“No matter where you go, there you are.” (-Unknown)

Sunday starts my fall travel season. For the next few months, I’ll be all over creation, visiting colleges and universities, but also trying, whenever possible, to see whatever I can of our beautiful country along the way.

I wish I could say I traveled light. I honestly don’t bring many clothes at all, but I do bring along “necessities” that make my trip more comfortable, and there’s always lots to remember to check for, when I proceed again, from hotel to hotel, rental car to rental car, and plane to plane.

Let’s see:

There’s the laptop, cords, iPod, (charger,) earbuds, camera, (charger,) cell phone, (charger,) a NEW GPS, ("Rosie," instead of "Stanley" this year, who is staying home with Joe;) cords, dashboard-attacher-thingie, webcam, cords, and then, there’s all my materials…

boxes and boxes of brochures, packets, recycled pens to distribute, and itinerary lists…

Flashdrives, paints, brushes, and sketchbooks...

Yesterday, I mailed off boxes of old materials to several hotels so I will have them for this first trip, since I waited all summer and never got the new things yet...and so, of course, today, my major supplies for the year arrived. Go figure.

Somehow,...
every year...
it alllllllll always seems to work itself out...

And I imagine that will be the case again this year...

Have a great weekend…see you from the heartland next week!

“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.” (-Fitzhugh Mullan)

“If life gives you a bowl of lemons, go find an annoying guy with paper cuts.”(-unknown)

“There is no blue without yellow and without orange.” (-Vincent van Gogh)

“Life is like a grapefruit. Well, it’s orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some people have half a one for breakfast.” (-So Long and Thanks for All the Fish)

“If life deals you lemons, make lemonade. If it deals you tomatoes, make Bloody Marys.” (-unknown)

“’Tis the last rose of summer Left blooming alone; All her lovely companions Are faded and gone.” (-Thomas More)

I'm always grateful that I live where the four seasons are so evident in their grandiose displays. I admit it: I feel positively ebullient watching the first tulips burst up from the cold ground in early spring, and the smell of the lilacs when I come to the front door is intoxicating.

Once summer blossoms forth, with its masses of color and infinite variety, I wander outside every day to see the newest blooms on every flower like an impetuous child.

But as the flowers fade after their fanciful parade through the garden, I don’t dwell so much on their disappearance, as on the anticipation of fall and the different hues that will appear with that season.

Today, I awoke, not to the bird-songs of early spring, but to the sound of cicadas in the air. Soon, we’ll have a new display of golden-rich color to enjoy, and the cool mornings of fall.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” (-Albert Camus)

"...And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game"

(-Joni Mitchell)

“An apt quotation is like a lamp which flings its light over the whole sentence.” (-Letitia Landon)

I have a thing about lamps: I like them, of course, to extend a comforting, luminous light, but the artistic leanings in me also like them to look interesting.

It’s hard to find lamps that are simple, not too expensive, and have a certain élan about them. I also like interesting lamp shades.

Right now, Joe and I are searching for lamps to go on either side of our guest bed in that bedroom. We’re leaning more and more towards wall sconce-type lamps, since they take up less room next to the bed, and there just hasn’t been an interesting lamp that has caught my eye.

We had a friend whose daughter was getting married, and when we were invited to the wedding, we looked up her registry to see what her taste was, and there was a lamp on it. Both of us almost immediately said “we should get one of those for US!” It definitely had “interesting” written all over it! We behaved ourselves, however, and refrained from doing so.

Thankfully, both of us like a sort of eclectic look. Sometimes, we’re attracted to modern design, and other times, we like things that are classic and more traditional. We seem to have both…

“We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.” (-William Shakespeare)

"Scratch a dog and you'll find a permanent job." (-Franklin Jones)

We’ve had a number of dogs in our lives over the years. “Calvin,” a yellow lab, was like my son’s older brother when Eric was growing up. He put up with Eric’s curious fingers in his mouth and eyes, when Eric was a young child exploring, and he never flinched when Eric would grab his fur to get help in learning to stand up as a toddler. Calvin sat close by the crib when Eric was tiny, guarding him no matter what. Eric’s first giggles were over things Calvin would do that he found entertaining. Eric then went on to love “Bert,” another yellow lab his dad had, who figured predominately in his life later on. Even after Eric’s dad died unexpectedly young, Bert, with his aging hips and a tumorous growth, carried on and was always ecstatically happy to see Eric enter a room.

My siblings have dogs that the family all love. There’s “Bubba,” a Cardigan Welsh corgi, who lives with my sister’s family in Georgia. He’s the Wonder Dog who sits with treats on his nose and never budges until you give him permission that it’s now “OK” to eat them. And there’s “Tucker,” the Pembroke corgi who lives with my younger sister and her family in New Jersey. He’s still a puppy and just adorable. I have not been able to do them justice in sketches, but I’d love to try again as I visit them.

One other family dog is “Lucy,” who doesn’t know she’s a mutt, but she’s tiny and sweet. Joe’s son and his girlfriend have two dogs: “Olivia,” (a tiny Chihuahua) and “Winston,” who’s also a mutt, with whom everyone falls instantly in love. They are all a part of the family and provide amusing anecdotes as most dogs do.

“I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me, they are the role model for being alive.” (-Gilda Radner)

"Home again, home again, jiggety-jig" (nursery rhyme)

I grew up as a child in the northeast, but grew to feel Virginia was my second home when I spent college and the years raising my son in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Now, I live in NC, and I love it here, but I will always think of Virginia as my second home.

The Valley has such spectacularly stunning landscapes with vistas that stretch out as far as the eye can see. Its history is rich, and I have yet to find another part of the world that surpasses its beauty.

When I lived in the Charlottesville area, there was Monticello, Jefferson’s lovely home, as well as Michie Tavern and Ash Lawn, the home of James Monroe. Across the mountains from Charlottesville is Harrisonburg, where I taught at James Madison University. The rural outskirts of the town are home to Mennonites, and one is still likely to see horses and buggies ambling through town.

I thought, when I first moved to Virginia, after living close to the metropolitan NY area, that I would not feel at home. I love New York, and loved living in the northeast while I was there. Certainly, I imagined I would miss the pace of life in the northeast. Instead, I found home.

“Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.”
(-John Ed Pierce)

"Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them." (author unknown)

We have every color of the rainbow in an exuberant display in our garden, and sprinkled throughout the flowers are numerous statues of irreverent frogs.

Joe’s heritage is French, and I always tease him that the frogs must have some sort of significance that way. Most of our frogs are characters we pick up at our local flea market, and several of them started out their lives as heavy iron banks: their mouths are really slots for coins.I never think of myself as a “chatchky” type of person, but I have to admit I’ve come to be enamoured of our frogs. Joe has been the whimsical instigator of their proliferation around the yard. You’ll come around a corner of a garden bed and there they’ll be, peeking up at you. You can’t help but smile to see them.
Joe is 13 years older than I am, but I think the frogs speak volumes about his child-like nature.

“What are little boys made of? Frogs and snails, and puppy dog tails, that’s what little boys are made of.” (author unknown)

RIBBET.