Better than Oz

Bare feet. Old clothes. Bicycles. Ferries. Chalk. Trees. Hideouts and hikes. Farm chores. Garden pickings. Baking. A tusked old pig. Baby lambs. Lots and lots of goats. Garlic braids. Dogs, young and old. Berries, shells and beach stones. Driftwood. The C (Candy!) Shop.

Sunshine days (better than any yellow brick road) with family from far away, dropped from the sky.

Mountains and water and love, oh my!

There’s no place like home.

“Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you. . .” —Genesis 26:3

“We love because he first loved us.” —1 John 4:19

“I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.” —Joel 2:25

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Now. . . If you’re looking for more PNW summer, Sandra Byrd’s new novel Heirlooms will take you to Whidbey Island (also in Washington State)—and another country farm. In its pages you’ll enter a story of intergenerational and cross-cultural friendships as lovely as any I’ve read.

Here’s the gist: Two Navy widows—one of Korean lineage—find solace in each other after their husbands’ deaths. Estranged from their mothers, the two become family-of-heart. Those women have passed when their granddaughters follow attic clues to sleuth the details of their shared histories—and honor the legacies of their remarkable grandmothers.

I hope you enjoy it. This story is so rich and warm-hearted, you’ll be weeping by its conclusion.
I was.