The end of July is coming to a close. This summer has gone by quickly but August holds Barbers Orchard opening and all the goodness contained there. Lora and I have made tentative plans to meet there for a peach/apple slushie and who knows what else? Oh apples, yes. Well, not so much in the beginning. But by the end of August the honey crisp are ready and available for purchase. Yahoo!
We looked at one song last night in choir from our Christmas music. It is an enjoyable song and fun to sing. All the music we worked on last night was so good, several songs we have sung before and a few new ones, well new to me.
Just looked over the first fall reading list from Square Books. Now all of these lists are online but I remember checking the mail with the hopes the latest Dear Reader would be in the mailbox. When the anticipation was nearly taking over, there it would be. Slowly, I would go through all the new releases and circle books that I was interested in. This is before Amazon and before local bookstores carried little known genres. I would order from Square Books and when that box came, it felt like Christmas and nostalgia wrapped together because the books were wrapped the individually with brown paper. Square Books is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. For so many years we made a detour to Square Books in Oxford MS on our way to Nashville or to Asheville. Such a fun detour, at least for me, and throughout those early years I've experienced stories from their local Mississippi authors that were probably self published thinking about it in hindsight. That is where I found Augusta Trobaugh novels that are such delightful, thought provoking and funny reads. Ya gots to love good stories that have all the elements needed to flesh out characters and the dailiness of life.
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I found myself on some back roads yesterday in east TN. The rolling hillsides, all manner of crops, dairy cows and the like certainly drew me in. From time to time I had to stop and enjoy the view. A good smattering of old farmhouses mixed in with newer construction. It was one of those times where the view is committed to heart not a camera. Numerous fields with hay in preparation for baling. There is nothing like the sweet fragrance of hay in the air.
Last week a friend and I were commiserating over the decline of customer service at The Nord. The Nord in Charlotte since my first visit there has been referred as the sub par Nord. The selection, the restaurant and finding someone to help with a purchase is a constant consistent. Sounded like from my friend's observations that the Nord near her in Texas is experiencing the same problems. That prompted me to go online and see if this was a universal problem or we were just fortunate to have the sub par experience. No, it seems like the general consensus is huge decline. The Nord has a great online presence but traffic in the stores has decreased. Now you'll find most sales people looking at their phones and standing around. One interesting comment from a review that Nordstrom's problem is lack of training for their personnel, nothing like it has been in the past when training and service were recognized by those in the industry and those outside of it. I had also heard that the stores are taking more of a Nordstrom Rack mentality...which is great at a Rack store but not so much in a signature store.
Our class finished up with the study of David by looking at Psalm 23. There is so much in that Psalm for daily life. We begin looking at Solomon this week and it's funny, after talking to my friend Carole yesterday she mentioned her class's study of Ecclesiastes, it looks like in a couple of weeks we too will be spending a Sunday in that book. They had twelve weeks, so feeling pretty good about just the one. We are looking at wisdom and how God blessed Solomon to rule with wisdom this coming Sunday.
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We might get some rain this evening. We got enough yesterday that I didn't have to water anything. Don't want the wind gusts though.
It is a good thing I got new glasses today because I wore navy leggings with my black and white dress. Oops. The navy discovery came though while still wearing the old glasses. Oh well... So that meant I didn't cross my legs today at the funeral of Shirley Israel. I didn't know Shirley very well but she had always been kind to me. So, I got my new glasses, ate Mexican food for lunch, ran over to Marshall for a quick stop, came home and then went to church.
Well, I should fix supper...thinking of a Cuman D tomato but no runny eggs on the side.
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