Farmers Market at the Marina 8/3/2019

I have an announcement here, so hang tight. I'll get to it in a minute. 

Recently, I’ve been really blessed by being able to join a couple of friends at the Del Norte County Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. (I don't have permission to use other people's names, so I'm just referring to them as friends. I'm even cautious about that with family. I love people but I don't trust everyone, and I'm sure you all get it.)

The friend who's sponsoring our table is called “The Bag Lady.” She's really well known around here. She makes and sells bags, awesome, cute adorable, and even custom-made bags. Since California insists we bring our own bags to the store or buy plastic ones at the store that are biodegradable, everyone needs at least a few bags, so thus, voilà: The Bag Lady! LOL. 

Anyway, the other member of our threesome is a fantastic photographer. I don’t have any place to hang pictures or I’d buy a handful of them myself. 

Normally the Market meets at the County Fairgrounds, but Saturday, Aug 3, was Fair time, so the Market met at the Crescent City Marina. What a fun place for it! I loved it! I wish we could have it there all the time, and I'm not the only one who feels that way. 

And you should see the view we had from our spot. Can't beat that, right?

What am I doing there? I’m selling my books, of course. You can see them on the right hand side of the table above. And YES! My announcement is that I have a new one coming out soon! The cover reveal will take place in a couple of weeks. Sign up for my newsletter, and I'll send the notice out as soon as I have the date set.

Our biggest excursion in 2019. From Crescent city to Lancaster, CA, to Riverside, CA to San Tan Valley, AZ!

Among our special events this year, Richard had eye surgeries. Cataracts. To add to my "woes," I’m having them done in September. I actually look forward to it, sort of. Another thing to interfere with writing, but a necessary evil. I've fought the problems with my eyesight that cataracts can cause for way too long. Rich had such great success with fixing his that I look forward to better vision. Unfortunately Rich has to have another surgery next month for a problem with one of his tear ducts, and that will take us out of town to the specialist again--with me driving (it's a five hour round trip from our coastal home in the forest), and then taking care of him for a day or so while he recuperates. He'll be off work for a week, and I have a hard time writing when he's home. I love him, but he can be pest. Sorry, babe, but that's the truth. (Hugs and kisses!)

I'd barely gotten home from Indiana and had to turn right around, feeling weak and all, and go to Arizona to wish our grandson Daniel Tietjen well on his mission to Mexico for our church. I didn't really feel up to it but would never have missed the moment, so I'm sure it added to the challenges I've had with recovering. At least Rich drove and I was able to sleep a lot on the drive there and back. Also, it's a bun-busting trip from Northern California to Arizona, so on our way, we stayed two nights with my oldest daughter and enjoyed visiting, catching up, and playing with her crazy puppies, Sawyer and Lucy. Yeah, not a great picture here. Rich caught it before I'd even gotten my shower for the day, so I look pretty scroungy, but hey, what's a little honesty between friends? My daughter hates having her picture taken, so unfortunately I didn't get to share any. Love to you, Sweetie, for opening your home up to us. We really appreciated it.

We also stayed with Richard’s sister for a night, and she gave us the grand tour in Riverside. We even got to go with her and her grandsons to see the famous Riverside Mission Inn, and I just had to put a few pictures here. Isn't it a fascinating place? It isn't an old Spanish mission, a misconception for a lot of tourists. It is and always has been an upper-class hotel. I believe it was managed by Catholic priests and nuns, but it wasn't a church. It was awesome and awe inspiring. We were so grateful to Richard's sister and loved the home that she bought several years ago. It's just beautiful and she's done so much to make it really comfortable. 

We finally arrived in San Tan Valley, AZ and stayed for three days. We have 8 kids between us--and 22 grandchildren--and it was great to visit with our second oldest son and his family. He has 8 children, too, and it was crazy, hugging and loving them, enjoying and playing with grandchildren from ages eighteen to two, five boys and three girls. My daughter-in-law is one of the most patient women I've ever known, pretty necessary with that many children, and we felt welcomed and loved.

Of all the things that Richard insisted we do there, beyond spending time with Daniel before he heads off to Mexico, of course, was getting a three generation picture of the Tietjen men. It was pretty awesome. Love you guys.

June was quiet and I did my best resting and getting better then, even got some writing done. Finally July came, kind of cool and really windy for us, and at the end of the month, we celebrated Richard’s getting REALLY old birthday. I won't say which one. He's just really old. I'm not. I'll never cop to being old. Well-seasoned maybe, perhaps more experienced, but not old.

Isn't that the way it's supposed to be? 

May in Indiana with my daughter Shillawna. So pretty! Loved seeing the Ohio River for the first time, despite the "cred."

In May, I traveled back to Indiana to see my next-to-youngest daughter and her family. I haven't seen them since the baby was six weeks old and it was nearing that little girl's fourth birthday. We live so far apart it's really hard to travel very often, and I was just dying to see all of them, especially the baby. I would love to say I had a great time, but unfortunately, I got very ill and wound up in the hospital. I even avoided a lot of hugs because I didn’t want to share. Sniff. It was so sad.

I did get a few pictures of the Newburgh/ Evansville, Indiana area, including the Ohio River. It reminds me a lot of the "muddy Mississippi!" That's a barge in the distance. Like all the large waterways, the Ohio is still being used as a means of transporting goods. 

 My daughter is a pro photographer and, just before I got sick, had a photo shoot in the Azalea Path Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Evansville. I had the joy of babysitting the little one while she and her partner photographed a pro model for an online magazine called Engaged. What a beautiful place, what a beautiful model. The pictures ended up being in an article in the center of the magazine and one of the pictures made the cover! 

I was blessed to meet and talk to the model and snapped a quick picture while my pro-daughter set up the scene for her photos. I also caught my granddaughter and her best friend, the partner's little girl, playing hide and seek under a plant I've never seen before but is big enough to ride. They were having just way too much fun. Afterward, we went to lunch at the restaurant where those delicious cookies the model is holding were made. RZ Cafe also has a bakery and makes wedding cakes, cookies, and all those yummies for weddings and special occasions. The shoot was in part to advertise for them. We got to eat some of them after the photographers were done. What a wonderful way to spoil lunch. 

When I finally got out of the hospital, my daughter was able to take me around and show me some of her part of Indiana. It was beautiful! What an awesome world we live in. It was really fun for me, because I love to do genealogy, and my grandfather's family came from Tippecanoe. Now I can visualize where they lived. I was so grateful for my daughter and son-in-law's hospitality, and the three kids are adorable. They’ve grown like weeds, the way children do, and I loved getting to know more about what's going on in their lives, like playing the piano, loving sports, Pokemon, horses, and Barbie dolls. Love to my kiddos. You light up my life!

Now as to writing? I picked up a ton of ideas while I was out there, but I was so ill I didn't have the strength to write much of anything, even while I was bedridden. After I got home, I had recovery time, which meant a lot of visits to the doctor and lots and lots of sleep. Even today, I'm still struggling with an electrolyte imbalance that keeps me tired. My doctor has no idea why my body isn't responding like it should, but I'm relieved to say that I'm finally getting back to normal daily routine--and writing!

My end of summer garden 2019. I was so happy with it this year.

Can you believe summer is almost over? I don’t know about all of you, but I had the weirdest, wildest spring and summer ever. According to the natives here, our small area has a wide range of weather patterns, even within a mile or two from wherever you are right now. 

As for us, it’s been mostly winter. LOL. I mean it. I think it’s the coldest, foggiest summer of my life. My neighbors a mile away wouldn't agree, but for us, it was hard to grow my flowers. Everything got black spot, mildew and bugs. Yuck. I nearly lost my mom’s roses and although the war rages on, I’ve at least made progress. I’m still not sure about the new ones I planted, though. 

I did plant gladioli this year and they’ve been amazing. I’ve grown them almost everywhere I’ve lived since Rich and I married, and I’ve never seen them grow so tall. It must be the climate here. Everything that can take the moisture and coolness grows better than average. My garden is a refuge for me, and I love to settle into it and think, write, imagine. I hate weeding--who loves it?--but I need the opportunity to clear my head and make sense of life.

In my spare time--Oh, who am I kidding? I don't have any spare time. I love hummingbirds and met a sweet lady who grows fuchsias because she wants to attract the hummingbirds. So... I’m learning to grow fuchsias and I'm now feeding hummingbirds. I became a member of the Crescent City Fuchsia Club a year ago and am doing my best to figure this amazing flower out. Here are a few pictures of those that are flowering! I’m so excited about them. 

My next couple of posts will explain more about what I mean about this being a weird, wild spring/ summer year. Life rarely turns out the way we expect it to, and I've struggled to get to the computer. I'm determined, though, and am delighted to mention that I'm close to releasing another book!