This was the day that we walked the most. Leaving Kilbryde Castle where we were staying, we headed to Doune Castle in Doune, Scotland. We left around 9 am to give ourselves enough time to get to the castle by our 11:00 ticket time. We made the four miles with 30 minutes to spare.
As we entered the castle they gave us devices that recited the information at each stage of the castle. It was fun learning about the history, seeing where the food was prepared, where they slept, and entertained.
The hole in the corner of this area was for smoke. It was a spit for cooking large animals and hanging large pots to cook.
This was a doorway out of the kitchen area in to the prep area.
This was the hole for a toilet. The grate is over it to keep people from tossing trash. They did say that when a prisoner of war was held in the castle, he escaped by going out toilet hole.
This was the basket that held the wood to keep the guests warm during a banquet. It sits in the middle of the banquet hall.
The banquet hall. I can’t remember how many people they said it could accommodate. but it was large.
Looking out one of the windows toward the courtyard. It was pretty and a large area.
This was the fireplace in the family’s main room above the banquet hall.
This was where the Lord would hear grievances and proclaim laws.
gingerbread cake
It was a fun tour. Afterwards, we found the business district of the town and a quaint cafe called Buttercup. We had a wonderful lunch. I had creamed mushroom, sweet potato, tarragonsoup with loaded fries (which we all ate). Even though I was full, I couldn’t pass up the gingerbread cake. It was delicious!
With overflowing stomachs, we headed back to where we were staying. On the way, we passed by a playground and Angie decided to take a ride on a small zip line.
We walked slowly back to Kilbryde Castle, enjoying the sunshine and pretty scenes. When we arrived, I looked at my Fitbit and we had walked 9 miles.
The next day, we stayed at the castle being lazy. Midday, Angie and I took a stroll around the paths in the gardens and down by the river. I took a lot of photos of flowers still in bloom and the changing leaves. In the afternoon, we played cards and I packed for the next leg of our vacation.
Old rock steps down to the river.
view from the Ferry
We woke at 5 am, and the taxi arrived at 6 to take us to the bus station in Sterling. We had less than an hour bus ride to Glasgow and then a two-hour bus ride to Cairnryan to walk onto the Ferry. The Ferry ride took about two hours. We purchased a chicken wrap, ate the rest of the chips we brought with us, and then found a room with bench seats and the movie Super Mario Bros playing.
When we landed in Belfast, Ireland, we discovered the hotel we’d reserved was 30 minutes away. The taxi driver was full of good information. We spent the evening changing up some of our sightseeing due to the places the taxi driver told us. Then we watched some TV and went to bed.
I recently attended an art show in Joseph, Oregon at the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture. The show was Bloodlines: Nez Perce Art Exhibit.
There was traditional weaving, sewing, beading, painting, and bronze work, all created by twelve Nez Perce artists. The variety of mediums were a good representation of not only cultural traditions, such as the beading and weaving, but to see history translated into art and current themes.
The show opened at noon on Saturday with a prayer and a song by artist Nakia Cloud. It was fun to see and listen to him and then study his “Art on a Ledger.” He’d drawn more traditional-looking subjects on used ledger paper.
Jacy Sohappy had traditional patterns in her weaving and had an elk tooth dress on display.
The youngest artist represented was Emma Chief a teenager. I listened in as she explained two of her paintings to other art enthusiasts at the show. She held a deep understanding of her culture and had paintings that reflected the strength of women.
She wasn’t the only one who had women’s strength portrayed. Ellen Taylor had some striking paintings of women and one of Prince, the singer, as a Native American and Marilyn Monroe as a Native American. I have to admit I was tempted to purchase one of her prints of a Native American woman. The colors and the woman’s strength drew me.
Center stage of the whole event was Doug Hyde’s bronze of a Nez Perce woman warrior. It was striking and showed the strength and resilience of women.
Doug also has a large bronze int he front of the building. It deals with the return of the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) to Wallowa County. After the treaty of 1863, when the government reduced the size of the reservation taking away the walwa’ma band (Chief Joseph’s band) homeland given to the Nez Perce in the Treaty of 1855, Young Chief Joseph was moving his people to the Lapwai reservation when an altercation happened. The altercation set them and some other bands headed to Canada.
Many have heard of Chief Joseph’s surrender at Bearpaw Montana. But did you know that after they surrendered and were told they would return to Oregon, they were exiled to Kansas and Indian Territory? Many died from the heat and conditions. In 1885 they were finally allowed to return to the West, but not to Wallowa Valley. About half of them were sent to the Colville Reservation in Washington state, and the other half went to the Lapwai Reservation.
Many of the walwa’ma band remain at the Colville Reservation while others are spread among the Lapwai and Umatilla Reservations in Idaho and Oregon.
It wasn’t until the late 1970’s that other than participating in the Chief Joseph Day’s rodeo and parade that the Nez Perce were allowed back into Wallowa County. Now they have an interpretive center, powow grounds, a Wallowa Homelands, and more representation on the streets of Joseph with sculptures and they have an Nez Perce fisheries in the county.
Back to Doug Hyde’s bronze in the front of the Josephy center, which is named for a man who befriended the Nez Perce and wrote books showing their culture and language. The artwork titled: ‘etweyé-wise means The Return or specifically “I return from a hard journey.” It is the photo at the beginning of this piece.
Unfortunately, I was so busy looking at the artwork I didn’t take a photo of any of it. You can see some of the works at the website in the beginning of the post.
We started our trip to Scotland with a nice stroll to the train station. The ride took us to Paddington Station in London. We hailed a cab to get us to King’s Cross Station for our leg of the trip to Stirling, Scotland. With only 30 minutes to get to the next train, we thought the cab would be faster than us trying to find our way around the tube station.
Traffic was horrible!
Those people you see running through train stations and airports…that was us. We arrived at the train station with 8 minutes before our train left. And the trains don’t wait. They pull up only minutes before they leave. At the ticket turntable, Angie’s ticket wasn’t working, however, the attendant buzzed her through. It was my turn. I was fumbling trying to find the right ticket. He buzzed me through. Rietta hurried behind me, and he buzzed her through. Angie took off running toward the platform. I was running behind her with a backpack and my rolling suitcase. I know I had to look like a lumbering ox, but I kept my legs pumping even when they didn’t want to. I kept her in sight, and right as she boarded the train, Rietta darted around me. She hopped on the train, reached down and grabbed my bag, then grabbed my arm and helped me and my tired legs get up the steps onto the train.
After we found our seats and calmed down, we enjoyed the 5-hour ride to Stirling. We read, played cards, and watched the scenery.
At Stirling, we hopped in a cab and gave him the name of the place where we were staying. Kilbryde Castle, Dunblane. What I hadn’t realized was how isolated the castle was. The information said it was a short walk to places of interest.
Kilbryde Castle
Once the cab left, we realized it wasn’t. And our phones wouldn’t work to order takeout. I managed to get hold of the Airbnb host. She brought us bread, cheese, butter, eggs, and spaghetti. That was enough to get us through the night and breakfast. We were staying in the servants’ quarters.
The next day we started off walking around the Kilbryde Castle garden.
After seeing all the varieties of flowers and the wonderful trails, we set off for the town of Dunblane on foot.
Our phone said it was about 3 miles. At the halfway point, we discovered a lovely coffee stand. We stopped for hot chocolate and chai lattes.
After watching the people with dogs walking out toward the road, we followed them and found the trail to Dublane that ran alongside the highway.
In town, we encountered many large stately homes before crossing a bridge and coming to the town center. We found Leighton Library first. Angie stuck her head around a little door in the side of a building and discovered information about an expansion program for the oldest purpose-built private library in Scotland. It was built with money from Robert Leighton, Bishop of Dunblane 1661-1670, with money he requested to be used to build something to house his collection of books. There are around 4500 books printed in 15 languages in the library. He wanted the books to be housed in Dunblane and used by the clergy.
The feel of the leather covers, the multitude of sizes, and the variety of pages is something to behold for any lover of books. The woman at the library was full of wonderful information and said she would take out any book we wanted to look at, but I was so in awe of the sight that I didn’t want to bother the books. I couldn’t believe she said we could come back and get one to take with us to read and bring back before we left. It astounded me that they were so willing to share such a treasure.
From the library we toured Dunblane Cathedral. It was small but beautiful with carved pews and woodwork and modest stained glass windows. At the cathedral we were told the museum was a good place to learn the history of the town and took a turn through the rooms.
After the museum, we walked into a couple of stores and ended up getting lunch at the Riverside Cafe. I had a tasty sandwich of baked chicken thigh, tomato, mozzarella cheese, a nice sauce, fries, and a salad. We were all stuffed when we finished eating. And to our surprise, the cafe allowed dogs to come in with the owners. The dogs were on leashes and sat at the feet of their owners while they dined. Although Rietta said she spotted a lab, trying to snare a fry from a neighboring table when its master wasn’t looking.
This was written on the wall of the cafe.
Our next stop was to try and find a bus to see if it would take us back to the castle. We couldn’t find one and went to the grocery store instead for provisions for our stay at the castle. After seeing our groceries were taking all three bags we’d brought with us and being tired from all our trekking, we decided to call a taxi to take us to the castle. Again, my phone wouldn’t work even though I’d purchased the extra coverage. I asked the information desk at the store if they could call a taxi for us. We were told it would be about 10 minutes and where to wait. A taxi pulled into the parking lot, and we all walked toward him when he parked. He told us he wasn’t there to pick us up, that someone else was coming. So we went back and waited.
A taxi pulled up to the bus stop and waved us over. On our way to the castle, the driver told us about a walk similar to what we’d taken that day that would deliver us to the Doune Castle. We decided to see it the next day. We also set up for the taxi to pick us up at 6 am on the day we left to get us to the bus station in Stirling to catch our ride to Caryn and the ferry across to Ireland for the last leg of our trip.
I had a fabulous time at the Left Coast Crime conference in Denver, Colorado last month. I was lucky enough to be on two panels. One was about Animal Sidekicks. Here’s a photo of that panel.
Me, Lori Roberts Herbst, Meredith Taylor, Kate Lansing, C.B. Wilson
You can bet I talked about Dog, Mugshot, Sheba and the equines, Dot, Jack, Horse and Jethro.
I didn’t get a photo of the other panel titled Crime in Small Towns: Setting, Secrets, Scandal. The panel for that one was Glen Erik Hamilton, Rodney Carpentier, Becky Clark, and Tony Wirt. We had a lively discussion about why we liked to write about small towns and how they made our stories work better than a large city would. I always find it interesting to learn about other writers worlds and who they see them.
And there was fun time. The Sisters in Crime Colorado put on a Mystery Merge Carnival Extravaganza. I met up with some of my Ladies of Mystery blog pals and participated in some of the games and frivolity. Here is a photo of Pam Beason and myself in the mugshot booth.
BOOK DEALS
This month I have a lot of different book deals going on.
My Isabella Mumphrey books in ebook and print (when purchased from me) are 25% off. They are Romantic Suspense with an Indiana Jones/MacGyver heroine. Check them out here: https://www.patyjager.net/romantic-suspense/
April 12th and 13th, I’ll be at the Warner Grange in Canby, Oregon with over 40 authors. It’s the Spring into Reading event. We’ll be there from 11 am -5 pm. I’d love to see some of my readers.
In the heart of the wilderness, the hunter becomes the hunted.
Gunshots shatter the quiet of Oregon’s Eagle Cap Wilderness, drawing Oregon State Trooper Gabriel Hawke into action. Following the sound, he stumbles upon a shredded cage, the sharp musk of a wolverine, and a dead hiker.
Tracking footprints through the rugged terrain, Hawke uncovers a second victim. It’s clear—he’s hunting a killer who’s hunting humans.
With Dog by his side, Hawke’s search leads to two brothers, one gravely injured. Enlisting the help of pilot Dani Singer, he gets the injured man to safety before returning to the wilderness.
Teaming up with a reclusive, disabled veteran who knows the Eagle Cap as well as he does, Hawke pieces together the killer’s twisted game. They suspect a poacher—one as ruthless and elusive as the wolverine he’s still chasing.
In a deadly wilderness where survival is the only rule, Hawke must outsmart a predator who knows no bounds.
SPOTTED PONY CASINO
I’m currently working on book 7 Crap Shoot. It was slow going until I received information. Now I’m making my fingers fly and my story move along so I can get the book out by my deadline.
CUDDLE FARM MYSTERIES
Book 1, Merry Merry Merry Murder in the new Cuddle Farm Mysteries had come back from my beta readers and there are some things I need to fix. Two thought the beginning slogged, and two thought there should be more contention between my main character and the sheriff, and there were a couple of timeline things to fix. But overall, they all loved it! Good news for my readers!
I’ll have a “Christmas in July” event to promote the release of the book on July 15th. As soon as my PA gets the event set up, I’ll have a link here for you to join the fun! I’ll have gifts and fun times.
SHORT STORY
I also have a short story that will be coming out in the next Windtree Press anthology- Navigate. The story is about a character from my Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series. The title of the short story is: Changing Course.
GABRIEL HAWKE NOVELS
I have been brainstorming the next Gabriel Hawke book which I’ll start writing when I finish Crap Shoot. My brother knows the person in charge of the dog sled race that happens in Wallowa County. I’ll be interviewing that person and hopefully someone in the county who participates in the race. If you couldn’t tell by this info, the next book will be set during and about the dog sled race that happens in Wallowa County in February.
FUN FOR ME
That’s about it for writing information. On the creative front, I’m getting ready to take another pieced top in to be quilted, and I’m busy cutting 5″ by 5″ squares for a pastel colored quilt for the granddaughter who graduates next year. When I’m not writing, I’m quilting. I love discovering fabric and bringing them together in an attractive pattern.
We arrived in Santander and my niece, Izzy picked us up from the airport. We drove to her house and settled in.
The next day another niece, Emmy and her daughter Loreto drove us to the beach at Somo. The day wasn’t warm enough to strip down, but we enjoyed walking along the beach with a few other beachgoers and surfers.
We saw an old capsized boat out in the surf and watched a few boats go by. On the other side of the bay sat Santander.
I was fascinated by the tractors driving on the beach using a rock picker to pick up trash.
After an hour or so on the beach, we loaded back up and drove to Santander.
We walked the promenade, saw an old church and abbey, then strolled around the town.
This pool was along the promenade
This carousel was in the middle of a small park along the waterfront.
We had lunch at a restaurant inside an old marketplace. In the front of the restaurant, they had this case of tapas.
My niece ordered croquetas (a bechamel sauce with ham rolled in crumbs and fried) for us to try. They were delicious.
croquetas
tomato salad with tuna
I thought I’d ordered a salad with tomatoes and ham. It turned out to be a plate full of sliced tomatoes with tuna and pickled onions. It was delicious but it was a while before I could eat another tomato!
After walking through two more plazas, we headed to the car and drove to a mall. It was Izzy’s birthday and we wanted to purchase a birthday gift for her. She had mentioned she was down on wine glasses from people breaking them at barbeques and dinners, so we purchased some for her gift.
I noticed two National Police standing outside of a store in the mall. They were intimidating. Later when I told my niece and her husband, they said something must have been happening for there to have been to National Police in the mall. I’m glad we made our purchase and left!
We ended the day with a nice meal and visit with my niece and her family.
The next day Izzy and her husband took us to a couple of older villages around Santander. The first village had cobbled streets and small stores full of souvenirs.
We watched a bride arrive for a traditional wedding at the church. Bagpipes played as the bride and groom stood facing the church with their families and friends all around them. I was surprised to hear bagpipes but my niece’s husband told us that the northern part of Spain has a Celtic heritage from the people arriving from the Atlantic Ocean down from the United Kingdom. That was interesting to learn.
The backside of the church.
We walked the streets waiting for a magic show to start in the village square. My niece’s daughters were enthralled with the performance. While they watched the show, Angie, Rietta, and I walked through a free museum that had centuries-old tools, and photos from the time the first camera captured images to now.
Looking down on the square from the museum.
From there we drove to another village with a traditional restaurant. We had fried calamari, croquetas, and blood sausage (it was made with rice, onions and spices and fried). Then we had bean soup. It’s a soup with white beans, kale, bacon chunks, and spices. It was very good!
After lunch, we went to Comillas. Here we did a tour of the Sobrellano Palace. It was built for the Marquise of Comillas, Antonio Lopez Lopez. From there we spotted a house designed for one of the Marquise’s friends by architect Antoni Gaudi who built the church we saw in Barcelona.
Sobrellano Palace
It was an explosion of sunflower tile; greens and yellows. The outside made me smile. The inside wasn’t as fantastic as the outside. It was inviting and a place I wouldn’t mind living. The rooms weren’t large but they all had great views and plenty of light. The conservatory wasn’t huge either.
Gaudi House
Eating in Spain took some getting used to. There is only a small breakfast of tea, coffee, or hot chocolate with toast, a sweet roll, or cookies. About the time we would normally eat lunch there is a snack of coffee, tea, or milk with a Spanish omelet or bread. Lunch is around 2 pm and around the time of our dinner time they have a light snack then eat dinner at 8pm. We had the hardest time with the 8 pm dinner. It wasn’t large but it was later than I eat. I have dinner at 6 and don’t eat anything else until morning.
On the last day in Santander, we drove to a high hill to take in the vistas around the area. The tree-covered hills (they call mountains) were a gorgeous green and even though it was a day with fog or mist, it was beautiful. From this vantage point we could see Santander and all the villages we’d walked through, even where my niece lived. It was chilly at the top and we had hot chocolate as we chatted.
We returned home and my niece sent us off with her husband while she prepared the Sunday meal we would share with her sister and her family. Oscar took us to a neighboring village that has a natural zoo, I guess you would call it. The animals are all in large fields with high fences to keep them in and people out. You can purchase a ticket to ride a tram over the fields and see the animals. But Oscar knew a road that took us up alongside the fence to see the elephants. The elephant looked red because it had been dusting with the red soil in the area.
We visited with the elephant and took photos before we joined him at a small café for rabats- it’s a two in the afternoon snack of calamari and a drink.
We returned to the house to find Emmy and her family had arrived. We all sat down to a meal of roasted chicken and potatoes (white and sweet), a pasta salad, bread, and olives. The food was delicious. Dessert was zucchini bread and a traditional Spanish dessert her oldest daughter loves. I can’t remember the name of it and I forgot to write it down while on the trip.
Late in the evening, we went to Lierganes where we had churros and chocolate before walking around the town and listening to a live band.
Looking from a bridge in Lierganes.
The next day we boarded a plane early in the day headed for London, England. Where we would spend a night and take the train to Bath.
I’m excited to say that book # 13 in the Gabriel Hawke Novels has been released and you can get it in ebook and print. My narrator Larry Gorman is working on the audio version this month.
This book marks my 60th published novel-length book! I might just make 100 published books by the time I can’t write anymore.
Wolverine Instincts was a book that I found hard to write, only because most of it is up in the Eagle Cap Wilderness and I had to rely on Google Earth and photographs to try and get the setting as realistic as I could.
Here is the cover and blurb:
“In the heart of the wilderness, the hunter becomes the hunted.“
Gunshots shatter the quiet of Oregon’s Eagle Cap Wilderness, drawing Oregon State Trooper Gabriel Hawke into action. Following the sound, he stumbles upon a shredded cage, the sharp musk of a wolverine, and a dead hiker.
Tracking footprints through the rugged terrain, Hawke uncovers a second victim. It’s clear—he’s hunting a killer who’s hunting humans.
With Dog by his side, Hawke’s search leads to two brothers, one gravely injured. Enlisting the help of pilot Dani Singer, he gets the injured man to safety before returning to the wilderness.
Teaming up with a reclusive, disabled veteran who knows the Eagle Cap as well as he does, Hawke pieces together the killer’s twisted game. They suspect a poacher—one as ruthless and elusive as the wolverine he’s still chasing.
In a deadly wilderness where survival is the only rule, Hawke must outsmart a predator who knows no bounds.
Today, 2/5/2025 is the last day you can purchase House Edge in audiobook for the low price of $1.99 at my website or $2.99 at major audiobook vendors as part of the Indie Audiobook Deals that I’ve been participating in. We are a group of Indie Authors with audiobooks that are distributed wide, not only at Audible.
Starting tomorrow, Feb. 6th you can purchase book 1 of my Shandra Higheagle mystery series, Double Duplicity in audiobook for $0.99! Either at my website or the Indie Audiobook Deals. Stay tuned for more of these Indie Audiobook deals. I’m thinking about making my Gabriel Hawke audiobook bundles only available through my website at a great price. I’ll have more about that next month.
If you happen to live on the west side of Oregon, I’ll be at the Friends of the Lebanon Library Author Fair on February 22nd. Not only will I have my books there for sale, I’m giving a talk about conjuring up a mystery. Some of the things you need to write a mystery and how I use them in coming up with mystery stories. My talk starts at 2:30pm.
I finished book 1 in the upcoming Cuddle Farm Mysteries that will be released in July. Merry Merry Merry Murder was fun to write. I enjoyed coming up with the therapy animals and the fictional small-town setting. Here’s the logo for the series. The cover isn’t quite fine tuned yet.
We had snow dumped on use yesterday! The winter had been fairly mild other than a couple of weeks below freezing. Now we have 16 inches of snow and they say more is coming. It makes chores a little harder but it is pretty to look at! This snow is so wet that when you look at it, you see blue in the in the indentions. Like you would see looking at a glacier. It’s pretty. I need to try to take a photo of it.
Stay safe and warm and grab a good book to get you through the winter.
Day seven of our trip we rose at 3:30 am and Janneke and Cor took us to the airport. Our flight to Barcelona, Spain left at 6 am. We arrived in Barcelona around 9 am and boarded an airport shuttle bus to get us to the main terminal. At the terminal, we looked for where we would fly out the next day on our way to Santander. Once we felt confident and figured out what time we’d need to arrive at the airport, we took a bus to the hotel.
We were lucky enough to check in early. We deposited our bags and found the closest hop on hop off bus to see the city sights.
At one of the squares we hopped off and ate at the Hard Rock Café. The food was good and it had outdoor seating. We watched the buses filled with tourists like us go by as well as many pedestrians and cars.
We hopped on a different color line bus to see another part of the city. This bus took us to the Sabrado Familia church. The building was an oddity to say the least. The architect Antoni Gaudi designed the church. It has so many things happening it is almost a train wreck but then you also see the beauty in the lines and his genius in pulling it all together.
every side of the church was different
We hopped back on the bus and got off at the Poble Espanyol. It was like walking into a castle only the streets were lined with small shops that depicted various places on the Iberian Peninsula in the 17 and 1800’s.
One lane had colorful umbrellas hanging over the cobblestone street. As we were touring the area it started raining. We popped into a shop to wait the rain out and had a nice conversation with the woman who worked there. The rain let up and moved on, taking a stroll through the museum of modern art.
Leaving the art museum the rain had let up so we ventured up to the Monastery of Saint Miguel.
The rain started up as we began our walk down to our hotel. We were soaked by the time we were halfway back to where we’d planned to eat. We sat in a restaurant in a large mall, soaked and our hair stringy as we ate.
After hot showers, we ended the day happy to be able to sleep in the next day before our afternoon flight to Santander. We rehashed the things we saw and what we each liked the best from our wonderful day of discovering Barcelona.
It’s hard to believe that this year is nearly over. It was filled with fun, new friends, new books, and great opportunities.
We started off the new year with a trip New Mexico and Texas to visit family. Might as well go where it’s warmer in the winter. 😉
photo from our trip
I attended a new author event in Lebanon, Oregon, held by the Lebanon Library. It was a fun event and one I’m doing again in 2025.
I joined an authors group who promote audiobooks, trying to get more sales of my audiobooks. I think it’s helping and we’ll be even better in the coming year when I can sell the audiobooks direct from my website.
In April I attended the Left Coast Crime conference in Seattle. It is always fun seeing author friends and meeting new readers. I’ll be headed to Denver this March for this same conference. They move around every year. I also had a wonderful week-long Oregon Coast trip with my friends. I write and then we go out and have fun. I like to do this twice a year but because of my Europe trip this year we only made it to the beach the one time.
May was a busy month promoting books and selling books. I attended the Beaver-con a mini comic con held for the first time in Central Oregon. I manned a booth for NIWA (Northwest Independent Writers Association) selling my books and those of other NIWA members. Then the end of the month I attended the Memorial Weekend Sumpter Flea Market as author Mary Vine and I have done for nearly ten years. This year it was poorly attended. We managed to sell books but not like normally.
June was another busy month with manning a NIWA booth at the La Pine Rhubarb Festival, promoting and writing books, and being one of the speakers at a conference in Beaverton.
July was a writing month. I sat down and wrote every day to get a book finished so I could attended the Tamkaliks Powwow in Wallowa Oregon. And July started my trekking around Oregon judging at county fairs. The categories I judge are sewing, crocheting, knitting, cake decorating, foods, art, photography, writing, and various other things like leathercraft and pottery. If it’s a small county with only one or two items then I do my best to judge the items.
fishing platforms on the Deschutes River
August more county fairs and the state fair where I judged writing. The month ended with our Labor Day Flea Market in Sumpter. It was poorer attended than Memorial Day. We are rethinking whether or not to continue with this event. They have started a new one on July 4th that sounds like it is gaining in popularity and we may switch to that once a year.
September is the month I waited for all year! My oldest daughter, a granddaughter, and I set out on my bucket list adventure. We started in the Netherlands where we stayed with one of my husband’s cousins. She and another cousin took us around the Amsterdam area. I’ve been writing about the trip on posts here. You can go back and read about them and continue reading about them as I will have several posts. From Netherlands we went to Spain where we stayed with one of my nieces. From Spain we went to England, specifically Bath. And then the train to Scotland.
scenic Ireland view
October found us in Ireland. We had a week in Ireland and enjoyed every minute of it. When I returned from my trip, Hubby and I looked at houses that interested us in Baker City. OR. We found one that ticked off all buy one box and decided to go for it. We now own the house we will be moving into in a couple of years when he retires from his current job. We rounded out the busy month of October with a family reunion.
November was all about writing and selling books at two large holiday events. I had a booth with another author at the Redmond Holiday Market and then manned a NIWA booth at the Portland, OR Expo for their Holiday Market.
This month was all about finishing book 13 in the Gabriel Hawke series. And celebrating the holiday with family.
This month I have audiobooks,Yuletide Slaying(Shandra Higheagle Mystery) Poker Face (Spotted Pony Casino Mystery) and Murder of Ravens (Gabriel Hawke novels) on sale for $0.99 through Kobo. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the books or start listening to the books in audio, now is your chance! I even have the second books, House Edge and Mouse Trail Ends, on sale for $1.99 through Kobo.
On the third day of our Europe trip, another Dutch cousin, Wanda, picked us up. We visited with an aunt and uncle on my husband’s paternal side.
The dahlia farm
After the visit, we drove to a Dahlia farm that had 600 varieties of dahlias! All the colors, sizes, and shapes were gorgeous. Rietta cut some with visions of drying them to put in the journal she kept of the trip.
From the Dahlia farm, we drove to the beach.
We had a nice walk along the water’s edge. Rietta was excited to find so many full shells. On the Oregon coast, you are lucky to find a whole shell.
By this time, we were hungry. We came across a café on the beach that had swings for the chairs at the picnic tables. Rietta was excited about this discovery.
We enjoyed listening to the sounds of the ocean and watching the waves as we ate.
After eating, we wandered back toward the lighthouse. We climbed to the top and took photos of the views. From the lighthouse, we wandered a bit through the shopping area adjacent to the beach.
Back in the car we headed to Ouderkerk, we mentioned that Rietta’s mom wanted her to purchase 52 packages of hagelslag – it is a pure chocolate sprinkle the Dutch eat on buttered bread. Her family loves the treat. Her mom wanted her to get 52 packages so they would have one for each week of the year. Wanda felt a large supermarket would be the best place to get it. And so she took us to one. We counted out 52 packages and went to the cashier. She saw the heaped basket and asked how many. We told her and she put that number in the till. Rietta paid and we scrambled to find boxes to carry it out of the store.
When we arrived back in Ouderkerk, Wanda suggested we eat at the Panakoke Restaurant that Angie and I had seen on our first walk around the town. We agreed and we were happy we had. The poffertjes we had for dinner were delicious and filled us up. Poffertjes are small Dutch pancakes the size of a ping pong ball. They puff up when cooked and are served with butter and powdered sugar, or syrup, or fruit. I had the cinnamon apples with mine. Just thinking about it now makes my mouth water! It was the perfect way to end our third day in the Netherlands.
To make the poffertjes they use a special pan that has indents in it. But you can make the small pancakes at home in a fry pan if you like. Here is a recipe I found for them.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups milk 375ml / 12.68floz very warm but not hot (1 1/2 minutes on high in microwave), sub oat or almond milk
In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar and yeast, giving it a quick mix and making a well in the center.
2 cups plain flour / all purpose flour, ¼ cup sugar, 2 1/2 tsp instant yeast
Pour in the warmed milk and egg, then whisk into a batter. Cover with a tea towel or silicone bowl cover, and leave to rise for an hour. The batter should be double in size and look very bubbly when ready. Note: If in a colder climate, allow extra time and pop the bowl in a warm location.
1 1/2 cups milk,1 egg
Grease a poffertjes pan or frying pan with the butter over a medium heat. Once warmed, add heaped tablespoons of batter into each well in the poffertjes pan. Make sure to leave space if using a frying pan.
2 tbsp butter
Once bubbles start to pop on top (1-2 minutes), flip using a single chopstick or skewer (similar to making takoyaki). Allow to cook for another minute or two, once puffed up and cooked through, then remove from the pan. Repeat until all batter is used up.
Serve while hot, sprinkling icing sugar / powdered sugar over the top to dust.
Whoops! I had planned to keep going with a post every two weeks while on vacation. That didn’t happen! To be truthful I was exhausted at the end of each day and while I did keep a journal of what we did each day, I didn’t get into all the details of the places we saw. That will happen here over the next couple of months as I share my Bucket list Vacation with you.
To start, my oldest daughter, Angie, and the 16-year-old daughter, Rietta, of my other daughter went with me. We had to be bright-eyed at 4:30 am the day we left to be on time for the departure of our flight. Which meant spending the night in Boise and taking a hotel shuttle to the airport. I wondered how the trip would go when the hotel shuttle didn’t wait for us because the phone in our hotel didn’t work when they tried to call to say the shuttle was early. The flight to Dallas was uneventful as was the 8 1/2 hour flight from Dallas to Amsterdam, losing one night’s sleep..
Brick streets in Ouderkerk
We were met at the Amsterdam airport by my husband’s cousin, Janneke. She took us to Ouderkerk on the bus. She felt we wouldn’t be stuck in traffic by taking the bus, since we arrived in Amsterdam at 8 am on the 12th having left on the 11th in the U.S. Her mother met us at Janneke’s house with apple pie and we had tea. After the treat, we settled in and took a walk around Ouderkerk. We walked past a windmill being repaired, century old buildings in the town, and bought bread at the bakery.
Back at the house we had bread and homemade tomato soup before going on a car ride around the local area. The roads around Ouderkerk are narrow one-lane roads. When you meet another vehicle the one that has a wider edge on their side pulls over to the let the other vehicle pass. These roads were nerve wracking to me, because I felt many drove too fast for that type of situation.
Back at our cousin’s house we took a nap, visited, had dinner, and visited some more before going to bed.
The second day we went to Zaanse Schans, a small older town with many old windmills. The windmills were built to grind barley, rice, paper, wood, edible oils, mustard, tobacco, hemp, and many other things including the powders to make colors. We walked through several of the windmills to see how they worked and even stood up on top near the blades of one.
The three travelers on the top of a windmill.
After touring the windmills, or molen as they are called in Dutch, we wandered through the shops. Angie enjoyed the Catharina Hoeve building where the Henri Willig cheese company showed how cheese was made using cow, sheep, and goat milk.
They had tasting areas of all the cheeses that could be purchased.
This was Angie’s favorite thing!
Angie in her happy place.
Yes, we bought cheese while we were there. We also went to the wooden shoe factory, and the oldest first market of Albert Heinig.
Me saying “Cheese!”
From there we sauntered through shops and wonderful old houses and gardens. It was a good day and good start to your visit.
Because it was a tourist place, there were plenty of photo opportunities.
Angie and Janneke
Angie and I in front of a heart made of wooden shoes.
Writing Into The Sunset 