What Bones Are These?

What bones lie here?  What bones lay beneath my feet?  Hundreds of years old.  Silent, old, watching.  It's nearing midnight, there's an almost full moon and clouds are racing across a dark sky.  I'm standing in the middle of a dark Scottish graveyard caught staring at the amazing Scottish sky, the shapes of century old buildings on the High Street and silhouettes of ancient tombstones thinking, whose bones are these?   There is a postman who died trying to deliver mail into Moffat during a blizzard in 1831.  There are the corpses of children born between 1725-1740.  Miserable old lives?  Happy old lives?  Old, old bones.

Maureen and Hunter left about 11:30 p.m. last night.  We had a wonderful time catching up.  Even Maureen hadn't seen Hunter in a while and the conversation was lively as I said.  When Gordon and I rounded the corner into the kitchen for clean up duty we both let out a sigh.  It seemed as though every dish, glass and pot and pan we owned had been used.  But we dug in and cleaned the kitchen up before heading off to bed.  By 12:30 we were lights out.

Ring, ring.  Who's calling so early?  The phone's on my side of the bed but I refused to answer it so Gordon hauled himself out of bed and came round to find out who would have the nerve to ring us so early.  Maureen.  And it's almost 11!   What?

The weather sucked today.  Cold and very overcast.  So much for our lively walk.  While Gordon took his shower it began to rain.....sideways!  So I decided it's a good day for laundry and baking.  I purchased a lot of apples so I made a French Apple Tart.... so easy and delicious and I did a couple loads of laundry, painted my nails and took a shower before heading to Maureen's for lunch/dinner with apple tart in hand.  

When we arrived Maureen had a neighbor visiting, Jill ,who lives up in the Beef Tub 700 feet above sea level!  She was delightful and we visiting for probably and hour and a half before she put her "sheep shoes" on and heavy coat and headed back up the Tub!

Maureen's home is lovely and cozy and we tucked in to an appetizer of homemade pate and chutney and a delicious pheasant stew 

with steamed veggies of broccoli and brussel sprouts and scalloped potatoes.  Apple tart and a cheese course followed and several bottles of great red and white wines beginning with bubbly!  Maureen's daughter Stacy stopped in to pick up Max and stayed for a nice visit too.  Maxy was the happy recipient of a blob of home made pate off my finger when Maureen wasn't looking but I couldn't coax him away from Maureen's side.

I love Maureen's home.  I told you last year that she suffered a fire some years ago when her husband died and the entire home was gutted and rebuilt.  Here are some pictures of her rebuilt home:

The dining room.

Lovely view up to the Old Edinburgh Road from the dining room window.

The dining room fireplace.

A cozy living room for pre-dinner cocktails.

The conservatory.

We stayed and watched the Ryder Cup until we felt we had worn out our welcome then headed home.  It was such a wonderful evening we decided to slip our boots on and go for a walk.

Our little cottage with the moon above.

With the moon shining bright we headed off on a mini High Street adventure through the old Kirkyard and across the High Street entering the old cemetery standing among century old grave sites wondering...Whose bones are these?

In the Key of Low

This trip to Moffat has started out kinda funky.  The credit card, the burn, the uncomplicated waterworks, feeling jet-lagged like we're hungover which we are not.  So aside from my trip to Thornhill and a dinner party, the rest of the day for me was low key.

Maureen was here at 10:00 a.m. as promised with Max!  Max is her daughter (Stacy of Ken and Stacy)'s black Labrador.  A beautiful, shiny, happy and feisty Black Lab just itchin' for a walk with Gordon up into the woods.  And Gordon was happy to oblige.  So as Maureen and I headed off for a half day of shopping, Gordon took off down Dundanion Place with one very happy Max.

So in yesterday's post I told you Thornhill is located off the Motorway north to Glasgow.  Silly me.  Of course Maureen would know the special secret back road and off we went south on the Dumfries Road.  "Er, Maureen?"...."Yes" says Maureen....."I thought you said we were going to Thornhill?"  "Oh yes, we are, but I'm just taking the back road."  Maureen is an excellent driver driving a 5-speed Subaru at frightening speeds on skinny little back roads.  It's best to just sit back and try to relax.  So off we went for a 40 minute drive along, really, single lane roads that are technically 2 lanes at blinding speed and we arrive in the tiny town of Thornhill after passing through some of the most beautiful scenery and past gorgeous old stone homes and hotels.  Scotland has some of the most lovely countryside....very similar to Virginia.

In Thornhill our first stop was a coffee shop for a little pick me up.  A tiny little store front which didn't look like much but stepping inside I found a huge, open and high arched ceiling space with clerestory windows.  Looking around I determined that it was an old church stripped of it's religious architecture with the exception of the choir loft.  A lovely space with displays of beautiful merchandise supplied by very talented local vendors;  lovely soft woolens, tea services, art, soaps, tea towels and aprons and hammered brass containers.  AND a counter in the back making delicious coffees and serving homemade scones and pastries.  "I'll have a skinny latte and a fruit scone please!"

 Shopping in Thornhill is unlike most places in Scotland with possibly the exception of Glasgow or Edinburgh but without the crowds of the big cities.  There are really only a half dozen shops or so but the main draw is a shop know as Boutique 101.  But we started at another unique boutique called Voila!  Mostly I find styles in Scotland a bit too preppy or too grunge or too, I don't know, farmie or just plain old fashion.  Long plaid skirts, button front shirts, button front cardigans, practical flat shoes.  I must be looking in the wrong shops because Thornhill has completely changed my opinion.  Anyway.  I always bring a gift for Maureen and this year I chose a soft cape with faux fur collar and cuffs : 

She loves it and wants to wear it to a very chi-chi luncheon on Tuesday in Edinburgh so she was after a dress or skirt and blouse.  We found 3 skirts a sweater and a shell to wear under the sweater.  She's going to look fabulous and NO ONE in Scotland will have her look!  She was thrilled and we headed home by 1:00.

After a quick lie down for me - still adjusting to sleep deprivation and antibiotics - I prepped for dinner and prepared to greet our guests at 6:00 pm.  While in the kitchen we spied a new cat in the neighborhood sneaking into our backyard.

When I went out the back door to say "hello kitty" she darted away over the back garden fence obviously surprised to find someone in the usually vacant house.

For dinner we had fresh organic baby greens with a little watercress and chopped basil growing on our windowsill, roasted grapes and Cumberland sausages, and mashed potatoes and fresh baked Ciabatta bread.  Dessert was pear cake from the brilliant baker, Julie, down at the deli with Mackey's vanilla ice cream (Gordon's favorite) and a cheese plate a little later.  There was much discussion of politics in Moffat, politics in Scotland/England and, of course, U.S. politics.  Seems even the conservative party here in Scotland support Obama, being a bit terrified about what's coming out of Romney's mouth!  But who isn't?  (oops not meaning to go political here)

So it's tucky-tuck for me now.  I'm still rather dragging around but intend to feel better tomorrow.  I'd like to workout or walk the hills tomorrow before going to Maureen's for lunch and then the three of us will sit and watch the Ryder Cup finals.  A low key day  to be sure.

OOPS!

We have had some misadventures on our trip so far.  A bit embarrassing really!

The day we arrived and settled in a bit before heading down to the High Street for dinner, Gordon was anxious to open the mail.  September is the month that both our credit and debit cards here in the U.K. expire and he was anxious to receive the new ones to make sure we had some way of paying for our normal debauchery.  Sure enough, there they were.  As I'm arranging and putting stuff away I walk by the dining room and see he's got all the credit cards laying out next to each other.  I thought it was odd, why would you lay all the cards side-by-side?  Isn't there danger of getting them confused?  But, okay.  A little later I hear "shit" and "oh no"!  He's cut up the new credit card.  Doh!  Miss-step number one!

Miss-step number two.  About mid afternoon on Thursday, the day after we arrived, we decided to have a cup of tea before heading out.  In the U.K. everyone uses an electric kettle for boiling water.  We do too and it takes very little time to heat up to a rolling boil a pitcher of water for tea.  So I pour the boiling water in a small stainless steel teapot with tea bags.  I've always hated that teapot because it's difficult to fit the lid on.  So as I'm trying to fit the lid, and a little punch-drunk with jet lag, I pushed the lid a bit hard and the whole thing fell into the boiling water pushed by my right hand which went in too!  Yowch!  So I've scalded my entire right hand up to my wrist. And it hurts like HELL!  This morning it's kinda a black/red and so tender.  I had to wash my hair entirely with my left hand and doing dishes is definitely O U T.....a small consolation.

Miss-step number three.  While on the airplane I used the restroom and thought, hmmmmm, that feels a wee bit like a urinary tract infection.  Nah, couldn't be.  Today, Friday, I woke up with a full blown bladder infection and a busy day. 

Gordon and I headed off to Lockerbie for our wee cars annual MOT. 

Pretty spiffy looking little Triumph in the showroom.

After dropping the car off we walked down to Cobwebs and searched the little overstuffed shop for goodies. 

Piles of table linens and bedding and dishes.

Gordon looking confused by all the kitchenware and books!

Furniture and more dishes!

And still more.

We ended up only buying three 8X10 frames to continue our collection of friend pictures in our entry.  Walking back up toward the little town of Lockerbie I'm thinking, oh geez, do I really have to "go" or is it really a bladder infection?  AND what am I going to do?  We shop at Tesco for a few more groceries and Gordon went back down the street to pick up the car.  While driving home I told Gordon that I thought I'd need to see a doctor for antibiotics.

Now three years ago Jillian came over for a week break that turned into a three week break and she left her birth control in Manhattan.  We took her to the local doctor and, at no charge, he saw her and wrote a prescription for not one month of birth control, but three months AT NO CHARGE.   So we headed to Dr. Crawford's office on the way home to see if he could see me.

In Scotland they call a Dr.'s office a surgery.  So at the surgery I learned that they were all booked up but the receptionist was kind enough to call the other doctor in town to see if they could see me.  They can at 4:40pm.  So back at home we unload groceries and experience miss-step number four.  Gordon dropped the box that held four bottles of white wine and we lost a bottle.  Oh well.  Not so bad.

We both laid down for a nap as we were feeling knackered today.  Jet lag has caught up and a slightly sleepless night for me added to my woes.

At 4:30 I headed down toward the "surgery" and awaited my appointment with Dr. McHenry.  Twenty minutes later he comes out to reception and brings me in to a shabby little office.  "Hello, I'm Dr. McHenry".  "Hello Dr. I'm Sharon Corsie.  Thank you so much for seeing me on such short notice, I'm very grateful".  "Er, um, well, I'm Dr. McHenry and you don't have National Health Insurance and there will be a small fee".  "No problem.  When you've got a bladder infection you'll pay just about anything to get rid of it and I've got a busy weekend planned!"  "Er, well, as I said, I'm Dr. McHenry".  Okay we've established that.  "I used to be a Principal but I'm only here to help out".  Eh?  Does that mean he used to work at a school and now he's a doctor?  I quickly deduce (fortunately before saying something stupid) that he used to be a principal/owner of the Dr.'s office but now he's just come to fill in while someone is on "holiday"....another funny way of saying vacation.  Anyway, he wants to know my symptoms and I present him with my special little gift of urine in a tiny little container.  "My gift to you" I say handing him the vial of urine and "symptoms are feeling like I need to pee constantly and burning while doing it!" In a nutshell right girls?  As he dips a tester in the special urine serum it almost explodes with the color of infection!  Yay!  "Oh well, you've definitely got uncomplicated waterworks."  Eh, what?  Are we talking Monopoly or urinary tract infection?  "So I'll just write you a prescription and you'll be on your way", and "there will be a small charge on your way out."  Yes, yes, I heard you, let's get on with it.  "Just take this to the Chemist (pharmacist) and get your prescription.  "Bye, bye, thank you so much for taking your time to see me.  I really appreciate it Dr."

They charged me 20 pounds and at the chemist I paid 4 pound 50 for antibiotics and I was back home in 45 minutes.  Can you do that in the U.S.?  I think not.  All hail National Health Insurance!

So Gordon and I have decided that we're all done with oops' and miss-steps.  Tomorrow's another day and I'm off at 10:30 to go shopping with Maureen in a little town called Thornhill about 40 minutes up the motorway toward Glasgow.  Tomorrow evening Maureen and Hunter are coming for dinner and a visit so we've got a busy day.  No time for miss-steps, infections or oops!

It IS the destination!

Whoever said "it's the journey, not the destination" hasn't flown like a piece of cattle to Scotland by way of Amsterdam on KLM out of San Francisco!

We left our house at 11:00 a.m. headed to SFO.  Upon arrival we find the new and merged KLM, now operating as KLM/AirFrance/Delta, completely jammed.  Not since Rome have we seen so many people in one line waiting to check in.  Ugh.  But we finally did check in, made it through security and arrived at the gate 30 minutes before boarding.  Gordon and I usually book Economy Plus seats which on, say, a United flight is a wider more comfortable seat with 6 inches extra legroom toward the front of the aircraft in a section designated totally for Economy Plus.  On KLM it's an exit row seat.  Period.  This row of 3 seats was like a small loveseat, which really only comfortably seats 2 people, with 2 arm rests splitting the maybe 17 inch seats.  Crammed into the window seat sat a little bit hefty Norwegian guy, I'm in the middle seat and Gordon's on the aisle.  Now the really charming characteristic of these seats is their location.  Right next to the 4 toilets in the mid-section of the aircraft.  Oh lovely.  This is a 9 1/2 hour flight. 

Anyway, 3 1/2 movies later; Gosford Park, Moonrise Kingdom, Young Adult and half of Thelma and Louise we arrive in Amsterdam for an almost 3 hour lay over before a short flight to Edinburgh to be picked up by our faithful friend Dougie.  Waiting just outside the customs door, Dougie never changes....apparently not even his outfit!  And we headed off toward Moffat, another 1 1/2 hours south from Edinburgh.  Because Scotland has received  an inordinate amount of rain this past year, we had to slow down or crawl through many pond-like puddles on the 701 (the Old Edinburgh Road) so it took slightly longer to get into our home making our journey from door to door almost 20 hours. Do we sleep on airplanes?  NO!

We stopped at the little deli on the way up Well Street to purchase yummy cheddar cheese scones and apple turnovers (savory and sweet!) to have with our tea before Dougie headed back up the road to Edinburgh. 

So we settled in.  We unpacked and hung our clothes, sorted out the bathroom and kitchen, added a new mattress topper, pillows and down comforter to our bed opened the mail, took our baths and headed down the hill to the High Street for a mini pub crawl and dinner of meat pie, steamed veggies and chips.

There's that Scottish blue sky on the way down to the High Street!

Mini pub crawl 1.....

Mini pub crawl 2!

The sun is setting but the moon is already up and we're off back up the hill.  This view is from the Buccleuch porch across the High Street and the distant hill side.

 Bed by 8:00 p.m. - awake at midnight but back to sleep until 6:00 a.m.


This morning we dusted, vacuumed, clean the bathroom, waited on our food order which arrived at 10:00 a.m then headed down the hill for fresh salmon from the fishmonger, Andy; cheese from the deli and a converter for our American electronic appliances.  Somehow we cannot find ANY of our converters we have always left in the house.

Back at the house we did an hour and 1/2 of yoga, napped and welcomed our dear friend and home caretaker, Maureen , for a glass or two of wine and a long visit.  It's always nice to see and catch up with Maureen and we are looking forward to seeing her this weekend for dinner.

Gordon and I made a wonderful meal of salmon, potatoes and asparagus with a little buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes.  And then out for a nice if dark, evening walk.

It's good to be back "home" in Moffat.  It kinda feels like we never left.  The house looks good.  It's warm and cozy and inviting.  Our bed is uber-comfortable now and I made it till 10:00 p.m. tonight but I'm ready for bed and what tomorrow might bring.  Off to get the car "MOT'd".  It's annual check up! which means a visit to Lockerbie and Cobwebs antique store!  YAY! 

P.S.  must remember real camera tomorrow.  IPhones take great close up and people pictures but lack for landscape shots. 

Before We Go.......

.......I want to tell you a few things.  I haven't posted to my blog much this year.  Day to day normality doesn't seem very interesting when you are in the thick of it, but as I look back there's a thing or two I can say about 2012.

My post in March was about being happily married for 25 years.  Another post this year was about my thoughts and, perhaps, expectations for our children and my wish for them regarding their own happily ever after.  Our daughters are working very hard on their futures and we are so proud of each of them.

Gordon and I have had a relatively quiet 25th year together.  Business has been really, really good for Gordon thank God!  After the past few years we were wondering if we'd ever see the real estate market rebound but this year has been entirely different which has made us more relaxed and not quite so anxious about the future.

But I'm going to start on a sad note because for us, that's how our year began.  For those who have pets and love them like your own children you'll understand our distress as we watched the demise of one of our kitties.

In mid-February we had to put our little Jake down.  He had a re-occurring sarcoma on his hip from his kitty inoculations years earlier (feline leukemia to be precise).   He was only 13 years of age and in great physical shape except for the cancer.  We miss his great purr-sonality and sweet disposition.  No more Jakey, our Mr. Fluffy.  No more sweet face watching us through the family room door.  He was one of those cats that would continue to sit there staring in even after you opened the door for him!  and closed it.  We now have what the kids call "the pet cemetary" in our back yard.  Three pets in three years.  We have a quieter, sometimes lonely household without our Gracie, Jake and Sara.  Down to one cat now, Sox.

Do you want to come in or not?

But let's move on to happy!  Lots of things have happened with our family of friends such as, two of our dearest friends' daughter had a baby in March.  She's 40+ years of age and just an interesting, beautiful woman who happened to meet up with an old friend!  Timing was right and bingo....baby!  Our friends never expected to be grandparents (neither did the parents!) so it was a very special surprise to be blessed with an absolutely gorgeous and healthy baby boy.  An incredibly happy and blessed event!

Katy, Ken and baby Blue!

Perhaps he'll be an aviator?

But his Grand-daddy will be happy if he is a San Francisco Giants fan!

I have had awesome fun with my Bunko girlfriends each month:

The girls at Katy's home earlier in the year.

We continue to laugh, love and grow in our relationships.  We enjoy fantastic food at each others homes and lots of good times.  Thank girls!

In April our twin girlies turned 21!  Alison and Natalie were both in school on their actual birthday so we planned a little celebration for the following weekend and Jillian was able to fly in from New York with her good friend Heather.  Alison and I made fresh whole grain pasta and yummy vegetarian sauce and we sat outside and enjoyed some nice wines and not one, but two homemade birthday cakes.....coconut cake and a delicious strawberry cheesecake!

The next day we were up bright and early picked up by a limo headed up to Napa Valley for a day of wine tasting and exploration.  It was a gorgeous day and we had so much fun blasting Ali's IPOD, seat dancing, drinking champagne, visiting throughout our ride up through the wine country and enjoying each others company.  We went to Duckhorn, Rombauer, Chateau Montelena and Merryvale skipping our lunch reservations and ordering pizza in the limo instead.  I can't believe all our babies are so grown up and we are able to have some ridiculous fun with them sharing our interests and good times.

The gardens at Chateau Montelena

Sisters!  Alison, Jillian and Natalie

The crew at Merryvale; Leslie, Alison, me, Jillie, Heather, Natalie and Gordon

After the birthday weekend, the "twins" had to return to school but Jillie and Heather stayed for the week and we, of course, went to Santa Cruz for the day:

In Santa Cruz for our beautiful coast walk

And enjoyed many backyard appetizers and cocktails:

Wine O'Clock with Jill and Heather!

It was a very short week but we had so much fun and feel really grateful that we got to have all the girls together in the Spring and for such a big event.

One of the events we missed this May was my nephew Alex's commissioning from the Naval Academy.  Timing is everything and unfortunately for us, the timing did not work out to go see him proudly leave the Academy and venture off into his new life.  He will eventually be an ADMIRAL some day we are sure.  It's his dream to command a submarine and I've no doubt it'll happen  Alex is a wonderful, kind, interesting and highly intelligent young man with a very promising future and we love him!

Alex front and center!

And with his girlfriend at the Commissioning Ball.

After making the decision to switch her degree program earlier in the school year, we learned that Alison made the decision to leave Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and finish her college career at Hunter College in Manhattan!  She changed her degree program from BioResource and Environmental Engineering to Film and she changed coasts too!  Fortunately for Ali, and us as well, her big sister lives on the upper west side in Manhattan and knows the "ropes" of the Big Apple.  So I got into "get another kid moved" out of one school and into another mode....A G A I N!  In late May, Natalie and I went down to see Alison dance in her school's Spring recital (she was GREAT!) and, once again, schlepped a carload of her belongings home.  We gave away all her furniture (see earlier blog last spring when we schlepped all her belongings down to SLO!) to her friends and just brought the basics back; a whole kitchen, a couple small furniture pieces and her personal affects.   Alison now lives with Jillian on 64th street on the West side directly across Central Park from Hunter College.  An easy bus ride away from school.  The girls also have a new roommate and the three of them with two cats, Jillian's Sasha and Amy's Bentley are happily living the New York dream!

Hunter College or CUNY (The City University of New York)

Ali in front of her new University on a VERY HOT and HUMID day!

Alison has started classes and is enjoying herself and liking her professors.  She has a part time job at Urban Outfitter in the same neighborhood as their apartment and all is well.

Flatmates!  Ali, Jillian, Amy

But before Alison moved to New York, Natalie finished her junior year at San Jose State and headed off to spend a week with Jillian in NY, NY a welcome break from the daily grind at her University.  And she has continued to have a very busy summer.  As soon as she returned from New York she and I were off to L.A. for a week.  Natalie went to a summer "boot camp" to perfect her life drawing skills with an important animator working from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. everyday for a week.

Leveling UP!  Improving her drawing skills one drawing at a time.

I went to visit an old friend, Howard, that I haven't seen in 15 years! and spend a glorious few days in Aliso Veijo and Laguna Beach and then on for two nights with my friend Jim, exploring the Torrance area and playing tourist in "Hollywood" and "muscle beach" before retrieving Natalie and heading back up to northern California.

Natalie then went off over the 4th of July week with her boyfriend, Isaac, and some other friends before heading down to San Deigo with the BF for a short weekend.  Gordon and I spent a quiet backyard 4th with a dip in the pool and a quick BBQ.  Perfect!

Between dips in the pool and dinner parties with friends, July was spent in construction mode.  We had our living room renovated, put a nice flat screen in our family room, refinished our hardwood floors, which were in dire need of refinishing and replaced our carpeting.  With some new furniture in the living room and after 24 years in this home, every room in our house has been completely renovated and we love it.  It's our "grown-up" house now...no lingering stains or crappy old furniture; no marks or scratches from kids or pets.   Don't get me wrong, I'd do the kid and pet thing all over again however it is nice to have a "fresh" house.

A real estate conference took Gordon to Las Vegas in July also, so Natalie and I tagged along.  It was Natalie's first trip to Vegas.  It was crowded, hot, expensive, noisy, smokey and......why did we go there?  Oh yeah, to celebrate Gordon's 52nd birthday!

On our way to celebrate a birthday at Prime in the Bellagio

Natalie loved the gardens and fantasy worlds only Vegas and Disneyland can provide

A Vegas New York.

While Gordon was in his conference Natty and I laid by the pool, shopped and relaxed.  The three of us enjoyed Cirque Du Soleil's Ka ,an absolutely fantastic show one evening too.  Anyway,  the Vegas Strip never changes except for a few new skycraping hotels.  There's still plenty of hookers to go around and people trying to make a buck on the street.  We were happy to get back to our peaceful Pleasanton.

As most of you know, Jillian has been working on her first documentary film, Trichster.  In July she launched a campaign on  Kickstarter to raise funds for her venture and she successfully funded in mid August.  She continues to amaze us with her energy and enthusiasm.  She is working full time as an Editing Assistant at Fluid in Manhattan and full time as a Director and Producer of her feature length film shooting on evenings and weekends in New York and New Jersey and coming up mid-September, in California with one of her film's "characters".  Whew, makes me tired just thinking about it.  Stayed tuned for more news as we watch her make this exciting film!

Next up was a trip to New York and Virginia for me.  I took off August first to go see Alison and Jillian and spend Jillian's 25th birthday with her.  I love New York city.  There's so much to see and do and so much GREAT food and interesting little shops.  Briefly....here's what we did:

Eat, drink martini's, shop, rooftop party in Brooklyn:

View from the rooftop

More eating and shopping for items for the girls apartment and walks in Riverside Park and Sleep No More which is the most awesome, interactive experience I've ever had.  It takes place at the faux McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea.  Seriously, click on the link and find out about it and if you are in New York...get tickets!  If it comes to L.A. or San Francisco or a city near you, YOU MUST GO "SEE" IT!

Entry into Sleep No More

For Jillie's birthday, I baked a cake - your standard yellow cake with chocolate icing (yawn! but it's Jill's favorite!) and took the girls out for manicures/pedicures after starting our day in Riverside Park for a nice long walk.  Later we did some clothes shopping and ended up out for dinner and home for dessert.

Wrapping up a day of shopping!

I always have so much fun spending time with my girls.  The weather could have been a little less hot and humid but other than that I can't complain.  After just 6 days I headed down to Virginia to see the family.

Trips to Virginia end up being a bit of work driving back and forth to see my parents. Dad is in assisted living in Manassas not far from where I stay with my sister, Sandy and Terry.  Mom lives about an hour and a half away almost at the Pennsylvania border in Emmitsburg, Maryland.   Dad is doing okay.  He remains social and active though he still doesn't have use of the right side of his body after his devastating stroke.  He remains optimistic though.  Mom's in a little different situation.  At 89 years of age she is very frail.  She suffers from congestive heart failure and TMB......too many birthdays!  It was good to see them both a couple of times each and be able to spend a little quality time with them however briefly.

Mom on her good day!

Sandy and Terry just put a pool in their yard this summer so after a hard day driving! I was able to come home and take a dip in their pool.  It was lovely, hot, humid and perfect for relaxing.  I got to see my brother and sister-in-law Marcia; my cousin Susan and two of my nephews and their lovely ladies, Brian and Natalie and Chip and Brittany.  Sandy made some absolutely gorgeous meals which we all enjoyed poolside!  It was nice to see my siblings except I didn't get to see Shirley and Emory who were delivering Alex to South Carolina.

Spa day relaxation with Mary, Sandy and Susan

A Virginia sky

Terry poolside and the big brother, Paul, floating.  Note beer on chest!

Still life with toes

So after a week in Virginia I headed home to finish up summer.  The days have been so glorious....nice and warm in the evenings and crisp in the morning.  Fall is on it's way and with Fall it's time to go.....

My next post will be from Scotland!  Cheerio!