OUR Day: September 7, 2014

What official holiday has its own flower (the forget-me-not)

and its own song ("A Song for Grandma and Grandpa" by Johnny Prill)?

Ah, I guess I kind of gave it away with that last question....

Well this past Sunday was OUR THEIR a special day for ALL of us-

Grandparents Day!

 

 

We spent time at a favorite lake feeding the locals..

 

 

Yum, yum!

I wonder if any of these ducks have grand-ducklings?

 

 

Talking together under the shade of a tree...

 

 

Swinging on an old fashioned grandparent type swing set.

(Brings back good memories...)

 

 

Then we traveled down to the creek where SOME of us took selfies

and OTHERS of us took photos of the ones taking selfies:)

 (you got to love a 'captive' audience)

 

 

A few of our party braved the wading pool there and had a LOT of fun!

 

The wading pool is right next to the creek that they (temporarily) dam

up each year during the summer months.

Voila! A big pool for locals and visitors too.

Pretty neat huh?

 

 

Then we went down the lovely road and under this VERY damaged trestle to nowhere.

Quite the drop off yes?

You won't find me up there!

 

And up this hillside...

 

which overlooks some of our gorgeous coast range!

 

There some of us ran around,

some of us laid on the quilt

and others of us walked around taking pictures:)

Was it easy to guess who did the running around?

 

Autumn in summer--

you got to love it

(I know I do)!

And what makes it even better?

Well Grandparents Day of course!

 

 

Of course ANY day with ANY of our five grandkids is a GREAT day for us!

 

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Links/Notes:

http://www.grandparents-day.com/

Official Grandparents Day song at You Tube

(might need Kleenex on this one)

About the trail that goes through here plus some history and geology of this area

http://www.foresthiker.com/?page_id=653

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banks%E2%80%93Vernonia_State_Trail

Obviously we've never walked across Tophill,

the former railroad trestle pictured above which partially burned in the mid 1980's,

but I have been across the Buxton trestle.

Here is my post on the Buxton Trestle which is quite safe, family friendly and very pretty:

http://aimeeonthemountainside.blogspot.com/2012/09/in-footsteps-of-my-farmer-boy.html

And last, but not least, Vernonia parks:

http://www.vernoniachamber.org/tourism/parks/

And a great photo of "Dewey Pool" from a different angle:

http://www.vernoniasvoice.com/tag/dewey-pool/

Life Updates

 Life.

Constantly changing;

sometimes challenging.

ALWAYS a gift!

 

I meant to be here.

Really I did.

But then real life intervened with some challenging challenges:)

 

First, a severely congested ear left me temporarily deaf on one side

and very, very uncomfortable

(can I say how grateful I am for medicine?)

 

And, I believe it was around the same time that we lost our high speed Internet

(which really isn't so high speed even on its good days).

Suffice it to say this makes blogging quite the challenge:)

 

Of course, there was the usual stuff too--

 

Then tonight,

after a few wonderful days of finally getting out to a farm store and

attending a living history reenactment

(both in the valley)

topped off by

FINALLY

getting to see close up some of the trees of the famous Neskowin Ghost Forest

(coast),

I found our freezer door wasn't completely closed sometime last week and...

well it isn't a pretty picture--

worse yet I have NO more frozen fruit juice bars

(LOL)

 

But, hey, it was well past the time when the freezer should have been

cleaned, organized and defrosted anyway:)

 

 

So life has intervened and plans for posts have been slightly changed.

I hope you'll understand.

 

In the meantime I hope some recent photos will suffice.

 

 

Beautiful Neskowin Beach--

Neskowin Creek,

Proposal Rock (right)

and Cascade Head (left).

 

More photos later...

 

 

Our garden -- prunes.

Each year our harvest of pears, Asian pears, apples, etc., etc. is SO big

we have lots to give away to family and friends.

Since we don't spray, they love it

and so do we as less gets wasted! 

 

BTW, do you see those gorgeous raindrops??

Yep, we finally had a few 'minutes' of rain in August.

And yes, I raced outside to fully enjoy it because it has been miserably warm

 and dry here this summer

(I gladly admit to being a summer wimp).

ANY rain is a HUGE blessing right now

with our fire danger so very high.

  

 

During a trip to one of my favorite farm stores in the valley,

the friend I was with gave me a tour of three of the Russian Old Believer churches...

Here is a link if you'd like to learn more about them:

http://www.folkstreams.net/context,292

and a very short video can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBy8QwNSaFk

Some info about their unique cross can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_cross

 

 

A photo from the Fur Trapper Encampment that was held in Champoeg State Park.

It was fascinating learning more about the trappers and how they lived in the PNW!

I have some more photos to share later...

an interesting part of our history!

More info can be found here at this University of Washington site:

(http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Pacific%20Northwest%20History/Lessons/Lesson%206/6.html

Go Huskies:)

 

 

I believe this is the first time I have seen a little red wagon at the beach...

I think I LOVE it:)

Did you see the tent too closer to the ocean?

Maybe that's what this fair skinned Celtic lass needs.

 

 

The farm store was GREAT!

More about our visit there later

(until then you can think about yummy peach pies and fabulous cheese).

Mmm. I think I'll go eat that last piece of pie right now.

 

Despite the challenges these weeks have brought,

the above were all blessings.

Another unexpected blessing occurred when I deactivated my personal Facebook account

earlier this month.

I had considered doing it before,

for a variety of reasons,

and one day I realized

 it was way past time to do it.

Can I say that I feel happier and freer having done so?

 I will reevaluate this change early next month.

 

Another positive thing,  has been my yearly observance of Elul....

(it's sort of like a Lent when you set time aside to draw closer to God).

I have observed it more or less each year since hearing a Christian pastor talk about it.

(An earlier post about Elul:

 http://aimeeonthemountainside.blogspot.com/2012_08_12_archive.html)

 

Here's one of the key verses I've been studying that I'll share with you.

The LORD is my light and my salvation;

whom shall I fear?

the LORD is the strength of my life;

of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27:1 KJV

 

I like that!

 

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Sorry if there are any errors.

Aimee should never, ever blog when it's well past time to be asleep.