My week

This past week I drove up to visit a very dear friend who lives in the Finger Lakes area of New York, near the town of Naples. Naples is located south of Lake Canandaigua. My friend, Mary Jane and her husband Jim were missionaries in Haiti for twenty years, and that is where I first met them forty years ago. Two of her sons were in my class in Haiti when I was a teacher there. When they found themselves back in the United States, they moved to New York where Jim was the pastor of a church. They served there for twenty years and then retired and moved to Naples. This photo of them was taken at the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of their church's beginning. Jim is now with the Lord, and Mary Jane contines to live there and stays busy in her church now.

The first day I was there we took a drive around the countryside, stopping at several places. Our first stop was at a Mennonite store. There were an abundance of gifts, all types of apparel and just about anything you could ever need. What fun!

From there we headed to a farm store where there was every kind of squash, seasonal fruit, and vegetable that you could hope to find. And beautiful mums were everywhere.

After another stop, we arrived at this winery. When we arrived, some folks were over picking some grapes and tasting them. They told us that they had been told that we could pick and eat as much as we wanted. These concord grapes were oh, so sweet. Vineyards can be seen everywhere. For some reason I had thought that with the weather getting cold, the grapes would be done, but such is not the case. Festivals were being held , and as you can see, there seemed to be an abundance of grapes.

It was a wonderful three days that I spent with Mary Jane. I'll post a few more photos tomorrow or Monday. Be sure to click on the photos to see details...especially the collages.