I'm back a little bit...

Good Friday Morning!  This isn't my actual return from my respite, but I had to stick my toe back in the water briefly!  Forgive me if I don't visit you again yet, but I will do my best to try to catch up...from the new house!  Just a quick five for Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday Five and Amy's Five on Friday....

1)  May I begin by sharing a lovely sunrise from this week!

2)  The big news!  We have a new President, and a lot of prayers have been answered.  Trump isn't perfect, of course, but he may be exactly what this country needs to turn things around.  Our world has been changing for the worst for too many years now.  Keep praying!  Pray our sense of division in this country will be healed, and we will all start to stand together, work together and not let our differing points of view destroy us!

3)  I've been following The Bulletin online, the Deschutes area OR newspaper, where we are moving.  It's fun keeping up with what is going on at my new home.  Today there was an article about a new book  by a Eugene resident (and prolific writer) Notaro, called Crossing the Horizon.
It's a novel based on the lives of the three other contenders for the first trans-oceanic crossing by plane by a woman--three women unknown where Amelia Earhart is a household name, of course.  I read the article eagerly, hoping one of the women pilots would be my distant relative, also a female pilot.  That was not the case, but I am very excited about the book, and anxious to read it.  [btw those of you who do reviews on Magnolia, get with it!  You know who you are! :-)]

4)  Watched a program about the Long Island serial killings on ID two nights ago to get our minds off the election results.  We like to watch detective/murder shows sometimes.  In another life, I would have loved to solve murders.  Our grandson wants to become a police detective.  Perhaps he will do so!  Anyway, that string of horrible murders is still unsolved, and may involve the police chief of that county who is now in prison, at least in a cover-up.  The really sad part was at the end of the program it stated that the mother of the young woman whose disappearance started the search that ultimately turned up 17 bodies, has been killed (allegedly) by her youngest daughter this year!  I opened my computer and looked it up...so sad!  After going through the murder of her eldest, now she is killed (allegedly) by her youngest, a schizophrenic, who stabbed her repeatedly.  Really tragic turn of events!  And as for the LI murders...I so wish they could be solved and that monster found!

5)  I am going to attend a going-away luncheon tomorrow with the ladies from church.  My hubby was invited by the men to a bar-b-q at one of their houses also.  So so sad to leave my sweet church family!  Going to miss them all so much!!!  Will post pictures of course at a much later date.  The date of Veterans Day was chosen, I think originally because of Russell's service, so they are honoring him that way as well.  Thank you to all the Veterans out there who have personally given so much for American freedom!!!!

My helicopter door-gunner husband in Viet Nam.  Thank you sweet guy for all you have done!

Fences on Thursday

For Theresa's Good Fences, I have a few to share from a recent drive:

Not sure what this lovely little bird is.  Based on color and body shape and beak, it could be several in my books. It might be a flycatcher of some kind.

Here is the fence on which the bird was sitting...we drove out one day to the Marana Regional Airport north of Tucson.  Behind this iron fence were many aircraft in sad shape, needing repair.  The flyable aircraft were in hangars nearby.

Behind this different fence we saw this Constellation, an airliner manufactured between 1943 and 1948.  I love its nose art!

For Rubbish Tuesday...Planes, Trains and Automobiles from the 50s!  Check out Roan's great meme showing all things old, vintage, forgotten and falling apart!  It's for treasures and cast-offs, but reflect the past we all love...

Planes:

I believe this is a  Boeing C-97 Strato freighter, used by the Navy and Air Force for cargo and passenger movement in wartime and peacetime, and this particular one was used to move my family from Midway Island to Hawaii as we left the island at the end of my Dad's tour of duty.  We boarded through the back cargo bay but cargo went in the below compartment, and passengers in the above compartment.  After we got to Hawaii it was then passage on a ship across the rest of the Pacific Ocean back to the States.  I vaguely remember this plane ride.  I was 6.  They gave my baby brother a little plastic airplane pin to attach to his shirt.  And we got to talk to the captain in the cockpit.  I remember the ship passage better, with the leis thrown into the water as we left (so we would someday return...proved true at least for my brother and his wife when they married several years ago) And I remember the man coming to the hallways playing a xylophone of three notes to announce time to eat.  Mom was very sick on that ship and I remember bringing her crackers.  I also had my first "date"...a little boy asked me to go see Peter Pan with him in the ship's theatre. 

For trains, I present a picture mostly of a group of people (you really can barely see the train, unfortunately).  This is my family as my great-grandmother went on her first train ride in 1955 at age 84. It was my first train ride as well, at age 3....that's me standing in front (the one with darker hair) with my 3-yr old cousin.  I'm pretty sure it was a steam train, and I have since longed to ride another one.  I really need to do that! :-)

Now for the cars....boy those cars were so awesome in the fifties!  Who can't be in love with them even now!

Me at 2 months old in 1952 on a shiny brand new Plymouth.

My hubby Russell with his Dad standing next to their 1947 Buick Super or maybe Roadmaster.

A Few Odds & Ends

Our son-in-law was given a box of exotic fruit, which was all really delicious!  I thought I'd do a still-life, since it was all so pretty as well, but it was one of those "wrong lens" issues that day.  Bummer.  Notice the sherbet dish with the little orchids floating in it.

 This is called a Devil's Fruit but it was actually heavenly both to look at and to taste!

One night during summer vacation the Pima Air Museum was having a special event for the kids and I took our grandson and his best friend.

Earlier in the summer there was a special flyover at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base that Russell and I took our grandson to.  That was really neat to see.  Russell used to fly F-111s in the Air Force so he loves to share that part of his life with the Gr-son.

Loved these three flying side-by-side!

I'm a little off-center...they were moving fast for my photography abilities! :-)

over our heads

 Also, in Tucson, you see quite a few palm trees that have been introduced to this environment, but really thrive here.  I think this is a richly-yielding date palm that is just down the street.

Hope you are all enjoying the end of summer and the return to cooler temps...we have actually just had three days of 107-108 degrees and are now going back to 104.  No let-up for us yet!  And though we've had a few spectacular storms, the rainy season hasn't yielded as much rain as usual this year...just mugginess.  Though I faithfully water every day, my garden is suffering!  (I lost a cucumber plant when I didn't water the one day after my cataract surgery!) Usually I would have harvested almost everything by now and be starting soon on a fall garden, but it was so hot here in June  (in three-digit temps which is kind've rare for June!) my young plants suffered then.  I also battled ants in June.  We had a little bit of a break in July which was good.  And I had to replant some things.  I did harvest some small potatoes, red onions and the cantaloupe I will be posting about very soon!