NEW YEARS EVE~2025; Coalinga-CA

Free - 'Be My Friend' Lyrics: 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z09-qafbJ0U)

States neither of us have seen, yet: still the goal, & trusting Elohim's Plan for us.

STRANGE THINGS; Coalinga-CA

Today started with a strange sight … across the way from us, I saw a teardrop trailer with round ship style side windows; I've never seen this style before:

Tear Drop trailer with ship windows; interesting~Coalinga-CA

Then, while In Coalinga - a raven swooped down and lit on the passenger side mirror in a very "I'm here to stay" manner …

A tenacious raven perched on the side-mirror, & claimed space with a direct stare.

It stayed with us the entire length of the parking lot, to the alley; Coalinga-CA

After it eventually flew off, Holland said, "I wonder what this means. Remember the crows that swarmed our roof when we were in Ocean Park? And now, this strange thing. I wonder what it means." I replied, "This was a raven - different than a crow. Ravens are a Bible bird; remember how Elohim sent a raven to feed Elijah? This was no ordinary bird experience - this fella was perched on our rig, specifically staring at me … and it stayed with us, for a specific purpose."

Then, I picked up my phone and did some quick research.

This is what came across: If a raven lands on your vehicle, it could be a sign that you’re being reminded to pay attention to your spiritual path. Perhaps there’s something you need to hear or a decision you need to make.

We have been asking Elohim for clear direction, and waiting for a clear direction. We have decisions to make, that need clarification.

A raven landing on your vehicle might be a reminder to let go of something that’s holding you back. Are you feeling trapped in a situation? The bird could be encouraging you to spread your wings and embrace your independence.

Yes - this fits; personally in going forward together  - as well as individually.

Surprisingly, despite their mysterious — or even eerie — reputation, ravens are also seen as protective forces; seeing a raven can be a powerful spiritual sign, a way of letting you know that change is on the horizon. In times of transition, it could also indicate that you are not alone — you are being guided and protected.

I believe this; I always know that Elohim is watching over us, and protecting us. I want my husband to believe it, too, as strongly as I do.

When a raven perches on your vehicle and stays even when the vehicle is in motion, it is often interpreted as a sign of transformation and rebirth. Ravens are known for their ability to glide between the earth and sky, symbolizing a connection between the subconscious and conscious mind. This encounter may be a call to reflect on your life and choices, urging you to face aspects you've been avoiding. It could also signify that you are not alone, offering reassurance during challenging times and encouraging you to trust the process as you navigate through life's twists and turns.

These intriguing birds often appear at just the right moment — when you’re deep in thought, facing a big decision, or searching for deeper meaning. So the next time you see a raven watching you carefully or swooping into your path, pay attention. It is very likely carrying a message meant just for you.

2025 certainly has been a year of twists & turns! I, for one, am glad it is finally ending.

And the entire way through, one Scripture passage continues to echo through my thoughts: "be still & know that I am God."

Perhaps this evening's strange occurrence is the echo's affirmation.

A WIDOW WHO LOVED ARCHEOLOGY

She didn’t sneak into Nazi territory. She walked in calmly, rang the bell, and asked for a room. A polite woman with perfect German, pleasant manners, and a gentle smile. A harmless tenant, surely. Only she wasn’t harmless.

Her name was Lise de Baissac, SOE agent —

and the Wehrmacht commander who rented her that room had unknowingly welcomed a ghost of British intelligence into his home. Every morning she greeted him with warmth. Every night she slipped into darkness, explosives under her coat, whispering to resistance fighters:

“We work quietly, or we do not work at all.” He thought she was a tenant.

She was surveillance. She was sabotage. She was death walking silently through his hallways. But the story didn’t start in Normandy. It began in black sky, September 24, 1942.

A Whitley bomber roared over France and a slim figure hurled herself into the void. Thirty-seven years old. Alone. A parachute beating open over enemy land.

She hit the earth hard, heart pounding, hands digging frantically to bury silk and British cloth.

Moments later she became “Madame Irene Brisse,” a widow who loved archaeology.

A bicycle, a sketchbook, a soft voice. A quiet woman admiring Roman ruins. Invisible.

But in her basket lay coded messages, detonators, maps of German positions.

And in the shadows she built the Artist network — a dozen French fighters becoming hundreds, then thousands. “They never look for fire inside ash,” she murmured.

So she placed herself one hundred yards from the Gestapo headquarters and turned her apartment into a sanctuary for incoming SOE agents. Briefing them, arming them, teaching them how to live… and how not to die.

They passed her on the street every day.

They never saw the blade they brushed against.

Then, betrayal. June 1943. The Prosper network fell; screams echoed in German cellars. Time evaporated. She burned every trace. Radio smashed. Documents gone. Then across a moonless field she sprinted to a waiting Lysander, three minutes to live or die.

As the plane lifted, searchlights clawed at the sky.

She didn’t blink.

London welcomed her home. Safety. Recognition. Rest. She refused.

Eight months later, she jumped back into France.

Different name. Same fire. D-Day was coming.

Every mile she pedaled carried weapons. Vegetables on top. Explosives beneath. A smile for the Germans she rolled past. “They think women are invisible,” she whispered. “They should fear what they cannot see.”

And when she needed lodging in a garrisoned town?

She rented a room from a Nazi commander.

Imagine the audacity. Tea with your enemy.

Bread and butter — with names and troop movements learned between bites.

Then disappearing into the night with that information to maim, sabotage, and cripple the Reich.

June 6, 1944. Normandy burns. German reinforcements roll— but the roads explode, bridges vanish, trains derail, fuel depots erupt.

The feared Das Reich division should have reached Normandy in three days. It took seventeen.

Seventeen days bought by bicycle chains, coded whispers, and dynamite.

By quiet hands disguised as harmless ones.

By Lise.

Two years undercover. Two parachute drops. Two network lives built and rebuilt from ash. Torture always a breath away. Execution always a heartbeat near.

She survived.

She earned the MBE, the Croix de Guerre, the Légion d’honneur. But medals were nothing.

The Resisters said the only title that mattered: “She was one of us.”

After the war she vanished into ordinary life, planting flowers instead of bombs, watering roses where she once watered courage.

She never asked for applause. Heroes seldom do.

Lise de Baissac lived to ninety-eight. A quiet woman on a bicycle who broke an empire with silence and steel.

She proved a truth the Nazis never understood: Courage is not loud.

It is patient. It is ordinary in daylight, unstoppable in darkness.

And she proved one more thing: Sometimes the most dangerous weapon in a war … is a woman the enemy never bothered to fear.

AND THE WORLD KEEPS SPINNING; Coalinga-CA

Holland thinks Wednesday's morning's water puddle in the bunk room came from the bathroom's skylight-vent; he's assuming the rubber gasket was at fault. I don't know - all I know is that there was a puddle the other morning … and the morning's since, have been dry. And it has rained hard continuously.

We're gonna be staying here at least another month - we're paid up here 'til January 1st, 2026; and really this is actually the safest place to be at the moment, with all the crazy weather tearing things up in every state.

CA roads are terrible in the best of times, and with the stormy weather tearing roads up here since November, it's just wise to sit things out until things settle down. When we went to bed the other night, I prayed that we'd be staying here a bit longer: weather & road reports we have been viewing are not encouraging for travel. ALL the mainline freeway junctions leading to where we want to go, are seriously compromised and will take time to clear & repair for safe passage - and who knows what damages will be faced on alternate milk-run-backroad routes: some of them, common sense tells us, we wouldn't even be able to travel with Independence - and most are closed due to the stormy weather.

So, when Holland woke up and said he was going to cancel the reserved scheduled Barstow space, & call the Office here, to extend our space rent … I readily agreed. He said, "I know you want to be on the move, & I'd like to secure a cheaper space to sit Independence; I think it's best we stay hunkered here, a while longer, Baby." I replied, "I'm okay with hunkering down here another month if we have to; I actually prayed about this when we laid our heads down, the other night. Yes, the  gypsy in me would like to be on the move, but, not riskily. I am edgy-minded, but I don't play with my life. And even with the hike in electricity use for the heater, it's really not that expensive here - we're doing okay; making a risky move in all this weather chaos could be more expensive. I agree with you. Let's stay a little longer."

We settled into the Day: we enjoyed a loop drive with easy airwave tunes/easy company/easy convo. We enjoyed an easy, cozy evening back home, with electric fireplace ambiance warmth (it doesn't matter where you live, 38-degres is cold) & an easy light meal. Holland scrolled internet sites for information on the places we plan to visit when we leave here … and I worked on a few more items for the Preemie Box to be dropped off in Hanford, next time we go that way.

VAL'S 4PATRIOTS TURKEY-RICE CASSEROLE Recipe: (https://roadgypsiesvalandholland.blogspot.com/2025/12/vals-4patriots-turkey-rice-casserole.html)

Worked on a little preemie cardi, while warming my feet; it's c.o.l.d. here.

Around 10 PM, we got a phone call informing us 📱 that the Grim Reaper is not going to let us move into 2026 peacefully 😢 Holland's cousin Brenda had a fatal heart attack 2 days ago 💔

We are both in shock: Holland staring off into space & me crying. There was no indication last time we saw her … nor from the light-hearted-teasing text she sent us Christmas Eve.

Brenda was a good woman. She just welcomed a 3 new grandchildren into her family this year.

She embraced me like a sister when we met.

Holland & Brenda~2-8-2024: They were so happy to see each other, again. And we visited every time we passed through CA. She will be missed by everyone.

I feel this loss deeply: Holland feels it even deeper.

We both need 2025's dizzying waltz with death to STOP.

PLEASE God 🙏

Sensing I needed a little brightness in my immediate space, Minerva chose that moment to unfurl her lovely holiday vibe petals - and I do believe they are larger than the first blooming, a couple weeks ago:

Minerva blooming again, following Christmas = 4 double-blossom cycles since Thanksgiving~2025

My hand is 6-in long & 5-in wide.

And the world keeps spinning.

VAL'S 4PATRIOTS TURKEY-RICE CASSEROLE Recipe; Coalinga-CA

Still working my way through the 4Patriots Food Packets & freezer-fare Turkey meat:

4Patriots Creamy Rice & Vegetable Dinner, dry mix.

Turkey meat; precooked & frozen in 2-serving portions.

This turkey & rice casserole 👨‍🍳🦃🥧 lets you turn leftover turkey into a quick, hearty dinner - and adding cheddar cheese on top for extra flavor as the dish finishes baking, rounds it out very nicely 😊

The Adobo seasoning 🧂 lends an exotic flavor to the meal that had my husband going back for more: this casserole dish was a hit with my casserole weary husband (too many church potlucks, growing up) … and I'm thinking it will be a staple repeat for some of that left-over holiday turkey meat 👌👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨

Val's 4Patriots Turkey-Rice Casserole ~serves 3

1/2 pkt. 4Patriots Creamy Rice & Vegetable Dinner, dry mix * 2-1/2 c Water * 1 c turkey, cooked & diced * 2 Bacon slices, pre-cooked & sliced * 3 Mini Peppers, finely chopped * 1/2 c Onion, finely chopped * 1 Garlic clove, mince1 TBSP. Butter or margarine * 1/4 tsp Adobo Seasoning * 1/8 tsp Himalayan Pink Salt * 1/4 tsp Black Pepper, freshly ground * 1 c Cheddar Cheese, grated * Cooking Spray 

Manual Pull Food Chopper * Scissors * 1 Med-size Soup Pot w-lid * 1 2-qt. Pyrex Casserole Dish * 1 Cooking Spoon * Dinner Plates & Silverware

1) Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

Gather & prepare the ingredients.

Ingredients.

With scissors, slice bacon into crosswise strips.

Chop mini peppers, onion, & garlic …

2) Coat the interior bottom of a medium soup pot with cooking spray - add peppers, onion, & garlic; sauté until onion is translucent … then lower burner heat and cook on low until veggies are tender to the bite.

Sauté veggie medley.

3) To the sautéed veggies, add the 4Patriots rice-veg dry mix, water, diced turkey, butter & spices: bring to a boil.

Half a 4Patriot's Creamy Rice & Vegetable Dinner Pkt.

Stir constantly while bringing to a boil - it will stick otherwise.

Reduce heat to medium & continue cooking 20 minutes - stirring frequently.

4) Remove mixture from heat - scoop into casserole dish, and bake in oven for 20 minutes.

5) Remove from oven; sprinkle cheese on top - return to oven & cook another 15 minutes … or until cheese is melted.

Topped with cheese …

Baked a bit longer to melt cheese.

Serve & enjoy!

1944 GHOST DRESSED AS A CHILD

The male agents kept dying in the shadows, so British intelligence disguised a 23-year-old woman as a village girl, trained her to kill, and dropped her into Nazi-occupied France — where she outwitted the Third Reich for 135 days.

May 1, 1944. Five days before D-Day would crack open Nazi Europe.

A dark bomber sliced through the sky over Normandy. At its open door stood Phyllis Latour — tiny, calm, and impossibly brave, staring at occupied France thousands of feet below her.

No rifle. No platoon. Just a parachute, a cover story, and a battered bicycle waiting to become her execution — or her legend. She was 23. And the Nazis had already eliminated every male spy sent in her place.

Churchill’s Special Operations Executive needed someone invisible. Someone the Gestapo would dismiss before they feared. They needed a ghost dressed as a child.

They chose her.

She had trained until her knuckles split on cold stone. Morse code until her fingertips bled. Silent killing. Disappearing. Climbing walls with a cat burglar. Resisting torture.

This wasn’t duty. This was vengeance — the Nazis had murdered her godfather.

Then she jumped into the darkness.

She buried her British gear. Brushed her hair into a little girl’s ribbon — codes hidden inside — and pedaled into occupied towns selling soap, giggling like someone too innocent to fear war.

“The men before me were caught and killed,” she later murmured, calm as a winter lake. “I would be less suspicious.”

For 135 days, that “harmless peasant girl” memorized troops, tanks, bunkers, fuel lines. Then she vanished into forests to send lifelines to London at a speed most wireless operators never reached.

She never transmitted twice from the same place. If she did, a German detection truck would find her, torture her, erase her. So she slept in barns, fields, empty rooms — hunger and death whispering beside her.

Once, soldiers stopped her. Searched everything. A Nazi officer reached for her ribbon — the one hiding silk codes.

She untied it playfully, hair falling, eyes wide and childish.

They laughed and let her pass. Life and death swayed by a smile.

135 messages.

135 blows against the Nazi war engine.

D-Day’s success carried her fingerprints.

When Paris was liberated, she didn’t stand on a parade truck or write a memoir. She went home. Married. Raised four children. Told none of them.

Her son only learned the truth 56 years later — from a book.

In 2014, France finally placed the Légion d'honneur around her neck. 

She accepted it like someone who’d simply done laundry, not saved lives.

Phyllis Latour Doyle lived to 102. Quiet. Gentle. Deadly when history needed her.

She didn't win the war with bullets.

She won it with innocence, courage, and a bicycle.

When every man they sent was killed — she went anyway.

And the world changed because a young woman pretended to be a child and rode through hell with soap in her basket and fire in her heart.

May we never forget her name.

Phyllis Latour Doyle.

INCREASING IN VALUE~69th Birthday Today; Coalinga-CA

I woke up with this song running through my head, this morning 😉

And Holland greeted me with it, when I actually got up 😘

The Beatles - Birthday Song: 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs5vUfddkT8&t=85s)

I laugh every time we pass … because it's been standard speak every time we pass today 😂🤣

He really is a good guy when he lets his fun side run free; and he really is good for me. I laugh and have more fun with this man, than I ever have had 🥰👍

69 years young, today 😁🧁

VAL'S FANCY HOLIDAY HASHBROWNS Recipe; Coalinga-CA

Manly Christmas Brunch; Coalinga-CA

I cooked a special holiday breakfast brunch (I'd planned months ahead) for my husband 😎 - spoiling him a little 😘; not enough to make him rotten 😂🤣, but enough to let him know he's appreciated 🤗

Breakfast brunch consisted of fancy Hashbrowns (my own concoction - recipe follows), canned beef hash, fried eggs, bacon strips, & toast. We've been eating light … so, this really was a special treat 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨

READ ENTIRE POST TO THE END 👀 BEFORE PREPARING TO COOK 👨‍🍳

Val's Fancy Holiday Hashbrowns ~serves 2

3 cups frozen Hashbrowns, thawed * 1/2 Onion, halved & sliced * 4 Mini Peppers (I used the orange ones) * 1/2 c. Cranberries, whole * 1 tsp. Creole Seasoning * 1/2 tsp. Cayenne, powdered * 1/2 tsp. Lime pepper * 2 TBSP. Bacon Fat, rendered * 3 precooked bacon slices, halved * 1 Cutting Board * 1 Lrg. Skillet * 1 Cooking Spoon * Measuring Spoons & Cups

1) Thaw frozen hashbrowns; combine spices, sprinkle over softened hashbrowns & stir to blend thoroughly.

Frozen Hashbrowns - thaw before using.

Add spices; stir to blend thoroughly. Set aside.

2) Slice onion; set aside.

Mince mini peppers & cranberries; sauté veggies in bacon fat - simmer until very tender.

Mini Peppers & Cranberries; whole.

Sauté sliced onion, minced peppers & cranberries; cook until softened.

3) Add spiced hashbrowns & cook over medium-high heat until cooked through. Lay bacon slices atop hashbrowns - lower heat to medium, and continue cooking until potatoes are browned & bacon is heated through.

Add hashbrowns; continue cooking until browned & heated through.

Additions for our complete brunch plate: 1 canned Corn Beef Hash * 4 eggs * 3 precooked bacon slices, halved * 4 bread slices * butter or margarine for toast * cinnamon, powdered * black pepper, ground * 1 medium skillet w-lid * 1 Cooking Spatula * Serving Plates

Canned Hash, eggs, bacon slices; & bread slices for toast.

Open hash can & place in skillet; sprinkle with cinnamon & black pepper; break eggs over top when cooked - cover with lid to 'set' eggs.

Enjoy!