Surprise Gift, July 30

My dad - waiting and wondering what's going on....

 The Ramsay family tracked down our family in order to present my dad with a painting done by their father/grandfather of my uncle. (We surprised our dad.)  Mr. Ramsay painted my uncle just before he left on his last Corsair mission in the Pacific. He was lost in a storm later that day.  So this was quite an event!  Local news was there and the national media picked it up. 

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Painting-solves-World-War-II-mystery-for-North-Texas-family-126467868.html

The Ramsays, my brother and father, and a historian who helped make the connection.  The historian is holding a photo of my uncle and my dad and brother are holding the painting done by Mr. Ramsay.

Same people as above with my sister and me added in.

Visit to Mt. Pleasant, Ohio

Quaker meeting house

Inside Quaker meeting house

Inside Quaker meeting house

View of Mt. Pleasant from Quaker meeting house

My sister and me

Home of David B. Updegraff, my great, great grandfather

Grounds of Quaker meeting house

 While I was in PA with my sister we took a day trip to Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, the home of our great, great grandparents, who were Quaker abolitionists.

Amish Visit - July 15

I visited my sister in PA during July.  We began with an overnight visit with some Amish friends of hers.

Mare and her foal in their pasture

Buggy wheels

Just because I love flowers and their whole garden was like this: beautifully kept

Barn

Day 173: July 4

Happy 4th of July!

Day 172: July 3

Emily

Day 171: July 2

Today Jerry put up some bluebird houses that he made and in no time at all a bluebird pair came to check this one out!  Here's the male taking a look inside.  Later he went all the way in.

Day 170: July 1

Mama swallow

I love being at Chimney Hill.  I get up at about 6 a.m., make coffee, and go sit on our porch (carport)  and listen to the birds waking up and then watch them as they stir.  We have all kinds of terrain there: open fields, brush, forests, so we have a wide variety of birds. Not that I can see them all from the porch!

Last year swallows built a nest on the porch. They returned this year. This is their second brood of babies for the year.  They are quite trusting now and perch right above my head when they get tired of swooping through the porch.  Last evening Juli and I stood  at the window as six to eight swallows winged through it over and over again. 

We have no mosquitoes!