September - I am back

 My two weeks in DE and PA were filled with friends and family.     I've known Debbie since  sixth grade.  Here we are at Glencairn Museum

Yea for my sister Lori.  She put  up with me for a  week.  Had lots of fun.  Here's a lovely trek to Longwood Gardens

Old high school friends  unite on Janet's patio.    It's Cindie,  Janet,  and me - lots of laughs

And me, Mary Ellen, and Joan at the Michener Art Museum.    Smiles here,  but we were quiet in the museum.  Did  not want to get kicked out.

More fun travel posts  to follow.  There's so much to see and do in the  area.  

Monday Moments - Bishop Estates

Gorgeous Saturday after Thanksgiving, we visited Bishop Estates Winery - a one hundred year old converted barn property

Joan, Jim, and Helen sipped wine around the fire pit. Live music played. Food trucks had long lines. Very festive atmosphere and tasty wine

Fun decorations

Dramatic silo picture

 You get the idea. I had a grand time - an afternoon of laughs, chat,  and camaraderie with old friends. 

Friday - Fun in PA

Here's Dad at 90 on his birthday - this is in the den

Dad and his girls (Lori, Me)  - dining at the William Penn Inn (est. 1714)

More dining at the William Penn Inn - Dad worked with these folks and they still gather for lunch. We heard many tales over a lovely meal.  Dad had the crab quiche - quite yummy. 

More celebration for Dad in his kitchen another day. That's my brother David - he baked the lemon cake. 

And the old homestead - I grew up in this house.  It's the land that time forgot inside. But dad's happy and knows where everything is located. 

I had two weeks in PA, and now I'm back in TX.   Very bittersweet visit - my feet are in TX and part of  my heart is still in PA. 

Cheers all.  And it's damn freakin' hot in TX - holy cow.  The pool is 90!!!  

 

Monday Moments

 Hieroglyphics - what is the tree telling us....

Last weekend I sat on my dad's front porch. This humongous oak stands tall,  looming over the house. It would have been great as a kid to use it for hide and seek.  Look at that trunk.  Wow!
Dad says when a limb cuts loose it "really makes a clunk and shakes the house."  Ya think?
Yowza.

Enjoy this Monday moment.  Hug a tree if you can reach around it.

Oh,  the mighty oak!

Wordless Wednesday

 Just spent a week in PA hanging with my Dad.  Oh,spring was in glorious form. I hit a peak week for the flowering trees.  Breathtaking.  Leaves one wordless on a Wednesday.  Have a good rest of the week.

Blue Skies and Roller blades and a senior

 I was up on PA for a week to hang with my Dad.  The goal was to visit some assisted living places, to maybe clean out a few things, and just generally bond.  It was decent typical weather for January. A stormy Monday led to a blue sky Tuesday and I took a walk around the block.

 Big trees

Here's the home I grew up in.  That big oak sheds limbs like crazy. Talk about a thunk on the roof. Yikes. I did spend an hour or so picking up sticks - mission accomplished.

So, here's a senior story. We are cleaning out the computer room closet. We gather a ton of ancient paper for shredding and he agrees. Then I haul out his roller blades that he bought twenty five years ago after my mother passed.  He had fond memories of ice skating as a boy and thought roller blading could be fun. He took a lesson or two, had all the pads, and a helmet. This phase did not last long, but what the heck.

"Dad, are you going to be using these any time soon?"  I ask the man (age 85) who now uses a walker to shuffle along, all hunched over.

"Well...I did pay over a hundred dollars for them," he says.

"Lori can find a good home for them, " I respond (and by home I mean Goodwill).

"Can she sell them?" he asks.

I mumble as I haul them out of the closet and run them down the steps to my Lori take away pile.

We had many of these moments. If we didn't whisk stuff away fast enough, it was back in his clutches.

More tales to come........I've got a doozy of a clothes story for you.

He's a pip!

Fun in PA with Pa (alias Dad)

 Quick trip to PA - post Thanksgiving/pre-Christmas. Arrived on a lovely winter day. Blue sky, very cold, and icicles hanging from Dad's front porch.

 They are in for a wicked winter. This shows the accumulation on the bushes from the Sunday and Tuesday before I flew into Philly. But it is pretty and glistens in the sunshine.

 Saturday turned bleak, but dire predictions did not stop us. We had tickets for an exhibit at the Michener Museum in Doylestown. Teensy flakes fell in the morning. Here are my Dad and younger sister, Lori braving the cold with a smile.

My smile is more of a grimace as a cold wind blasted us. We scurried inside and waited for my brother, David, his wife Cherie, and my Aunt Janice. I will have more on the exhibit in a later post. Needless to say, we had a splendid time, great lunch at the Hickory Cafe, and we got back to Dad's before more snow accumluated followed by sleet.

You can go home again.