Campfire

 This was our first and last campfire of summer '23.  How did that happen? Rain and more rain! Sometimes inches at a time.  

This campfire was spur of the moment.  Grass had not been cut for a week so it was long. Rain scheduled for the next day after having had rain the night before.  I had dismantled old wreaths so had lots of combustibles to burn.  We had just the right amount of ingredients for s'mores. My son in law had scrap wood from his summer-long project that needed to be burned. 

It was this day or not at all.

It was the perfect evening and a great ending to summer.

Looking Forward to ...

 

... the food of Spain.

Packing for Spain

 We haven't purchased new luggage since 2007 when we traveled to Alaska.  Those two suitcases are too large for carryon and we've been lucky checking them for all the trips we've taken since then.  For this trip though we decided to heed travel advice and just pack a carryon each and a backpack. 

I researched Consumer Reports and Wirecutter (New York Times) for best carryon luggage. We settled on TravelPro. We used them to pack a week's worth of clothes for our family vacation in August and they worked well.  Now they'll be packed for 2 weeks in Spain.  There's a washer in the apartment so we can do with less clothes and just wash what we bring.

I also purchased vacuum packing bags.

The guest room bed has the beginnings of the staging for packing.

Taking Covid tests just in case and masks too.

A Surprise Gift in the Mail

 We got this wooden plate in the mail recently.

The note included described it as basswood turned on a lathe with chip wood carving.

Dan's cousin sent it to him.

I told Dan it was a peace offering.  His cousin traveled to Vermont from Virginia in July to help with the flood recovery.  He had texted us and Dan corresponded with him suggesting we get together for dinner one evening since he was only a couple a hours from us. Cousin said, sure and he'd be in touch. Then silence.  Dan says not a peace offering but a guilt offering.

It's a lovely one anyway.