Clouds? What clouds?

Today is lab test day, and the results are good today. All of my blood counts are in the normal range, except for red blood cells. So, today is a good day. 

In fact, this past week or more has been like a new leash on life. I have been doing some projects around the house. I have been driving here and there. In fact yesterday we went for a drive around the countryside. It was a gorgeous day with a cloudless sky and the temperature was around fifty degrees. 

We headed north from Dallas toward Perrydale, a very small village that serves many in the farming community, primarily by means of a school system that is highly regarded. People put their names on a waiting list in hopes of securing a place for their children in Perrydale schools. Other than the school buildings and a few homes and a small church building, there is not much to Perrydale. All of these buildings are clustered together near the intersection of the two roads that cross in the village, Perrydale Rd. and Bethel Rd. There is also a fire station a couple of blocks from the school buildings down Bethel Rd., and that's about it. 

We decided to go on from Perrydale to Amity, another berg that looks more like a town than Perrydale. Amity has a main street, which is actually OR Hwy 99W. This road serves the purpose of what the English call "The High Street." There are some shops and services lining the streets. There is a gas station and the High School, home of the Warriors. 

We explored some of the residential streets on the east side of town and then decided to explore the west side. Well, there isn't much to the west side of Amity except for the Coelho winery. We found ourselves on a country road headed for Bellevue. Neither of us could remember ever hearing of a Bellevue in these parts, but it was such a lovely day for driving that we just followed the country road for a few miles until we arrived at OR Hwy 18. Along the way, since we assumed that Bellevue must be pretty small, I asked Jill if she had any ideas as to how we would recognize it when we arrived. So, here's a tip. If you are looking for Bellevue, it appears to consist of a country store at the junction of OR 18 and Bellevue Hopewell Highway 153!

It was getting on toward 4:00 PM, so we circled back to Amity and headed south on OR 99W, which is a pretty straight shot back to our little area of Dallas. We thoroughly enjoyed our "Sunday Drive," and we marveled at the beautiful countryside that God has created. 

Rural living is refreshing to me as a city boy. In fact, I have long held that one of the sad facts of modern day life in America is that most of us have lost touch with the land. The vast majority of us grow up in urban areas. We get our food from the local Safeway, and our familiarity with horticulture and agriculture is usually limited to raising some houseplants or a few geraniums in the yard, and maybe, if we are lucky enough to have the yard space, we plant a few tomatoes or a zucchini. 

We have discovered that country folk do lots of interesting things. We have discovered a dairy with a small cheese factory not far away. There are a number of boutique bakeries that we know of. The Willamette Valley is home to dozens of wineries from little mom and pop operations to world famous wine estates. There are lots of craft breweries to visit. Oregon is one of the leading hop suppliers in the world. We also learned that Oregon is one of the world's largest producers of hazelnuts, along with Turkey! There is a Bison farm not far from us, and numerous nurseries specializing in every thing from landscape design to shade plants to irises to tulips. 

Really, you ought to take a drive in the country. It's good for the soul! I thank God that I am feeling better and better and am able to take a Sunday Drive with my Sweetheart and enjoy learning about the bounty He has provided for his kids to enjoy!

When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, ⁶ and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— ⁷ then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. ⁸ And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹ And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food... ¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (Genesis 2:5-9, 15)

And among all the other wonders He made, God gave me this marvelous body that keeps fighting back against the leukemia. I know it won't last forever, because "it is appointed for man to die once, and then the judgment." But in the meantime, I am grateful for healing and for feeling well and for our local version of Eden to enjoy on a cloudless day in January.