A Sweetheart Of A Hodgepodge

Welcome to this week's edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge and another letter in the April A-Z Blog Challenge. You'll find my entry for letter S in today's random thought-question #6. 

If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then leave a comment for the blogger before you. Comments make planet earth feel a whole lot friendlier. 

1. April 22nd is Earth Day...what's the most 'out of this world' place on earth you've ever visited? Tell us something about it. 

I could take this in a couple of directions, but the first place that popped into my head was Dartmoor. 

It felt like we were the only people on earth. 

This was our holiday rental, and when we were given driving directions they were very light on specifics. We were concerned we might not find it- 

Not to worry...we found it ha!

2. A favorite quote, verse, or song lyric with the word earth in it? 

One of my favorite verses-

"I lift up my eyes to the mountains-

 where does my help come from? 

My help comes from the LORD, 

the Maker of heaven and earth." 

Psalm 121:1-2 

I love the older King and Country song that references this Psalm too-

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3. What's the most trivial thing about which you have a strong opinion? 

This is hard because it seems there are many inconsequential things about which I hold strong opinions. My list would include how the dishwasher is loaded, half-and-half in my coffee, people poking along in the passing lane, and of course grammar, or rather it's improper use. 

Is a strong opinion about something trivial the same thing as a pet peeve? It feels like it. 

Is grammar trivial? I vote no. 

4. What's your most commonly used kitchen utensil or tool? What's the last thing you made using that tool? 

The most common would probably be a spatula which I use pretty much every day. I use my garlic press a lot, most recently for a marinade I made yesterday. 

5. Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me a great book of 3000 questions, and I'm going to try to use one in our Hodgepodge every week. Here is today's - What is your greatest extravagance? 

We added a waterfall to our backyard and that still feels somewhat extravagant. I'm having my hair done on Hodgepodge Day and while I consider it a necessity the cost makes it feel a lot like an extravagance. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I'm using the random space for today's entry in the April A-Z Challenge. My theme this year is The Things We Keep: An A-Z of Ordinary Objects. 

Day 19-S is for Sweetheart 

While my hubs is far from ordinary, and also not an object, he is the object of my affection so how's that for clever? 

I was actually annoyed with him when I wrote these answers on Tuesday, but I got over it because that's what you do when you're married. You squabble sometimes. You might also sulk (briefly) or seek a little space, but at some point you soften your heart and sort it out. 

You embrace the new mercies we are given every single morning.

I know not every story unfolds the same way, but in our case we’ve continued to choose each other for more than  40 years. Through storms and smooth sailing, in sickness and in strength, in sweetness and strain, we're in it together. Side by side. Steady in all the ways that matter. 

My sweetheart and me.

Mind the bog

If you're looking for this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge questions you'll find them here.

Of course you want to read this post before you go grab those questions, right?

D is for Dartmoor

In April of 2007 Daughter1 was spending the Easter break with her roommate in Memphis and Daughter2 was spending the Easter break in Bulgaria on a Service Project trip with her Young Life group so hubs and I made some travel plans too. We rented a cottage in the Dartmoor National Park which is situated in the southwestern part of England. Our cottage rental confirmation included driving directions which at first had us worried. They said something along the lines of '...turn right just past the big rocks.'

Okay.

We needn't have worried.

As we came over the rise I said, 'I'm guessing that white house is our cottage.'

I guessed right.

I've never been to the moon but there was something about the landscape here that felt lunar. Normally the moors are soggy, or as our guidebook put it, '...use caution so as not to sink in the peat bogs.' Now that would be a problem. Fortunately not a single raindrop fell during our trip and we hiked to our hearts content.

I cannot really explain how amazing it feels to stand in the middle of a moor and to look around as far as the eye can see without spying another single solitary soul.

Well, besides hubs and the pup I mean.

We hiked for hours and miles and hours and miles and while we did run into a few hikers scattered here and there for the most part we had the whole world to ourselves.

At least it felt like we did.

We started the day at this little bridge and were pleasantly surprised to come across running water out on the moor....a stream snaking its way from who knows where to who knows where.

Like an oasis in the desert.

We were more than ready to take off our boots and have a picnic lunch when we stumbled across both stream and waterfall.

Waterfall?

How odd.

Hubs and I have noticed in our travels that people living back in medieval times moved a whole lotta rock. I say its because there wasn't any television and they had to fill the time somehow. Hubs says he doesn't think that's quite right. Whatever the reason there are rock fences running from one end of nowhere to another. We did read that these fences marked farms and fields which makes sense since we saw more than a few sheep that weekend.

Our pup wanted to play...

The sheep did not.

There are also wild horses with shaggy manes living on the moors.

The scraggly yellow plants are called gorse and they grow wild too.

We both loved the weekend we spent hiking and relaxing in Dartmoor. I've never been anywhere else quite like it and its easy to see where Arthur Conan Doyle gained his inspiration for The Hound of The Baskervilles.

We made a stop enroute to Dartmoor which I'll write about later in the alphabet but for now I'll end this post where our hikes ended...

at the pub.

No matter where you roam in England, you will almost always end up at a pub.

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