A Day of Warming Hearts.

I started the day at Channing Philbrook Park in Penfield. It was a trail along the Irondequoit Creek. It was a lovely shaded, easy hike on a warm day where I could feel the cool breeze coming off of the water. I went over several little walkway bridges through fields, as well as tall trees. It was quite relaxing, as well as a good walk. I met Cindy, who fell in love with JoJo. He has quite the fan club you know, and I should make that a formal membership. We talked up a storm, and now she is also a fan of my art work. She wants to visit AZ, or so she says.

In the afternoon I stopped over to my parent's former house, on Whitney Road in Ontario, New York. I was a bit apprehensive hoping to find good people who had purchased my parent's house. Fortunately, the people I met seemed quite wonderful, very sweet, very welcoming, and exactly the kind of family that I hoped would live there. Ryan and Ashley have three adorable children, and it reminded me so much of my core family while I live there, a family of five, even though they were much younger. They developed a business of hosting weddings in the barn. The interior of my father's barn had already been partially renovated for the vineyard that was there for several years. They opened up the back part of the barn, three-stories high, into this huge open space. It took my breath away. It was quiet majestic. A perfect space for a wedding. This barn built was in 1835. My father's wine press was also still there. It's a large piece that would have been difficult to move to Arizona, and it seems to belong to this barn forever. I was so impressed with the beautifully landscaped flowers, and the well-kept manicured lawn. They are hard at work renovating the interior of the house as well, but there were many features left exactly the same as when my parents lived there. Of course everything was decorated in the style of the 1970's including the avocado green sink, and the bright blue bathroom fixtures. My bedroom no longer had the avocado green shag carpeting, but it still had the same yellow painted trim around the doorways. It's hard to admit credit for that color scheme, but it was the 70's. I was doing quite well until we suddenly found the inside panel from a screen door in the barn, with my father's writing. I hadn't seen this before. English was my father's second language, so his spelling was always off, and spelled more phonetically than correctly. I observed his notes about grapes. I am not sure about the message, but recognized his handwriting. Graips. Tears... yes, choking up...yes, emotional...yes.  I hope to go back to see more.

I ended the evening observing a soccer game with my little cousin Marina. She's part of a little girls team of 2nd to 4th graders. They ran around with energy and managed to score several points. The weather this evening has been quite comfortable and it was an awesome way to end a really special day.