AROUND AND ABOUT A BIT THIS WEEK, AND ANN’S SEPTEMBER HAPPY MAIL

I am starting off with Ann’s September card. The month is zipping right along and I didn’t want any further time to disappear before I mentioned her Happy Mail. She continues to delight those of us who receive them, with her thoughtfulness and wonderful creativity.

Thanks always Ann, you are such a dear friend.

I hope everyone’s week is going well. It was another glorious week for cloud watching here, a little more drama in those skies today. (We have had ongoing construction work on our roads for the last three years, adding an extra lane or two and working along several miles of road. We are nearing the end of our section. I'm sure they will be moving down to another. That's usually how it goes right?)

"Nature is a mutable cloud, which is always and never the same."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

We thought this looked like a very odd Toyota, but it wasn’t long before the penny dropped. It was no Toyota I had seen before, and yet even from a distance, familiar. It wasn't until we got closer that we saw the owner had a sense of humor, or was it something more?

We followed him for a few miles and then the Tesla Cybertruck turned right. 

I went back to cloud watching.

The skies started brightening up later but not before we had a downpour. This short video was at the beginning. It fell heavily afterwards. It's been all quiet today, apart from Mama Squirrel coming for a drink. (Today it got up to 89 degrees F. - 32 degrees C. The leaves are turning, we see signs everywhere and Fall is definitely around the corner.) 

It seems the appropriate time to share one of the jigsaw puzzles. I completed it a few days ago. I don't know what that red umbrella and those beautiful flowers are doing there on the wet cobbled street. We could write our own scenario. Any takers? No, me neither!

One day we decided a trip to our favorite cafe was in order. Hubby took a photo of me. Seriously, how many of you prefer to be behind the camera instead of in front of it? He, like me, loves to play on those phone apps and he changed me into a sketch and finally got my approval. I told him to take the lines out. My skin looked like the Grand Canyon and it ain't that bad yet. Smile Denise!

They were serving their coffee in Christmas mugs. The one I am holding has a wreathe with two cardinals and the word “love”. I can probably purchase one. If I didn’t have a zillion mugs in the cupboard, it might have come home with me, but we are still in the process of downsizing. It’s taking forever! Yes Ms. Kondo, it still sparks joy. That’s the problem, there are too many things around here that spark joy! I am keeping a few favorites that remind me of places we have visited over the years, and also treasures that family and friends have given. The rest are going to the man who keeps a big bus in one of the large parking lots. It's run by our local church where all donated items will be going to a good home.

A few days later we were at the supermarket and my sweet tooth checked out all the different kinds of fudge and cookies, but our sensible personalities took over, and we concentrated on fruits and veggies, except... 

that we were out extra early, missed breakfast and it was lunchtime. We had a slice of pizza in their restaurant area. We could have bought a whole one for less I know but at $4.00 a slice, in our minds, it prevented us from scoffing the lot during the rest of the day. We are trying the mindset of portion control, and those hiccups/side trips are much less than they used to be. Pat on the back for us, yay! 

We saw a family member this week. Last week too as we looked after his vehicle while he was away. Our airport is only half an hour from here. It was good to see him both times as there was a chance for a good catch-up. 

Bless him, he let us use his vehicle for taking things to our local garbage center as it has a truck bed. Gregg made a big dent in the garage, another yay! (This latest pile of 'goodies' was beyond taking to the man in charge of the donation bus). 

When I went out later I said to my dear man, "Where's the ironing board?" I got a sheepish look and an "Errrr....ironing board?" I had put it out there temporarily when I cleared out the area where I stored it. He said, "I thought you didn't like ironing anymore?" True, not that I ever did like ironing but there are times I need one. Oh well, we saw the funny side and there is a new ironing board in our future. And dear Ms Kondo, my ironing board never exactly sparked joy, but I was sorry to see it go.

We have noticed a lot of seasonal decorations in the stores, and saying it seems much earlier than last year. Merchants are getting a head start. A couple of weeks ago we saw these on our way out of the neighborhood. That skeleton is about as tall as I am. It’s huge!

I am not a skeleton person but I can’t seem to help myself, everything is a photo op. The following snapshots are of my favorite house for decorations. I have admired the effort they have put into it for several years now. They have added new ones this year. I'm going to wait until nearer Halloween before I ask Gregg to drive us through the neighborhood at night, not on Halloween but before, or maybe even afterwards. None are taken down too quickly. 

I'm sure these will all be lit up at night and will look exceptionally scary. Personally, I would like to see a few dragons, smiling yes! 

I realized I didn’t have any Halloween decorations and treated myself to a trio of scarecrows in witch hats. That's about as far as I go, and handing out the candy on the night. It is now 43 days until the 31st.

Thanks for looking and take 

good care of yourselves out there.

Enjoy your day.

NOT AGAIN! ????

 I was merrily answering comments last night and got several done when all of a sudden, I got an error message. A little different this time. It did allow me to push the publish button, but the error message popped up saying my message could not be published. I am hoping by tomorrow that too will have been temporary and will try again. Has anyone else had a problem tonight? It happened at around 11.00 p.m.

The surprise I had the night before was this handsome fellow on our patio door above my head. I took my nightly look out the back window before going upstairs, and it was staring at me right in the face. I don't know who was more startled, yes probably the katydid. I couldn't see it properly and used the light on my phone, and then took a photo also with my phone. I made several attempts and all but this one were blurry. The ID online said it was a Katydid, also known as a Bush Cricket? It did say that this might have been after its first or last molt, can't remember which now. You can read about them at this link if interested. If any of you know for sure, let me know would you please? I had fun playing with one of the apps and came up with this.

A while ago I mentioned that several of the old homes that had been around for years, a mile so down the road, were finally torn down. This is the first house that has been built. I was amazed at how fast. We kept passing by and they looked like they were hollowing out the ground for a basement as there was this big hole. That seemed to take forever. A few days later this appeared. I will try and remember to take a photo once it’s finished. The place before was less than a quarter its size. I miss the old house.

This building is a church we pass by. When we moved here over 30 plus years ago it used to be a farm property where people kept their horses. I loved passing by and counting them. 

It wasn't such a wide road back then and we could slow down and sometimes stop to take photos. The church went up I want to say about 10 years ago. I still miss seeing the horses. Here's a closer look of the church.

I had a good time taking photos of clouds. The skies were full of them that day. It was hot but hardly any humidity, which is always a plus.

“Bows and flows of angel hair, and ice-cream castles in the air.” 

Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now

I captured a plane on its way into Washington-Dulles Airport. I wish I had remembered to look at my airplane app to see where it departed from.

“I am the daughter of Earth and Water, and the nursling of the Sky.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cloud

The truck was huge and parked on the side of the road. There are town homes across the street, and this strip runs several hundred yards where people from those homes can park overnight. Parking spaces are at a bare minimum where they live, and the powers that be let them park there, for the time being anyway. This was still early so no one had made it home yet from work. Usually they are parked bumper to bumper.

It was a great day to sky watch. 

Thanks for looking and enjoy your day. 

ROAD TRIP ACROSS ARIZONA IN 2013 - MURALS - FROM MY ARCHIVES

I have shared these before but as it has been a long time, some of you may not have seen them and those who have, I hope you don't mind me showing them again. The information below this post was added yesterday. 

Going through our old photos the other day, I came across the smiling lady again. I had always wanted to identify who the mural painter was. Try as I might at the time and many, many searches online later, I never found out who it was. On a whim I decided to try again and technology being what it is, I found the painter's name.

Today's photos are from our road trip across country in 2013. We were driving through Arizona and in the distance, I saw what I thought was a smiling face looking up at all those clouds floating by.  It really was a phenomenal day for sky-watching. I thought my eyes were playing tricks but as we got closer, I could see very clearly. 

When a person smiles at me or I see a person smiling at others, I find myself smiling too, and this lovely mural painted on a building out in the desert, had the same effect. I could also see there were what I thought were wolves on the side. No, not wolves. The following is the only explanation I could find, this time.

"The painting depicts a local Navajo resident named Stephanie, whose portrait was blown up larger-than-life and wheat-pasted onto an abandoned roadside building - or home - locally known as "JR's House". Because the artist, Chip Thomas, often incorporates local wildlife, livestock, and community members into his expansive desert murals, it is easy for travelers to blend different installations together in memory."

This fabulous art is called "Stephanie on JR's House."

As we drove through that area we came across other buildings with different scenes on each wall.  

Added note: I also put this photo into the Google ‘camera’ in its search engine. More wonderful murals can be seen here.  As described, “The mural is entitled “Bluebird Diner” or “Blue Bird Diner Revelation,” and was created by artist Gaia in 2012 as part of the Painted Desert Project. It is located in the Painted Desert on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. The artwork depicts a stylized bird on the left and a hand with a beam of light on the right.”

These artists brought us great joy as we traveled on this very long road, and we were mesmerized. 

The old buildings had been turned into incredible works of art, but my favorite will always be the smiling face looking up at that beautiful sky.

Chip Thomas is the artist of the smiling lady. He is a family physician, born in 1957 in Raleigh, North Carolina. He arrived at the Navajo Nation in 1987 to fulfil a medical scholarship obligation and stayed for over three decades, transforming his clinical practice and documentary photography into an impactful public art movement. You can read more about him here and here.

This particular art piece is located on an abandoned building within the Navajo Nation in Arizona. The piece is part of The Painted Desert Project, a public art initiative that connects street artists with communities on the Western Agency of the Navajo Nation. (I don't know how long any of these websites will remain current. Years down the road they sometimes 'go away', but at the time of writing, you can see other artists on the project at this link.) The project was brought about for the aim of healing and community connection. The first link in this paragraph has the whole story and it is worth a read. Several links have been provided throughout my post.)

Finding out all this information while climbing down into one of my curiosity rabbit holes I fell into after all these years, was a delightful, mind-opening experience.

Thanks for visiting my post about Stephanie, 

Chip, the beautiful desert and State of Arizona. 

I hope your day is a great one.

AROUND AND ABOUT ON WEDNESDAY, JULY 22ND, 2026

Nothing too exciting today, just out running a few errands. I've numbered the photos in the collage, and below have explained what they are. 

1. This is the spot where there used to be an old derelict house we passed by for years. I can still see in my mind's eye the beauty of the place in its decline. I mentioned how disappointed I was when driving by, to see that it had been completely leveled. It wasn't long before there was a lot of activity. The big machines had moved in, rubble removed, foundations laid, and then the elevator shafts built, then the walls. Each time we passed by I took a photo and then went home and compared it to the others I've taken, to see its progress. It wasn't too long after that we saw the company sign, a new storage facility for people's personal belongings. The place is huge! There is another building down the road by the same company, maybe not quite as big but big enough. Kitty-corner from that to my right, there is a much smaller storage facility run by another company. Personal storage is definitely big business around here.

2. I have my head up in the clouds again. I am a cloud watcher. When we left the house we were socked in. The skies looked very foreboding. The night before we had a thunderstorm with lots of rain. It actually started raining when we left the house, but when we got down the road a few miles, this was the sky and a few miles later all the rain clouds disappeared. 

3. & 4. are basically the same. Lunch and a car picnic in the parking lot outside The Pure Pasty Co. There website is here. A place I have mentioned on here several times. The owner is British and we have been coming here off and on ever since we discovered it. I can't remember when that was now, but it's been years. We often took our friends to the place. It opened in October 2010. We stock up on a few things as they also sell British food. We didn't buy much today, a few packets of British Bangers (sausages) from out of their freezer, and the pasties we had for our car picnic lunch. I think it was the last time we were there, a couple of ladies in the next car were doing the same. The absolute best pasties! Here's a history of them. You can enlarge the history card if needed. Also, below this post it is written out for translation for our overseas friends.

5. & 6. On the way home we spotted the tree trimmer. There are trees here that are beautifully shaped. I don't know what kind they are. That gentleman at the top in the cherry picker, what a good head for heights he must have.

We went home and pottered for the rest of the day. 

Thanks for looking and I hope 

your week is going well.

Have a great day!

History of the Cornish Pasty

The pasty is the national symbol of Cornwall, England. In some Cornish families a pasty recipe is the only means of tracing their family history. No one can pinpoint when the pasty originated. However, it can be traced back to Henry VIII (1491-1547). There is a letter in existence from a baker to Henry’s third wife, Jane Seymour, saying “Hope this pasty reaches in better condition than the last one…” We also find reference to the pasty in two of Shakespeare’s plays. It is referenced in: The Merry Wives of Windsor: Act 1, Scene 1. Page: Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome. Come, we have a hot venison pasty to dinner: come gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.  And in “All’s Well That Ends Well: Act IV, Scene III. Parolles: I will confess to what I know without constraint: if ye pinch me like a pasty, I can say no more.

The pasty became the Cornish miners’ meal of choice for many reasons. The traditional pasty was a complete meal consisting of meat, potato, onion and seasoning all wrapped in a crust then baked. Also, a miner could leave home with a hot pasty in his pocket and reach in once in a while to warm his hands.

In Cornwall arsenic was often found in the tin mines. This is the reason for the thick pastry crimp on the pasty. The miners would hold the pasty by this crust, throwing it away after they had eaten the body of the pasty to avoid poisoning. The crust wasn’t wasted though; the miners were firm believers in “knockers” (ghosts) and left the crust for them. Pasty shops in Michigan can be found where the people of Cornwall settled. They are, however, most prevalent in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

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.