On the Road Again

I know I have abandoned you, but I have been busy and now I am out of town. I was getting ready for our long awaited vacation. I think things have settled down and we really feel like we are on vacation. I don’t really have internet, but sporadically I have been able to access it, so once in a while I can write something on my blog.

When we left town last Friday, I was excited to get to be with Marilene after almost a year of not seeing her. We had two wonderful days together to try and catch up a bit. Fortunately we will also have a little time on the way home. It was good to break up our trip, since it was about 5 hours to her house and about 7 hours for the rest of the trip. We had great weather and road conditions for travel, which was a pleasant surprise.

Although we knew we would be staying at a nice house, we really didn’t expect the paradise we encountered. Our minister of music’s sister arranged the house, as they live right next door. They cleaned and organized the house and even left us with a cake and tea and coffee for our breakfast. 

After living in a high rise in a metropolis, you have no idea how wonderful it is for me to see GREEN, hear birds and just take in the beautiful world God has made.   We are definitely not suffering.  There is a great hammock in our living room and we try to take turns enjoying it and our books.

If you know me, you know I have a little black cloud that follows me around. There has been  a drought here, but on Monday we awoke to rain. It is supposed to rain all week. That’s fine with me. This morning, however, there was sun when I got up and I was able to get out and walk the property for a while, as well as read the Bible by the lake and do some sketching.

It is not as chilly as I expected, so I even shed my jacket and laid on the wall by the lake and just soaked in the nature. If you remember from last year, I just LOVE the Paraná pines (Araucárias) and we have a whole forest of them around us. I am no botanist, but I was  most surprised to see gourds in a tree. I don’t know if they are a fruit of the tree, or is they are parasites, but I had never seen that before. That is the gourd that is used to make the “cuia” that is used to drink “chimarrão” (João’s famous green tea). So I appeal to my scientifically minded friends to tell me. (The photo is to the right). 

At night we sleep to the sound of the frogs (and this morning I even had one to say good morning to me as it hopped around the living room). We hear all the roosters and chickens as well. I have a thing for these free range creatures and keep stopping to watch them. Guess it shows that I am a city girl. I think the coloring of the rooster is just gorgeous and am hoping to draw or paint him. He won’t, however, sit still to pose for me. When he got this close as I was meditating this morning, I had to snap a photo.

As I was up early, I caught the dew, not on the roses but on the lemon tree. I have enough lemons to make some juice. Doesn’t that sound grand?

I think you can see that we are having a great time. Hope you are enjoying life as much as we are these days. Life is VERY good for us.