Musings at 50

 Hello all, I am trying something new.  Follow me at my new home -https://librarygirl70.wordpress.com/2021/07/25/the-beginning/ Peace

 I am moving my blog to a new platform and procrastinating as usual. I have already started a Wordpress account and now I am just trying to find ways to personalize it and now after about a month or so I am hoping to make the switch. I will send out the link and the way to subscribe soon! I am also working on my book. I officially signed the contract on June 26 and met with my publisher on July 12. Now it is time to create a timeline that seems realistic and will not be a race for the end as most of my projects in past have seemed to be. Any ideas? I am working on a book for Arcadia Publishing called Spokane Parks. My first order of business is to find a bunch of images (200 or so). They will be black and white. I have a set of older negatives and images from the Spokane Parks Department I plan to digitize. But I am also looking for people who live in Spokane who may have enjoyed the parks in the Spokane area to show me their personal photos and share their stories with me. I am pl...

My heart is heavy today - this is the first 4th in a while that I have not gone to Iowa to celebrate the 4th with my family in Iowa. From a young age - we would drive the 12-14 hours from Newark, Ohio to Exira, Iowa. Spending time on my grandparents' farms seeing cousins, aunts, uncles and extended family. We congregated there for many reasons, but Exira will celebrate its 155th year this year of the 4th of July Celebration.   This is a town of farmers - people who worked the land to make a living. Many of these farmers came from farmers - not many of them had educations beyond 8th grade. They worked and shared and created a community where I could walk to the local grocery and ask them to put the items I purchased on my grandma's bill. My memories are of waking with the 6am cannon shot - getting ready in my red, white and blue for the parade - spending time at one grandparent's farm a ways from town, or at the others, right at the edge of town. Walking through a cornfield...