We left home today about 1:00 and headed for the COUNTRY!
It's been 20 days since we left and we were ready to get back!
We enjoy our days at home and the beauty of having two homes - in our case a country home and a city home - is that you get the best of both worlds and the 'new' never wears off of either one!
We drove straight from our home to the HEB in Bellmead, getting off Interstate 35 just as the traffic backed up to one lane!
I'm wearing my Happy Fall shirt! It's the first of many that my sister, Nita, has given me over the years for my birthday! Last year's is Louis Dean's favorite. It is black with cat's eyes on it.
I'll be wearing it tomorrow.
It's going to be a party at the ranch tomorrow!
I bought a bunch of lunch meat and cheese from the HEB deli!
I have some special wines - a sparkling wine to pour over orange sherbert to make a cool version of a Mimosa! Plus that bottle of Hive and Honey wine.
My sister and her husband and Leah (Nita's daughter) and her husband are coming down to see what we are doing at the ranch! Rosey will be here as well as Dean and Sherry!
I am so excited!
We thought Ronnie might be here putting up the carport and skirting but he is going to be out of town.
I hope he will get this done soon! There's really no hurry and he has a brand new baby. I think they are taking the baby to see Ronnie's mom. That's more important than our carport!
We drove through the gate ( and that's my favorite moment! Driving through a gate in the country and going down the drive to be welcomed. A life long dream come true for me!) and Louis Dean backed the truck in at the driveway. He unloaded and I put things up and within an hour or so - we were BACK!
I couldn't wait to get out there and look at our melon patch!
The one we did NOT plant!
I googled how to tell if a watermelon on the vine was ripe.
Several are! So I picked one and cut it open!
Delicious!
We all sat on the front deck eating it!
Dean and Sherry, Louis Dean and I.
We visited awhile and then they went down to their place and I built us a campfire.
I had just enough wood and paper for a nice one.
Then Louis Dean and I came in to eat a soup and salad supper.
The soup came from our freezer at home and the pasta salad was one I made this week.
I bought a big bag of Garlic Munchies at HEB for $2.98 and they are so GOOD!
In kitten news......
Amber says they are doing fine!
I miss them like crazy but I know they are happy at the Bells and are loving all the attention!
My Amber has a soft place in her heart for cats!
This day two years ago, I was on Rockaway Beach watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean,
Earlier we had visited Phyllis and that will always be my favorite memory of our Oregon trip!
Three years ago I was picking cotton!
The crops had all been harvested and the fields around here still had the 'leftovers' or remains.
That's where I am in this picture - wearing the egg apron Ruth Ann made me for my birthday that year.
I love these two memories so much that I am going to paint them in oils.
Just as soon as I get all my Santas done and a few other promised projects completed.
And now it is time for me to crawl into my Girl Bunk.
Louis Dean is already fast asleep.
I am reading a Mary Higgins Clark novel....I Heard That Song Before.
Reading before bed is one of the pleasures of life!
Linda, You and LD stay safe and take care of one another. I know you will find some adventures. Knowing LD, he will build something or redesign the ranch in some way. LOL. The man love to work, that's all there is to it. Cracks me up. Show us some of your fun this coming week. Blessings, love you guys, xoxo, Susie
ReplyDeleteHave a great time in the country. It is feeling like fall this morning here in NoAla. Putting on a new fall shirt myself as we are heading to see Ben and family in Bham. If I cant go to the beach, seeing the grands is a good consolation prize.
ReplyDeleteYou do have the very best pf two worlds there. Enjoy your stay in the country and your visitors. That watermelon does look good. It's so refreshing and good for us too. Have a wonderful weekend !
ReplyDeleteWell that chicken apron is the best!!! and would make a great painting. Glad you made it back safe and sound and hope the party is a big hit. Look at the size of that watermelon!!
ReplyDeleteI know you'll be happy to be in the country this week! Love seeing your outfit for picking cotton! You have cute clothes for everything you do!
ReplyDeleteHave fun! You are both looking real good.
ReplyDeleteA painting of you picking the cotton would hang in anyone's home to me it looks like a work of art just like it is and its generic you can't tell who it is so anyone would love to have it hanging on the wall. Glad you're back in your country home have fun with your family I hope the weather holds up good so you can have a build a fire for them and show them all the fun things
ReplyDeleteThanks dear Linda for recalling our wonderful visit together and now it is
ReplyDeletehard to believe that has been 2 years ago.....will always remember our
instant friendship, or so it seemed. Lots of love, Phyllia
Your Ranch is so magical to me.
ReplyDeleteLove that you can have a fire and just sit and enjoy life.
That watermelon looks delicious.
Enjoy your time with friends and family..
Special memories.
Can't wait to see the pictures of your adventures.
Sue
How many people have the pleasure of city life and country life all in the same liftime. I enjoy sharing it with you via blogland. You and Louis Dean look so cute shopping. The kitties are so adorable. Love the picture of Amber with the kitten. They are both adorable. A fire pit to sit around, how nice and relaxing.
ReplyDeleteSending love and hugs.
Love the last quote, I'm in a series of novels right now, just started the third book. About a city gal who move to the country and on a farm all by herself. I think of you and all your critters.
ReplyDeleteI love your ranch and I identify it with you and LD there.
The children are so grown up now, amazing how time just flies !
You both look so cute doing your shopping for the ranch.
Have a great weekend.
Fabby
Have lots of fun! Cheers
ReplyDeleteI love the picture of you picking cotton and it would make a spectacular painting! Reading before bed is definitely one of life's pleasures! My husband can't believe how early I'm in bed some nights just so I can read and read and read! I used to love the Mary Higgins Clark books and haven't read one in ages. I might have to check that one out! Have a great rest of your weekend in the country!
ReplyDeleteNo way!!??--20 days already? Wow, that went by FAST. LOL. Louis Dean is adorable in his overalls. Does he call them overalls or coveralls? We've always called them overalls. Oh, and I've grown up calling long-johns--"long johns", you know---the warm things you wear under clothes in winter? Those are long johns, right? ha ha LOL....anyway someone told me that was a hopelessly old fashioned term and the "correct" term in "warm wear". Don't go searching for "long johns" on amazon or wal mart site---it may not be there, it's now "warm wear". ha ha ha ha. Girlfriend I do remember that picture of you picking the cotton....was it really that long ago? Gosh time moves along so quickly these days. Yes!! Please please paint that one, that would be really neat. That is so cool that you have watermelons from a patch you didn't even plant, so fun!! I grew up eating watermelon, picked fresh and then thrown into buckets of ice and ice water. I don't much care for fruit these days (but I love vegetable!!) but I sure do remember eating it way back in the good ole days, and we sprinkled SALT ON IT. Do you do that or is that just a Tennessee family thing? LOL Love the picture of you with the buggy at the store, girlfriend, you look like such a TINY little thing, just like a sweet lil fairy. I love that pocketbook I see sitting there in the buggy! Hope y'all are enjoying a great weekend there in the country---enjoy a campfire for me okay?
ReplyDeleteSorry I have fallen a little behind in blog reading, Linda, but will be catching up today for a while. It's always great to read that you and Louis Dean are back in the country where you have such great times with family. That watermelon looked so good as did the soup and salad. Sitting by the campfire and then cozying up later in bed with a good read are perfect things in my mind and yours as well!
ReplyDeleteI would really like a slice of that watermelon right about now! Enjoy your time out in the country...as I know you will!
ReplyDelete