Well, the first day of Summer was last Sunday and we welcomed it with open arms. The weather has been really great this past week. We had some rain but for the most part, it was perfect temps in the 60s and 70s and blue sky with plenty of sunshine. It's been wonderful not to have the central air on and just have all the windows open.....especially for sleeping! Lots of tree peeper sounds and I even saw many fireflies a few nights this week...more than in years past!
Besides the glorious weather and the flitting fireflies, I had other blessings too which made me take note, say thanks to God and appreciate all of the things that came my way this week.
Join in by linking up at Susanne's blog. I'm thankful she continues hosting!
- FATHER'S DAY: This was a great day to bless my husband, the father of our two daughters. The girls had arranged for all of us, plus Courtney's boyfriend and his parents, to have a hibachi table at our local fave Japanese restaurant. A great time was had by all! The girls gave Dave beautiful handwritten cards with special messages inside......they made him choke up. They also paid for our dinners! We had a lot of fun. I neglected to get a pic of Evelyn, Ty's mom and didn't really take many photos as we were having too much fun talking and eating. I'm so thankful everyone had a good time.
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| Dave with his oldest girl: Courtney Sunday 21 June |
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| Hibachi fun! Notice how Claire has her eyes closed..... it was so very hot and bright! |
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| enjoying the Japanese food l-r: Claire, Mark (Ty's dad), Tyler, Courtney |
- FUN IN THE SUN: After our Father's Day dinner, Claire wanted to go back to her place and rest as she hadn't felt great the night before. Courtney said she had chores to do around her apartment and Ty was going over to help her and Evelyn and Mark wanted to go home and tackle their yard work. Dave informed me that he just wanted to lie on the couch and watch something on paramount + that he knew I wouldn't want to see so that left me with a free late afternoon/early evening. I made plans with my childhood friends Diane and Debbie (Deb was up from TN most of the month to help Diane with their elderly mom) to meet at this place and we had a blast walking in the beautiful sunshine, seeing the sculptures, sitting on the new walkway "patio" and just catching up on our lives. They drove about 40 min west and I drove 40 min east and it ended up being perfect. I was home by 7:30 and enjoyed burning brush as a "summer solstice tribute" since it was a perfect first evening of sumer. I'm glad Deb and Diane were free and that I finally got all the brush burned!
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| Mother and Child (and peregrine falcon) mosaic sculpture Diane and I met the artist who was also the mayor of this city a few years ago when she was finishing up the mosaics. |
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| l-r: Deb, me, Diane my childhood friends and sisters in Christ |
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| Happy Summer Solstice 8 pm Sunday evening |
- MOUNTAIN CLIMB! I had a SoulSteps mountain climb scheduled for our group's first Summer Semester hike. Originally there were 4 of us going. It ended up being just 2 of us but I was ok with that. My friend Joan offered to drive as she is familiar with that part of Vermont. What a great day: the weathe was perfect in Wilmington, Vermont: 59 degrees F when we started climbing and 64 when we got to the summit. Back down at the car and over at Mt Snow where we bought coffees after the hike, it was only a high of 72. This hike was awesome. The mountain is 3,445 in elevation and it took us just a bit over 1.5 hours to climb. Total miles was 4.7. So thankful we had a great climb and met some interesting people who summited shortly after we did. Here's some of my fave photos from Wednesday's hike:
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| This is what the blue blazed trail looked like after turning off the gravel trail. This went on for a little over a mile. I enjoyed all the lush green ferns |
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| We are now on the snowmobile trail which was supposed to be blazed with orange markers yet in typical Vermont fashion, we didn't see one at all. Joan is standing in the middle of the trail which at this point was dry. |
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| after hiking about a half mile on the snowmobile trail through ankle deep water we came to the turn off for the summit.... and again, we followed blue blazes all the way to the top ...at this point I am pointing to the .3...less than a half mile of climbing! |
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| here we go.....up the rockface |
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| summit geological marker at 3,445 ' |
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| Joan and I on the overlook part of the summit Haystack Mt Vermont |
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| Somerset Reservoir from summit of Haystack |
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| There's Haystack! We climbed that!! view is from the main road. |
- FRESH FRUIT: This past week, Dave and I have enjoyed wonderful fresh fruit: nectarines, black plums, and blueberries. We've had them in our lunches, for breakfast and last evening for dinner, I cut up a nectarine and added in a cup of blueberries. Fresh fruit is abundant in the summer months here in the Northeast and I'm thankful for it.
- NEW GAS RANGE! Finally, on day 11 of having no stove and ordering one the very first day the oven died, we had our new gas range delivered yesterday morning. Dave texted me from work and said the installers are on their way, around 9 AM. They arrived about 9: 15 and they were the most polite installers we've ever had. Two hefty, strong nice guys probably in their 30s or 40s. One quickly unhooked the old range, after shutting off the gas and got it out of the house. Then together they brought in the new range and it was all set within 10 min. They tested it for me, told me to let the oven run at 350 for 30 min to get the oily gas smell out (it's a factory thing) and then enjoy. What I love about this upgrade: the oven has 3 settings: bake, broil, crisp (similar to air fryer). The rangetop has 5 burners: 3 regular ones, a simmer one, and in the middle, a griddle! AND my fave part: steam clean for the oven! I had to watch a video put out by GE about using the steam clean mode and I know I'm going to love it. It only takes 30 min for it to steam clean and they suggest doing so every 1-2 months or at least 5-6 times if you cook a lot with the oven in a calendar year. I'm so thankful the whole process was done in less than 20 min and also that it forced me to do a deep cleanign of my cupboards and counter tops. I got rid of clutter and just went as minimalist as I could. Here are my pics from my project yesterday:
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| New gas range to the left of it is our coffee bean grinder and my french press. I added the artificial grass plant for a pop of color. for the wall behind the stove, we will be buying a tempered glass backsplash |
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| Coffee corner |
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| main counter |
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| rest of the main counter |
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| Trash bin now holds the fruit basket, post it notes and mug of pens |
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| My special mugs that I tend to rotate seasonally now sit on top of the microwave cart along with a wire basket of paper napkins for quick grabbing for deck or picnic or dave's lunchbox. (we use cloth napkins for meals and those are in the dining room) We also have a glass jar of paper and reusable straws...both of which can be recycled; and in the back right corner is a little wooden "mail" holder that holds some of Dave's important papers for things coming up (ballgame tickets, hotel confirmations, etc) Mail that needs to go out typically stays on my upstairs desk and then in the morning, I take it out to the mailbox and put the little "flag" up. It felt so good to get rid of clutter on the main counter. |
Those are the FIVE things that top my FAVES list.
ps huge thanks to Susan from Susan's Sayings blog for telling me there was a way to make the photos I post, larger!
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