The sound of waves crashing on a sandy beach......

awakened me every morning for 10 wonderful days.

One particular morning far down on the beach, I heard these people 

singing a very lovely song.........in Hawaiian. They were doing motions with their hands to the sea and I was transfixed in wonder and awe.......it was so beautiful. 

The photo is blurry as it was a slightly stormy morning......and I had taken this photo from my hotel balcony.  In our hotel lobby and out on the pool, Hawaiian music played constantly.  Sometimes there was live Hawaiian music performed in the lobby and at dinner .

Yes.......we have been in beautiful Hawaii.......on a magical trip that our

daughter wanted us to go along with her on.  

She had every day planned with some new kind of place to see.  From Honolulu, Waikiki beach , 

Oahu , and to the big island Kona.

It was a long, but pleasant plane flight from Texas, to Denver, to Hawaii. 

We were welcomed with beautiful leis placed around our necks,

and found ourselves in a land of incredible beauty.  

I fell in love with the mountains there

where clouds sat on top and mist fell down in the form of gentle light rain.

There were just as many flowers on trees as there were on the ground.

This is the Royal Poinciana 

and this is the Plumeria

There were so many interesting trees.......I am not sure but I think this one may be the Koa tree,

and there were banyan trees

and monkey pod trees........

Speaking of monkey pod.......we ate at a wonderful

restaurant called The Monkey Pod

we also had a colorful meal at a luau.....the purple bread is taro bread, which

is a potato bread and very good.

we were also served pina coladas in a pineapple

the luau was a wonderful thing to see and to listen to

we visited Pearl Harbor

there are so many different kinds of beaches........coves with 

large boulders

the Black beach where the sand

is all black from lava

and the waves have so many different hues of blue.

we spent a good part of the day swimming in Waimea Bay.

when the sun was setting......every where...... every night.......the torches were lit.

They are lovely along the beach and along the streets full of shops.

I end this now with a lovely sunset on Kaena's Point 

Hawaii was a wonderful place to visit during the last summer days. 

We are now back and back into our quiet, normal, routine.

We have so many good memories this year from our travels.

as you remember from my previous post, we visited our son in beautiful Washington/Oregon area.

and now we end the year's travels 

with enchanting Hawaii.

So tell me.......have you traveled any where this summer or are you planning

to travel?  I would love to hear

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer

 

Hello Summer!

 Awhile back, I posted on my embroidery blog , Yesteryear Embroideries, about a mushroom stitchery that I was currently starting.  You can see the post with this link:

MUSHROOM STITCHERY

and I wanted to add flowers and such to the mushroom design.

For weeks I stitched up a storm, thinking how wonderful this would all look when 

I finished......I was shocked at how awful it looked.......as you see in the photo above......the dark green thread, the beads, the over clustering of the pink flowers, took the eye away from the mushrooms.  Sometimes, 

too much........is......too much!

I never have a problem with ripping out stitches.....even days and weeks of stitches.

As you can see, decluttering the stitching now has made everything look pretty. 

I can now call this piece "finished" and get it ready to place into my 

Stitch Book.

I have been working and planning on a stitch book for quite some time.

It's not the typical stitch book where I show the work of different stitches in 

embroidery accomplished.  This is a book for the different pieces I embroider over

the years and ones that I do not frame.  I wanted a place to put them all......

so a stitch book seems to be the right place.

 I have always loved this design and 

embroidered it for the cover of my stitch book. 

This is the front

and when folded, this is the back.

I wanted the inside cover, front and back to have some 

of my favorite quotes, so I cross stitched these on 25 count, 

stitched it to the outside cover, and now when folded, it makes a great inside 

cover for the stitch book.

I only have a few pages, but am hoping to have quite a few more 

by the end of this year.  I am not sure whether I will complete the book this

year or maybe stitch more into next year. 

There hasn't been much else happening here.......our lives go day

to day at a quiet pace.  I did come up on a hognose snake

and scooped it up for a better photo.  No worries.....this little snake is quite

calm and nice........never tries to strike.

I also came across this whimsical toad......who seemed to smile at me as I said hello to it.

I hope this finds you are having pleasant weather and pretty summer days.  

 

We had ourselves a little adventure.....

We headed out to visit our youngest son by flying over snowcapped mountains and through fluffy clouds

We were offered very nice meals during our flight

Soon we were back on the ground and we found ourselves surrounded with flowers in  gardens,

flowers by buildings,

flowers on almost every street pole, along with flowers on the very busy freeway and roadside.

I could not take good photos of the freeway flowers or roadside blossoms because traffic was very much in a hurry.

There were mountain tops to look over the city and to look out over  the Cascade mountains.

Have you guessed where we have been?

There were wonderful markets filled with wonderful things and the offering of coffee was everywhere we turned

A robot named Jarvis......yes.....a robot........made me this wonderful latte. It tasted so good!

The most enchanting places of all......were the forests and 

waterfalls. I could have stayed among these areas forever!

Many of the trees were covered in a coating of soft moss

and other growth.

Did I mention waterfalls.....??......

and flowers??😊

The weather was rainy.......a gentle rain where we could walk with umbrellas and still enjoy the sites......the temperature was in the 60s and low 70s.  We wore jackets on some days.

There was so much for us to see......in the city.......outside of the city.........and above the city!

and then........there was the beach......a long stretch of magical sand and the Pacific ocean.

Yes, if you have guessed , we visited the Pacific Northwest.  

Time sped by so quickly and in a blink of an eye, we were saying goodbye to our son and  we were back on the plane, taking one last glance at Mount. Hood

As  Mount Saint Helens disappeared into the distance and we were once again in the clouds, 

my heart was already longing to be back among the trees, flowers, and waterfalls. 

We were welcomed home with a gust of 106 degree wind that blew through the west Texas airport doors. Now we are back to our normal quiet pace of life with so many wonderful memories to look back on. It was wonderful to get away and to see one of our children......and it is also great to be back home.  As one of my favorite authors once said........

I would be willing to go around the world

if I came back in time to light the candles

and set the table for supper.

Gladys Taber

So tell me........have you been on any adventure lately??.......or do you have one planned soon??

I would love to hear!