Posted on

I’d Rather Be in West Virginia

Continuing with yesterday’s Anywhere But Here theme…

As most of my loyal readers know, Hubby and I built a house in West Virginia. Literally. Over a period of three years, we spent every free weekend there laboring away.

Our WV property is just under six acres. We’re a two-mile drive from the main road, surrounded by woods on all sides. There’s a road below the ridge behind us–Poland Hollow Road–but with only a few houses, the road isn’t very busy.

This is why we feel pretty safe letting our dogs roam free. They never go very far and usually don’t stay away from the homestead very long. They both enjoy it there. Meg likes it far more than C. In fact, Meg LOVES it. Her tail usually wags for hours after we arrive.

Meg really is a country dog at heart. The girl loves to run. In WV there’s space to do just that. She’s in her element.

I always tell people that she pouts when we are at home in Maryland. Today’s picture is evidence. That’s pretty much how she looks all week. Until she sees us packing, that is. Then she perks up considerably and is once more her usual, crazy self.

Today I’ll be heading to WV (hopefully) on my motorcycle. Hubby will follow tomorrow in the truck, bringing all our gear and the girls. The plan is to spend a four-day weekend in WV with our good friends the Spices. Riding our motorcycles by day and relaxing by night.

In other words, we FINALLY get to do what the WV place was built for.

I won’t be posting for a few days. There’s no Internet connectivity unless I ride into town and visit the library. But maybe I’ll have some good pictures when we get back.

———————————————————-

On another note …

Today is my Dad’s 70th birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!

Not that he’ll see this. He isn’t computer minded. But I thought the world should know.

Besides, maybe my Mom, who is computer minded, will see this and say, “Hey, look. You made it to the Internet today. Now the whole world will know it is your birthday.”

If only the whole world read my silly little Blog.

Posted on

Anywhere But Here

It is early on Tuesday. I’m not feeling much like working. In fact, I’m sitting here, sipping my coffee, wishing I were anywhere but here right now.

I’d take a picture to show you my office, but it is messy. So just use your imagination. Imagine me in a 10 x 10 room (approximate), painted green. I am sitting at my fake-wood desk, blond in color, with my feet up on the file cabinet that sits to the left of my desk. CeCe, my oldest dog, is curled up under my desk. Moses, my oldest cat, is curled up across the room on a dog pillow. Muffin, the younger cat, is on the recliner, which is also green. I’m not sure where exactly Meg is, but trust me when I say she isn’t far away.

I just finished reading some OPBs (other peoples’ blogs), which is probably why I am feeling this way. I blame it all on Scary, of Scary’s West, for posting things like this. I’d love to spend some time hanging out in that cabin!

And then there’s this post, too. My world is so different (sigh).

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of things I love about my life. Like Hubby, for example. And my kids, of course. And grandkids. And the rest of the family (parents, pets, extended family, etc.).

I’m not crazy about living in Maryland; I yearn to go west. West Virginia is a start, I guess. I’ll be riding up there tomorrow.

It is far too crowded here. And loud. And hectic. (Imagine another big sigh.)

If you could be anywhere else right now, where would it be? The photo below was taken last year on a whirlwind tour of Zion National Park. I can see myself there, strolling along the road. A backpack full of camera equipment and water slung over my right shoulder. My tripod hitting me on the back of my legs as I amble along, scanning the scenery for just the right camera angle.

Like I said before… anywhere but here. Where would you rather be?

Posted on

Northumberland, Pennsylvania

I took my Aunt Doris back home to Northumberland on Saturday. My Mom and my Aunt Kathy went along for the ride.

This picture shows my Aunt Kathy Evans (nee Saxton) and Great Uncle Jack Leighow standing. Seated on the swing, left to right are my Mom, Doris Reichard (nee Saxton), My Great Aunt Doris Leighow (nee Shannon) and me.

It was a very nice trip. Three generations of women trapped in a car for two and a half hours was the perfect opportunity for us to catch up and reminisce. And share some stories that had us all giggling along the way.

We asked Aunt Doris to give us a quick tour of the town. To show us old landmarks and such.

We were almost there when she turned to me and asked, “Would you like to see where Thelma (her sister and my Grandma) went to housekeeping?”

“Um,” I replied with a pause, “sure. But what does that mean?”

They all got a chuckle from that one. “Housekeeping” is what they used to say when referring to newlyweds living in their first house.

We couldn’t find the place. Aunt Doris thinks it was torn down. But we did see some other landmarks. One of the things we saw was my great grandmother’s old house. That’s Grandma’s mother, who lived into her 90s, too.

You can see all of the photos if you visit my Picasa web album. I have got to take my son up there for a visit. Uncle Jack is quite a character. Eric would LOVE him!

I’ll close with a picture I took of some flowers that were catercorner from my great grandparents’ (Saxton) house.

Posted on

Traveling Back in History

I had an interesting day yesterday. I drove, with my Mom, to Northumberland, Pennsylvania, to pick up my Great Aunt Doris so she could attend Grandma’s funeral.

Aunt Doris, Grandma’s sister, is 83. She was either going to ride the bus from Northumberland to Baltimore or have her husband, Jack, also 83, bring her. Apparently Jack’s top speed in a car is about 40. The AVERAGE speed on Baltimore metropolitan highways is probably about 75.

We all decided it would be much safer for everyone if I just went to get her.

Grandma–her name is Thelma Saxton, by the way–was born in Northumberland. That’s where she met my grandfather, Frank Saxton (he passed away in 1985). They married and had three children. All of them were conceived in Northumberland, and I am pretty sure at least the oldest two–Aunt Susan and my Mom–were born there before they moved to Baltimore around 1940.

Grandpa, “Patty” to his friends, worked for the railroad. They were the first people on their block to get a telephone because Grandpa was always on call. It was a party line. They were also the first to get their own line once the party line became too busy.

Anyway… time is short. I wasn’t thinking clearly and did not take my camera along for the ride yesterday. Tomorrow, when I take Aunt Doris home, I will. Let’s see how many cool images I come home with!

Posted on

December 16, 1913 – July 22, 2008

Today is the day we said goodbye to my grandmother for the last time. She passed at a little after 2:30 in the afternoon. She was 94 years young.

As my friend Carol said, 94 years was quite a long ride.

Her three children–my mother, Doris, and aunts Kathy and Susan–were with her, along with my cousin, Shannon, her husband, Jason, and me.

She fought a brave fight during the two months since her stroke. I stood there, beside her bed, watching her struggle to breathe. She was strong all the way to the end. I was just about to tell her it was okay to let go, that the time had finally come for her pain to end, when she took her last breath.

Way back when Eric, now 18, was a baby, I’d often drive past a beautiful, flowering tree, admiring the bunches of dark-pink blossoms, wondering what it was. Grandma was the one who told me. She said it had always been one of her favorite flowering trees. It is one of my favorites, too.

Since that day, seeing a flowering crape myrtle tree, like that pictured here, always makes me think of Grandma. She and I shared a lot of laughs over the years.

She was a wonderful lady. A fixture in our lives over the years. She’ll really be missed.

Posted on

The House That Pork Chops Built

I stumbled across this image while perusing the Internet this morning. It is actually the logo of something called the Lovedale Long Lunch. Having no idea what that was but curious since I was borrowing the image, I had to look.

The Web site says… “The Lovedale Long Lunch is an annual event, held on the third weekend in May. It is a progressive-type lunch where visitors wine and dine their way around the seven participating wineries over the weekend enjoying a glass of wine, gourmet food, fabulous music and art.”

The logo is cool, but the lunch sounds cooler! I doubt I’ll ever get to experience it, though. It only happens once a year (in May) and it takes place in New South Wales, which according to Wikipedia, is “Australia’s most populous state.”

Now that THAT is out of the way…

Yesterday was Thirsty Third Thursday. It is a sort of holiday that Shannon, Amy and I invented as an excuse to get together. We always have a good time when we do, and it never seemed to happen often enough, so we created our own holiday. We’ve pretty much stuck to it all year, although sometimes it has happened on the fourth Wednesday.

July’s TTT was not the same without Amy, who is away in Virginia for the summer. We missed you, Amy! (She is one of my most-loyal readers.) But Shannon and I couldn’t let our holiday pass uncelebrated, so we went without her.

I have to give Shannon full credit for introducing me to Helen’s Garden, a cool little restaurant “on the square” in Canton, one of Baltimore’s more famous neighborhoods. We celebrated TTT there earlier this year.

They have a “notorious” happy hour Tuesday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. (by the bar clock) where you get half price glasses of wine at the bar only. As Shannon says, “they have nice pours”, too. That means they don’t skimp on the portions, even if they are letting me steal a $13 glass of wine for $6.50.

Not only do we get to enjoy good company, we get to try all different kinds of wine, too. Even beyond those we purchased, it turned out, because we were there WAY early and were the only folks at the bar besides Gordon, the wineseller, and Tim the bartender. (Amy, I got there first!)

Gordon and Tim were, of course, discussing the different wines. We joined the discussion and got to enjoy some samples. Now I know what “earthy” means. And that if you feel the sweetness on the tip of your tongue it is from the sugar in the wine, but if you feel the sweetness all over the tongue, it is from the fruit.

I also learned, finally, that their Pork Chops au Poivre are TO DIE FOR. According to Baltimore Eats, they “are bathed for two days in a unique brine of salt and spices then grilled with a brown sugar bourbon glaze.” They’re served over garlic smashed potatoes. Fabulous.

Apparently everyone else thinks so, too. The dish is so popular, in fact, that the owners have a sign in front of their Rehoboth (a Delaware beach town) house that says, “The House That Pork Chops Built.”

Now that I FINALLY revealed the origin of today’s odd title, I have to go find some naproxen…