Catching up: a few Recent Memories

 We'll start this potpourri of memories with this small landscape painting, an acrylic, purchased from the artist on the pedestrian mall in downtown Timişoara last October.  Thanks to Alexandra M. for the use of her Clio, which brought me to Timi from Cluj, and to Miruna N. and her husband for acting as my guides on my first visit to that beautiful city in the Banat.

 And here is Titiana M., Monica Z.'s friend in Boston, on her first visit to Hotel New Hampshire last November.  We took Rocinante out for a ride on Thanksgiving, and she enjoyed it!

Then came Christmas, which we spent at Campton, with none of our children present, though Valer S. was here to keep us company.  We love that lad, who has become part of our family for the past two years.

On Christmas night, Shirl and I left in our Santa Fe, and made it to Jamie and Amy's new home two days later.  Here Jamie and Shirl are loading our housewarming gift to the couple, a new kitchen table and chairs from IKEA.

It is a really nice house, in a neighborhood with good schools.  That was important, because Amy is going to deliver us a granddaughter about March 1st!

This is taken from their backyard.  Nice.  Ducks, a great blue heron and some crazy looking underwater-swimming bird were seen on the lake.

Note our project.  Jamie and I weeded the air conditioner fan, then trenched around it and filled the trench with drainage stone.

Guardian of the house is Bowser, an only-sometimes vicious English bulldog, seen here on the screened back porch.

Looking across the lake, a common sight in the more modern developments in the area, most of which have been built on filled land, with drainage ponds left where the soil was dug out to raise the level of the habitable land..

Shirl mugs at the kitchen counter.  Note the paint color test patches on the wall.  I liked them as they were!  Why paint the whole wall?  That is art!

See what I mean?  Nice pastels, no?

Next year, God willing, there will be five stockings hanging in this home: Jamie's, Amy's, Bowser's, Pepper's, and our grandchild's!

This is Pepper, a very old fellow, indeed, at about 14, but a wonderful dog.

My reliable, roomy, and comfortable 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe.  He is over 140,000 miles old, but well-maintained, and a great car.  The local Hyundai dealers send me offers to buy him, because demand for these models remains strong... but he is not for sale!

Here are Jamie and Amy, whose wedding we celebrated in this blog a couple of years ago.

While Shirl was in Colorado for her extended vacation, I drove over to Shaftsbury, Vermont, to visit our second son Jesse and his bride, Cally, whose wedding we also reported here back in June of 2012.

Suspicious character!

Shy to a fault?

The young McDougalls are "splitting their time" between an apartment in Rockport, Massachusetts, and the Pullman Family Farm in Shaftsbury.  Here, Jesse is seen with Jim Pullman, Cally's uncle.

And here is the handsome Orville, sleeping next to Jim in the living room of the farmhouse.

Our Christmas Tree, as seen from NH Route 175