Home….. again, for a while!

Can you say crazy? Our life has been a mad dash to and fro since about April. I think I am now home for a while, although Dennis may still be doing some traveling. First of all, I want to take you to our last full day in London. Alex took us on a walk to the top of Primrose Hill where you get a gorgeous view of London skyline. From what I was reading afterwards, Primrose Hill was the site of many duels in years gone by. It was quite the hike. I think it was 2 to 3 miles each direction from their house. Although I was exhausted at the end of the day and it was very warm, I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. What a beautiful site! You can see The Shard and the the London Eye, along with many other landmarks.  As you can see, it is a very popular place.

At the bottom of Primrose Hill was a pub called “The Queens!” Now you can’t get much more appropriate than that can you?

Don’t you just love the sign? Dennis and I each had a milkshake and Alex had some sort of a fruit drink. The pubs in England are one of my favorite things. They’re like being in someone’s living room and just chatting and relaxing. You are never rushed or hurried in any way.

On the way home from Primrose Hill, we walked down Abbey Street. This particular corner wasn’t the famous corner from the Beatles, but we did drive by Abbey Rd., Studios several times. It’s not far from the kids house.  You can see Alex pointing at the sign. Now wouldn’t you think with all of the exercise we got as we wandered around England, that we would have lost some weight? I think Dennis did, but I sure didn’t. We also ate very well!  Now I really have to get serious about getting rid of some of this excess poundage. I have no idea what that expression on my face is. Is anyone else like me and hates getting their photo taken?

My favorite souvenirs are magnets. Our refrigerator was completely overrun with them. Dennis made Mandy and I each one of these magnet boards last week. They are 40 in. square and hold a LOT of magnets! We try to pick them up whenever we visit a new place and friends send them to us as well. I have this hanging on the wall in my craft area. I love it! We have been trying to think of how we wanted to display them for a long time and I think this is perfect. Look! I have room to do more traveling!

Last week while we were home I managed to finish all 25 of the socks for Piper’s advent calendar. I used the same needles for each of them, also using sock yarn exclusively. You can see the difference in sizes of the socks. No wonder every pair of hand knit socks is a little bit different.

I also knitted three baby hats, crocheted one and made two pair of mittens.

And then, off we flew last Wednesday to Spokane. We flew home yesterday in the late afternoon. We stayed with our friends Paul and Lori again. They are so gracious and hospitable. When Lori met us at the door, look who she had in her arms! They lost their sweet girl Mattie just a few weeks after we lost Chloe. They couldn’t stand the quiet house and went out and found this sweet little miniature schnauzer. She is named Izzy and is 3.6 pounds. She took to me like a duck to water and I fell absolutely head over heels in love with her. Now I have puppy fever my friends. I have been combing the Internet for puppies. Unfortunately, I am finding a lot of scams. We want a small dog this time so it can sit in my lap while I knit. Also, if we are able to start traveling again in the trailer a smaller dog will be much easier. Do any of you know anybody who has yorkies or miniature schnauzers or anything around that size available? I’ve been checking rescue groups to with no luck.

Just look at that face! How could you not fall in love? She’s about 8 inches long and about 6 inches high right now.

Then, Nita gave me this pile of hats that needed to be sewn up. I brought them home with me and last night I sewed all the seams and have them ready to be delivered to the hospital soon.

I was able to spend quite a lot of time with our friends Neal and Jenny too. Neal has a new car that he just bought a few months ago and he insisted I drive it around Thursday and Friday. We had a rental car, but Dennis needed it for work. How many friends would do something like that?  These two are our best friends in the world.  Because Neal was gracious enough to loan me his car I was able to visit a lot of people on this trip.

I started this baby blanket the night before we left for Spokane. Obviously nothing has been done on it in almost a week.

And the next two photos were taken from the window of the airplane yesterday. These were the Cascade Mountains just after we took off from Seattle. Sorry about the scratched up window. I still thought the photos were pretty neat.

Just look at those mountain peaks and even with the ridiculous heat in Washington this summer, that’s still some snow on the very top’s.

We had blue sky all the way to Omaha. I was able to see the Cascade Mountains and several towns along interstate 90 in Washington that I recognized from the air. Then we crossed the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho and I saw the Clark Fork River winding through them. The majestic Rockies rose up to greet us too. After that we crossed a lot of deserted land in Montana and Wyoming before reaching the Black Hills of South Dakota. I even saw Mount Rushmore! Spearfish and Rapid City were spotted along with Ellsworth Air Force Base and Wall Drug. The Badlands were beautiful to behold. Then we headed south and flew across Central Nebraska. I could see the Platte River winding along the interstate and also the museum in Kearney that stretches over the interstate, that Dennis and I visited last year. Then the Capitol dome in Lincoln was shining brightly in the sun! Before I knew it we were in Omaha with familiar sides of the city greeting me. It was one of the most beautiful plane rides I have ever had. My knitting sat forgotten in my lap as I stared out of the window for virtually the entire trip. Never have we had such good weather when I’ve had a window seat. We crossed literally half of the country and I could see it all! We certainly live in a beautiful land.

I hope you’re having a wonderful Monday. I’ll be catching up with you all very soon.

Blessings and love,

Betsy