Sunday Morning Mutterings

 

Wouldn't it be neat if peeps followed this important horse principle:  I'll scratch your back.  You scratch mine.  

All the obstacles and conflicts and the "who's bosses" would fall by the wayside and they just spend a few minutes liking each other.  We could use a little of that.  

I move that "We, the People," should institute National Back Scratching Day.

Any seconds?  

The maps came out yesterday morning, and plotting of the next segment of our guests' road trip began with some suggestions from Bill. 

I have no idea where Tom and Colleen are as I type today's post. 

It could be fairly close or maybe even more than 100 miles away.  

They were bound for downtown and the Farmer's Market when we all said our good bye's yesterday morning.  

Their trip is one where, at times, the next overnight stop depends on deciding whether to take a left turn or a right turn as they leave.  After all, they're retired.  They've been on the road since June 1, and they do have a deadline of sorts----meeting their daughter somewhere over in Western Washington wherever they can find a camping stop.  

A few days remain before that meet-up, so they're doing exactly what they want to do, when they want to do it, and where.  Great way to take a road trip. 

We enjoyed their company, and agreed that Cousin Rich did well by suggesting they stop and meet us.  

Once Tom and Colleen left, we did our best to get back to our normal, which, happily, is fairly open-ended for the next few days. 

Bill put together a cordless vacuum cleaner which he gave me for my birthday.  I hate vacuum cleaner cords and hoses for pretty much the same reason.  

Whatever they can find to attach themselves to, they do so, and when that happens and I'm trying to get something done, I tend to blow a gasket or two. 

So, now I have a cordless battery-operated vacuum and will be happy while cleaning my house.  As for outside work, I don't think such alternatives exist for hoses, 'cept maybe rain. 

Bill also informed me that he had bought me another weed eater, noting that it's just as important to have backups for weed eaters as it is for lawnmowers.  

So, I now have a fleet of vacuum cleaners, lawnmowers AND weed eaters. 

It's bound to be a better life, for sure.  

After Bill's assembling project, he took his fishing gear and headed for Pack River, while I did a few projects around here, including paying bills and trying out the new cordless vacuum. 

We'll probably stay fairly laid-back today and then gear up for next weekend's Fourth of July festivities. 

We host the Fourth barbecue and whatever lawn activities unfold. 

Then after that, we'll go into "picking and grinning" season with blueberries, a few raspberries and hopefully an abundance of green beans. 

Lots of activities and lots of "to do's" on the schedule for the next several days AND most of it ('cept maybe the trip to the dentist) fun. 

Happy Sunday. 

🌺🌼🌻🌹

And, a reminder about another art show this week!!!

The Bridge at Sandpoint is excited to host a community Art Show on July 3rd from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 1123 North Division Ave., Sandpoint, Idaho. 

 This special event will feature artwork created by our residents and their families, including paintings, drawings, photography, poetry, stories, quilt work, needlework, and floral arrangements. 

Our goal is to invite the community in to connect with our seniors and celebrate the creativity, passion, and talents they continue to pursue every day. 

 We want people to see that seniors are still active, inspired, and doing what they love. 

This will be a wonderful opportunity for community members to meet our residents, enjoy meaningful conversations, and experience the incredible artistic gifts within our community. 

 Everyone is welcome, and we would love for the community to join us and connect with The Bridge at Sandpoint.

Saturday Slight

 

We made some rounds with the Michigan visitors yesterday, including a stop at Tibbs Arabians in Colburn. 

When my sister Laurie took Tom and Colleen on a brief tour of the barn and indoor arena, Pache joined the group and enjoyed giving out and taking in some love.

We stopped at my sisters' place because Tom loves horses and Colleen loves old barns.  The place provided the right combination, including a massive hay loft in the old barn which once served the Tucker dairy.  

My sisters and our dad spent a summer in the early 1990s converting the innards of the barn from a milking area into a stable with box stalls. 

The charm of the rural past still resonates throughout the barn, so it was fun for all involved to stand in that huge hay loft and feel a bit nostalgic.  

We also stopped at the Bonner Community Food Bank where Debbie and the staff welcomed us.  Tom and Colleen love food banks.  After each took a tour with Debbie, they both agreed that the Sandpoint area has a nice facility. 

With help from Bill, Tom also fixed a situation with his camper.  As they worked in the shop, Colleen and I took a spin around the place with the UTV and then moved on up the road for a fun visit with our neighbor Janice in the adorable "she" cave that her husband Mark built for her. 

Janice has decorated the inside with family mementos.  She also has taken up painting and the place offers her a perfect setting for doing her artwork. 

When evening meal time rolled around, we did the usual Friday-night dinner at Sweet Lou's with Willie and Debbie.  

Willie had just returned from a basketball camp at Eastern Washington University with his high school boys team. He has today off and then tomorrow will take his players to Gonzaga University for another camp. 

Twas a busy and fun day with lots of projects and lots of good times sharing stories among peeps. 

While we were doing our thing, our daughter Annie and her friends headed north to Vancouver, British Columbia, where they and a "few" other soccer fans watched the Belgium-New Zealand World Cup Soccer game. 

Annie even wore her University of Waikato sweatshirt.  She attended the college in Hamilton, New Zealand, for a semester as a Boise State University exchange student.  

The final score of 5-1 favoring Belgium over the Kiwi's was probably disappointing, but judging from some of the photos Annie sent us, I'm fairly confident that a good time was had by all.

Looks like we have some rather blah, cool and maybe wet weather coming for the next few days.  

My phone tells me, however, that the days leading up to and on the Fourth of July will be rather pleasant with sun and temps in the 70s. 

I'll put in my order for that kind of weather throughout the summer.  

For now, the cool days and rain will be okay. 

Happy Saturday.  

Colleen and Janice Rainey Johnson talk about painting.  

Neat to see a Michigan license plate at the Lovestead.  

A portion of our family roots are in Michigan. 

Colleen, a kitty cat and a big barn with history

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What a Day!

 

The thought of being 80 years old next year is about the only downer that I can pin on to yesterday. 

It was a fun, busy and memorable birthday celebration.

This morning it's 79 years plus one day for me on this planet, and I am actually grateful to be alive, relatively healthy and having to dread the thought of being 80. 

The fact that we're still living and functioning at this age is definitely sustaining.  

I can remember the days of thinking 65 was pretty dang old.  I can almost not remember just how long ago that was.  

And, so another trip around the sun for me was marked with one great day.   

Telephone visits with siblings, lunch with friends and family, visitors from Michigan whom we'd never met before rolling into the driveway, dinner at MickDuffs with those visitors and then a walking tour around downtown where I actually saw more people I knew than strangers. 

Now, when does the latter ever happen for the locals in Sandpoint IN THE SUMMER anymore?

I guess the stars were lined up.  I saw Mitzi and her sidekick Millie who were out for a walk. 

I told our new friends about the time Mitzi and Jeralyn and Steve and I met up in Los Angeles and spent 24 hours together seeing the sights, including 12 hours at Disneyland. 

When we stopped later to talk with some friends that Bill knew, I learned they were related to Jeralyn and that Jeralyn was just down the street at the 219 helping her brother Jim, the dentist, celebrate his retirement.  

So, off we walked to the 219 where Jeralyn and a lot of other former students were having a great time. 

So, that meant our new friends got to meet two of the three former students who had joined me in Los Angeles back in the 1980s. 

As we walked on, I peeked through a window and saw someone inside at a new bakery (old Image Maker) called Sawyers. 

Turns out it was the owner Becky Sawyer, and, yes, she's a former student. 

Becky gave us the lowdown on when she intends to open Sawyers.  That includes a couple of soft openings and then full time by mid-July. 

I couldn't be happier for her, having remembered how devoted she was as a graphic arts student.  She told me that she still had some of the graphics she created in that class. 

It was almost overkill on the locals' sightings, and that was a great thing AND a very nice touch to an old lady's birthday. 

Our visitors, Tom and Colleen, are friends of my cousin Rich.  

Rich suggested that they stop at the Lovestead on their cross-country road trip (lots of back roads and mountain trails) to  Whidbey Island for their daughter's wedding. 

We have discovered much in common during the first hours of our new friendship, and we'll learn a little more as they spend the day recreating and visiting. 

By the time they roll out of the driveway headed to the next place, I'm sure they'll fit in the category of "old" friends, and we'll all have good memories to savor. 

Thanks to all who made turning 79 much more special than foreboding.  I've still got a lot to think about over the next 364 days about turning 80.  Ouch!  

The only good part of that thought right now is that I have a lot of contemporaries who will turn 80 before I do, so that means they are really old.  

They know who they are, right Ann???

Enjoy the photos.  We're planning to enjoy this Friday with our new best friends. 

Happy Friday to all and Happiest of Birthdays to my sister-in-law Mary.  

Colleen, Jeralyn, Marianne, Bill and Tom. 

Tom and Colleen, both teachers specializing in experiential disciplines.  

Tom's originally from New York, while Colleen's from Pontiac, Mich. 

Mitzi and Millie.  Mitzi's newly retired from Litehouse Foods.---she's another Sandpoint local. 

Bill gave me the beautiful metal flower circle for my birthday.  It added a nice touch to the greenhouse metal flower garden. 

Becky Sawyer, owner of Sawyers, soon to open on First Avenue in Sandpoint. 

Thursday This, That; TBT

 

I have heard the bird for about six weeks and have even asked in another blog post if anyone had any idea what the one-syllable tweet could be.  

My friend Becky suggested a flicker, but this sound is different. 

I could hear the bird almost every day up and down the Meserve Preserve fence line but never could pinpoint exactly where it was to see it. 

Last night I heard the distinct tweet out by the road, so I grabbed my camera, hoping that I would at last see the actual bird. 

Pay dirt!  

I looked over and there the plump bird, looking somewhat like a grouse, sat on the mailbox frame and OH SO BEAUTIFUL. 

It remained there long enough for me to take three or four photos and then flew off to the south, landing in the roadside.  

In the meantime, thrilled that I had finally nabbed an image, I enlarged the image on my camera.  

Bill was sitting at his desk inside when I showed him an enlarged image. 

Without much thought, he said, "California quail!" 

Next, he looked up the species and its sound on his laptop, and, sure enough, the laptop sound matched what I've been hearing and wondering about for weeks. 

Bill noted that usually these birds are in a covey.  We don't know if there are others, but we do know that a very pretty bird with its distinctive tweet has been hanging around for weeks. 

And, now we know what it looks like. 

We're also wondering if any of the neighbors have been raising quail. 

When we lived over on Great Northern Road, Bill raised a few pheasants and some quail. 

This fun piece in the Sandpoint Reader by our friend Marcia reminded me of the Driftwood Restaurant (just across the Idaho-Montana border near Comptonville)  salad dressing recipe from many years ago.   

If I remember correctly, Patricia McManus Gass raved to my mother about it and maybe even gave her the recipe.  It was perfect to pour (right before eating) over fresh tossed green salads.  

I don't know where the recipe would be among my mother's belongings, but I do remember mixing it up back in the day when we fed the hay hands two sumptuous farm meals a day.

I know that it had oil and onions and vinegar and some sugar, along with bacon bits. 

Twas so good. 

I wonder if the Driftwood folks "invented" the recipe like Marcia's family reputation (noted in the link below) for inventing fry sauce.   

https://sandpointreader.com/the-sandpoint-eater-food-facts-or-fiction/

Thursday Throwbacks:  fun fotos of people, places and happenings from past times. Enjoy. And, do try scrolling with the music. For some reason I can identify with this song today.