A FEW AROUND AND ABOUT PHOTOS.

I thought I would share a few of these. As you know I am an avid taker of photos, which include those from the passenger side of our car. I love to record just about everything. Last week we had amazing skies. Below was from the week before when it was rainier. I was taking our usual photo on the progress of the building when the police officer came into view. 

We have been very interested in seeing this large building go up, having driven by the old house for many years. The land was finally sold, the old house leveled (was a bit sad about that - someone's dream way back when) and this structure slowly took shape. They always start with the elevator shafts first don't they? We knew it was going to be a big place noticing how far apart they were.  

Monday June 22nd, 2026 - drove to Arlington to our favorite Bahn Mi go-to. We visit about once a month and have a car picnic. We try to curb our eating out to once a week and usually it's fast food. No seating inside here and that’s okay with us. We can watch the world go by. It’s fun to watch people come and go. There is a fire station across the parking lot to the left, and we have watched firefighters trek in every now and again. Nothing fancy but this is Gregg's all-time favorite sandwich, and I have to admit it is excellent. Mentioned before on here many times.

On the way out of the parking lot we spotted this. I believe it's the same vehicle I shared a few weeks ago. It is a Slingshot Grand Touring Le Fairway Green with Bronze Accents - thank you Google!

Our lunch last week took us to our Cornish Pasty shop, also mentioned many times before. We usually pick up British bangers and bacon. Made over here but a UK-style recipe that gives us a touch of nostalgia when we have them on the weekend with a full breakfast. Another place we visit, this time maybe once every three months, try to anyhow. You can just about make out the Union Jack on the left-hand side towards the end of the alleyway. 

Another car picnic. Over here Cornish Pasties are like a Michigan Meat Pie. Cornish tin and copper miners emigrated to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan when there was a massive copper and iron boom in that area in the 1840's and 1850's. That's how the Michigan meat pie came about, from the Cornish Pasty. I am repeating myself but the man who owns The Pure Pasty Co. is British and located in Vienna, Virginia. He also owns the Hawk and Griffin which opened several years later. This is where we went for Gregg's birthday earlier in the year. We like both places very much but come here more. The restaurant/pub is our special occasion place. I'm sure with the World Cup going on, the place is packed out.

On our way home we passed by the old mill building I mentioned a little while ago. I was delighted that the paddle wheel was working. We could see the water splashing on the wheel. There was also safety fences built since the last photo. I can only hope that we will see the building itself brought back to life, and I am eager to come back this way to see if there is any progress in a couple of weeks or so.

Here is also another view of the horses but in the nearby field this time. We really should bring a proper camera to get a closer photo. All these were taken with my cell phone.

Coming back into the neighborhood Gregg spotted a crow on the top of a mailbox post. He stopped, backed up without me even asking. 

I took several photos before he flew off. These were the best two.

It was a coincidence but that very morning I had found these on Pinterest. I rather like benches as you might guess, from all the ones I sit on when we go to the gardens. My imagination put these on our deck and in the back yard.

Tuesday June 23rd 2026 - I had my hair done today. I go to the Hair Cuttery at our local shopping center. The lady who has been cutting my hair for years did another great job and I always feel much better with it shorter and tidier. It was raining heavily, but the sun is out surprisingly and it looks like we will have a very pretty sunset.  

Wednesday, June 24th, 2026 - father and son got  together this morning. I stayed home and enjoyed my quiet time. I caught up on things. I did laundry, a chore that I actually enjoy. The day went fast!

That's all for now. 

Thank you for reading my ramblings, and 

I hope your day is a great one.

MORE TO SEE IN THE WAY OF CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

This…

and this...

I put the final ornament on the tree last night. This is my “wings” tree and I started this tradition last December. It includes birds, angels, butterflies, Santas and snowmen holding birds, a few honorary ones like the homemade-looking squirrel, and others that have that honor too. Several are gifted from loved ones, family and friends, some picked up on travels, and others that caught my eye just because. I have added an ornament here and there, some you have seen before because I have been sharing them at this time of year throughout the lifetime of this blog. I have been looking at your trees and their treasures too and loving them. 

In our other news, not only did hubby arrive home on Saturday after being away for a few days, but on Sunday morning we had a lovely visit from family who dropped in on their way home many miles south of us. Our son was here also, and we had such a lovely time catching up as it had been a while. I am grateful most of the tree was dressed for their little one to enjoy and even in daytime, her eyes twinkled along with the colorful lights. 

Today was not as exciting but we enjoyed ourselves, having our monthly Bahn Mi sandwich with a car picnic. Shopping for groceries came next and a coffee on the way home. A good start to a new week.

Thanks for looking and 

I hope your day and week are great.

HAPPY 1ST DAY OF MAY - OUT AND ABOUT WITH THE DUCKIES

On Sunday, we drove over to our favorite Vietnamese place where we both ordered a bahn mi. My dear other half was first introduced to Vietnamese food by a colleague when he first moved to Virginia to start his new job in 1990 (navy career first, then this civilian job here and now retired from his last job for many years). Pho soup was the first dish. Our son and I arrived several months later. We delayed our arrival so that he could finish his school year. These little snippets of information are probably repeats, so apologies if you remember them from before. When we arrived, dear other half introduced us to Pho Soup soon after. Years later while commuting back and forth from Washington DC every day, he got super hungry half-way home. He saw this place and we have been going to it off and on ever since. 

It is the best one we have ever had and even though we don't get it that often, as it's quite a trek to get there, we don't go anywhere else for this particular sandwich. Below you will see an old photo just to show you what it looks like. (We had a chuckle later on the same day of our latest trip. This same bahn mi photo popped up on his computer. It said 'here is where you were exactly one year ago', and just by coincidence, here we were again.)

It is a meatball sandwich made out of pork, nothing fancy to look at but take my word for it, it is a taste sensation. Nothing like the Italian meatball because of the seasonings. Those strips of veggies, carrots, cucumber, daikon radish and cilantro (maybe not the cilantro) are slightly pickled. There are also slices of hot pepper, sometimes mild, sometimes not so much. We also always enjoy our car picnic in the shop’s parking lot. It is our special treat. Moving on! 

We have the loan of a truck for a little while thanks to family, and they told us we could use it as much as we liked. Very grateful as we are downsizing and have so many things to take to places where they might make good use of what we no longer use or need. Things that are beyond use, we will be taking to our local refuse center. (We started this process quite a while ago but are now able to gather momentum thanks to the truck.)

In the meantime, I thought I would introduce you to the ducky family. Not real duckies of course, just the ones on the dashboard. I didn't know this before and those of you who have jeeps probably do, but when you are out and about, you might come back and find a yellow rubber duck resting on the hood. The family has accumulated quite a collection, as you will see in these photos, and no doubt they have given their fair share.

Shells also but those are a separate collection.

So, for the next week plus, we have adopted 11 rubber duckies!

Welcome to our family duckies. We will take good care of you!

This is the day we went to the garden center so I will share more of those photos soon.

I have my eye on a Dogwood tree, but we are still trying to figure out what would thrive in the spot we want to put it in. It remains to be seen what type of tree will end up there.

That's all for today! Thanks for sticking with me to the end of my ramble. Happy First Day of May to you all, and have a wonderful month!

A FEW RAMBLES ABOUT THIS AND THAT, WITH OUR FAVORITE BAHN MI PLACE FOR LUNCH

This is just an around-and-about type of post, a bit of this and that.  I twisted my knee a few weeks back, going down these steps at Mason Neck Park, told at the time by my dear other half that he didn't think it was a good idea, and was I sure I could go down those steps at which I replied, "Of course I can!" 

Well, I'm listening to my dear other half next time.  That's another reason, on top of the heat and humidity and the thunderstorms, I haven't been on any walks.  My knee has been pitching a fit off and on and in the meantime, I am being driven around in the car for any outings. 

We usually go out for lunch at least one day a week, nothing fancy.  One day Gregg said he would like a Bahn Mi. Quite a jaunt even in the car but very much worth the trip.  We go to a Vietnamese Sandwich Shop called BÁNH MÌ D.C. SANDWICH.  (Sorry for the bold capitals but I wanted to leave those neat little accents to show you, and I couldn't get the font to change in my usual manner, so I did a cut and paste.  No one accuses me of not being detailed, it's in my genes.)  

This is somewhere we have visited many times since we have lived here (since 1990), and I have mentioned it before.  There are no tables inside where you sit to eat, and so we usually have a car picnic in the parking lot. It's a treat and is very popular and well-known with the locals, and not so locals.  I take my own water and Gregg buys a can of coke.  We always take our trash home.  

I remember a question from Ann from Ann's Snap Edit Scrap, which I wanted to answer today.  Ann asked me the last time I posted about it, what was it like.  I took a photo of our sandwich for a show-and-tell. Nothing fancy but oh so good.  

We always order a Meatball Bahn Mi.  Ours is made from a pork mixture, and it is not like the Italian meatballs many of us have made or seen in recipe books.  It is a different texture and taste. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys Asian food.  It has delicately pickled and grated carrots and daikon radish, cilantro with the stalks left on them, a sliver of cucumber and a few slices of sliced hot chili peppers if you can stand the heat (you can always ask for them to be left off). And all this is placed in a lovely fresh French baguette.

 If you look at their link it will give you several choices on their menu, and they don't just sell sandwiches.  We have also bought a bag of French baguettes to take home with us on occasion, and a few other items like spring rolls.  

The following photos are ones I took coming and going.

A fire hydrant taken at a stop light...

and an old school used to be here, traveled by many, many times since we moved here.  It was mostly demolished but I am glad to say the central part of the building was kept.

There will be shops I'm sure, and new apartments or condominiums.  Posters were attached to the chain-link fencing advertising things in the area.

Always attracted to pretty clouds for photo ops.

We keep saying that we are going to pop in here for a sandwich followed by a scoop of ice cream for dessert, but we are always heading somewhere else and only pass by.  One of these days!

And then a bit of a surprise.  This building used to be a drug store (called a chemist over the pond).  We can take it literally now, it really is a drug store.  It is the first one I have seen in our county.

There is much building going on.  If it's not road construction...

 it's new homes.

And of course, a quick stop at the drive-thru.  A vanilla no-foam latte, hot please.

We don't usually buy anything on their menu but have done in the past when road tripping in other areas.

That's about it for our runaround today. Thanks for stopping by, and may your day be a great one.

GREAT AMERICAN COMMUNITY KITCHEN AND A VIETNAMESE SANDWICH SHOP

Yesterday was an interesting day here.  It rained for most of the day and during the evening we were under a severe thunderstorm/tornado watch.  Neither came to anything and I am hoping no one else experienced them either, that they just disappeared up into the sky.  The last warning that did any damage around here was years ago when a tornado touched down two miles away, and shaved the front off a lot of homes, along with their roofs.  Before then I didn't even know we had that kind of weather in our area.  We know how devastating they can be from all the news reports.

Rain or no rain, we decided to go out and get lunch for a change.  We know of a Vietnamese sandwich shop called Banh Mi DC Sandwich.  It is about 35 minutes away, and we always order the same thing, a Meatball Banh Mi.  Gregg discovered it years ago when he worked in Washington DC.  It was about half-way home.  We don't usually have breakfast on such days, and eat lunch early-ish.  We arrived here before noon.  There is no sit-down area inside, which is fine as we always have a car picnic in the parking lot.  The sandwich is consistently excellent and in all the years we have been coming here, we have never been disappointed.  It is in a shopping area and the parking lot is filled with cars, but we always get a space in front of the sandwich shop as people are aways coming and going.

It was still raining on our way back, but in the distance I saw a yellow truck which peaked my interest. I wanted to look it up when I got home to see what it was all about.  This is a website you can read.  Another website I found explained further:

"To help feed those in need, Great American Restaurants has launched The Great American Community Kitchen. The Community Kitchen prepares and distributes meals for local hospital workers, first responders, those on the front line and those who are food insecure throughout our community during this time. Their goal is to reach those on the front line and those who are food insecure in our community."

I rarely post on the weekend, but this is a wonderful cause and I wanted to share it with you today.