My Books from June

   Hi everyone. It's time for another of  my monthly book posts.  I know some you  are book  lovers  who enjoy reading book posts, as I do. So here we go. 

  This past month I read several mysteries, a few new to me authors, a few newer books, a few older books, at least one book out of my comfort zone, and there were even a couple of rereads. It was another good reading month on my end.

   If you are of a certain age, you might remember John Jake books from the 1970's and 1980's. His historical novels were quite popular. This book,  North and South, is book 1 of the American Civil War trilogy that was first published in 1982. I'm not sure I read this book or even this trilogy back then, and although I don't remember any actual stories, I do remember reading quite a few of this author's series The Kent Family Chronicles back in my high school and early college days.

    I started this book back in April and then I became distracted by a couple of other books, so I put this one aside. At first I was reading this novel on my Kindle,  and then when I finished the other books that had distracted me,  I decided to switch over and listen to the rest of this story. That wasn't until  May, and since this story is long (30+ hours of listening), I didn't finish it until June. 

   Since North and South was an easy and enjoyable story, I thought it was a perfect listening choice since it's one of those stories that doesn't require a whole lot of deep concentration. It's also an easy read if you are reading it. Either way it's a good story that moves along quickly.  It was perfect to listen to while I worked in the yard too. 👍  

    I'm not sure there is any great literary merit to this book, but there is some history to it.  This  story takes place before the Civil War and is more about the build up to that horrific event in American history. The prequel starts by introducing  two young men who come to the then colonies of Britain in the late 1600's. After that, the main story begins. You meet Orry Main, a young man from South Carolina. His ancestor who arrived in the late 1600's got into rice farming, and now, as this story begins, the family is wealthy and has a plantation in Charleston. 

   You also meet George Hazard of Pennsylvania, whose ancestor worked with iron and was an indentured servant back in the  late 1600's. George's family is now well to do with an industrial iron business. George and Orry meet each other as they wait to get on a steamship to take them up to West Point Military Academy. They become best friends.  It is 1842 when this story really begins. 

   From there you follow the main characters as well as some  characters  from George's and Orry's families through a graduation at West Point, the Mexican-American War (1846-1848),   young  and even middle age adult lives, marriage and children, Orry falling in love with a married woman,  the Hazards buying a summer home in Newport, Rhode Island, and Orry replacing his parents as head of the household. Among many others. There are also  some other highlights from American history like the Missouri Compromise, John Brown and the bloody Kansas-Nebraska Act.

   Jake's style reminds me a lot of Ken Follett's style. There's the characters you like and those you are supposed to really dislike. There's lots of other characters who interact with the 2 main ones. There's the relationships that work out and those that don't.  And I did learn some history too, like why the US and Mexico went to war in 1846 (but I'm sure those of you in Texas probably already knew about that).  I enjoyed this novel and will probably continue this series at some point to see what happens to Orry and George and the other characters once the war begins (which is what book 2 is all about). I just may not be soon because I'm not sure I'm in the mood for another very long novel, and book two is 15 hours longer than this one.

   

  This book, The Golden Spoon,  by Jessa Maxwell, is a straightforward and easy to read mystery. I started it while on jury selection day because there was a lot of downtime, but I didn't want something too complicated because I needed to put the book down frequently. 

  This mystery takes place at an estate in Vermont called Grafton where a week-long baking show is being filmed. Think Great British Bake Off. In this story there are 6 home bakers who are participating in  challenges for a week. The judge and owner of this estate is the celebrated baker Betsy Martin. The 6 bakers are Stella (a former journalist who bakes to control her severe anxiety), Hannah (a young woman from Minnesota who bakes pie in a local diner), Gerald (a math teacher who likes things to work out exactly the way he has them planned), Pradyunma (a highly skilled but bored tech millionaire), Peter (a man who does  architectural refurbishing and renovations) and finally Lottie ( a retired nurse). There's also the crew, and this season there's a new judge, Archie, to work with Betsy Martin, which isn't making Betsy too happy.

    As the book goes through  most of the week, you have the introductory welcome  dinner and then each day of filming as well as the evening after filming. During this time the book's chapters jump around from person to person and you get to know each character. You learn some interesting back stories  about each character too. No one is quite the person they seem to be when the book begins. There's also some interesting "events" that happen along with the baking. 

   Before the week ends someone is killed.

  I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but, the ending felt a little too rushed. There was a gap between the murder and the ending that felt a little unstated, almost like that author was rushing to finish the story and left out 50 pages. There is no murder investigation either. I was disappointed by that, but  not by the actual ending. However, even with this gap, this book was  an enjoyable read and was hard to put down towards the end. I stayed up late because I had to find out who the police would arrest and how the story would wrap up. 

   My next book was this novel by Katherine Howe called A True Account: Hannah Masury's Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates. This story bounced back and forth between  2 time periods. One period was 1723 in Colonial Boston, when teenager Hannah Masury worked at a tavern and decided one day to skip out of work to go see a pirate being hanged. After that event and after a run in with some not so nice people, she ended up escaping the city by pretending she's a boy and joining a pirate crew. The other period is the 1930's, when Hannah's book that she wrote about her pirate adventures was discovered. It's now in the hands of a  Harvard educator named Marion and her undergrad student Kay. Right off the bat I wondered if Hannah really was a pirate or if she  was writing  a fantasy.

 

  It took a while before  Hannah's story mentioned buried treasure. You actually learn about it in Marion and Kay's story. These ladies are going to search for the treasure. In Hannah's pirate story, a lot more happens like a hurricane at sea, discovering a treasure map and even a bit of raiding.

   As the ladies are treasure hunting and as Hannah is pirating, there are some interesting twists in this story. This is especially true of the ending. I really liked how the author took these 2 stories and connected them. I didn't expect the pieces to go together like they did because the book started off,  not predictable,  but not in the direction where it ended. And after reading the author's note at the end, it made those connections even more interesting. It was great to see where her idea for this story came from. One thing I definitely recommend is that you don't jump ahead and read those author's notes until the story is finished because it explains so many things about this book and its ending. It makes much more sense knowing the book's entire story.

   This is a fictional story. If you're looking for true pirate lore you won't find it here. 😉 I like the author's writing style; it's got a bit of a literary vibe going on. It's also a well composed tale.  And if like me, you feel like reading something different, then this might be a book you enjoy. I very much enjoyed it. 

    It was then time for me to read another one of these alphabet mysteries by Sue Grafton. I started this series last month with books A and B, so now I am onto C is for Corpse, first published in 1986.

   This time Kinsey Millhone meets a man in the gym where she is working out. His name is Bobby Callahan, and his car had been rammed in the rear end while driving over a canyon bridge. The car went over into the canyon. Callahan's friend, who was in the car, was killed, but Callahan survived. However, he was very injured, and he believes that someone was trying to kill him. 

   Right off in the beginning of this mystery you are told that Kinsey met Callahan on Monday, and by Thursday he was dead. Before he dies, Bobby asks Kinsey to help him with a problem. Once he passes, Kinsey decides that  she is going to continue with her search to find out what is going on. Bobby could have been murdered. For the sake of his memory she is going to follow through on the case he hired her for and find out what the story is. 

   This book was also a great read and had another very exciting ending. This time it is night, and Kinsey is searching the old hospital morgue for evidence. The only person who should be there is the night custodian, but when Kinsey finds him incapacitated, well, it already was spooky enough and now she knows Bobby's killer is looking for her too. 

   This next book was another recommendation from my daughter. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore  takes place during a couple of time periods, but this time it is more the youth and then middle age of some of the characters. This book jumps around between  the 1950's, early 1960's and  the 1970's. Almost all of the book is set in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.

  The gist of this book revolves around a summer camp  (Camp Emerson) that is owned by a family. That family is creepy in many ways. The wealthy Van Laar family have a huge summer estate on the top of  a big hill in this little blue collar town called Shattuck. The first Peter Van Laar, the one who built the house called Self- Reliance, started this camp when he was an older man and wanted to leave a legacy of his life. 

   Back in the 1960's the third Peter Van Laar's  son, this time named Peter Van Laar the Fourth but called Bear, disappeared.  The book takes  you through the search and the travesty that event caused.  After Bear disappears, the family has a daughter named Barbara. She is a rebellious teenager, and she requests to go to Camp Emerson the summer she is about 13. She is sent to camp, and then, she also disappears.

   You follow these events through the eyes of many people including Barbara's camp friend Tracey, a couple of counselors at camp, locals, Barbara's mother, and also  a young police investigator named Judy. 

   Once I got the names down, I very much enjoyed this book. This book was easy to get into and very hard to put down. I can understand why it received so many accolades. However, if you don't like stories that jump from person to person, then this book would not be for you.  There are several small twists along the way  and a big twist at the end. My daughter calls it a thriller, but I think it is more of a mystery, with lots of clues and even some "ah ha" moments right up to the end. And I didn't even come close to figuring out how it would end.

  After taking several weeks to finish my first listen for the month (North and South), my only other listen for June was the new novel by Ann Patchett. I decided to listen to it (rather than read it) because  the author read the story, and besides being a talented author, Patchett is also a good reader.  Plus I still had a couple of book credits I needed to use before I lost them in mid-June, and what's better than getting a new book by a favorite author?

    When Daphne and her husband are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York one day, Daphne's husband decides a man is following them. When he approaches the man, he finds out it was Daphne's mother's second husband, or another words, one of Daphne's stepfathers. 

  This reunion brings Eddie Triplett back into Daphne’s life. You learn about him (and also Daphne) in 2 different ways.  First, you learn  through the story’s present setting, although you see Eddie through Daphne's eyes. You also learn about Eddie  from Daphne's memories of when she was a child and was in the car with Eddie.  At  one point during her childhood  Daphne and Eddie are stranded, and it's then that you learn about Whistler, the horse on the cover and who the book is named after. This event  is a reoccurring story throughout the novel.

   Eddie's story has some surprises that Daphne never realized. This book is a story of aging and life after 50. It's also about finding people you thought you'd lost in your life and how finding them again can be wonderful. It's also about accepting differences in others. I really liked how I could relate to many points this book made.

  I liked  and enjoyed this book, but not quite as much as I liked her last book, Tom Lake. I'd still rank it quite high because  I enjoy Patchett's kind of rambling style when she tells the story. I also like her variety of characters and how well I feel I know them once the book is over.  I was expecting a sad ending to this story, but not to get too in depth for those of you who may want to read this book, I liked how Patchett ended this novel, and no tears were shed. 😊

  Mysteries are almost always fast reads, so after I finished The God of the Woods I went on to reread book 10 in the Dr. Ruth Galloway mysteries.  (And FYI, these books should be read in order.) Ruth is a forensic archaeologist, and this time she has been asked by an old "friend" to come to Italy to help with a skeleton that was found. Once she's there, she finds out her archaeologist friend is also under the impression someone is trying to kill him because of the work he is doing.

   Ruth also travels with her daughter Kate and with her friend Shona and Shona's young son Louis. It's a working vacation. However, she doesn't tell Nelson she is going, and that fact, even though Nelson is not her family, it bothers him. After an earthquake rattles the area in Italy where Ruth and Kate are, Nelson heads out to check on them, leaving his wife and family behind. He definitely surprises Ruth, and he annoys his wife. Everyone's favorite Druid, Cathbad, comes along with Nelson also. 

    In Italy, a much loved village local  is then murdered, and Ruth is the one to find the body.  Meanwhile at home, a man convicted of killing his wife and children in a house fire, is let out of prison. Nelson was the officer who got him put away, and the man, who says he has found religion, isn't exactly acting like he has. But he always has a reason to appear like he has. 

  But since this is a mystery story, the local's death in Italy causes certain events happen, and the released prisoner back in King's Lynn (where the stories are usually set) causes other events to happen. The first time I read this book, I took the story at face value. This time reading the book, some of the events in Italy seemed a little too far fetched. Saying that, they still made good reading and once again, I enjoyed this book. However, this book ends on a sad note, with a death that affects all the main characters. 

   I was still in a mystery mood, so for my next book I pulled this old Agatha Christie from 1959 off my bookshelf. I've read this book long ago, and it was long enough ago that I didn't remember actually any of the details about it, at least at first.

   Much of this tale takes place at a private and exclusive girls school called Meadowbrook in England. But the story more or less begins with a coup happening in an imaginary Arab country. The crown prince is murdered, but before that he gives his British friend some important jewels to sneak out of the country. His friend is also killed, and since his friend expects that might happen, he hides the jewels so they'll get snuck out of the country. He does this by putting them in some modeling clay found in his niece Jennifer's  luggage (since she and her mother, this man's sister, are also visiting the country). Jennifer does not know the jewels are there, nor does her mother, but someone (who you don't figure out until later in the book) suspects either the  mother or Jennifer has them. And of course, the girl is a student at this Meadowbrook School.

   Then there's a few murders at the school, starting with the gym instructor, and the police get involved. Funny, once the murder inquiries  start, I suddenly remembered where the jewels were, but not who the killer was, nor the main story. It's interesting how our brains work, and how a small detail can come back to you after decades.  

   The is a Hercule Poirot book, but Christie's famous detective does not enter the story until you are getting close to the end.  Julia, a student at the school and one of Jennifer's close friends, goes to see Poirot. She knows him through a close family friend, and he is curious enough about the case to help her.

    I definitely did not remember how Christie ended this novel. I still am amazed at how clever she was to come up with so many plots. This is definitely one of her better books. All the pieces  worked together, and it's quite different  being set at a girl's school. 

   My final book for the month was this art technique book. This book, being more about daily journaling rather than a novel, was something I could read bits of here and there. I already keep a drawing journal, but I thought it would be good to see the tools other people use and to see other drawing journals to garner new ideas for my own journal. I also thought it would be good to see  how other people draw and set up their pages so  I can maybe improve my own drawing skills. 

   This book covers topics such as tools and material, getting into the habit of journaling,  and ideas about what you could put on a page. What I found most helpful was looking at finished pages. In some ways, because I already keep a journal, some of the info in this book wasn't the most useful. But in other ways, there are always new things to learn even when you think you are familiar with something.  I particularly  liked seeing how the author set up her pages. And although I don't want to spend tons of time on my pages (especially when I get a few days behind-which I do), I like looking at other people drawings to see how I can improve or fix my own.

  This book was not a waste of time to read, and if you're new to daily journaling, then I think this book would be really useful in many ways. 

 

  And that's it for this month's book report. I hope you find some great summer reading, and if you do, please share!

   

Time for a New Challenge-Our First for July

   Hi everyone.  It is Tuesday so that means it's time for a new challenge at Try It On Tuesday. Thank you everyone who joined our In The Garden challenge. I enjoyed all the different takes on the theme. You can't go wrong with flowers and garden critters.

    This time our new challenge is ANIMALS, and one of my favorite critters are dogs, so I made a journal page with this Stamperia  dog image that I absolutely love.

   I used various papers (including the pet Graphic 45 paper) to layer the background. And since dogs were the first domesticated animal, and since there are people who have loved dogs for a very very long time, I added the clock (a TH die cut). I also added a small punch out heart that I added just a bit of red sparkle to. Then I used an old Cheery Lynn die and cut the dog bones out a couple of times. I finished with a sticker quote because spending time with a dog is a simple pleasure in life. 

  For those of you who prefer cats, I also agree spending time with a cat is also a simple pleasure, but I will say that dogs get the prize for giving you that look of love. 😏 (Not that cats don't love you either, but as you probably know, it's just different.)

   As always our Animal challenge runs for the next 2 weeks, and we accept any kind of art, as long as this time it has something to do with animals. If you need any ideas, but sure to check out the rest of the design teams selections. 

   I hope you're as inspired by animals as I am, and I look forward to seeing your animal art.

T Stands for 4 Days of Craziness

   Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. And hello to everyone who stops by Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog this week for T day.

   I have to tell you that I am exhausted today. The past weekend was  fun 😊 but very busy. It's always that way over the July 4th weekend as it's the big family holiday in my husband's family.  Plus, there was a deck to build at my mother-in-law's house, so before the holiday we took a couple of  trips up to the lake to bring up the lumber and tools that were going to be needed since my husband was the one in charge of the project.

  Not that going to the lake for 4 days straight is a bad thing, especially in the summer. 😉 ❤ Especially when it's hot.  

   And I also want to mention that if I haven't been by your blog for a few days, my time has been pretty filled up for the last few days. I'm working on catching up, but I wouldn't be surprised if I still missed a few people. 😟 I apologize if it was you.

  For T day this week let me share a few photos from the last 4 days of craziness. Warning, this is a bit of a long post.

   I'll start with  the deck project. This was the guys big July 4th project. They'd started planning this back when they put in the  dock a few weeks back. The deck  frame was still in good shape, but it needed to be lifted up, leveled and then new deck boards  screwed down. 

   Below are the 4 guys at work. Starting at the guy in the blue shirt at the right who is my husband, going clockwise is then my husband's sister's husband, one of their son-in-laws, and also my son-in-law.  The sister-in-law's other son-in-law refused to  help, and that wasn't the smartest move since it not only disappointed everyone, but didn't make anyone, especially the guys, really happy with him.  

    Most of the deck was finished on the 4th, but a little bit needed to be finished on the 5th. However, enough of the dock was completed so you can see my daughter explaining something to her aunt. Also in the photo is my son-in-law and  then smiling at me, my husband.

   The young guys were gone the night of July 4th, but my husband and his brother-in-law finished off the dock on Sunday the fifth.

   This finished dock photo was taken by my husband, and ha ha, I just noticed you can see me off on the other end of deck with a book in hand reading.

     For those of you who are not excited by construction, here are some other views.  I'll start with some photos for those of you who like sky views. The sun through the clouds was beautiful at one point.

    I can't forget the dogs either. On the 4th, Maddie went for a swim and then found the most central location on the dock to relax all day. I'm sure this was part of her plan because it required everyone going by her to stop and give her a pat.

    The construction and all the commotion was making Pete a little bit nervous so he was my shadow all day on  the 4th.

   The niece's little one (Jack, he's 1 1/2) was fascinated by bubbles.  At one point it was also a fun photo play time for me.

   And Jack wasn't the only little one during the day. Mama Merganser and her 5 little ones came by. But I had seen 6 on another day. Then, after a few minutes, we heard a little peep-peep-peep as number 6 came quickly paddling along.

    I'm glad she didn't lose one of her babies. 👍Also speaking of birds, a couple of loons came in pretty close to shore on Sunday afternoon when the lake was much quieter.

   We didn't do much exciting for food. Just hot dogs and hamburgers.  For dessert my husband and I picked up this huge tray of cupcakes at Sam's Club (it's closer than Costco). Luckily there were enough people tempted to eat them that we only brought home a couple.

  I can''t forget my drink photos either.   Here's the 2 nieces with little Jack. Mom's in the blue hat, and his aunt in the green one.  Auntie Ally is holding a drink also, but I'm not sure what she was drinking. 

   I remembered to snap one photo of my drink also. This was actually on the 5th when we went back up so the 2 guys could finish the deck, and we all could do some cleaning up. During the summer weeks are assigned to each of the siblings, my husband and his 2 sisters. One of his sisters wasn't around on the fourth (which was actually nice because she's rather difficult for various reasons), but this is her week to use the house so we definitely needed to clean up after the construction and people traipsing through the house.

   I think that covers the gist of the 4 days before and during the holiday weekend so I'll wish everyone a happy T day and week ahead.

The Art of a Travel Story

  Hi everyone.   Happy weekend to you. I hope if you're in the US you had a nice Independence Day yesterday and are  enjoying the holiday weekend. 250 years...Wow. I remember the 200th anniversary clearly so I must be getting old. Ha ha! 😉

  I hope everyone, no matter where you live, had a nice weekend so far also. 

  I wrote this post several weeks ago, and I kept pushing it into the future. I figured it was time to share it, and with this being a holiday weekend, I thought a little bit of US history would work. If you're interested in US history you might enjoy this post. And if not, then I'll catch you another time.

 I never did finish my trip blog posts from when I went to Charleston, South Carolina back in April, so I thought this history inspired post would be a good choice for this weekend.

  I'm also joining Gillena for her Sunday Smiles  and Nicole for her Sunday in the Art Room (Sitar) which is canceled this week.   

  Today I'm taking you to Fort Sumter and on an adventure my husband and I took out into Charleston Harbor. I like the challenge of writing a travel post that tells a story, but it's always a little tricky when you're writing about history unless that's your expertise.I'm not even close to being a Civil War history expert, but I do find it interesting.  It's  tough because I want to tell a complete story, but not write a novel. I don't know if I succeeded today or not, but I'm sure if you read this you'll have something to say. 😉

   Our last day in Charleston was a history military-style day for us after a couple of nature days, and our visit to Fort Sumter takes us back into American history. This fort played a pivotal role during the American Civil War. The fort really started becoming a pivot point during the late autumn and early winter of 1860, right after Abraham Lincoln was elected into the office of president. It really became a pivot point after his inauguration on March 4, 1861.

  In this above photo you can see the fort as it looks now in 2026.  Forts Sumter was an American fort. It was under construction in the 1820's, and  when 1860 rolled around there were still construction workers there. The fort sits in Charleston Harbor on a man-made island, and its original purpose was to help protect the harbor from foreign invaders.  In the above photo you can see what is left to the fort. It was originally a 3 story building. In the flag photo below, if you look for the line on the flagpole (which is a bit deceiving from the angle I took the photo), you can see how tall the fort originally was.

   In 1860, the United States had a presidential election, and Abraham Lincoln was elected. Many people believed he would immediately free the slaves once he became president. This was especially true in the south where a lot of the economy was tied up in cotton and having slaves to work the fields. This made many southern states want to leave the United States, and South Carolina was the first state to do so in December of 1860. In fact Charleston was the heart of the secessionist movement. In the next few months, several other states would leave the United States and join South Carolina, forming what was called the Confederate States of America.

  However in 1860, Fort Sumter was an American (also known as the Union) fort, and it was manned by the American military. It  (along with 2 other forts) sat in what was  now  not the United States since South Carolina had left the country  The other 2 forts were connected to the mainland, but Sumter was not. 

   The military commander of these 3 forts was Major Robert Anderson. Since he was stationed with his men at Fort Moultrie, one of the forts connected by a bridge  to the mainland, he worried that staying there would lead to security risks. On Christmas night (after midnight so it was December 26, 1860), under the cover of darkness, he moved the entire garrison out across the bay to Fort Sumter and raised the American flag. The next morning when daylight arrived,  the people of Charleston were surprised that Fort Moultrie had been abandoned and that the American flag was flying high at Fort Sumter.

   Although this now meant that for the South Carolina military to capture Fort Sumter it would need to either bomb or attack  by ship, it also meant that the Sumter could not be easily resupplied. Between when the men moved onto this island up until the time it was attacked, food supplies would run very low. Several attempts to resupply the fort lead to those American supply ships being chased out of the harbor by various means. 

   Many negotiations went on between December 1860 and April of 1861 between the United States and the new Confederate States. None reached any real positive conclusions. Some of this was because President Lincoln, in his inaugural speech, said that all American military bases would stay in Union/American hands. He did not want to look weak after that and give up the fort. 

   Since none of these negotiations worked, and since the Confederate States wanted the Union military out of Charleston Harbor, tensions rose quite high.

  On the 12th April of 1861, the fort was bombarded by the South Carolinian military, setting the fort on fire and causing Anderson  (after a few days) to surrender in order to save his men. That military event is why the fort looks much like it does today. This event also started the American Civil War, also called the War Between the States, that lasted from April of 1861- April of 1865 and killed more Americans than any other war to date.  But because it was the Confederacy that attacked the fort, it can be said they started the war, not Lincoln.

   OK enough background. Here's some photos for you, starting with this model of how the fort looked in 1860. This model was inside the modern museum added to the fort . I think that was my husband's hand reflected in the glass on the top.

    Now you can see the present condition of the fort. This next photo is taken inside the fort, looking back to Charleston, which is where the bridge ( that you can see in the distance) is located.

   This next view is  also inside the fort, and it is mostly  the modern portion added by the National Park Service with the museum, store and offices.

    Every star on the US flag stands for one of the states. Another bit of history I learned at the fort was that when new states were added to the Union, new stars would be added on July 4 of the following year. This flag has 33 states, even though by the time the war started Kansas had been added to the Union. However, since the war started in April, its star would not be added until July so it was not on the flag flying at Fort Sumpter.

     I also learned that there was no set star pattern at this point in time, so the star pattern that flew at Fort Sumter was Major Anderson's preference.   

    To get to Fort Sumter you have to take a National Park Service boat tour.  On the tour you get a history lesson, and once you land, you get an hour to explore the fort. An hour may not seem like much, but it really was enough time since the fort and the island it is on is not very large.

   In this next photo you see some more ruins of the fort, and below that, where the tan twine circle is, you can see an original Civil War artillery shell that is still embedded in the wall. 

    If you look at this next photo, you can see some finger impressions from when the bricks were made. The bricks were made in the general local area, and as it was explained to us, made by slave children. One of them pushed a little too hard and left an imprint. It makes me wonder about the life this person had...and this unknown person is (sadly) only remembered by some imprints in a brick.

   More ruins.

   And finally, our hour passed and it was time for us to leave. There's my husband on the walkway out to the boat that would take us back to Charleston Harbor. The weather had changed while we were at the fort, with the wind picking up and the clouds coming in. It was even chilly.

   I hope you enjoyed this little bit of US history. And I also that you have a great rest of  your weekend and start to the new week.

   

Random Recent Friday Faces

   Hi everyone. Happy first Friday in July. Today I'm joining Nicole for  Friday Face Off and Gillena for Friday Lunch Break. I found some recent faces in my photos and thought I would share them today.

   My husband came across this fun sock monkey while cleaning some bins in the garage. He was a gift that a teaching friend made back when I was pregnant with my daughter  34 years ago. I threw him in the washing machine, and I must say he looks pretty good. The last time I saw my daughter, I returned him to his rightful owner.

   A few weeks back the dock needed to go into the water at my mother-in-law's house. Here's 3 of the 4 guys who were putting it in. From left to right is my sister-in-law's husband, their son-in-law and then my husband. The fourth guy was my son-in-law who was doing the on-land part. I also can't forget Mr. Pete's face. He was waiting  impatiently for them to finish and put the steps in so he could go swimming.

  Tomorrow is the July 4th Independence Day holiday as you might know. Tomorrow's plan is to rebuild the deck that connects into this dock, and these 4 guys will be back to work again.

   While having an off-work moment, my husband looked my way. I was lucky and captured a good photo.

   Also a few weeks back some friends our ours were up in our area from their home in North Carolina. We all met up for dinner at a restaurant in Manchester (New Hampshire) and posed for a photo. I've known my friend for 48 years, longer than I've ever known my husband. It's too bad she and her husband  moved south (although they love it down there) because the 4 of us really meshed, and I miss having them around.

   I can't forget my favorite canine faces either.

 For several weeks my husband's boat sat in the back yard while he cleaned it. He loves his boat, and he babies it.  Now it is back at the marina , not in the water, but we park it in a field at the marina for the summer. We put it in and then pull it out of the ocean every time we go to use it, which is not any trouble at all. Paying to leave the boating in the field is considerably less than paying for a slip or a mooring, and a lot of people do that.

   The dogs also love going for boat rides. Here's Maddie in HER seat on our first fishing trip of the season.

    My next photo is from ice cream Sunday. It's tough when you have an ice cream window only 5 minutes from the house. We decided several years ago that if we made a plan to go on Sundays, then the temptation to go other days wasn't so much because you know Sunday isn't that far off.

    This cone is a small sized one, so I would hate to see how big a large is. 

    The pups also enjoy car rides a lot. Especially on ice cream Sundays. 

   Maddie doesn't like cones, so Pete gets the end of my husband's cone. I always get my  ice cream in a cup so it doesn't end up all over my shirt, and Maddie gets to lick out the cup instead.

   Wishing everyone a wonderful start to the weekend. And if you are celebrating July 4th, I hope you have a super holiday too.