THE UNEXPECTED JOYS OF EACH NEW DAY

Sweet "Froggy" hasn't visited my Mystery Sampler recently.  Oops...hush my mouth before he hears and decides to make a sneaky appearance again. Last week, although having a wonderful time, my happy, but weary body usually told me that I had better not take out my needlework, lest my "Froggy" appear and find it necessary to "rip-it, rip-it" some stitches again!

Over the weekend, I made a little more progress.   It has been fun sharing progress with other stitching friends at our Wednesday LNS group, many of whom are also stitching the Mystery Sampler.  After all, isn't that half the fun?

Small things bring great happiness.... When we arrived home for our trip to the shore last weekend, we found that our little Robin family had really grown!  They were so big that they were almost falling out of the nest!

 The next morning I tiptoed out to the deck to have another peek at the nest, and saw only two little robins, and as I walked a bit closer, they both rose up out of the nest and flew down to the ground!  Mother and Father Robin were up in the tree, chirping at their youngsters and at me, and off they all flew.

Alas, the nest is empty and we feel a little sad, but so thankful to have witnessed such a miracle of new life!

Can you see the tiny Monarch butterfly perched on right side of the left Black-Eyed Susan?  Isn't that just amazingly beautiful?  I couldn't believe that it stayed there long enough for me to photograph such a lovely sight!

Our trip to the shore with our friends last week was really special, but our stay was brief, because there were other family members coming to use the cottage later in the week.  We were so happy to be there, even for a few days during the really hot and humid weather.  It was definitely cooler on the coast, with nice sea breezes, especially at night.

As you can see, the air was still rather hazy and the view not great, but the wind was blowing, which felt really nice!

The Judah Baker Windmill, built in 1791 and restored in 1974 and again in 1999, stood on the land from where we took the photos of the bay.   It was so excitng to see this beautiful windmill up close. The last time I saw real windmills, was many years ago, on a trip to the Netherlands before our children were born.

We visited a couple of other wonderful, quaint New England towns.  One of them was Chatam, MA.

The Chatam Village Clock, with the year in which the town was incorporated of 1812.

A beautiful church right on the main street in Chatam.  I just loved the gorgeous arch ways with the beautiful flowering hydrangeas.  Apparently hydrangeas must grow really well in the seaside areas because they were everywhere we looked....

This Stained Glass Window of the church in Chatam, was so beautiful that I just had to photograph it.  Isn't it lovely?  I wish that the colours had shown up better though.

This is a little shop to which we had been directed, when we inquired about whether there were any needlework shops in Chatam.  Although it had lovely handmade hooked rugs and kits with which to make them, there were only about 3-4 cross-stitch designs kitted up.   Aren't the little flowering vines beautifully draped across the top and sides of the windows?  It reminded me of some of the shops I remember seeing a long time ago, on a visit to Great Britain.

These are a variation of the hydrangea, called Lace Hydrangeas.  Aren't they just beautiful?  They were plentiful in all of the villages and towns we visited.  I had never seen this type of hydrangea.  I was tempted to try and take a cutting home to see if we could start a bush in our yard...

In my next posting, I will share some more photos and stories of our little getaway, but for now, must go and start supper, as my dear husband just called and is on his way home from work.  It is getting hotter and more humid outside, and I just needed to turn on the air conditioning.  Tomorrow is supposed to be more humid! Yuck!  I am getting ready for the cooler days of early September!

Blessings to You!