Even TV Commercials Prompt Memories

Every time I see this Geico commercial I am reminded of the summer days my sister Betty and I whiled away playing in our sandbox.

It wasn't when we were very young - more like the ages we were in this school picture....Betty, second from left in the back, fifth grade, and me next to her, seventh grade. You can see how she had a growth spurt and nearly caught me in size. This was probably around the same time I quit picking on her and began treating her as an equal because she could finally get the best of me now and then.

This sandbox is an earlier version of the one we had in later years, but the same idea - four boards nailed together. Photo is of a distant cousin from Illinois, Cheryl Sterns. Her Grandpa and mine were first cousins.
The sides on our later sandbox were all the same size - 4 to 5 inches high and about four feet square.

Lest you think we were a bit old to still be playing in a sandbox, you should know our play was more about using our imaginations and making up stories. First we divided the sand box in half - her side and my side. Then we landscaped our properties by sculpting the sand, 'planting' trees, etc. Once we had the stages set we took turns describing our beautiful estates.

Beginning on that 'road' between our dream villas, we drove our dime store cars up the long, curving driveways describing the lush surroundings - each trying to out do the other. I remember adding a pond using a jar lid filled with water. Once the car was parked outside, we could then describe our mansions inside and out.

Which is why that Geico commercial reminds me of our sandbox days - the one guy is building your usual sand castle while the one pictured above is sculpting the Taj Mahal - much like our gorgeous homes were just mounds of sand in reality, but impressive manor houses in our story telling.

I don't remember what Betty's car was like, but mine was a green convertible, not quite like either of these two, but metal. I know I had mine for a long time and that later I painted it black. I wonder if my little brother ended up with it?

Making up story lines and acting them out was something I always liked to do. I would say my part and then tell my little sister what she was supposed to say next. That only lasted so long before she wanted to make up her own lines, even though the ones I wanted her to say were so much better.
Just like my pretend sand estates were so much fancier than hers.

Light In The Garden

At first glance, it looks like this little plaque reads "light reigns in a garden".

But upon closer examination you can see it says "Delight reigns in a garden.

I like to go out early in the morning to see what's stirring in the neighborhood. This a.m. I was caught by the light and shadows playing with the rocks and flowers.
An added bonus was the heady aroma from the dill - one of my favorite herbal essences.

From the front patio to the back deck where reflected light made it appear the post was going right through the birdbath as a light breeze danced leaves in the water.

And the splashes from the fountain formed a four leafed clover.

More shadows along the fence where the newly sawed logs from a downed limb lie...waiting to be hauled off for winter fire wood?

The early morning light also created this circular rainbow in 'Charlotte's' web.

Which reminds me how lucky I was to see a rare, full circle rainbow over London twenty-two years ago. I've written about my magical trip to Ireland just after the Autumnal Equinox in 1994, but I've never mentioned the whole circle rainbow I saw.

My overnight flight from Chicago to Heathrow on British Airways was directed into a holding pattern circling many times before landing. It was during that time, looking out the window to the city below that I saw my first, and only, full circle rainbow.
I had never heard of a whole circle rainbow before and at first I couldn't believe my eyes. Now I know how rare they are - weather conditions have to be just right for the rainbow to form and one has to be up very high to see the entire circle.

Of course I wasn't able to get a photo, but this gives you an idea of what I saw.

Delight reigns not only in a garden, but everywhere - if you are lucky enough and observant enough to see it.

C'est Si Bon

♪ ♫ ♪ C'est si bon, lovers say that in France.....♪ ♫ ♪ The song, C'est Si Bon has been stuck in my mind for about a week now. I knew how the French words translated because of the song - c'est si bon, it's so good, but why have I been singing it in my head? I might think it was because a book I just read had a lot of French terms in it, but c'est si bon was occupying brain space before I read that book.

I think it is just the universe reminding me that my life is good (despite the aches and pains) and that I should be grateful. And I am.

I'm very grateful that we had another wonderful family Christmas in July celebration - that so many of my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, one brother, a nephew and grand-nephew, came from near and far and made it safely back home.

Safely back to their homes even though flight cancellations and delays turned Mark and Juliet's return to NYC into a ten hour tribulation and a near tornado (Ken's photo, above) forced Ken and Kari to shelter with other travelers 'neath an overpass in far western Nebraska. They had to pull over because of a blinding rain storm coming to Iowa for which one of their Portland friends commented: "Better than finding a tornado". Somehow I think she conjured this for their return trip.

Grateful that my sweet eldest granddaughter, Katrina and partner, Brad, hosted our party this year (and that I was having a 'good' day) so all I had to do was show up and enjoy - and especially happy that she trusts me to be the one to first learn whether I'm having another great-grandson or great-granddaughter and bring the cake? balloons? other? to the reveal party in November. Trusts me even though she knows my mischievous mind is already at work.

C'est si bon, 'it is good'. I like that better than c'est la vie, 'such is life', which seems to be used more often but to me feels more pessimistic. Perhaps I don't always demonstrate that I feel that way, but my life has been good - very good. Remember that.

Taking A Sunday Drive #39

The first time we visited California was in 2003. We followed I-80 almost all the way to San Francisco, leaving it to drive through Napa Valley once we got past Sacramento. There was a snow storm in the Northern Sierra Nevadas as we came through Donner Pass. Snow and slick roads weren't what I was expecting in California, I was glad to get down to the valley areas of Napa and Sonoma as well as getting off the craziness of I-80. Those vineyards were a peaceful and welcome sight.

Our son Mark had moved to Oakland and then across the bay to San Francisco. It was great to be with him and have him show us around. We did many of the usual touristy things, Ghirardelli Square, where Mark and Bud are pictured drinking coffee, above, Fisherman's Wharf, Coit Tower, Chinatown.....

....a boat trip over to Alcatraz Island and a self-guided audio tour of the famous prison, known as "The Rock".

Mark and I at Levi Square Park. We didn't ride a cable car while there, but we did ride the BART. We went to Ocean Beach and saw the Cliff House and the Sutro Baths Ruins. We ate in Chinatown, the Mission District and at The Stinking Rose. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge twice, but mostly we enjoyed being with our son.

After leaving him and San Francisco, we headed north toward our daughter in Oregon, taking time to drive through the famous Redwoods and Chandler Tree - just as my grandparents had done fifty years before.

The second trip to California in 2006 saw us reversing the order, coming from Oregon down the coast to Santa Rosa, again to see Mark, this time for his wedding.

Me playing in the Russian River near Guerneville.

Seals on Goat Rock Beach at the Russian River estuary near Jenner.

Back in 2010, this time in Southern California along I-8 which paralleled the border fence with Mexico much of the route.

 Bud on the beach with the Coronado Hotel in the background.

Coronado Beach looked as though it was flecked in gold. It was beautiful. We also went to Imperial Beach.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull? I think I could happily live near an ocean or sea. I don't think I would ever tire of hearing the susurration of the waves or watching the light change over the water.

July Book List

Nine books read in July which isn't bad considering we had company for one week and Christmas in July to ready for and attend. It was a month of good reads - three 4.5's, three 3.5's and one each of 4.0, 3.0 and 2.5.

The lowest rated was the Mary Higgins Clark, I Heard That Song Before, which I read because it was so close to the number one song the year I was born - I've Heard That Song Before. I thought the book might be about that song, but it never did really say what song the title was a reference to. It was just an o.k. mystery written to appeal to the masses without any memorable content; too pedestrian for me.

I added Tatiana De Rosnay to my authors to be read list after seeing her name in the appreciation remarks in another book I liked. The House I Loved is my 3.0 rating this month. It is set in Paris in the 1860's when great swaths of the city were being leveled in order to make room for the wide boulevards of Haussmann's  'new Paris'.
The story recounts the life of a 60-year-old widow who chooses to die in the rubble of her home rather than leave it. It was interesting to read about the neighborhoods of old Paris, yet I felt the ending was, h-m-m, 'iffy'?

My one 4.0 was Jacquelyn Mitchard's The Theory of Relativity. I've been reading my way through her books since discovering her as a new, to me, author. This one is my favorite so far.  A couple dies in a car accident and the two families fight for custody of the 1-year-old daughter they leave behind. Because the mother was adopted and the state law favors 'blood' relatives, the mother's brother, also adoped, is kept from adopting his niece as his sister wanted. His family fights and wins to have the state law changed but it is years before the little girl is finally no longer the ball being fought for in a game and the two families work out their differences. I could only think of how she was affected by having her loved ones fight over her. ALSO how I hope my grandchildren have wills addressing who they want raising their little ones in case something happens to them - something young parents always think won't happen. Also, I'm not certain, but I think the whole 'getting the state law changed regarding blood relatives' probably really happened.

Jacquelyn Mitchard is also the author of two of my 3.5 reads this month: No Time To Wave Goodbye which has the same characters from two of her previous books about the family whose son was kidnapped and then returned years later.
In this one, that son has married and has a little girl of his own. His family all goes to Los Angeles for the Academy Awards when his older brother is nominated in the documentary category for the movie he made about missing children. While the family is watching as older brother wins the award, his little niece is kidnapped.
This book was very good, but using another kidnapping to finally bring the emotionally damaged family back together seemed too contrived, not believable.

I liked Mitchard's The Most Wanted, a little better. A 14-year-old girl being raised by an indifferent mother is talked into writing to an inmate by her girlfriend. She falls in love with the prisoner who is twice her age. Her mother consents to letting them marry but the girl has to go to court to get her rights to a conjugal visit enforced. She ends up pregnant and the lawyer who helped her becomes a de facto mother to her and the baby. An interesting story about love, second chances and what constitutes a family.

The third 3.5 is another De Rosnay novel, A Secret Kept. Again about a Parisian family, one that vacations on the Island of Noirmontier until the mother dies at a young age after becoming involved in an affair. The father remarries, the children grow up and go back to the island for the sister's 40th birthday. Old memories resurface and the siblings begin investigating what really happened to their mother. A good story about love, loss and self-healing.

Laurie R. King is always going to get a 4 or higher from me. Her writing is smart, entertaining and thought provoking. I love her Mary Russell series of which Locked Rooms is #8 and one of the best.
Mary and Sherlock Holmes go to San Francisco to finally close her parents' estates, sell the house, etc. But Mary begins having nightmares and even though she denies having been in the city at the time of the great earthquake, Holmes discovers that she was. She has buried her memories due to the trauma of the quake's destruction and the deaths of her parents and little brother. When someone tries to kill her it becomes imperative that she remember the past in order to move on with her own life. This was one of my 4.5's.

This may be the first Kristin Hannah novel I've read but it won't be my last. The Nightingale is one of those impossibly hard to read but can't put down books. It is about the French Resistance during WWII. Two sisters fight the war each in her own way. Beautiful. Sad. Makes one realize how easy her own life has been. "Wounds heal. Love lasts. We remain." 4.5 rating. (I had just finished reading this book when I learned that Elie Wiesel had died at age 87.)

My final July read is also a 4.5. It is a book brought to me by my daughter and not one I would ordinarily read because I do not like dystopian stories. But she thought I would like it and she was right. Set in the region of the Great Lakes after 99.9% of earth's population has died from a virulent strain of the flu, I found reading it quite disturbing because I already think about such a thing happening. But the book is beautifully written with all the story lines artfully brought together. Station Eleven is Emily St. John Mandel's fourth book and I hope to read her first three.
My daughter does a much better job reviewing books than I. Please go here to read her review of Station Eleven.
As disturbing as the novel is, it is also hopeful and it does make one stop and think about all we take for granted in our lives - fresh water at the turn of a tap, plentiful food at the nearest store, a comfortable bed, medicines, transportation, adequate shelter - loved ones.

Recapping Our 2nd Christmas In July

When Katrina and Brad offered to host our Second Annual Christmas In July at Cutty's Campground near Des Moines, we did not know we weren't going to be the only ones celebrating the holiday - the entire campground was holding Christmas in July. That explains the presence of Santa and Mrs. Clause in this photo with Kari. Kari & Ken were the first to arrive at the building we were using which was just being vacated by children who had been there for a party with the Clause's.

What makes having our Christmas in July a success is that more of our children and grandchildren are able to attend than they could in December. Once again daughter Kari & son-in-law Ken made the long trek across country from Oregon, arriving Tuesday evening. Yes, we still have the sign Bud made for Ken six years ago when he said we live in 'the middle of nowhere'.

Kari may not have been able to convince Ken to come to Iowa two years in a row if our holiday hadn't been the same weekend as his Mom's 80th birthday celebration the next day in Minneapolis. Pictured are Ken, his mom, Lou, and brother, Cal.

Bud's son, Mark, and his partner, Juliet, even flew in from New York City just for the weekend which added to our holiday joy immensely! Let the fun begin.

Somehow I missed getting a picture of my granddaughter, Katrina, our hostess - probably because she was too busy flitting around getting everything ready. But I did get a picture of co-host, Brad (in orange shirt). Their membership at Cutty's made for a lovely, central location for us.
Also in photo from left, grandson, Brock, Bud's shoulder with great-grandsons, Nick & Rodney's heads, grandson, Ki, standing, nephew, Andrew, at the table with Brad. Then at table in foreground, my brother, Ron, (Andrew's dad), son Doug and his wife, Shelly's back.
It was so nice to have Andrew for the second year and my brother Ron for the first time. Younger brother, Les and wife, Susan weren't able to join us this year.

After lunch we played the game - carrying on the tradition of our Christmases at Mom's for so many years. Andrew had the misfortune of having #1 - the first two gifts he chose were immediately stolen. First a hammock, which was re-gifted from last year, along with a cooler and some craft ale.

And the second this guitar made by my son, Douglas. He makes many from cigar boxes, but this one was made from a candy tin.

Close-up of vintage 'Mrs. Steven's Home Made Candies' tin - seasonally appropriate. (One of Doug's most recent guitars features an Iowa license plate.)

Juliet was thrilled when she opened a gift containing skull measuring cups and spoons. Everyone ooh-ed and aah-ed, but no one stole them from her. Possibly because they could see how much she liked them, but, as several told her later, this was her first experience with our extended family and the first time she had ever played the game. They were being nice to her - NEXT YEAR, no quarter! (Remember Lily, Great-grandpa Bud and the squirt gun last year?) [By the way, we really missed Lily and her mom and dad (Alyssa & Evan) this year.] (Granddaughters Dominique, left and Deise, right in the pink shirts in the background.)

While some played the game, others chose the cool of the pool. Great-grandson, Rodney in the blue ring, granddaughter, Dominique with her mom, Shalea and grandson Greyson (our great-grandson).

Me with grandson, Ki, his mom, Shalea, and Ki's boys, Ayden between us and Greyson in Grandma Shalea's arms, leaving the pool.

While the smart ones cooled off in the pool, a number of others thought playing miniature golf in 105 degree heat indices was a good idea. Left to right, Doug, his son, Zach, Juliet (keeping the sun off with an umbrella) and Mark. Also golfing, but not in the picture, were Bud and Andrew.

The day ended with some traveling home while others stayed overnight in rental cabins at the campground.

The next day saw Shelly and Doug, his cousin Andrew and son, Nicholas kayaking the Raccoon River. Andrew's totem, Ted the Buffalo, is a constant in many of his adventures. It looks like a great way to end the family weekend, doesn't it?

A few more of my favorite pics:

With great-grandsons Sawyer and Jack (Brock & Paullina's boys). Their Grandpa Douglas is in background. This is inside one of the rental cabins.

Also like this one of me with great-grandson, Ayden, taken by Kari.

Cousins Sawyer and Rodney on their way to the party.

Aunt Kari, Ki and Greyson apres swim.

Grandpa Doug soothing Jack to sleep by rubbing his back - the same way my Mom put him to sleep when he was Jack's age.

Lastly, a photo I love of me and Great-grandson, Rodney. There was one final gift at the end of our Christmas in July party - Brad and Katrina announced that Rodney is going to become a big brother in March! I'm so excited - and thinking pink!!

Taking A Sunday Drive #38

With two of our kids living on the West Coast, it was plenty of incentive to head that way ourselves. Besides, I had dreamed of seeing San Francisco for thirty-five years. So after a few days there with son, Mark, we headed on up to Oregon to visit daughter, Kari and her partner, Ken, in Portland.
2003 - Our first trip to Oregon had to include a trip to the ocean. Hug Point State Park between Arch Cape and Cannon Beach was their favorite which is where these photos were taken.

 Ken and Kari in the cave at Hug Point.

Me at the waterfall.

Bud and I on the beach. We had intended to just wade up to our ankles but a wave caught us unaware and soaked us to our knees.

Portland's Saturday Market in the downtown area gave us the opportunity to try the Benson Bubblers, the city's iconic bronze drinking fountains.

We followed the scenic Historic Columbia River Highway when we left Portland, stopping at some of the many waterfalls along the way. This is me at Oregon's tallest, Multnomah Falls.

Overlooking the Columbia River. To the middle right of the photo you can see the Vista House at Crown Point built in 1918.

In 2006, we reversed the order and went to Oregon first and then to California.

Kari had told us we 'must see Crater Lake' which is where this picture was taken at our first stop to look over the rim to the lake below. There was still snow on the ground in July. Kari was right, Crater Lake National Park is a must see.

The Rogue River in Southwest Oregon has some of the most beautiful rugged scenery. I was totally captivated by this area where we stopped for awhile before entering California.

The Autumn of 2014 found us on the road west again as we journeyed to Portland for the open house at Kari & Ken's new home. I have blogged about this trip before......

....it's the one where I met another Ramona at the Beverly Cleary Sculpture Garden in Grant Park.

I did fly to Portland by myself a couple of times, but our preference is always to drive. Hopefully we will be able to do that another time or two.