Home again

 Ward and I arrived home last night after a wonderful trip to the far north. I'll soon be telling you more about what we did, but for now, I'll bring you up to speed on what happened at home while we were away.

None of these day lilies were blooming when we left.

Maryland was involved with the heat dome, which brought record-breaking temperatures and storms. Temperatures were around 100°F, with heat indexes even higher. The neighbors let us know that there had been a nearby lightning strike that had fried several things in their houses. My sister, Wally, and Theo gave our house a good look and said everything seemed to be in order. A few days later, when Theo checked in while watering some things, the house was 90°F and the AC wasn't running. He called a repair person who said an AC panel had been burned, and they had to order a part. 

When we got home last night, they were still waiting on the part, and the house was a "cool" 88F. We opened windows and got fans going, which helped a little. But the good news was that we were able to sleep in the basement, which was a good 10 degrees cooler.

This afternoon, the repairman came and found another part that had been fried, but was able to fix both problems. We now have AC! It's going to take a while to cool down the house, but we're making progress. I like my air conditioning. 

We're airing out all our bags before putting them away.

In the meantime, we've been unpacking, washing clothes, getting groceries, picking up the mail, and doing all the other things you do when coming home from a trip. 

But before I did any of that, I had to see how all of the plants did while we were gone. It was a mixed bag. Some definitely suffered from the extreme heat, and others thrived. And pretty much everything had been munched on by a critter, probably a deer, or maybe a rabbit.

The portulaca was in full bloom and spilling over the sides when we left. I guess it made a nice treat on a warm day.

Next to it, something ate all the tops off the sunflowers in this pot.

The dahlia was left alone, but didn't do well in the extreme heat.

But the basil doubled in size. It started blooming as well as the oregano beside it. I've got a lot of work to do here, as well as most of the other beds.

The beautyberry was spared from being munched on and grew like crazy.
When we left, it was not over the sidewalk.

In addition to the squash, the tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and various other flowers had all been munched on.

Wally and Theo harvested things twice while we were gone, and this is what I found today. All of these probably would have been better if they were picked a little sooner, but we will use them.

I have a lot of work to do outside, but it can wait until the coolness of the morning. Today it was in the low nineties. 

I'll be back soon, as time permits, and tell you about a place that doesn't need air conditioners.

Until next time...

Until next time…Alaska.

 Ward and I are on vacation in Alaska. I had hoped to do a daily travel log, but long days and frustrating editing is preventing that. So, I won’t be doing much posting until I get home. Here are a few pictures with explanations to come later. 

North to Alaska

 Another morning of getting up at 0 dark thirty. The Seattle airport was huge and crazy busy, so it was a good thing we got there early. 

However, the flight was uneventful, and we were met by our friends in Anchorage.We haven’t seen these friends, B and Bo in over 30 years, so we have had a good time catching up on the details of our lives.

That afternoon, we had a pleasant and interesting visit to the Alaska Zoo.

The next morning we headed to Hatcher Pass to visit the abandoned Independence gold mine. The mine was interesting and the scenery was spectacular. They certainly know how to do mountains up here! B and Bo brought along their springer spaniel who was living his best life playing in the snow. However, the snow was a little slippery at times for me and I was glad I had my boots on.

Each evening, B has cooked a good meal and we have enjoyed relaxing after dinner chatting about this and that.

Here are a few pictures from our days. 

Until next time…

Crossing the Country

Hello! I’m writing this on a tablet which I have very little experience doing, and I don’t have much time.

Ward and I left early yesterday and arrived in Seattle 6 hours later. The flight was uneventful, but I did learn something new. Our seat mate had VERY long yellow dreadlocks. We chatted a bit about them and she said they were performance hair. Turns out she is a back up singer and flips her hair around as part of the act. She was heading to San Francisco for a concert and then to a 14 day tour in Spain.

We are visiting with an old friend and are enjoying catching up. Last night we walked around the little town of Poulsbo where she lives. It is on the water and has many interesting shops. However, we didn’t buy anything but ice cream.

Today we took two different  hikes. After a stop at Sunny Farms to get sandwiches for lunch, We headed to Dungeness Spit on the Olympic Peninsula. It is longest natural sand spit in the US. Then we headed to Crescent Lake and Marymere Falls. In both ares, I was impressed by green lushness and large hemlocks.

Google hasn’t been cooperating with pictures, but let me try again to add some.

Until next time……

Barnstormers

 No, not that kind of barnstormers-not the kind of barnstormer who does tricks on the wings of airplanes. The kind of barnstormer who visits barns as part of a fundraising event for the Frederick County Landmarks Association.

This was the 18th year for the Barnstormers event, but it was only recently that Ward and I heard about it and decided we'd give it a try. Each year, they feature a different set of barns, and last Saturday, we toured eight different barns in the northern part of the county. At each site, there were at least two artists painting pictures of the barns. The artists don't know which barns they will be painting until that morning. At the end of the day, they sell their paintings. 

We had no idea what to expect, but these were all barns on working farms. They were not restored historic barns or old barns that had been made into event venues. These were "real" barns that were sometimes cluttered and smelly or needed a paint job. Some were over 200 years old, but had been fixed when needed with modern materials. I loved seeing the real thing because it reminded me of the farms I grew up around. 

This 1950s International Harvester pickup in the above barn was getting as much attention as the prize bull that was housed below.

Most of the barns were built on a stone foundation.

Each barn had a couple of docents who talked about
the construction, use, and history of the barn.

These girls were churning butter in the upper part of one of the barns.
We had some on crackers and it was delicious!

The whole area was beautiful, with rolling farmland and mountains in the background.

We really enjoyed our day, especially after the rain cleared up. We hope we can do it again next year.

Now onto other business. Ward and I are leaving tomorrow for a two-week vacation to Alaska with a stop in Seattle along the way. I'm not sure if I'll be able to check in here until I get back. In the meantime, here is my exercise update. I didn't quite get a whole week in before the trip. I plan to be active on this trip, but that's not the emphasis. Our intention is to see beautiful scenery and visit with old friends.

 ____________________________________________

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Line Dancing: This is a beginner's class at the gym where they teach easy line dances. I like this class because I feel accomplished in it, as I generally catch on to the dances okay. However, I stayed for a bit today to attend the more advanced line dance class immediately following this one, and the dances were more complicated with less instruction. I'm not quite ready for that yet, but maybe someday I will join Ward in the more advanced class. I got a very good aerobic workout today.

Friday, June 13, 2025

Strong and Balanced: This was a good overall workout that focused on strength training. For warm-ups, we went in a circle around the room. I liked doing something different from standing in one place and doing most of the exercises. I went up a pound with the weights today with no problem. However, this class is not overly strenuous with a lot of reps. It was a good all-body strengthening class.

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Free Day: Today, we went on a tour of barns. There was walking at each barn, but we drove in between stops. I didn't do anything strenuous all day, but I got almost 10000 steps (9,600) by the end of it.

Sunday, June 15, 2025

LIIT: We had a very enthusiastic substitute for this class today, and I worked harder than I have in a long time, both with weights and aerobically. I went back down in weights because I know this class would be more intense than Strong and Balanced. I did most everything, except for the squat and walk exercise. My knees just couldn't take it. Luckily, it didn't last too long. 

Now back to packing. Until next time...