Walking Around Town, Cool Old Buildings

Went to a movie with my boyfriend this afternoon. It was nice. Went to the hardware store, then we had an early dinner, or a late lunch, "linner" as he calls it. I had those tiny burgers, I think they're called "sliders" and some fries, but the best part was a huge milkshake, chocolate fudge with whip cream and a cherry. I was in heaven. A walk was in order after that. We walked in the park by the river which was beautiful, but my camera was in the truck. Then we drove to downtown, and I remembered my camera. Downtown are some cool old buildings.

That's it. Snapped some photos. It was just a nice afternoon spent with my friend. I like doing things with him, and looking at things I normally wouldn't look it. He makes me think about things I normally wouldn't think of.

Welcome Autumn

Okay, I have accepted the fact that summer is over, summer lover that I am, but look at this! Autumn in all it's glory is in full swing. I did two fun and romantic things this weekend. Friday evening, we put sleeping bags on the ground and many blankets over us, and layed down and stared up at the stars on a chilly autumn night. I had never taken the time to do that before. I saw some shooting stars and the milky way, and realized how the earth is spinning and shifting as the stars drifted away.

Sunday afternoon, we walked through some snarly woods for the purpose of collecting autumn leaves of all shapes, sizes and colors. I am partial to red, but I gathered up all sorts of leaves, of red, orange, yellow, brown, gold and green. They're pressed in one of my Bibles now, until I'm ready to do something creative with them. It's so fun to get outside and enjoy what every season has to offer.

Sunflowers

I was reading a section in my writing book that was talking about being specific. Instead of writing "that flower in the window box", write that geranium in the window box. Okay, but sometimes I like not being specific, because it forces you to imagine any kind of flower you want. I would never imagine a geranium. I would imagine my own kind of flower in the colors I felt like at the moment. . . for instance, it's autumn and I'm in the process of drawing some flowers. . . they're going to be orangish, reddish, yellowish which jives with the autumny feelings and colors I'm undergoing right now.

I've decided I'm crazy for anything sunflower, long sweeping fields of them, a sea of yellow on a green background, postcards and scenes of the south of France and Italy come to mind. As summer disappears and the gray of winter is approaching the sunflower just seems like such a joyful, happy, warm flower. It's a yellow burst that looks like a sun, and it's so needed in winter. I just want to find everything sunflower and surround myself with it. I found this sunflower cup at a rummage sale the other day. I'm thrilled. I love having my coffee out of it in the morning.

Moon on an Autumn Night

Blustery, windy night

Clouds floating like film under a white milky moon.

Chilly, but not to the bone.

The kind of night that makes you want to kiss in the wind

And drive home listening to Patsy Cline.

Autunm Fun

It's hard for me to accept that summer is actually over, and we are now transitioning into fall. I love the long days and bright sunshine of summer. But now the daylight is getting shorter, and temperatures are getting cooler, but that's okay, there's plenty of fun to be had regardless of the season.

This weekend, we went to Farm Fest. We got to go on a wagon ride, looked at animals, I sat on a tractor and we painted pumpkins and stuffed our own scarecrow! My pumpkin is the smallest one with the flowers painted on it. I didn't help that much with Bob the scarecrow. I stuffed a little bit of straw into his jeans, and helped sew his top half to his bottom half, but that's about it.

It was a nice day of fresh air and fun. Now I'm craving some hot apple cider. Welcome Autumn!

Pie Fiasco

Inspired yet again by my very good friend Mat, one afternoon, he just made a pie, a bumbleberry pie entirely from scratch, the crust and everything. I thought, gee whiz, I've always wanted to make a pie, and I consider myself a good baker, but I've never tried a pie. So, here we have my concoction that is now . . in the trash can.

I was very tired, while making this, and I thought I followed the recipe for the crust to a tea. It rolled out dry and crumbly, but I thought, well, I just don't have the knack yet. I suck at making cut out cookies too. Did I mention that I'm a good baker?

I also put double the sugar in the pie, because I had canned pie filling, which didn't need any sugar added. Oh boy. So here comes the pie. Cardboard, tasteless crust and all with sugar bomb cherry innards. I put it on the counter to cool over night. The next morning I wake up, and see that jar of shortening on the counter. Oh, yeah, I was suppossed to put that into the crust!!! I will try it again. I'm sure I can get this right

Air Plane Ride

I was at the horse farm on Saturday, when I saw this cute little yellow plane fly overhead about two times. I looked up in the sky, and thought, hmmm. Isn't that nice. Gee, he's flying pretty low. Twenty minutes later, my cell phone rings. It's my friend Mat. He said, "hey, did you see that yellow plane flying around?" I said yeah. He said, "I was in it!!" No kidding. Right down the rode from the horse farm, they were giving plane rides. The little plane doesn't need much runway, so they were taking off and landing in a grassy field.

The next day, I decided, that I would like to try it, too. Of course, I want to be as daring and spontaneous as my friend Mat. So, after a big greasy breakfast, up I go in this little plane with my camera in hand. It rose up so gently, it didn't feel like anything, and before I knew it, we were high above farm fields, trees, subdivisions, little towns, and countless horse farms. It was really beautiful, and I started snapping a lot of pictures. After a little while, though, I began to feel, not so good. The plane was swimming its way through the windy air, gradually rising up and down, going with the flow. My stomach started churning, and I began to feel very nauseous. Soon, I began thinking, when is he going to land this thing? We were only up there for about 20 minutes. He banked hard to the left, and we came in for a very smooth landing. The look on my face must have said it all. Mat asked if I had good time, and of course I said yes. Then, I asked if we could just sit down on the grass for little while before jumping on his motorcycle to continue our trip. I'm sure my face had gone about 6 shades of green.

I thought I felt better after a little while, so we took off on the motorcycle. However, I didn't really feel better. I started feeling worse. I started breathing heavy, because it seemed to dissipate that nauseous, I'm going to throw up any minute feeling I was having, but then my hands and my feet started going numb. I freaked out a little, told Mat I didn't feel well. He pulled into the parking lot of a little church. I laid down on the grass under a big maple tree. After some time, feeling came back to my limbs, and I didn't feel like I was going to faint. The pastor of the church came out, and asked if we needed anything. She said we were under the Trinity Tree. I wish I would have snapped a picture of it . I didn't notice it at first because I was feeling so awful, but the tree had three very large sturdy branches coming out of one solid trunk. What a great name for a tree at church! Anyway, it was under the Trinity Tree where I began to feel better. We went on our way again. Next stop Walgreens for some Dramamine. Repeat after me, "Dramamine is my friend".