMMgood.

 

 

I'm working on needlepunch for the Woolen Memories hook-in in October. I'll show you one of my projects in the works.

 

 

 

I've made a few other things by other designers, Maggie Bonanomi and Brenda Gervais.

 

 

 

 

 

I guess that's it for today. Brimfield Flea Market is next week. Can't wait. Love those Pilgrim sandwiches. (turkey)  Delish! Looking for old sewing notions. Brimfield is only 7-8 miles from my house, so I may have to make more than one trip. Depends on the weather. I'll try to take some pictures. 

 

Take care and have a great holiday week-end.  Jan

Favorite time of day

Early morning is my favorite time of day. Just me and the birds. There is a river down the hill and across the road and you can see the fog rising up as the sun comes up. This is looking down our driveway. 

I like to go out and check out the garden, dead head the flowers, try to get a look at the baby birds. Mom is sitting in the vines watching me closely so I'll have to wait til later to get a picture. The one below is from yesterday. How fast they grow. I looked up this robin with white spots on the internet and she is a partial albino robin. Never saw one before. I guess they're not real common.

This little guy was out beside the fence trying to decide how to get through to taste the tomatoes and squash plants.

Just a few pictures of the front garden before the sun comes up too strong. I try to get out there while it's cool. Can't really complain when you watch the news and see all the destruction and crazy weather down south and out west. We have been very lucky.

The last picture is on the hill in the back yard. Trying to make a little apple orchard. Probably will take a long time to grow! I'm headed out there now to do some weeding in my herb garden. Hope you have a great day today.

Take care. Jan

A few pictures of the garden

I've been out weeding the garden today. The weeds love this weather. I's been 95 degrees most of the day and that's pretty hot for New England.

A robin has built a nice nest in the honeysuckle out in the front garden and while she was out I stuck my iphone in and took this picture.

Aren't these the most beautiful color of blue!  We went to the ocean in Maine for a few days to try out the new camper (That's another story). When we got back the eggs had hatched and we have babies!

I didn't want to disturb the branches but there are two little robins in the nest. 

I have a few pictures to show you of what's growing.

I've never been able to get hollyhocks to grow and was so glad to see this dark purple come out this summer. They only bloom every other year so I'm thrilled to see it.

I'm having quite a time with blogger today. I'm about to give up and look for something else. I've heard wordpress is not as difficult. Anyone know?  Take a look at Connecticut Country House it looks good and I don't think she uses blogger.

Take care.  Jan

Just a quick note

Surgery is over and now time to recuperate. I finally went to the store today and bought my own groceries. Big deal I guess but it was nice to get out and do something normal.

It's been raining here since yesterday and the garden really needs it. I haven't been able to do much weeding and it seems like everything has exploded. I did get some tomatoes and squash planted  (Don actually did the planting). Now if the chipmunks don't eat it all we might get some ourselves. 

I've been doing some stitching while this back thing heals. I started a sampler that is a copy of an old one done in Maine. Bought the kit at Old Sturbridge Village. It took me a few years to finish since I kept putting it down and working on something else. I had it framed and I'm very happy with it. I think I'll put it on the mantle for a while.

I've started another sampler that will eventually be a pillow. It is a Brenda Gervais design. I have changed some of the colors but it's on 22 count ariosa fabric. Nice change from the tiny linens I've been working on. Easier on the eyes. 



Thanks for stopping by today. Hope to be back soon.  Jan

Rainy day

We are having a nice rainy day here.  The grass and all the plants can really use it. I suppose the weeds will love it too. Good day to stay inside and hook or sew.

This is the first day of the Brimfield Flea market which is about 10 miles from my house. We usually go to almost every market but this year I'm waiting to have spine surgery next Monday. So I can't walk for very long. I'll be glad when it's over. I haven't been very active for the last year. Looking forward to getting back to normal.

Brimfield is so much fun. Many fields of dealers with lots of stuff to look at. People from all over the country and from other countries come to sell their goods.  Lots of antiques, some new things, garden ornaments.  Too much to list! Vendors have good food at the food court which is the front yard(big) of a motel. My favorite is a sandwich called the Pilgrim. It's turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce all on a soft roll. Usually have to share it with my friend I shop with. I can't believe I don't have any pictures to share with you, but we're so busy looking for good bargains (which are few these days) that we don't think about a camera.

I do have pictures of our area here. At the end of our road is a small lake. It's called Beaver Lake. I thought I'd like to live on the lake but I'm pretty happy where I am now. Still looks good though.  Good fishing in it so I've heard.

Still raining here so guess I'll make a cup of tea and do a little cross stitch. I'm working on a "With thy needle and thread" pattern called House of Blues and Browns sampler pillow. It's stitched on a 22 count fabric. Easy on the eyes.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Take care  Jan