Remembering the Victims of Newton, Connecticut

Today at church there was a few moments of silence before the start of the service and then a hymn of Lament was sung. Following are the words to that hymn. It was very difficult for me to sing. All I could do was follow along.

*********************************************************************************

In Deepest Night

In deepest night, in darkest days,

when harps are hung, no songs we raise,

when silence must suffice as praise, 

yet sounding in us quietly

there is the song of God.

When friend was lost, when love deceived,

dear Jesus wept, God was bereaved;

wo with us in our grief God grieves,

and round about us mournfully

there are the tears of God.

When through the waters winds our path,

around us pain, around us death:

deep calls to deep, a saving breath,

and found beside us faithfully

there is the love of God.

Text: Susan Palo Cherwien

Music:Thomas Pavlechko

~Linnea

Secret Santa Soiree

I participated in the Secret Santa Soiree again this year. Colorado Lady was our host again. I posted about it on my Craft blog this time. You may click here to see it. It was a fun exchange and I love the items I received.

Linnea

Happy Autumn!

Happy Fall to everyone!

Not only is today the first day of Autumn

it is also our anniversary! 

33 years ago we became a wedded couple.

Has it been that long already?!?

I made my dress all those years ago. Everything but the zipper.

My mother put in the zipper for me.

And my grandmother made the veil using the headpiece 

from my mother's veil.  That was the something old!

The something borrowed was the necklace I had on.

My hubby in his blue tux.

An outdoor picture of us. 

This is the one we have on our wall

in our home.

Here we are 33 years later.

This was taken last weekend at my hubby's 50th high school reunion.

I have a ways to go before we get to my 50th high school reunion.

Hope all is well with everyone and 

have a blessed Fall!

~Linnea~

Blue Monday and Mosaic Monday

A pleasant Sunday drive turned into a chance to do both 

a Blue Monday

and a

Mosaic Monday post.

It has been hot around here lately. 

Over 100 on Saturday. Cooler on Sunday, but still hot.

I took these pictures as we took a drive in our area.

The external temp gauge kept us updated

on the outside temp.

 When we started it was warm. 93 degrees!

 Going clockwise the temp got lower as we got closer to the coast.

Very pleasant at the coast.

We ended driving a section of Hwy 1 that neither of us

remembers driving on. Not for a long time anyway.

We decided to pull over here to enjoy the view and the smell of the ocean

and feel the breeze. It was actually about 64 degrees by the time we stopped here.

After I took the above picture, I noticed a person climbing on that rock

in the lower right corner. Can you see her?

 Going clockwise you then see her at the top,

then over the the right, then climbing back down.

When she got to that water line on the rock, she then jumped in 

and swam to shore. We noticed she had a rope tied to her waist.

Someone on the shore had the other end. A protection against 

getting swept out I guess. She made back to the shore okay.

 Then I shifted my view to the right and we noticed seals

on the rocks there.

They are at the bottom of the large rock on the left and on 

the one smack in the middle of the picture.

 Here is a picture of my hubby. He was wearing BLUE. 

He wears a lot of BLUE anyway. :)

 Continuing on our way, we got to Bodega Bay.

The Candy and Kite shop. Lots of BLUE there.

 BLUE kite!

We stopped for dinner at a seafood restaurant.

And surprise the food was served on BLUE plates.

Plus the placemats and napkins were BLUE!

*********

We came back home to a hot house. BLECH!

But since the outside was down to 83 and it was over 90 in the house,

we opened the windows and turned on the fans. 

It did not take long for it to cool down after that.

Happy Monday to everyone!

~Linnea~

Hooking up with 

Smiling Sally for Blue Monday

and 

Little Red House for Mosaic Monday

Blue and Red and White for Blue Monday

I decided it was about time I posted again on here. 

Just in time for Blue Monday anyway since I got some 

Red, White and Blue photos to share.

Thank you to Sally over at Smiling Sally for 

being such a gracious host for so long.

-----------------------------

On July 3rd we went downtown to the plaza thinking 

there was going to be the usual Farmer's Market.

But surprise it was not being held this time.

Due to the holiday I guess.

Even without the Farmer's Market,

it was still amazingly busy in the plaza area.

Too hot to stay in I guess.

 I mean that is why we went there 

in the first place.

 Gotta assume all those other people had the same thought.

 This is the town hall in the middle of the plaza.

It is a historic building now.

The farmer's market is usually all around this building.

So we decided instead to take a walk around the plaza.

We have been increasing how much we walk and the plaza 

is a great place to do that.

 The plaza is surrounded on all four sides by streets in a square pattern and 

these buildings that I got pictures of are along those streets.
This one is of the Swiss Hotel.

 This one is Mary's Pizza. We have never eaten here yet.

Not this one anyway. But we have eaten at other locations.

 See how many people were enjoying the plaza. 

There are two play areas there

and many people were relaxing and dining with friends and family.

 This is the Toscano Hotel and too the right you can see the 

barracks of the Sonoma Mission. Another historic place.

Many of the buildings around the plaza are historic as well.

 We continue on around the plaza and come to the 

Ledson Hotel. A restaurant is on the first floor.

 And now we are back around to the front side of the

town hall again. We actually walked around this block twice.

Got our exercise in that night.

 People were setting up their chairs that night to save their 

places for the parade the next day.

I had no idea people did that. 

We did not go back to watch the parade. 

Too many people and we don't like to be in big crowds.

Lots of BLUE in those pictures!

--------------------------------

Today we took a Sunday drive!

We should do that more often and drive on roads we have never 

driven on before.

 This was one our views along the drive.

Beautiful blue sky today.

Hardly anybody passed us on this portion of our drive.

So nice and relaxing.

 A close up of that windmill!

 Today was another hot day!

Time to make smoothies

Non-fat plain yogurt,

BLUEBERRIES,

peaches,

mangoes,

And blend.

Except for the bananas, 

all the fruit was frozen.

Made for nice cold smoothies!

The end product.

I thought they would turn out more 

BLUE

since there were no strawberries in them this time.

But, they were just as yummy!

Stay Cool!

~Linnea~

June Note Card Party

I almost forgot it was time for Vee's Note Card Party!

Seems I am posting only for those at the moment. 

Not a lot going on other than trying to stay cool

in this too hot for me weather!

One more day of warm weather then it is supposed to cool off 

again for awhile. I will be so glad!

Here is a picture to help us stay cool.

Taken in the Fall in Davenport, Iowa in 2009 when we traveled 

there to visit our daughter.

That same trip, we also continued

on down to Florida to visit our son and daughter-in-law

and granddaughter. They only had one daughter at the time.

This is Milo when he was still young.

I love how this picture turned out.

Almost as if he posed for me.

We have been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium 

a couple of times now.

This one was taken during our first visit there.

The Jellies make for interesting pictures!

And they are so relaxing to watch.

Taken at a retreat last August.

Thought I would have a food note card.

The verse inside could be something about 

eating dessert first! 

This would make a great dessert for the First Day of Summer!

This is what I have for this week's Note Card Party.

Thank you Vee for hosting it.

You can go and visit Vee and see who else is posting and sharing 

for the Note Card Party at A Haven for Vee.

~Linnea~

May Note Card Party

It is that time again to link up with Vee at 

A Haven for Vee for her Note Card Party!

This will be my second time to join in.

Below are my four choices for this month

of pictures previously posted on my blog.

 The above is a scene I drive by often. 

I kept wanting to get a picture of it. 

One day I finally did.

 This was taken on a day we took a hike.

Or a long uphill walk.

Anyway, this was my view from under my hat.

I love the way this picture turned out!

 This was taken last summer when we were at 

a Sabbath Retreat. During a break I paused here and got this picture

through the opening in the wall.

I had featured it on a Shadow Shot Sunday post.

Another flower picture of mine.

Seems I need to include at least one of those.

Maybe one of these days I will actually use some of my photos

for a note card! 

Thank you for visiting!

~Linnea~

Note Card Party-April

I discovered a new thing to participate in this week.

A Note Card Party!

Vee over at A Haven for Vee is our lovely host!

The idea is to search through your blog and find pictures 

that would make cute note cards.

I had a hard time deciding, but after choosing 4 pictures 

I realized I had a Pink theme.

 This first picture was taken at the Mare Island Historical Preserve.

I just love the look of the flowers against the picket fence.

This one was taken on the boardwalk at Asilomar State Park and Conference Grounds.

It was taken on our trip there last Fall. We went again in March!

We love it there and look forward to a relaxing trip there again.

This picture and the next were taken in the yard at my 

brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house.

They have a lovely yard and I enjoyed taking a bunch of pictures there.

These are two of them.

The cute birdhouse presents a cheery welcome.

I will have to watch for more Note Card Parties.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Especially those affected by the recent storms.

~Linnea~

L is for ---on Alphabe-Thursday

I am barely slipping in here for Alphabe-Thursday.

But I wanted to be sure to get my post done because

this time it is the letter "L".  And

my name starts with the letter "L".

Linnea

I have posted about this before here and shared some of these pictures 

at that time.

Linnea is the name of a flower that grows in the northern latitudes. 

So because of that I have never seen the real thing.

On my sidebar to the left is a picture of the actual Linnea flower.

If you click on it, the link will take you to a site that explains more about the 

Linnea flower.

Above I have some items with the Linnea flower on it.

My mother gave me the bowl and made the crossstitch 

table topper in the upper right.

I think I bought the stationary and the 

dresser scarf in the lower right.

I wear the necklace frequently and 

sometimes where the pin.

This picture shows what is inside the stationary folder.

A closeup of the jewerly.

And this trivet my mother bought for me and forgot to give it to me.

she gave it to me a few months ago. It can also hang on the wall.

It is a very dainty looking flower as well.

Thanks for coming by!

~Linnea~

The Letter "J" for Alphabe=Thursday

 It is Alphabe-Thursday time again. I missed participating when it 

was time for the letter "I". But I am back for the letter

"J".

Jenny (a "J" word) is our host and you can fine more 

participants HERE,

I have used pictures from the Monterey Bay Aquarium for 

a couple of Alphabe-Thursday posts and here I am using pictures

from there again!

 J is for Jellyfish or Jellies as they refer to them at the aquarium.

These first few pictures I took when we went there in 2010 for 

our anniversary. That was our first time to go there.

 On that trip we were intrigued and fascinated by the Jellies.

We even went on a behind the scenes tour and learned more about them

as well.

 It is amazing to watch them float around the tank.

 As my pictures indicate, there are different kinds and 

sizes too.

 We went back there again in October of 2011.

And we were disappointed to find the Jellies display

being remodeled. But something to look forward to the next time 

we go there.

 According to the sign they are supposed to open in March.

The last day to be  exact. I wonder if they will stay on schedule and 

open on time.

 But they still had a couple tanks out so that visitors could see 

the Jellies. Aren't they pretty?

I am looking forward to a chance to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium again.

Meanwhile thank you for visiting my Jellies.

Imagine watching them float and swim around

and find yourself relaxing and feeling those muscles

slowly loosening up. Watching the Jellies has that effect on you.

~Linnea~