Giving Thanks

With 2011 approaching its end, and in the spirit of the season, I am thankful for our blessings.

These blessings include: our wonderful family. . . they love us, warts and all. Our very special friends who live much closer than our children and keep an eye on us when the children can't. Their love and kindness is one of our greatest gifts from the Creator. My online friends and readers of this oh so rarely updated blog. Just knowing you are "out there" means more than I can express.

We have had sorrows and disappointments this year as well.

We lost one of the cats, Tennyson, to kidney failure last month. It broke our hearts. He put up a good fight, but finally gave in and crossed the Rainbow Bridge shortly after midnight on October 13th. We will miss him forever. Be Blessed, "Ten".

The gardens suffered from neglect this year, and yet bloomed their hearts out. I promised them I'd be a better gardener next year.

We plan a happy day of feasting with family on Thanksgiving Day. A day trip off the mountain and down into the foothills to see children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Telling the story of that trip should give me plenty of inspiration for blogging more, much more, than I have had all this past year.

All of us at Shady Hollow wish you a happy and blessed Thanksgiving. May your blessings outnumber your sorrows a thousand to one.

Be Blessed.

Fishing Trip

Thanks to our friends Bill and Linda, Jim finally got to go fishing two weeks ago. It had been nearly three years since he had ‘wet a hook”.

Bill managed to arrange the trip to a private farm pond with easy access. I was pleased that we could drive right down to the pond and park in the shade.

It made it so easy to get Jim out and fishing in no time flat. Best of all, the fish were hungry. It wasn’t long before he was reeling them in.

 

Bill fished for awhile, then helped Jim with the fish he caught.

Then he helped Jim get to a better spot, there were bigger fish to catch.

Linda and I walked around the pond and enjoyed the beautiful scenery while the guys fished.

It just doesn’t get much better than this! Oh and Jim caught a fine mess of fish. He and Bill were so proud!

Jim and I are lucky to have friends who are as thoughtful and caring as Bill and Linda. We truly enjoyed the day and will cherish the memory forever.

Visit with an Old Friend

It had been over twenty years since I had seen Andrea. We reunited last spring on Facebook, a reunion that also included her sister and father. Yesterday, we finally had a chance to sit down face-to-face.

The teenager I remembered has turned into a polished, articulate woman who knows who she is and has a mind of her own. I'm proud of her.

We talked for hours. I'm glad our husbands were able to find things to talk about with each other. If they hadn't I'm sure they would have been bored to tears.

It was a wonderful visit. Thank you, Andrea and Doug, for taking time to stop and visit with us. The time was precious, a memory we will cherish. We look forward to another visit someday, when time is no obstacle.