Papa's Got a Brand New Bag

I'm back after a long hiatus from this blog—too long. It seems that summer has too many distractions. This will be another long post. I generally like to keep them short for easy reading. I'll try to break it up into parts so that you can pick and choose to read what interest you.

First: The Reddirt Woman strikes again...

Helen is the one blogging friend that I've had the chance to meet face to face. Two summers ago I came across her blog and commented on her okra garden. (If you're asking yourself, "What's okra?" then you're not from the south.) So, that summer, Helen was kind enough to mail us a box of fresh okra to us—a real treat.

Well, she did it again. Apparently this was a bummer crop season for okra—with plenty to share. Helen mailed us a bigger box of okra a few weeks ago. Now fried okra isn't on my list of diet food, but Marylynn and I could NOT ignore, or resist such a treat.

We not only had enough to fry up TWO batches, but we also (reluctantly on my part) shared some with Marylynn's mother. Doesn't that look good? Go to her blog and tell her what a nice person she is. Maybe she'll be nice to you.

THANK YOU Helen—my reddirt friend. I probably put five pounds back on because of your gift, but I loved every bit of it.

Second: More of the beauty of where we live...

Recently we had friends visit from New Mexico. One of the things we like to do when we have guest is to take them to visit the Redwoods. Jedediah Smith State Park is only 30 miles from our home. We took them on the road to Stout Grove, which winds several miles through the forrest.

The trees are always wonderful to see and give lots of opportunities for great photos. Unfortunately my camera, which has been acting up, finally died. Fortunately, I was able to get in a few shots before it met its demise.

Third: Trip to Washington...

Last week we took some time to visit my parents and sisters in their new home in Lacy, WA. First we had to go to Idaho to pick up our daughter's possessions in storage at her former school. She's decided not to go back for her Sophomore year and take classes at the local community college here instead. We took a trailer and loaded up her belongs, then headed up to Washington.

My parents and two of my sisters have moved into a home together and we went up there to paint walls, hang stuff, and haul stuff away. I took my camera, just in case it had a resurrection, but it was no use. I did borrow my sister's camera for the one day we went into Seattle to take a look around. My daughter's boyfriend came along. He's fairly handy with the tools and my family wanted to adopt him away from us. He's never been to Seattle, so it was a lot of fun showing him stuff. Here are some photos from our excursion...

Fourth (and finally): Papa's got a brand new bag...

Alice saw the Name Doodle that I did for Marylynn. She asked whether or not I would do her daughter's name. I shot her a price and apparently she liked it enough that she ordered one for all three of her daugthers.

Here's name #1. I'll save the other two for later posts. I really enjoyed doing this. It's a bit time consuming, but, to me, it's a simple task that I am able to relax while doodling it out.

Alice gave me a few ideas of little items that I could add to each daughter's doodle. That, I think, really personalizes it—makes it special for the person I'm drawing it for.  And, if you look close, you'll find you-know-who.

I think that I'll post one of these name doodles on my side panel and see if there's anyone else out there interested.

What do you think?