Hello Spring!

Well, it's been a long rough winter, 

and Spring has finally sprung!
The buds on my beautiful giant Norwegian Maple 

are a welcome sight!

Joe Walsh, my housemate and best friend 
has started on his trip back home 

from the California desert

today and should arrive home tomorrow.
I'm baking a rack of ribs and a loaf of sourdough

to welcome him home.
It will be good to have company again!

We are chatting about a solo trip to the Camino.
We'll see how that pans out.
He's worried about the war.
I reminded him we traveled there 

during the Iraq war.

The news on Joe Barry, 

my childrens' father, is sad. 

He still has not passed, 

but today I was told he is talking to people

who are not there, in the room.

I believe our ancestors and dead relatives

come back to help us cross over

and I believe this is what is happening. 
The nurse has told us he most likely has

less than two weeks left.
He sleeps much of the time now.

My son, Rob, and his girlfriend,

are exhausted. 
It takes a LOT 

to care for a dying person at home.

I know . . . 
I cared for my stepfather, my brother, 

and my mother.
Then I took the trip to Georgia 

to set up hospice for my ex.

Sometimes I wonder if I should change my name

to the "Death Doula!"

I hope this is the last of that job.
It's rewarding, but sad, and emotionally draining.

On another note, 

I've started my garden plants!
The tiny tomatoes are doing great,

but the bell peppers are slow to start.

I spent several hours yesterday doing cleanup outside,

and transplanting my sweet potato slips into water.
I have spinach and collards coming up

in the garden.

I tore out the last of the giant kale 

and will be planting new seed this week. 

My strawberries did fine overwintering.

My garlic and onions are doing great!

The golden raspberries are putting on leaves and buds.

The peas are up and happy!

The flowers are all blooming!

Even the rosemary is blooming.

One branch of my grafted pear tree is blooming. 
I wonder which pears these will be?
I have 5 varieties on this tree.

And about Vanlife:

I'm planning a trip to Breitenbush next week.
I need a break after the stress of this past winter.

I'm talking to Vern, a van friend,

about putting a solar panel on the roof of my van.
I'm pretty excited about that!
I don't use a lot of electricity but it will mean 

no longer having to carry a heavy folding solar suitcase.

My friend Carol is sewing a cover for my

Luggable Loo. 
I'm going to make it into a usable stool.
It's good to have multi-use objects 

in such a small space.

I bought a catalytic heater to replace my Buddy Heater.
It is safer and uses less propane. 

I also have replaced my little Butane one burner stove

with a stove that takes both butane and propane. 
I'm dropping the Coleman 2-burner stove.
It is just extra weight and I never use two burners.
Also, since the influx of homeless and druggie van people,

you can no longer leave your propane or stove set up outside

without worrying about someone stealing it.
So the small one-burner makes more sense.

Once I get all set up, I will do a video of my van.
I had a tripcheck done this past week 

and it's in great shape.
I'm looking forward to more trips this summer

to the coast,

and spending the winter in Quartzsite. 

What else?
Well, today I'm getting ready for Joe's return.
I started the morning off by breaking a glass

in the living room,

so I have to clean up that mess.
Then I'm baking a loaf of sourdough

After that, 
I need to think about where I'll plant

the three artichoke plants I picked up this week.

Life continues to be GREAT!
More later.

Love,

Annie

Praying for a Peaceful Transition

 

It's been a sad week.

I have flown to Georgia to help my son and his girlfriend care for my ex-husband, who has been put on hospice. 

He and I have remained good friends through the years since our divorce. We would have been married 50 years in May.  He was invited to come out to Oregon and spend time with our extended family every Thanksgiving.  He will be missed.

For the father of my sons, the end is coming soon, and this has been difficult for my son to accept. 

This have been a lot of sadness, memories, regrets, and tears. 

If you can send prayers or peaceful energy or just good thoughts, all are appreciated.

May his Spirit fly free and may he find peace.

Annie

Joe Barry and I our last Thanksgiving together

Winter

Well, we really haven't had a winter in Dallas, Oregon this year!

I think the lowest the daytime temperature 

has been is in the high 40's 

and we have had sunshine many days. 

Rain has been light, 

so I'm wondering 

what the rest of the year will be like?

Catching up, here's what's going on in MY life. 

Joe left for the desert middle November. 

He's doing great there and has spent much of the past few months nursing an out-of-whack back. 

He's been doing his physical therapy exercises faithfully 

and the back is doing much better. 

However, this week he's down with Covid. 

Not sure where in the heck get got it, 

as he doesn't really socialize much.  

He thinks maybe at the market. 

But he's on the mend and I talk to him almost every day. 

I miss his company 

and will be glad when he's home. 

I'm doing great. 

After leaving the Camino early 

because of a lot of weird, seemingly unrelated symptoms, I was diagnosed with Silent Reflux. 

That pretty much explained everything 

and I'm doing a lot better after making some dietary changes 

and never eating after 4 pm.  

The doc offered me meds, 

but I don't like taking chemical medications and at 73, 

am still not on any meds and would like to keep it that way.

I'm exercising nearly every day. 

Upper body on Monday, Wednesday, Friday 

and lower body on Tuesday and Thursday. 

I'm walking at least a mile when weather permits. 

But I still seem to have no stamina - and I mean NONE. 

Just going up slight hills winds me - can't figure out why. 

Hopefully as Spring comes, I'll get out and walk more. 

Joe and I are talking about doing 

a VERY slow Camino at some point. 

No groups, just us, and only walking 

as far as we feel like it each day. 

No real plans yet, just in the talking stage. 

And not sure which route we'd take 

but most likely the Frances since it's so well-supported. 

Another option would be to take a small tent 

and attempt to finally finish the Via de la Plata.  

I'm enjoying my time alone at home while Joe is in the desert. 

(He won't come back until end of March, first of April.) 

I'm making greeting cards and really enjoying it. 

If you know me, you know I have to be doing

some type of art or I go nuts!

You can see my cards and my dotted mandalas 

in my Etsy shop at Dotty Dame Art

Since learning I can actually eat sourdough without issues, 

I've been baking a lot. 

Today I made sourdough English Muffins

 and man, oh man, they are good! 

Here is me cutting them in half with my new bread slicer! 

That thing works like a charm. 

Now I can put those muffins in the freezer 

and just take them out each morning to toast them.

Today I pruned the pear tree and the blueberries. 
I think the weather will be good enough tomorrow 

to get the golden raspberries and fig tree pruned. 

Yesterday I planted red onion starts 

and today I got my Walla Walla onions in. 

Tomorrow I'll put in the brown storage onions 

and then I'll be finished planting for a month or so. 

Soon it will be time to start the other garden plants 

like tomatoes and sweet potatoes, 

but I don't want to do it too early.

The strawberries are doing great.
The garlic looks a little wonky - not sure why.
Last year it did great, even under the snow, 

but the leaves are not going straight up - 

it will be interesting to see how it turns out. 

We still have a lot of garlic from last season 

and Joe is talking about making black garlic out of it 

when he gets home. 

I'd like to make the garden a bit smaller this season. 

We still have a LOT of food canned and frozen 

from last season and need to eat it up before we put up more. 

At least that's what I think. 

Joe seems to think we need to keep storing, storing, storing. ::laughing:: So we'll see. 

I have bell pepper and eggplant plants 

overwintering in the garage. 
They're looking fine so we'll have a head start on those. 

I have dahlias I'd love to put in some of those boxes this year. 
But if he's willing to do the work, I'll listen.

I guess that's all the news. 
Life is great, as always!

Love,

Annie

Autumn

 

Well, Autumn is officially here!
The leaves on my big maple tree out front are beginning to cover the yard.  It seems like just yesterday I was rejoicing at the new buds.
I couldn't believe how cold and windy it was yesterday when I went to my pulmonary testing appointment, compared to just a few days earlier when the weather was hitting the 80's!

My fig tree is PACKED with figs and I'm salivating, 

waiting for those little gems to ripen.

 After I tricked the tree by stressing it this summer,

 it exploded with figs!

We've harvested and canned all of the green beans. 

There are still a couple of tomato plants producing, 

and at least 2 pepper plants. 

The tomatillo plants are loaded and Joe is still canning salsa.  

The canteloupe are almost ripe. 

The leeks are getting fat and my kale is finally growing, 

now that it's getting too cold for those damned cabbage worms

 to attack.  

I still have onions ripening. 

I picked the last 2 pears last week. 

Joe is still harvesting strawberries and golden raspberries, 

but it's slowing down.

I planted garlic yesterday.
I also planted radishes, lettuce, and collards.

My son picked up the freeze dryer and took it to his house Saturday so I have a lot more room to work out in my den. If I need to freeze dry food this year, I can take it to his house to do it. 

He travels so there will be plenty of opportunity. 

I'd like to FD some meals for my winter van trip. 

The van goes into the shop on the 13th to get road checked.

Joe is starting to pack up for his trip to the desert, 

where he'll spend the winter. 

I'll miss him but it will be nice to have some time alone.

I think this year I'm going to spend my time

exercising and writing.

My pulmonary test went well. 
I haven't gotten the results yet but notice I'm breathing easier 

after they gave me albuterol.  

I guess that's good 

but I don't like the idea of having to take or use medications. 

If they prescribe it, I'll only use it when I absolutely need it. 

And I'm going to ask my doctor to send me for allergy testing next.

 I need to get to the bottom of this breathing issue.

I guess that's all the news.

Hanging in there!

Love,

Annie

My Van

 I wanted to show my van to some folks in my Facebook group and this is the best way to do it. I apologize for the bad quality of the videos. It isn't easy making a video with nobody to hold the camera. 

I bought my first van after I was diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. My ex built out an attached garage for me, but that didn't work. I needed to be away from people and their fragrances so I had lived out of my Mercury Tracer for a while. Here is a blog post about that:
https://caminosantiago2.blogspot.com/2019/02/building-out-mercury-tracer.html

Soon I bought a house with my disability settlement and shared it with my son. When he got married and moved, I had difficulty finding a housemate who was fragrance free, so I sold the house and bought my first van. It was a 2003 Toyota Sienna. 

I tried all sorts of thing to outfit my van, buying a lot of things I really did not need because people told me I needed them. I finally sorted out what worked best for me. Window coverings went through several stages of curtains, then coverings, then back to simply using reflectix and window film.  Simple always seems to win out.  This is one blog post I did - some things have stayed the same, but some have changed. 

https://caminosantiago2.blogspot.com/2019/02/organizing-my-2003-toyota-sienna-mini.html

By the way, you can follow some of my travels by clicking on "newer post" at the bottom of each blog post.

In 2018 I tried an ArcHaus - It was nice, but I didn't like not being able to close my hatch easily so I sold it. 

https://caminosantiago2.blogspot.com/2019/02/hello-arc-haus-april-2018.html

For one season, I used a Thule. It was "ok" but wouldn't allow me to park in the garage. It made the van too tall. Also, they are NOT waterproof!

https://caminosantiago2.blogspot.com/2019/02/thule-to-rescue-april-10-2018.html

Christmas 2019 I discovered I had breast cancer. I had a double mastectomy and recovered at my son's house. Then my mother fell and needed help, so I sold her house and took the cash from her house and mine and paid cash for a house here in Dallas, Oregon.  Mom refused to sell her car, so I had to sell my van. It was a super hard decision. She didn't even drive her danged car!  At any rate, I cared for my mother until she passed away. At some point, when she finally admitted she would never drive, I sold her car and bought my current van, a 2000 Toyota Sienna. 

I had a bed and kitchen put into it and it's what I've used now for the past several years to spend the winters in Quartzsite and to take cross country trips to Georgia to visit my son there.  I love my van!

Here is a blog of how my ex put in my bed:

https://caminosantiago2.blogspot.com/2025/07/my-2000-toyota-sienna.html

Here is a blog post about building out the first kitchen:
https://caminosantiago2.blogspot.com/2019/02/my-new-van-kitchen.html

I hope this helps someone. 

Love,

Annie

Home Sweet Home!

 

I got into Portland on September 11 and Joe picked me up in Vancouver, Washington at my son's house the next morning. 

I am SO happy to be home!

I spent all day yesterday in my garden. It was glorious! It's like a big old jungle!  I harvested tomatoes, carrots and onions. I harvested onion seed, celery seed, and parsley seed. I'm picking blackberries to make pancake syrup tomorrow. We've got some canteloupes that made it - and the golden raspberries are going nuts. The last of the green beans need to be canned - so much work to do - but it's work I love. 

I was shocked to see two boxes of Asian pears in the fridge. They came off our little tree that I planted last year. After I bought it on sale for $13 I realized it had about 5 varieties of pear grafted on it. This year we got those two boxes of asian pears and 2 Comice pears that are still on the tree.   Those pears are SO crisp and sweet!  I'm really happy!

My fig tree is exploding with figs - none are ripe yet but I noticed the figs on the trees in Spain weren't ripe yet either so I guess it's just too early.  I'm going to freeze dry them for winter.  I love figs!

I spent 3 hours at the Emergency Room last night. I just couldn't breathe. Every time I breathe deeply I start coughing. It's crazy. I feel like there's an elephant on my chest.  Joe's car is broken and he has a dental appointment in Portland and is using my car, and since Joe was going to be gone for 2 days I was afraid I'd have issues while I had no way to get to the hospital, so I had him take me to the ER.

Not being able to catch my breath is one reason I came home early from Spain. It really worries me. However, ALL of my tests came out not just normal, but great. My bloodwork, the EKG, and chest x-ray all showed nothing wrong.

I don't understand how that can be because I've been having this breathing issue for months now and it seems to be getting worse. My doctor gave me a referral for pulmonary tests - I have to call and make the appointment tomorrow. If that shows nothing, next I'm going to ask to see an allergist. The only left I can think of is maybe it is mold in the house. I do notice a lot of mold in the kitchen sink, garbage disposal and dish washer. I'm always having to clean out the filter on the dish washer. And it seems when we turn on the air conditioner my coughing gets worse. So I don't know... it's a mystery and a frustrating one. 

I know there is SOMETHING wrong. 
I just don't know what.

At any rate, I'm home and happy to be here. 
Joe just took off for Portland. I'm doing a load or two of laundry, then resting for a couple of days. I think I'll binge-watch Wednesday. 

Ok that's it.

Life is good!

Annie

September 11

September 11 has not been a happy day for me so far.

My father and my brother died in a plane crash on September 11. It was a plane that my son and I were supposed to be on. I had a dream the plane was going to crash and refused to go. My father was so angry! But he and my brother died, and my son and I lived.

I’ve had a feeling in my gut for the last few days that I just needed to get home, that something just wasn’t right. I didn’t really associate it with the date until after I changed my reservations to go home and realized I had booked my flight on 9/11. What in the hell was I thinking?! I guess I wasn’t thinking at all. So here I am at the airport waiting for a flight and praying it will be protected and I’ll set my feet safely on the ground in Portland, Oregon tonight. And this time when I say, “I don’t think I will fly again,” I really think I mean it. Terra firma.

Then to top off the creepy feeling, the airline would not let me check in online. I was told I needed to do it at the airport. So I arrived at the airport this morning three hours ahead of time and good thing I did. For some reason, they couldn’t print out my boarding pass. An hour later, after swearing to some guy on the other end of the customer service member’s phone that I would follow all the rules and that I would obey the stewards and crew, my pass was finally printed out (???). What a strange thing to happen. Has somebody been using my name to fly?

It has been a very tough week emotionally. First, the young woman Irynya Zarutska who was stabbed on the train for absolutely no reason at all by a man who had been turned loose by judges, 14 times for violent crime. In my opinion, those judges should do jail time for this murder. She came here to escape the war in her own country only to be stabbed to death on a train on her way home from work.

Then my cousin sent me a video and told me Charlie Kirk had been assassinated. What in the world is happening?

And not only that but Democrats are rejoicing and refusing to have a moment of prayer for his soul and his family. I’m embarrassed I ever was a member of the Democratic Party. They have evolved into something that is unrecognizable as human.

What kind of cowards shoot an opponent instead of engaging an intelligent discourse? It just makes me sick to my stomach. The world is becoming something I can’t understand or even recognize.

I’ll be glad to get home. I think I’ll just crawl into my bed and pull the covers up over my head.

Sadly,

Annie

Logroño

I had a nice day in Logroño. I slept in later than usual and then went to town to waste some time.

I started by browsing the local market where you could buy a whole piglet, if you needed one

I also found bacalau there and wished I had a truck to carry it all home in. If you don’t know what bacalau is, it is dried salted codfish, and Portuguese people love it. They say there’s 365 ways to cook it. It reminded me I have some in my freezer at home, but it’s difficult to get in the United States, unless you are on the east coast. I sent this photo to my son Cameron, and his reply was “Yum!”

I knew that I wanted to have lunch at Taberna del Tio Blas and I knew that I wanted to order their delicious chuleta. They did not serve until 1 PM so I did not eat breakfast and just waited.

To waste a little more time, I went to the museum.

Examples of ancient glass always fascinates me. It’s amazing that it has survived!

These dice are just like the ones we used today. Yahtzee anyone?

Ancient pilgrims didn’t have giant shells on their backpacks. This little pilgrim shell is about the size of a 50 cent piece

I was pretty hungry by the time 1 PM rolled around. It was worth the wait!

I’m salivating just looking at it again. I couldn’t eat many of the fries because I filled up on the steak. And those roasted peppers were perfect! I grew some of the green ones in my garden this year from a package of seed that I bought in Santiago. I hope when I get home, they are still producing.

Speaking of home, I take a bus to Madrid tomorrow and spend one night in a little hotel near the airport so I can fly out the next morning. I’m really happy to be going home!

I’ll have to figure out how to get from Portland back to Dallas because Joe’s car is not working. He may have it fixed by then, but he has to be in Portland on the 15th and I don’t want to ask him to drive twice in one week. That drive is awfully hard and his car has been acting up.

I get in really late, almost midnight, so I think I will catch a Lyft and spend the night at my son’s in Vancouver because he is out of town - and try to catch the train back to Salem the next day if I’m not too tired.

That’s all for now

Love,

Annie

Heading Home

For the last three days, I’ve had a nagging feeling that I need to go home.

I can’t quite explain it, it’s just a gut instinct. I have felt very unsettled. And if I’m being honest, I’m not getting what I expected to get out of walking the Camino this year. It is different. It is not what I need.

And so I made a decision last night to change my flight and head home. I took the bus this morning to Logroño where I will spend two nights near the bus station. I bought my ticket to Madrid airport for Wednesday morning. I managed to book a room near the airport Wednesday night and they have a shuttle and can take me to the airport Thursday morning.

I feel oddly relieved.

Joe did tell me last night that our very good friend and neighbor had a stroke yesterday. He wondered if that could have something to do with the feeling I was having, but I don’t believe so.

It’s something else.

I have been having trouble breathing. Every time I take a deep breath, I start coughing, and it concerns me. Something isn’t right. I need to be home. I have listened to these gut feelings my entire life. They have never steered me wrong.

And so I fly out of Madrid Thursday morning.

I’m looking forward to my bed and my bathtub and my garden. This has been a fun adventure, but what I’ve learned is there’s no place like home.

Love,

Annie

Luquin to Los Arcos

When I begin walking this morning around 7:15 AM, the party was still going on in town!

It was a fairly flat and beautiful 10 kilometer walk through harvested wheat fields and a few vineyards today. The first thing I passed was this little family chapel so I took a peek inside.

There are many brambles full of fruit all along the pathways. In case you didn’t know, the bramble is the genetic parent of our big fat juicy blackberries. The bramble berries are very tiny, about the size of a large pea, but they are very sweet. I managed to get a handful for breakfast.

A pilgrim walking ahead of me

Ruins of an old house

I could see this big huge building at the top of the hill in the distance and I wasn’t sure what it was. Upon enlarging it, it looks like it could be a church. I’m going to ask around and see if anyone knows.

I got into Los Arcos about 11 AM. I had a café con leche with some friends and then checked into my hotel room. It is hot and muggy today and I was hoping to have air conditioning but instead, I have this curious ceiling fan. I’ve never seen anything like it. You can’t see it until you turn it on. It’s hiding underneath the light and when you turn it on the fan blades spread out and go around and the dang thing works pretty good. I think I’ll look for one of these for my bedroom when I get home.

After a shower and a quick change of clothes, I headed to Hotel Monaco, where their restaurant has a nice, although expensive, meal. I haven’t had a full meal in a few days so it was worth the extra euros. I had a beautiful tomato and onion salad, and a nice fat steak!

After dinner, I went over to visit the church and take some photos. Mass was just ending, which explains why no one else was in the restaurant with me because the people poured out and they all headed over to Monaco. Lol!! I was happy to have beaten the rush.

Here are some photos of the inside of the church. If you’re not Catholic, it’s good to remind you that just a couple of generations ago people were not literate and so one of the reasons there are so many evocative statues and paintings in the Catholic churches is because this is how people learned the Bible stories because they could not read. The gold you see is not real gold. It’s gold paint, I imagine to symbolize the richness of heaven.

I have to say it’s very impressive Pay attention to the little men whose mouths open at the bottom of the giant pipe organ.

A sorrowful mother Mary, as she stands over A very realistic deadJesus in his glass casket.

Every corner of this church is painted walls and ceilings.

Slay that dragon!

This is Santiago, or Saint James in English.

Tomorrow, I will take the bus to Logroño for two days. It’s one of our favorite places and I’m looking forward to it.

More from there

Love,

Annie