Today we stayed close to home.  It was Steve's last day of vacation and we just wanted to be alone, together for just a little while longer.  We drove down country roads of Candia and Deerfield just drinking in the sweetness of early summer.  Trees with their leaves full and moist from the rain and drizzle we had had earlier  were shading us from the sky above making our way seem like an enchanted forest where there wasn't another soul around for miles.

The winding roads that we were on passed by old New England farms that looked as they had not been touched by human hand for more than two or three hundred years.  From old colonial, to saltbox, to log cabin, federalist style and early cape, they were all there.  Some had candlelights in every window.  Some had fences of stone standing without wear of years.  There were views of ponds, hay fields and mountains that took my breath away.  To think, all of this had been just beyond our own backyard, waiting to be discovered.

We had placed a CD in the player.  Little had I realized the comforting folk songs of the sixties and early seventies were transporting us to another world that was a secret treasure  no one else would be able to understand or visit as we had.  The closeness between us has  always been there, but for this day we shared the same visions and dreams as our hearts beat as one and we breathed for each other in a love that was beyond anything I have ever known.

My heart ached as I longed to keep this feeling forever, but, reality had to find us again and our lives beyond this came floating back to earth.  How grateful I was for the experience.  It was then that I realized we could have this again and again as we age, for each year brings us closer to a time when we won't have to think about being apart for hours on end.  We will soon be on the threshold of our golden years of retirement.  The preparation that we make now will be the reward we will share together later on.

A Sunday drive through the small towns and hamlets of coastal Maine is what we did yesterday.  We followed the coastal route 1 through Kittery, to Ogunquit, to Portland where we stopped for dinner before taking the highway back home from Old Orchard Beach.  The salty brine scent of the marshes as the tide came in was a comforting sign that I was where I wanted to be.  In my opinion, there is no greater place on this earth than that of the rocky coastline of Maine.

My uncle Morris once said that the only place you could find dragons and mermaids were in Kennibunkport.  As you drive through the saturated mist along the shore, you can feel the magic that leads one to believe these legends of old are indeed true and you search with your heart to find these mystical creatures if only to return to childhood for just a short time.

The small, quaint, towns with beautiful gingerbread trim and candlelights in the window, stand out along the winding turns of the road to becken one to stop and browse the intersting antique shops and boutiques.  Each one is an adventure in itself that you will remember for the rest of your life.  Should you make a purchase in one of these shops, it will call out to you time and time again to return and relive the adventure once more.

So, now, here I am back home not so many miles away in New Hampshire where I will spend today cleaning our home while thinking on tomorrow when Steve and I will return to Portland, Me. to take a dear friend of ours to lunch.  As this week is a vacation week for us, I know my most memorable day is less than twenty-four hours away.

The Boston Celtics pulled out the championship on home court tonight!  It was like watching the Dream Team of the 1980s all over again.  This team is that great!  So, Party the night away all you fans.  You deserve it!!

It looks like the middle of summer here, yet, the official date is still four days away.  With all the rain we have had, it almost looks like a jungle in my back yard.  Everything is so green.  Sometime today I have to get into the gardens and do some weeding before they over take the plants.  My bleeding heart is HUGE!!!  It easily takes up a third of the garden now.  We have had that plant for five years and I'm not sure if it will continue spreading over the next several years.

I'm getting some work done.  Wouldn't you know it......my clothes dryer went on the fritz and I had to take my laundry to the laundromat this morning.  Thank goodness it hasn't gotten hot yet.  The hotter it gets, the worse my asthma symptoms become.  Anyway, that is done and the dryer will be fixed sometime between 1p-5p tomorrow.  So, now I need to put away the clean clothes, clean my floors with the new vacuume cleaner Ben and Rachel gave us as a gift during their vacation with us.  After that I'll putter around the house picking things up and putting them away as I go.

Sally will be staying with us for one more night before going back with her mom tomorrow after school.  Boy, it's been hard getting her up these past couple of mornings.  She really hasn't wanted to go, because it's boring the last week of school before summer vacation.  Her birthday is this coming Friday and I know she is going to want to skip school.  I'll talk to Dee and see what she thinks about it.

Well, I'm not getting any work done here.....so.....I'll stop typing for now.

June 16th, 2008


Grey skies, rain and drizzle, and very cool temps here in New Hampshire today.  Typical for June.  Mother Nature is preparing for the heat of summer which is just around the corner.  After a hectic, wonderful week, I am finding myself enjoying this day of quiet solitude.

For the first time in seven years, our whole family were able to enjoy each other's company.  Ben, Rachel and the children came up from their home in Alabama where Ben is stationed right over the Georgia border at Ft. Benning.  Ben had been in Iraq on a tour of duty and is now home safe with his family.  In fact, the only member of this family who could not make this reunion was, Shelby, Chris and Kathy's 19 year old son who is in the Marine Corp.  training for his upcoming tour of duty overseas.

Dee's six year old daughter, Sally, skipped school so she could visit with her cousins  Eden,  Israel,  Celestial and  Luci.  There were surprises all week long.  They enjoyed a day at  Chucky Cheese,  went to the beach,  saw  a movie, visited a zoo and finished the week off at Dee's wedding on Saturday.  By the time things were all said and done, the week came to an end on Father's day as Ben and his family headed back to Alabama and Chris and Kathy headed home in upstate New York.  Dee and Vern will be on their honeymoon until they return to work on Wednesday and Sally will be staying with us until then

I will be posting pictures very soon  so, please visit again and see what I have added.