- What we do

Retrospective (9/17)

Patch #246 READ

Original Post 

I just finished reading Deb Sposa's ode to grandparent-hood over at Artisun and yes, it's a wonderful gig.

Watching Mickey on PopPop's iPad ...

Taking a walk after dinner ...

Making cookie dough for dessert (so glad to have such good help with taste-testing) ...

And bedtime stories of course ...

Not to mention all the things that didn't make it onto the camera because we were too busy being in the moment ... we'll remember them in our hearts.

- Driven

Retrospective (9/17)

Patch #245 Destination

Original Post

We try to see our St Louis grandkids every couple of months. Once or twice a year we fly up and we always get together at the Outer Banks (NC) in June. The other three or four times a year we drive.

Day one we point the car north and drive straight up I-35 to Oklahoma City. Then we hang a right and drive east on I-44 for another full day.

It's worth it ...

And while it can be hard to get these two to sit still long enough to take a picture, the step-stools kept them occupied for a minute or so ...

Tomorrow Don will put the stools to good use when he paints the dining room ... which will most likely take more than a few minutes.

- Northbound 35

Retrospective (9/15)

Patch #244 Pottery path

Original Post

We're on the road again, having left at 7:30 this morning. After traveling ten miles from the house to get on I-35, this is the straight-shot view that we have had most of the day ...

Northbound 35 provides lots of opportunities to slow down and take pictures of construction vehicles ...

Fortunately, there were also some scenic views along the way, such as this one at the Turner falls overlook ...

and we also had some fun for the grandkids' enjoyment at the impressive Sam Noble Natural History Museum on the campus of Oklahoma University in Norman ...

Last, but not least, we marveled at the exhibits of Native American arts, including these pottery motifs that are sure to appear on a future patch or two ...

- Snapshot(s)

Retrospective (9/14)

Patch #243 Rain chain

Original post 

When I posted a picture of how much the front view of our house had changed in the past 6 years, I decided to take a new round of garden photos. The fact that we've had so much rain helped, too,

So, no patch yet (travel will cause me to go back to my retrospective strategy), but lots of pictures ...

Front porch ...

weathered flatware rain chain ...

complete with rain drops ...

my stitching window ...

and the view from there ...

the side garden ...

up close ...

the back garden ...

by the driveway ...

and the breezeway ...

Many of the plantings were here when we moved in, but they have grown and Don has added all the rock work plus many new plants. Well worth remembering and very much appreciated by our neighbors ...

- What makes a home

Patch #242 Blueprint

When the land was exceptionally droughted in 2011, we brought our family pictures to my daughter's house in Austin in case of brush fires. We also brought the blueprints for our new-to-us home as I knew I would want to rebuild it if the worst were to happen.

The drought passed and the blueprints came back home, home being the place we love being together. But I can't honestly say if it's the concrete and timber that I love most or the land upon which it sits ... the land that I'm slowly but surely documenting week-by-week in One Hill Country Year.

And because we will be on the road come Wednesday, Week 5 

http://onehillcountryyear.blogspot.com/2016/08/week-5-august-28-september-3.html has joined the cloth a bit early ...

It's ironic, living in the hills when we had always thought we would retire to the beach. And even though our planned two-month sojourn to the Outer Banks has been shortened to a tentative single week in October, Don has made my daydreaming easier with his new "paint by number" series in which he colors within the lines formed by wood grain ...

leading to depictions of beach ...

and mountains ...

both of which we now call "home."

- Sometimes you can't go ...

Patch #241 Home

I used to do cross stitch a lot ... exclusively at times. This is the first patch of cross stitch in this project and I'm over it. Lesson learned. 

But the concept of "Home sweet home" felt right since Facebook reminded me of this post from six years ago ...

Hard to believe how much has changed ...

Moving on.

The sun decided to return over the course of last week ...

but it wasn't until today that the excess moisture in the ground dissipated and the air felt less like a wet sponge.

As I made my picture walks for One Hill Country Year (Week 4: http://onehillcountryyear.blogspot.com/2016/08/week-4-august-21-27.html) I found more flowers each day. And butterflies, but they eluded my attempts at photographing them.

No matter, there was more than enough to fill a week's worth of patches saturated with color ...

which joined up with the previous week's to make one month ...

I think it's becoming a habit.