Las tres amigas Kari, Marianne and Jeralyn
It was a quick decision for the three of us longtime friends to get together, but, by golly, within hours of the Sunday-night lunch proposal, we sat together in a booth at Sweet Lou's for a much-needed catch-up lunch.
I think it's been at least ten years since we last enjoyed a lunch together.
Both Kari and Jeralyn were my students back in the early 1980s. During consecutive years (1982 and 1983), they served as yearbook editors for the Monticola which I advised at the time.
During those years the teacher-student connection quickly evolved into what has been a lifelong, enduring friendship.
I've attended their weddings and have watched their kids grow up and have kids of their own.
Jeralyn has served as an award-winning counselor at Sandpoint High School, while Kari has used her communications, photography, graphics and leadership skills in a variety of professional setting, mostly local.
We talked and ate and did some catching up but decided before departing Sweet Lou's that we need to get together again this summer.
Hope it happens. It was fun lunch at Sweet Lou's.
I ran across this article on Facebook this morning. As we've watched all the trees disappear where the Chalet Motel on HWY 95 once stood in Ponderay, I've wondered about Margarete.
It's been several years since I've seen her, so to learn that she is 102 and living between Sandpoint and Grangeville was a nice surprise.
Margarete has told her life story for years, always with the motive to remind people what it was like during the age of Hitler.
I had her daughter Jamie as a student and have not seen her for years.
Margarete and my mother, born the same year in 1921, used to sing together in the St. Joseph's choir.
Also, one year I invited Margarete to come and speak to some of my classes about her early life. The passion and intellect were impressive, to say the least, and the students were mesmerized.
This article was written in 2023 and updated in 2024, so I'm assuming that in 2025 Margarete has not given up. With the sanctioned cruelty we are currently witnessing here in the United States, her words in the story below are definitely timely.
It's a wistfully sad morning at the Lovestead today.
Mr. and Mrs. Swallow flew the coop with their children sometime late yesterday afternoon.
The constant begging and wide-open beaks of babies with parents swooping down and dropping off bites ended as quickly as it began.
I could tell, with my frequent trips to the garden that the babies were at a point where they were mature enough to launch off at any given moment.
Hopefully since yesterday, they've learned how to find their own food cuz they sure did keep Mom and Dad busy.
I wish that they could have stayed a little longer, but life goes on, and wherever they've gone, I hope they are still a happy family.
BTW: probably one reason the bird family left their house was the imposing and fast-growing sunflower that shot up right in front of their house.
Within the last two or three days, the sunflower has grown from a plant below the bird house to what you see in the picture AND that was taken last night.
I have a feeling it will be a garden giant.
It's beginning to look like a great year for gardens. My lettuce is so prolific that I'll be taking some to the food bank today.
And, it won't be long until those little 'maters turn red, get plucked from the bush and popped into mouths for tasty treats.
We have a flock of turkey mamas and babies, which has chosen our woods for their overnight sleeping quarters.
So, if I can't watch swallow meal time, I can watch the turkeys go to bed at night in the tree limbs and swoop down to Pasture No. 1 when they get up in the morning.
Eventually, they make their way to wherever they'll be spending the day and then repeat the same bedtime routine again in the early evening.
