2016 Week 29: Summer heat and weddings!

A week of the usual with summer heat and political tensions on the rise, bee stings, and a wedding or two.

Monday, before the meal, I walked way  back through Stephan and Karen's property and was surprised by the extent and height of their ancient woods, seemingly much older than ours.

When possible I join an exercise group that meets three times a week from 8:30 - 9:30 a.m. at the LightRider barn.
If the weather is nice we meet on the nearby pedestrian bridge.

Corpse pose (Photo credit: Jenni Webb)

One day this week, after that last restful pose, we discovered a special gift--a lovely rose, which I have enjoyed all week.

A little visitor joined me in the Wednesday afternoon. We enjoyed a non-stop sequence of activities.

Hmmm. . . where can I put this one?

Would you believe the tower is still standing days after Rebecca's visit. The sidewalk art, however, is almost gone.

We remembered our Basque girl's birthday this week, and how we celebrated her 17th here in Upland six years ago.

Amaia

We attended a wedding in Ohio on Saturday--another Basque connection. We met Courtney in 2013. She had just finished high school and joined the Circle Tour at the start of an internship to study Spanish and Euskera.

In a lovely outdoor ceremony, she married a young man from our town! And her maid of honor was her good friend from Oñati, Basque land, where she has been living the past year.

The ceremony

The reception

I felt sorry for the men in the wedding party, all wearing dark suits on such a very hot day.

Later I learned that our son Sam was swealtering in a tux at another wedding as best man.
Such is the beauty and peril of an outdoor event. Thankfully, there were no storms.

Photo credit: Kristie Koch

Mike had a couple setbacks this week:
1) the leg pain returned and shows up on his bicycle rides after ten miles but on the other leg!
2) reaction to bee stings worsened and we learned that allergies develop and escalate. He'd had no problems while working with the bee hives, until a storm blew in and rattled the guard bees.

Two accomplishments for me this week:
1) finished reading Tripping "A true story of Bible smugglers and how the East German Stasi tried to stop them." I was strongly impressed with how little we know of what is going on in the spiritual realm and how very dependent we are on God's direction for every move of our daily walk amidst the landmines of the enemy.
2) enhanced and printed the 250 pages of letters I wrote to my best friend over a period of 15 years!

Mirtha had carefully preserved all my correspondence in a neat binder. As I was trying to remember and write about my growing up years in Argentina, I asked to borrow the collection. My brother and SIL were the couriers. I had promised to return it with Ivan and Kim after their few months stay in the US. Then the housefire happened!

God must have valued those letters too! Amazingly they suffered minimal damage--some burnt edges and water marks, but still mostly readable.
I had scanned the lot before sending them back to Mirtha. But only now, after five years, did I begin to go through them seriously to glean many forgotten memories.

Are you working on any fun project?