Holiday greetings

 

from our family to yours.

We begin the New Year with hearts overflowing following a wonderful Christmas with our girls in  Florida. We can’t think of a better gift. Since many of you often inquire about them, we are happy to give you updates.

Holly remains in the Florida panhandle. In addition to teaching enrichment programs (Spanish and music) to preschoolers, she is a Professional Development Specialist for educators working on their Child Development credentials. She uses her gift of music by singing with the Northwest Florida Symphony Chorale and uses her experiences to advocate for other Gold Star survivors by serving on the Air Force Survivor Advocacy Council.

Alison continues to work in marine mammal conservation at UNCW. 

She uses her music talent to play trumpet with the UNCW Jazz Combo, the Wilmington Symphonic Winds, Wilmington Virtuosi Brass, and Costal Carolina Orchestra. In addition, as part of the GSTA team (Gold Star Teen Adventures,) she mentors and instructs Gold Star teens in scuba diving.

Camille is currently dancing with the St. Louis Dance Theater and teaches young, aspiring dancers.

Since we are on the route to her mom’s home, she stops by several times a year. (Wherever her career takes her, we hope we will always be on her route.) Grandma (aka ABN) loves spending time with her in the craft studio.

All three are accomplished cooks which made it fun to watch as they worked in the kitchen. We were reminded of the girls standing on stools as Holly taught them how to use the mixer, break eggs, measure ingredients and many other culinary skills. Needless to say, we ate well. The energy, laughter, music, and a little happy chaos made for a wonderful Christmas.

2025 is now history. It was rich with travel, friends, new experiences, blooms, butterflies, birds, and ended with wonderful family time.

The Wanderer is resting quietly in storage as The Beast (aka GMC Yukon Denali) steps up to justify his price tag. In September he took us on the bourbon trail, in October to Austin, Texas for the wedding of our niece. Okay, Claire is not actually our niece, but we love her as though she were. The Beast, and Captain, were honored with the distinction of being two of the most useful guests by transporting other guests as well as loads of wedding essentials. In December, the Beast made for a comfortable drive to Florida.

As a new year begins, we are reminded (well at least ABN is) of past New Year resolutions. They were usually the typical ones, get more exercise, lose weight, eat healthier, get organized, and the list went on. As we continue on our journey to age richly, that has changed a bit.

No longer are they resolutions, but more like goals. Eating well is not about losing weight but trying not to gain, instead of calories, we are focused on sodium and sugar intake, exercise means keeping mobile and instead of organizing, we plan to continue the decluttering. As we all know (okay some of you may be in denial) we will continue to age as long as we breath and there is nothing we can do about it, but we do have a bit of control on how we age. And that, friends, is our goal for 2026.

We donned another hat

as tour guides by introducing our Colorado friends, Adele and Steve, to our home state and our little corner of the world. 

Picking them up at the Nashville airport, our first stop was Mammoth Cave. The longest known cave system in the world, over 400 miles have been mapped. Volunteers continue to discover additional rooms and passageways. Taking the Historical Tour, we learned the history as well as geological features. Please do not ask us to expound, after all this was just a 1 hour tour.)

Wanting to show them what we consider to be the prettiest part of our state, and with a circle tour in mind, we headed to Bluegrass Country, aka Horse Country. It also happens to be the birthplace of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. No, we did not visit all 60+ distilleries, but we did taste in four of them.

Looking for Maker's Mark we explored a bit more of the area than we had planned. 

Lesson learned, regardless of what the GPS says, follow the signs. 

We also tasted at Four Roses. For us, it was a bit underwhelming, and we have no photos.

Buffalo Trace was high on our tasting list, but we were unable to get a tour reservation. You can see why we chose not to stand in line for the free tasting.

Taking the Old Frankfurt Pike Historic Scenic Byway to Nicholasville, we enjoyed brunch at one of ABN's favorite spot, Luna's Coffee, Wine and Butterfly Cafe.

We marveled at the many times we have ridden our tandem on this road and other similar narrow, curvy, hilly roads on the Horsey Hundred bike ride; even more so that we lived to tell about it!

The tour of Kentucky continued as we turned west toward our home. With pride we showed our guests around our small town neighborhood. It just happened they were in town on a Tuesday.

Having become close friends with Adele and Steve over the past 7 years, the only perception of us they had was in the context of our RV. Now they know the rest of the story. Looking forward to seeing them again in February!

It's a Labor of Love

 

"Following my morning garden chores, I sat on a bench for a rest. Sitting there less than 30 minutes, I observed several black swallowtails, a couple of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, a few Monarchs, a couple of goldfinches, a pair of cardinals, a few hummingbirds, in addition to lots of white cabbage butterflies and tons of bees and moths. For this, my friend, is what I toil 10 months of the year." 

                                                            CBJ (aka ABN.)

Our little backyard Butterfly, Bird and Bee habitat has been quite lively these past couple of months. We documented a record number of butterfly species, surpassing the previously recorded maximum by four species.   

Update, another species showed up after this original post. 

After a recent influx of Monarchs and hummingbirds on their journey to a warmer venue, and as other butterflies prepare for their winter hibernation the activity has noticeably decreased.

While the goldfinch population has tapered off to a pair or two, the Robin family has returned from their summer hiatus. And there is an increase of  red flashes as the cardinals dart through the garden.

The buzz of the bees remains constant.

Apparently word of our little habitat has spread. While we are all for diversity, there is not enough room for opossums and raccoons. We understand they are looking for water sources, but honestly, they are not considerate guests. Feeling they would thrive better, Captain has initiated an Urban Mammal Relocation Program to a wooded area near the Ohio River. 

One might think it would be the beginning of a slower pace for the gardeners. Not so, as the rush to prepare for the next season begins. Beds must be prepared for fall planting as well as for early spring planting. Repairs must be made, spent flowers removed, leaf mulch applied, pots washed, all before the cold, short days of winter.

Since the gardeners are also the home maintenance crew, our work is never slow. You may recall our post from April 2024 about the re-plastering of our vintage home. It was completed in August! 

For about a week, we lived in our bedroom, kitchen and back porch as four rooms, plus the bath and hall on the main level were painted.

The painting is now completed! Fortunately the painters moved the heavy furniture and we worked diligently to clean and return order to our home. It is now company ready.

A much needed reprieve for the gardeners and home maintenance crew is next on the agenda. Perhaps now is the time to explore a little in our home state and have a taste of bourbon.