Embracing Fall......

Yes, there are changes in the air

The beginning....

it was just like that in Boston 2 weeks ago

and this was what I saw in Amana 2 days ago

yes, there are changes in the air

precious treasures....

look, they are everywhere around you

I love the yellow against the brilliant blue of the sky

 this trip to Iowa, after visiting my brother-in-law, I took an afternoon off, drove 30 miles south to The Amana Colonies all by myself while husband went back to office for work

The Amana Colonies are a group of settlements of radical German Pietists in Iowa. They were first settled in New York State near Buffalo but in order to live out their beliefs in more isolated surroundings they moved west, to east-centrla Iowa in 1856. They lived a communal life until the mid 1930s. Due to this, the Amanas are sometimes mistaken for Amish

A striking feature of the Amana Colonies is that for eighty years they maintained an almost completely self-sufficient local economy, importing very little from the wider, industrializing U.S. economy.

The Amanians were able to achieve the independence life style by adhering to the specialized handcrafts and farming occupations which they had brought with them from Germany. Master craftsmen passed on from one generation to the next, the knowledge, techniques, and skills of the artisan iron and copper smiths, woodwrights, weavers, shoemaers, cheese makers, etc.

Today, Amana is a major tourist attraction known mainly for its restaurants and craft shops.  The colonies as a whole have been listed as a National Historic Landmark since1965

(** the above notes about Amana Colonies are from Wikipedia, read more here)

the weather was amazing so I walked my legs off and saw a ton of things

and when I got tired

happiness is a cup of coffee and a really really good piece of German cream horn

I sat there, sipping coffee and watching someone tweeting.....

It was such a beautiful, peaceful afternoon

simple pleasures......

I hope you are finding joy 

with the little things around you today

♥

on the personal side, we got home worried as we were still waiting for the news of my brother-in-law, he looked really pale and weak when we were there, like us, he was very worried about the scanned results. Just a few hours ago, we received the good news, doctor said his condition is treatable, what a great relief.

I want to THANK all of you, my lovely blog friends, for your thoughts and prayers, please continue to pray for our family, Dan, Randy's eldest brother, is kind of the male model in Randy's life, he is 14 years older and Randy is the baby of the family, he grew up mostly with Dan and his wife Marilyn. We love Dan and hope to see him healthy again....

and

I got to meet up with Stephanie this trip, we had sushi and chatted quite a bit, it was fun!

Isn't it wonderful when you get to meet your blog friends IRL?