These past few weeks have been magical!  First a visit to Nevada to see Becca and grands (shared in my last blog) and last week over to Washington and a week with Erica and grands!  Since Erica has moved back to my favorite small town I have been so excited to have the chance to revisit all my old haunts while also seeing the grands.  It was even more lovely than expected.  We did a lot of walking and I took the kids and Erica to all my favorite walking places.

First up was Pioneer Park.  It is such a beautiful and peaceful place!

I was so excited to take the grands back to one of my very very favorite places.  I took them here when they were much younger and blogged about it here https://unraveledpatti.com/2010/08/10/grandma-heaven.   It is simply the most magical place!  Although we went late in the evening and unfortunately the bugs were out in swarms.  We all ended up quite eaten alive!!  It did have some changes since I lived there.  The most notable was with the increase in homelessness in WW we saw many signs that people had been sleeping and unfortunately several syringes.  It made me quite sad to see that one of the most magical places had been sullied by the homeless and drug addicts.

I was also very excited to go back out and walk the paths around Bennington Lake.  So early one morning Erica and I set out.  This time I was not disappointed at all.  The views were so breathtaking and the paths well maintained.  Oh how I miss all this natural beauty.

WW is such a beautiful place and going back made me quite homesick and wanting to return.  Perhaps I may do just that…..

On my last evening there, the high school had a suicide prevention walk.  The evening was beautiful and quite a nice crowd turned out.  It is such a worthy cause as suicide rates continue to skyrocket.

I haven’t done much knitting or sewing of late.  In wanting an easy travel project I pulled out two pair of socks still on the needles that I had not completed.  I also knit up myriad dish cloths as the girls all seem to be running out again.

I only have one thrifty treasure to share. I stopped by an estate sale last week and when I saw this darling sampler piece I just had to have it.  The workmanship is not the best and I am guessing it was done by a young person.  But I just love it!  I am thinking it must have been salvaged from something and framed.  It sure does make for a cute little display piece.

Going back to the community that felt most like home to me was so bittersweet.  I realize just how much I miss living there.  When I left and moved to the city and nearer the ocean, I loved every minute of this life.  But as the years have passed, I miss being close to nature.  I have only been on my bike a handful of times since moving here as with the traffic and no decent bike paths, I just gave it up.  Biking was such a part of my self care and gave me such great joy.  I miss the slower pace and friendliness of a smaller community.  Yet I have an amazing job which I do enjoy.  But my heart is being pulled back. I do not see myself living in this city for more than a few more years.  The crime is escalating (this town was always known for a high crime rate but it had cleaned up a bit) and my soul is in need of open green spaces, friendly faces, and limited traffic.  Time to begin to plan for yet another phase of my life.

And now it is back to work today and time to play catch up.  I am home for a bit until my next grand adventure which will be off to Ireland end of July!

Plotting, planning, and dreaming..

Patricia