Valerie – Valerie's Voice

India – Part Two, Kerala

These blog posts about our trip to India will be in chronological order.

We timed our trip to visit our son and his family in India so we would be there for a week when the grandchildren were off school for a break. As it turned out, our son and his wife were able to get some time off too, so the six of us traveled to the state of Kerala, on the tropical coast of southwestern India. A few days after we arrived, we flew into the city of Kochi and met our hired diver with a van who drove us around for five days, on a planned tour.

The stunning tea plantations were like sculptures. Striking, dramatic, impressive.

According to travel information Kerala is a lushous state heavily driven by agriculture: spices, coconuts, tea and rubber, and we saw many of these plantations. Other attractions include hill stations (hill stations are higher-altitude towns located in the Western Ghats Mountain range), backwater houseboat cruises, and beaches along the Indian Ocean.

After loading our luggage into the van, we drove for a couple hours before stopping for lunch at a wonderful open-air restaurant with our food served on banana leaves. This was already proving to be a fun experience.

A festive lunch of tasty Indian food on individual banana leaves.

We continued on to Munnar which is Kerala’s most famous hill station. The elevation of Munnar is 1600 meters (or 5250 feet). It is famous for its misty peaks and rolling green tea estates, and spice plantations.

A visual of the rolling hills of Western Ghats Mountain range

We discovered the tea plantations were beautiful, and misty, and fun to meander about. We bought some tea to bring home from a tea factory.

The woman at her roadside stand, whacking coconuts.

In the “parking lot” we watched a street vendor selling coconut water from her stand. She whacked those coconuts with a very sharp curved knife (called a billhook or sickle-shaped heavy-duty chopper) three times, to get a hole in the top of the coconut for the straw. She looked dangerous! I’m sure she was strong…she was selling lots of coconut water. We bought one to taste. It was refreshing.

We stopped at a small spice garden, for a quick tour. I brought home some cinnamon sticks and white pepper.

A Tibouchina Urvilleana tree- a princess flower.

The next day we continued down the mountain for several hours and enjoyed, what I called, a wildflower drive. We saw many trees and bushes in bloom.

I never did identify this tree with beautiful orange blossoms.

It was hard to capture on camera since we were driving on narrow roads and didn’t stop much, but it was nice to see all the colorful blooms.

Towards the afternoon we arrived in Thekkkady. Plans had to change (Welcome to India was our motto whenever that happened) so we found an exciting alternative…we went on elephant rides!

Three could ride on one elephant so I went with Zoey and Andrea, Gary was with Ezra and Tim. It started to rain and the middle person (me & Tim) held up the umbrella. We laughed a lot as we rode along the path.

In the end we went to a different station where there was an elephant giving showers…ah the memories. It was fun.

Kerala…to be continued.

A note: Our son and his wife have decided to forego any pictures of their family on social media at this time, so I am respecting that request and not posting any pictures of them on my blog…

India – Part One of many

India…an Extra Sensory Experience.

I’m still processing our recent trip to India, trying to use words to describe our experience and going through over a thousand pictures. India…on the other side of the world…right now 11 ½ hours difference in time. We went to visit our son and his wife and two children, to get a glimpse of their lives in India and it was an amazing trip.

A sitting room in our son’s house with a world wall map. See India – olive green in right third of map

First impressions of India is it’s chaotic and crowded. 1.5 billion people live in India, a country the size of five Texas’. The traffic…unbelievable…no rules on the road… just go! And honk! The noise level with the honking is constant. There can be cows in the streets, and wild dogs, people, cars and more motorcycles than cars. There are no sidewalks to take a leisurely stroll except in some gated communities. There are extremes…the wealthy and the poor. The outsides versus the insides…outside looking dirty, inside can be a whole different feel.

There is public art everywhere…on bridge pillars and buildings and bridges…not graffiti…but apparently the government pays artists to paint in public spaces. It’s nice. The electrical systems one sees exposed looks like a bowl of spaghetti…how anyone can figure it out is beyond me. There is garbage all around.

A beautiful sports complex where our grandson goes for football (soccer) practice.

The people are beautiful…darker skin tones, women in beautiful, and colorful saris and Kurtis, men with their full head of black hair. People living like us; folks with jobs, families they love, shopping, eating, their children in school and sports, parents going to practices and games…And that is what we enjoyed most of our trip…being a part of our son’s family activities, to see a slice of their lives in India, along with traveling and discovering other parts of India with them.

The foods are tasty and spicy and inexpensive. On our trip to the state of Kerala in the SW part of India we ate out a lot because we were traveling. At their home was a mixture of more traditional American fare or Indian.

The 2nd floor balcony for morning coffee.

I anticipated heat and humidity, and smog, but we were pleasantly surprised with mild temperatures, low humidity and many sunny days without smog for three weeks (one day of rain). Our son’s house had a second-floor balcony where we could sit outside and drink our morning coffee every day we were there. It was delightful.

I’ll stop here for this first post…much more to come.

Covered Bridges

We saw several covered bridges while driving around Vermont. There was a unique one…with a double lane…which we have never seen before.

The Pulp Mill Bridge is a unique double covered bridge in Middlebury, VT. Dated 1853 (rebuilt in 2012).

Bridges are all wooden structures, including wooden pegs.

The Halpin Bridge, 1840, was a very narrow and short bridge.

Woodstock Middle Bridge dated 1969…(modern!) Love the pattern on the side.

All bridges are still in service. And, each bridge had a special 250th commemorative USA flag flying.

Loved the pattern the sun created on the wooden floor of the Brown Bridge.

The road leading up to the Brown Bridge.

Vermont In October

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." 

A quote by Anne Shirley in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables.

We wanted to plan a trip to visit friends in Vermont. We chose to go in October, to hopefully see the fall colors that the New England states are known for…and we did. It was peak!

A view from the airplane. We knew we were going to see color!

The forecast before we left was rain. We had one afternoon of misty rain, and the rest of the time it was sunny!

We took a day to drive a few mountain gaps in the Green Mountains before heading to our friend’s house. We were enjoying the drive, seeing a carpet of color all around us when we came upon a ski resort offering a chairlift ride to the top of the mountain.

As we were thinking about it, I talked to a friendly guy close by and he said, “now you are seeing the beauty, but on the chairlift you are in the beauty.” I liked that description, so we bought our tickets and up we went.

Reds, oranges, yellows, greens, maroons, golds, brown…o my.

It was a great 20-minute ride up. At the top we looked around, and then got in line to go down the mountain.

From the top….Mad River Glen Ski Resort.

As we approached the platform to get on a chair to take us down, the whole operation stopped. Something had gone wrong and they needed to fix it! Fortunately, we were only stranded on top of the mountain for about ½ hour…

Being surrounded by color, having sunny weather and spending quality time with our dear friends made our October trip to Vermont delightful, and I agree with Anne…I’m so glad I live in a world with Octobers.

Saturday’s Sunrise

I love sunrises… and was gifted with seeing one out our back windows last Saturday.

All three photos were taken within one minute.
Photo taken 9/26/26, 6:54 am

My favorite color is sunrise.*

It can change so quickly. Photo taken 09/26 /26, 6:54 am

I will always be that girl that gets excited when the sky turns pretty colors…*

Illuminating the corn field. Photo taken 9/26/26 6:54 am

Be grateful for every sunrise and thankful for every sunset because everyday is a blessing. Roger Lee

*I found these fun expressions online – author unknown.

My row of striking zinnias out back are showing off some of the same colors as the sunrise. Photo taken 9/25/26 2:49 pm

The North Shore

The colors up on the north shore last week were just starting to turn so we didn’t see much fall color, but that’s ok. We hope to see color in Vermont when we go there to visit friends in a couple of weeks. What we did see up north was a lot of the big, beautiful lake…and we were excited to be there…my happy place.

View of Oberg Lake from Oberg Mountain Loop Trail.

We checked into a new place for us, Bluefin Bay Resort, known to many. We walked out the door of our unit and took in the beautiful view of Lake Superior from the deck.

View of Lake Superior from Bluefin Bay Resort.

We settled in for our quiet get away, hoping to be nourished and refreshed. The weather was cooperative…seasonal temps, great cloud art, sunny weather – it rained only once and that was at night.

Our unit had a good view to see the morning sunrise. It rises later these days so I didn’t need to set an alarm to get up to see it.

Wednesday, 9/16/26, 6:50 am, sunrise through low clouds.

Our unit had a wood-burning fireplace with unlimited wood supply to create a lovely atmosphere indoors (although we did set off the smoke alarm once). For our outdoor campfire, the resort lights a bonfire each night in a large fire pit by the lake.

Firepit along the lake shore at Bluefin Bay.

Guests gather there to visit and make s’mores. Individual s’more packages are made up to hand out to all who want them. (We did.) It was an interesting, but nice, change to sit around the campfire with friendly strangers.

We brought our bikes along and took in a nice bike ride on the Gitchi-Gami State Trail. And, we took several hikes; including a new trail to us, the Kadunce River.

The steep rock ledges on the Kadunce River were hard to capture in a photo.

It had rained the night before so the water was rushing down the many cascades of falls and through steep rock ledges, creating a slot canyon of sorts. It was a fun hike.

Although we didn’t feel the wind while hiking, it was a very windy day. At the end of the hike, we went to the shore to watch three guys surfing the waves on the big lake.

A snap shot from a video of surfers on the waves of Lake Superior.

Time goes too fast these days, and seems even faster when one is on a trip, away from home and from daily routines. But I’m always grateful for any time we can be on the shores of Lake Superior.

This view is from Tettegouche State Park.

Plein Air

Plein (pronounced plen like in plenty) air…these two words are fun to say out loud. It is a French expression for “in the open air” and is usually associated with a type of painting that involves leaving the studio to paint outdoors, to paint what is in front of you.

A section of rocky shoreline of Lake Superior, near Tofte.

On our trip to the north shore last week, we saw several artists painting Plein air, more that we have seen in the past. And I was included in that number.

The resort we were staying at had several activities one could participate in, for free. I decided to sign up for the watercolor activity, since I recently have started a humble attempt at watercolor. It was a beautiful morning, so I was delighted when I arrived at the classroom and learned we were going to go outside to paint, near the water’s edge. The disappointing part was it was not a class, but an “activity” where they handed out paints, brushes and paper to the four of us, and that was it…no instruction or tips or anything…just supplying the tools.

OK, so I had to decide what I wanted to paint. In my beginner’s class I’ve been learning to paint flowers… maybe I could start on pumpkins. However, since we were outside and the beautiful shores of Lake Superior was the scene in front of us, I decided I would try Plein air painting, even though I knew landscapes was not something I would excel at, especially without any instruction.

Looking at the lake in front of me, I started to paint, but I didn’t get any satisfaction from it. It was a disaster, so I quickly finished it and started painting pumpkins.

But now I can claim I have done Plein Air painting, if only for an hour. It was fun to be looking at the lake visualizing what others can paint. For me, I will try to capture the landscapes with photos.

Sipping coffee while sitting near the lake is what I like best…

Austin ArtWorks Festival

We went to the 15th annual Austin ArtWorks Festival last weekend. It was a nice fair…your typical pop-up canopy tents set up in an open area of downtown, with lots artists displaying their different forms of artwork: painting, photography, glassworks, ceramics, and jewelry. It was fun to walk around to see it all.

There were food trucks of course, and a small area set aside for local author’s talk, but what was different from other art fairs I’ve been to was an area designated for kids. They had a few craft tables set up for kids of all ages to try printing, calligraphy, painting. Plus, there were two activities that were unique and stood out.

A car was parked on the road and one could line up to get paint and a brush to paint on the car, or one could choose a small bucket of paint to the throw on the car. Kids had fun doing this unusual activity. (I wondered if it was washable paint and if the car could be cleaned afterwards …I hope so.)

A large mandala on the street of Austin.

The other fun project was a young woman chalked a large mandala on the street and offered colored chalk for kids to color in the different areas of the mandala. I was the first kid (the big kid in me) to color in a star. I thought this was a great idea…the chalk will eventually wash away in the rain, but for a few days it will decorate a street in downtown Austin.

I was the first to chalk in a star with blue chalk.

It was inspiring to see these creative ideas helping to get children involved in art…

A Haiku

An August sunrise over Daggett Lake. I took this photo one morning. The clouds dissipated and we had a beautiful sunny day.

Up at my friend Barb’s cabin this week, on Daggett Lake, I found myself hoping to see Minnesota’s elegant state bird, the loon. Although I heard it calling, I never did see it. I wrote a haiku.

A photo of me sitting on the dock, taken through the cabin’s window screen. Photo credit: Barb Sackett

Sitting on the dock,
I hear, but cannot see them,
Watching for the loons.

Overlooking the dock from the cabin (not through the screen. ;-))

We did see some wildlife…a great blue heron walking along the shore, and a large turtle swimming off the dock, a deer in a field, and multiple families of wild turkeys in several places, squirrels, chipmunks, seagulls…

A blue heron walked along the shore to our dock to check us out, then turned around.

All though I did not see any loons while we were up north, it’s always wonderful to hear their call. And we had a relaxing time and refreshing time…

I was not at the cabin when my friend’s granddaughter took this beautiful photo of a sunset over Daggett Lake. Photo Credit: Jeri Sackett/Summer 2026

Indiana Glass

On a recent trip to Indiana to visit a dear friend, I wanted to gift her with some dishes since I know she likes dishes (likeI do) and she likes to host gatherings (like I do). I chose a couple pieces of Indiana Glass from my “collection.” In order to give her a little background of the glass pieces, I looked online and discovered some interesting information.

I learned Indiana had a thriving glass manufacturing industry during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. The discovery of natural gas in the region during the late 1800s was what drew dozens of glass factories to the state.

Our informative guide telling us about the colored glass pieces. I love colored glass.

I found out the specific Indiana Glass I was gifting, was made in Dunkirk, Indiana. Dunkirk is known as the “Glass Capital of Indiana.” (I didn’t know.) Dunkirk had over 20 glass factories at its peak. The dishes I gave my friend were Indiana Glass Sandwich pattern, made in the 1920s.

A few of the many enclosed cases of all kinds of glass in the museum.

There’s more… I learned there was a glass museum in Dunkirk, Indiana. That sounded very interesting. On a whim I looked up to see how far Dunkirk was from the town where I was going to visit my friend, and found it was only 30 minutes away! I thought it would be great fun to visit the museum, and my friend thought so too, once I told her about all my discoveries.

So, off we went to visit the glass museum in the tiny town of Dunkirk with many vacant storefronts but a nice, small, public library attached to the nice, larger glass museum.

We paid our admission fee ($2) and an elderly gentleman got up from behind the desk and took us into the museum. He had retired from the glass industry where he worked for 30 years. He had a ton of knowledge that he enjoyed passing on to us.

We had a great time looking at two floors of glass, with hundreds of glass pieces, all labeled and most in enclosed cases.

An unused, hand- painted, glass table setting.

On the way home we stopped at an antique store. We found some Indiana Glass, and I bought another piece. 😉