HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE - THIS AND THAT AND WHAT WE DID ON 8-15-25

A bit of a ramble today.

We left the house relatively early, for us (Friday 8/15/25). Getting out before noon is 'relatively early', and a little before 10.00 a.m. today, which was our aim. We were heading to Chateau de Chantilly, deciding to forego tomorrow’s weekly Saturday donut from the local supermarket and my coffee from the coffee shop next door, to go to what is now our favorite breakfast stop. It's not that far a drive away and we were there in 15 minutes. Traffic was light by that time, and we were lucky to find a parking spot in front. 

Not a weekly event but not that long ago either. We just felt like it today. Last time we said our visits would be once every month or so, but if wishes were horses as the old saying goes. We actually met a sweet little dog (on the 4th). I asked the two ladies at an outside table (restaurant next door) if I could take a photo of her. She finds her voice for dogs. They were only too happy to oblige and no one else was there. This little sweetie was sitting on a seat next to them but as I walked by, she surprised me by hopping up onto the tabletop, walking across for a bit of a fuss and immediately started nuzzling my hand. Say hello to Misha! I could have stayed with her for longer, but I quickly took my photo, thanked the ladies and moved on. When I looked back she was off the tabletop and once again had settled back into her chair.

Chateau de Chantilly isn't as fancy as its name implies, but it is what you might call a trendy place, more than any we normally go to. I love their high ceilings with the hanging lights. Very popular but midweek seems to be a good time to go, busy but we have always been lucky getting a table. Weekends is a different matter. The coffee is excellent. I ordered a vanilla latté, my usual go to. Below is a photo of Gregg waiting in line, which was quite long.  

Both coffee and croissant, and my dear other half's pastry, was a welcome treat. His looked on the plainer side but he said it tasted decadent, a word he doesn't use very often when describing desserts. It had cream cheese baked inside. Mine was a Dubai Chocolate/Nutella stuffed croissant, and it was excellent! I ordered this the last time.

Here's a closer look at my bakery treat. I think that coating is shredded coconut. It might have been something I would pass by without a second thought, but it was recommended to me by our son and daughter-in-law and I was curious as they never steer us wrong. All pastries are at this link.

The only photo I took when we were going back to our car was something Gregg pointed out. It was the restaurant next door on the other side. He said I should take a photo. I'm glad he did because all I could think of was getting back to the car and out of the heat. 

So that was the outing this morning. 

A few days ago, dear other half was sorting out the boxes in the garage, and came across an old navy teddy bear I painted in 1988 (I would always date them on the back, put my first name above the year, all in tiny letters, with a little red heart over the ‘i’ just like I do on my signatures for the blog). The bear is a reminder of the small cottage industry I used to have, which I kept going for 14 years. I had paper to draw ideas down, pencils, paint brushes, paints, a jigsaw to cut my designs out and a standalone sander, along with ear protectors and safety glasses. There were also squares of sandpaper that I used to finish. When everything was nice and smooth, it was time for the next step. This small business of mine would cause me to wake up in the middle of the night, with a design of an ornament in my head, to be drawn immediately before I forgot. 

Our garage turned into a workshop where I cut out the ornaments while everyone was at work, and quite often when neighbors came home from work, invariably someone would bring a bottle of wine over with a couple of glasses, plus camp chairs, and it was time to stop until husbands came home. That was my sign to stop, brush the sawdust off my clothes, sit down and join them. They were wonderful neighbors. 

We had all moved in at the same time and met while getting our gardens in order. (There was no landscaping done by the builders.) Sometimes husbands joined us, and the kids played in the cul-de-sac in front of us. We lived at the top of the cul-de-sac and it was a safe area for them to play, especially as we parents all had our eyes on them. The kids ranged from five to 10 years of age, and everyone took care of each other. If parents were late for any reason, they knew that we would all look out for their offspring until they were able to get home. All they had to do was knock on our door. It was a great neighborhood.

I have told this story on here before, but it’s been a while. I sold everything I made at Christmas craft shows, some of them on navy bases as you might guess from the teddy below. I got my ideas from everywhere, even from a person walking down the street. No, I didn't stalk them - big smile here - but occasionally an interesting person would walk by in an interesting outfit, and I took note, turned them into elves or fairies or Santa Clauses. I worked around the family’s hours, saw they were well taken care of and as soon as they left for work/school or wherever, I would do a few chores and start cutting out or painting. Usually I made several stacks of ornaments and turned them out on fold-up tables in the garage, painting each part until they dried and start on another part until they were finished. I also painted in the evenings when all was quiet, up until midnight sometimes. It was a fun time, and I wish I had taken count of the thousands of various shapes I made and painted over the years. I met all kinds of lovely people and enjoyed selling my ornaments to them.

With my navy ornaments wives would bring their husbands uniforms. First it was navy and, being a navy wife, I pretty much knew what they were all about. But then wives from the other services got word and could I do theirs? When I explained I really didn't know about those, wives offered to bring me their husband's uniforms. They explained about the ribbons and could I do them in order, even parachute insignia was fair game. It was all a wonderful challenge to do them. Gregg used to joke that I must have had a paintbrush with two hairs to do those. That first time when he came home, I remember how shocked he was to see half a dozen or so different service uniforms on hangers over every door. We still have a chuckle when we remember those days. I would copy them on my tracing notepad, take photos, cut the ornaments out and sand them (not always teddy bears but little toy soldiers for the most part). The doorbell rang a lot, and the uniforms kept being hung on the closet doors as the word was passed from one person to another. My ornaments were rudimentary, but people seemed to enjoy them and that was enough for me. 

And then as I got older my fingers gave out and they screamed very loudly that I needed to find something else to do. I was very sad but it was time to put all my things away as the warnings came from the doctors when they found out what I did. My neighbors still turned up at our garage where we would sit in a circle and chat for a while. We did that quite a lot during the week until Gregg left the navy, and we moved into the civilian world, all the way across country. 

As for my ornaments, I retired and Gregg was relieved. He never liked me using a jigsaw to cut these shapes out, always fearing for my fingers but I never cut things out unless I was totally alert. We gave the jigsaw and sander to our handyman soon after. 

I was very happy he found this navy teddy the other day. It was my only copy left of that design and a total surprise to have it back, and of course the memories started rolling. It will be joining the others on our Christmas Tree come December.

Anyhow, I think I have done enough blathering for today but I wanted to leave you this. I just found it on Pinterest and it tickled my funny bone.

Sorry, I can't come to work tomorrow.

 I've got to teach my facial expressions 

how to use their inside voice.

Thanks for looking and I hope 

your day is great.

My blog originally started out as a journal of photos and memories for our son. I forget now how I found out about blogging, but it seemed a great idea to use it for this. I didn’t know much about settings so was shocked when that first comment appeared. A new world opened up.  I keep a lot private, which will be for son’s eyes only (Gregg writes too about his side of the family.  We both said how wonderful it would have been if we knew more about our own parents, asked more questions, but this is something as young people that we didn’t think of.) My mother told me lots of stories about her life, and my father did too. I have passed these stories down to our son. I share memories and moments for him on here now, even the boring stuff. 

A TRIP DOWN TO NORTH CAROLINA - PART 4 - WRIGHT BROTHERS MEMORIAL AND DUCK

 One last photo of the sunrise taken by family. This one I didn't share in my other post but I think you will enjoy it. I am not sure which one of our family photographers took it.

One day we visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial, link here. 

I parked myself on a bench while family enjoyed looking around and I took photos of dogs. They occupied my time beautifully (I have been to this memorial many times over the years. We lived three hours away for quite a long time and we took all our visitors). Though I didn't do much while here this time, these beautiful pups kept me happy.

I had quite a few people chatting to me as I sat there. One person I met was a very nice lady who had her adorable four-legged friend with her, and he was very curious about me (not in these photos). She was concerned and tried to gently pull him away, but I assured her he was no bother at all and that I was enjoying him. True!

Showing a little relief she told me how happy she was that this was such a dog-friendly state. She was visiting from Pennsylvania and she had met many nice people who welcomed her pup. I was happy to hear that. We saw a lot of dogs on our travels, and there were many at the memorial.

Gregg later joined me and showed me this photo, a likeness of the Wright brothers...

but these were about all we took between the two of us. We knew a family album would be up online sometime, and I will be able to share more later.

Another place we visited, not on the same day as the memorial, was a town called Duck (maps below with names in white, corresponding to the area where these places are located). 

A timeline of its history can be found at this link. It is a charming little town and has a long boardwalk overlooking the Currituck Sound. After pointing the family in the right direction, Gregg and I found yet another place to enjoy, right next to Duck's Cottage Coffee and Books, which I remembered from our many visits previously. They have seats on the side of the building next to a small pond. It's a pleasant, fun little shop that also sells pastries, muffins, biscotti and others. Traditional coffee is served but you can also choose house lattes with names like Nutty Duck, Mucky Duck and Swan Other, with customer favorites of the Purple Martin, Ruddy Duck, Peep in a Cup and the CocoDuck. I only just found this out at their website and thought the names an absolute hoot.

We were spotted...

and dear sweetie was also, as our dueling photos show.

Below is the water tower which is a well known sight. Its original tower was built in 1963 and was demolished in 2020. That one was a 200,000-gallon steel water tower. A new, larger 400,000-gallon water tower, (160 feet high) was constructed in its place and began serving the community in June 2020.

And there you go, that's more information that I've learned about any other water tower ever, says I with a smile! I can highly recommend browsing around Duck if you are ever in the area.

The day is getting short, I have a few things to do around here, so I will finish my latest post. More coming!

Thanks for visiting and 

I hope your day is a great one.

DOWNY WOODPECKER AND OTHER THINGS

A lot of times when I go to take a photo of the birds outside, they will fly away.  I have often told my dear other half that I am going to attach a sheet up at the window, cut a hole and stick the camera lens through.  I believe he thinks I'm joking.  I would also take one of the kitchen chairs and sit down in comfort for a while to see if I can have more success.  

I didn't have to do any of that today.  I noticed the Male Downy Woodpecker perched on one of the rails.  He stayed still for the longest time.  I was wondering if he had spotted a hawk and was hiding.  I have seen them literally under the thickest part of the lower deck raiI, looking up at the sky, and sure enough I saw a hawk circling above.  I stared at this one for quite a while and decided to grab my camera, thinking he was going to fly away.  But I got right up there, took a few photos and he remained motionless.  Meantime a pair of Mourning Doves landed, along with a Blue Jay, and he still stayed until I decided to make sure he was okay.  When I opened the patio door he flew up into the trees, so that was good.

Another thing that happened this past week, we were out on the deck chatting with someone, and I saw movement in my neighbor's garden.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a fox jump over the fence, run across the grass, make a left turn and disappear into another neighbor's garden. Our visitor wasn't as excited as I was, but he lives more out in the country, and I suspect this is a regular occurrence for him.  I mentioned a little while ago that I had looked out the front window one night to see fox kits playing in our front yard.  I have been looking ever since and there has been no sign until I saw this one.  It was very healthy looking, had the most beautiful shiny coat.  No photos but a sweet memory.  I borrowed the fox photo from my go to place - pixabay.com.

We ran a few errands and on the way back we went through the drive-thru at our local coffee shop.  When Gregg handed me my coffee I noticed the name and said, "I think Drake may have gotten my coffee."  We were already driving home so no turn around to see.  It was my regular order.  I showed him the side of my cup and said, "I think I am going to call you Drake from now on."  "Thank you for my coffee Drake!"  "You're welcome!" Drake said.

Here's my doggy fix for today.  Doggy's human had just come out of the coffee shop and was getting ready to cross the road.  "Would you like to be called Drake Doggy? I think that name would suit you."  I passed the name on as I think my human is going to get tired of being called Drake."

We followed this truck for a while.  I looked at the words and the design and immediately identified a kindred spirit.  I am ready for the forests and the mountains, to lose my mind and find my soul.  It is one of my favorite quotes.

I am still in the middle of my garden post and thought I would send this to be going on with.  

RAINY DAY

We had a few glorious days of warmth and sunshine, but I was getting over whatever it was I was getting over.  I finally felt the need to get out of the house last Friday (the 7th), we decided to go to one of our favorite gardens for a walk and left the house early-ish (10:15 a.m) and headed in the direction of Meadowlark Gardens.  We like to stop at a favorite pasty shop.  It is on the way to the garden.  We intended to have a picnic before we began our walk.  However, it started to rain heavily.  When I checked a few days before, the weather was going to be cloudy but with zero rain.  Great for taking photos of flowers I thought.  The shade would help the colors pop.  

Five minutes after we left the house it started to pour, and still hoping it would finish before we reached our destination, we realized it would probably be socked in for at least the next few hours. Not wanting to get drenched, and most definitely not being the stuff of ducks these days...

 having not thought of the brolly or wellies in the trunk, not having thought to look at the day's forecast, we resigned ourselves to the fact that our walk would be on another day.  

But, all was not lost, we still went to our pasty shop and had a car picnic instead.  We thoroughly enjoyed our traditional pasty and chatted away looking at the rain.  This is where we parked, with the sign showing the shops nearby.  I noticed the rain-drop patterns and out came my cell phone.  No photos of flowers but what the hey.

On our way home we rolled into the coffee shop drive-thru.  A long line of cars greeted us.  We followed the blue Kia and read the stickers on the back.  They had the Adventure Zone, What's Up You Cool Baby(?), a sticker showing a line of cacti, the Yellowstone Park sign (our all time favorite national park), Big Foot and yes, I saw Big Foot that day but only in sticker form...he was as curious about us as we were about him.

There was a World Series Champions sticker (for the Nationals in 2019), a ribbon I didn't recognize, a statement on vaccinations, a sticker of a cute owl and knowing there was an owl lover driving the car, well, that made me smile.  

I remembered all the times our son when young wanted to put stickers all over our car and baa-humbug I don't like stickers on our car but apparently, I do enjoy readings others on other cars now.  Hey-ho it's a rainy day, did I mention it was a long line?  

We finally got to the window and I ordered a tall cup of coffee from the friendly barista.  She was also making a statement and on every square inch she had about 3 dozen pins pinned on her pinny.  I was curious but I didn't think she would appreciate me hanging my head out the window to read them (wrong side anyhow), and it was still raining though not quite the downpour it was before.

  Gregg was finishing off his coca-cola from the pasty shop, and I had finished my small bottle of Fanta.  By the time we reached the drive-thru I was ready for my coffee and I was now well informed on the stickers out there.  It was still raining and we drove home.

We missed having a walk around the garden but as that old saying goes, make lemonade out of the lemons you're given, or something like that.

Have a great day everyone and thanks for dropping by.

OUR LOCAL COFFEE SHOP

 Gregg took a photo while he was getting coffee on Saturday morning.  Whoever does the artwork on their large chalkboard is very talented.   Their name is August.  Great job in cheering up the place August, well done!

And hopefully this will make you smile.

“Today’s good mood is sponsored by coffee.”

~Anonymous~

My good mood is sponsored by all you lovely blogging friends out there.  Thank you!

What is your favorite beverage first thing?

Thanks for stopping by and may the rest of your week be great!

PILOT'S PERCH CABIN VACATION - PART 2 - JULY 21ST TO 26TH, 2019

We are back home but I am sharing my diary/

journal from each day while away.  I will also be repeating this paragraph and sharing the link in red to the website, for anyone who would like to take a look at this pretty place, and if you ever want a lovely spot to stay if ever you find yourself in this picturesque area. 

Pilot's Perch Cabin Vacation 

Part 2 

July 21st to July 26th, 2019 

Monday, July 22nd, 2019

10.30 a.m.
Starting off with a promise of rain.  The skies looked very foreboding when we started out, but cleared up some after a drop of rain.

We had a late start but there is no need to hurry.  

Lexington is home to the Virginia Military Institute, and Gregg wanted to see what it was like.  

I took these photos while driving by in the passenger seat.  

Students are home for the summer and it was very quiet.  

Their homepage can be found here.

On the way to our destination I had noticed signs to a dinosaur and safari park.  Forever curious we took a detour and set out to find them.  Not sure what happened to the GPS.  It sent us down winding, country roads...

and no traffic behind us or in front of us.  They were very pretty roads, with wild-growing Chicory all along our route.

I love the color of this pretty flower.  If you look here it will tell you all about chicory.  The first time I heard the name was when we went to New Orleans many years ago.  It was the first time I had ever tasted chicory coffee. 

I sometimes think these confusions with directions take you to places you do enjoy but would otherwise miss, definitely and more often than not, a happy happenstance.  We even found a make-shift road sign that read 'Tinkerbelle Lane'.

Eventually we came across dozens of old, broken dinosaur statues on the side of one road, on a stretch of land about the size of a small parking lot.  From what I could see, as we didn't bother to stop,  they looked very run down, many in pieces and lying on their side.  We also might still not have been in the right place.  We have fun looking around kitschy places but it looked way beyond kitschy, as though it had been abandoned years ago.  We never did find the safari park but we enjoyed our side trip.

At noon we found a Starbucks in Roanoke.  Nice, friendly young people.  

I like looking at the prints in these places. Each one we go into is always differently decorated.

  I saw a coffee press for sale that I thought might come in useful, not just on this trip but also future ones. The young lady informed Gregg that he had more than enough points on his account to get the coffee press.  She said quite seriously and very surprised, "You have LOADS of points!"  He looked over at me and said, "She drinks a LOT of coffee!" (not to mention all his Iced Black Tea Lemonades I said under my breath and yes, the occasional cookie).  I have cut back considerably but after all, we were on vacation.  Certain things slide when having fun.  

I asked Gregg if he had ever used any of those points - he usually picks up our drinks on the way back from the library - and the answer was a negative.  I said to him when he deposited our new coffee press on the table, that we ought to do our Christmas shopping here.  He thought I was joking.  I was, sort of says I with a smile.

We made a quick stop at Blacksburg as Gregg wanted to see the university. "Take a photo!"  Another snapshot from the passenger side.  I can't remember much of what we saw, as I didn't take any more photos in Blacksburg.  Probably getting drowsy again and it started sprinkling.  A good excuse to go back for a walk around on a sunnier day.

Not sure of the exact time but at around 4 to 4.30 p.m.'ish and when we knew we weren't far from the cabin, we stopped at a supermarket for a few supplies.  By that time it was raining harder.  It wasn't long after that we found Pilot's Perch and you know all about our reaction at my post here.  It was so much fun to explore this pretty cabin, and enjoy the view even with the rain.  It wasn't a torrent, and we were able to go out on the balcony.  There was enough shelter without getting damp.  A great first time experience looking at the view.  Stormy clouds overhead and mist rising from Yadkin Valley, absolutely gorgeous!

I have lots more to share and will continue our trip in my next post.