Gift Finishes: Covered Boxes and Cross Stitches

 

I stitched this seven-inch round piece as a Christmas gift for my eldest granddaughter, Marian. When I saw the pattern at Liberty Hill Needleworks, it immediately reminded me of Mari and her little dog. The wintry wreath reminded me of our ice skating adventure in Vermont last year. So, none other than Mari should have this embroidery.

The biggest challenge with a round embroidery is how to finish it off. I could not find a good quality round frame anywhere. The designer of the pattern had this displayed an embroidery hoop. I thought it worthy of something more substantial than an embroidery hoop display. Since I could not find a frame, my next thought was to attach it onto the lid of a Shaker box. Another exhaustive search yielded no round Shaker boxes that were the right size. Finally, I went with the idea of attaching it to a round paper maché box. I found a website (Factory Direct Craft) that carries all shapes and sizes of paper maché boxes and I ordered a few from there. 

I covered the box with some pretty, coordinating fabric in the "Merry Little Christmas" line by Tilda fabrics. I lined the inside of the box as well. For all my fabric covered boxes, I use Mod Podge for Fabric. (I fell so in love with the Tilda fabrics that I bought enough to make a quilt.)

Once I got playing with fabrics and paper maché boxes, I decided to cover some smaller boxes I already had on hand. My friend Kay had an adorable pincushion in her craft studio that she made a while ago. She told me how to make it and off I went! I needed a gift for our rug hooking group's gift exchange and I thought a set of two little boxes would be lovely. I had so much fun making the first set that I went on and made another set for me. : ) I topped the red set with a velvet pincushion and the blue set with a wool pincushion. I will fill the blue gift set with some notions before I wrap it.

 Finally, I made a little "Winter" pillow to give in another crafting gift exchange. My daughter Chelsea saw the pillow in a video chat we were having and said how much she liked and and could I send her the pattern. I decided to send her the pillow itself as a cheery little gift. She is a hard-working mother to three little boys and what mother couldn't use a surprise gift in the mail? I figured I could make something else for the gift exchange.

 So that was my busy week last week. On to more crafting adventures before Thanksgiving arrives! Claire's family will be here for the holiday so next week's focus will joyfully be food and family.

Easy and Delicious Homemade Focaccia

                                            

I keep forgetting to take a photo before it is sliced! This is a half recipe sized bread.

       

 6 1/4 c. flour
2 Tablespoons salt (You may be able to lessen this. I have not tried yet.)
1 tea. instant yeast
3 1/2 c. warm water 

Mix all ingredients together with a spoon.

Pour into a large, oiled bowl. Pour about 1/4 cup olive oil on top of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap. Put into the refrigerator. Leave for at least two days or up to a week.

Take out from refrigerator. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Pour dough onto parchment and gently smooth out. Let rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. (Do not worry if it does not look risen very much.)

Preheat oven to 450 F. 

Before putting focaccia in the oven, pat down with floured fingers. Sprinkle with salt and any other seasonings you like.

Bake 25-30 minutes. 

*Warning- this recipe makes a very large focaccia. It fills an entire  11"x17" cookie sheet. This is fine if you want a large focaccia. Other options would be to divide the dough in half when you remove it from the refrigerator and bake two smaller focaccias (Perhaps one to keep, one to give away) or bake one today and another a day or two later. 

We like to use a little coarse salt, freshly cracked pepper, and chopped rosemary from the garden. I have also baked the focaccia for 15- 20 minutes, then topped it with tomatoes, Italian seasoning, grated Parmesan, and mozarella . Bake for another 10 minutes or so. This makes a nice pizza. My friend has made sandwiches with hers. The focaccia bakes up high and fluffy in the center so it can be cut for sandwiches if you like.

 

Dark and Blustery Nights

 The weather turned very cold this week. It was delivered on a biting wind. Combined with the dark evenings, there is no doubt that winter is on our doorstep. Lately, these things remind me of  childhood winters in the north. My mind relates the discomforts of cold and dark into comforting thoughts of our cozy little house and the safe feeling of a mother and father nearby. I do not recall ever thinking about the world beyond our snowy avenue and school. Life felt safe. After we were tucked into bed at night and the house became quiet, we were lulled to sleep by the sounds of water trickling through the radiators. The radiators made a gentle, "tick, tick, tick" sound as the metal heated and cooled. Although the wind was blowing against the windows and snow may have been falling outside, the warmth of our home and the sound of the radiators made us feel safe and secure. The possibility of waking to a blanket of snow in the morning made it even sweeter. Oh, the excitement of going to sleep with these happy thoughts! Even though the house was shut up tight, we could hear the snow at the window. The "ssss" sound snow makes when it falls and the way it muffles all other sounds is palpable and so comforting.

Here we are now. The same dark and blustery nights have followed us into adulthood. But, we have no water heated radiators and rarely any snow. There is no mother or father nearby and we will definitely not have to go to school tomorrow : ) The world is now so much wider than my little avenue and there are so many more people that I love and care about. Sleep does not come easy anymore. But, on these blustery nights, if I can't sleep because of the wind or because life is niggling at my brain, I will conjure up the memory of those ticking radiators and the muffled sound of the snow. Before I realize it, I have fallen blissfully asleep with the words, "Thank you Lord", on my lips.

 

Finishes and Beginnings- It's Time to Stitch and Hook!

 

I finished stitching and constructing the pin drum from last year's Jingle Bell Ball. It was an exclusive pattern for ball attendees. I thought the woodland scene was delightful so I stitched it up. The photo on the pattern makes the linen look like a pretty blue/periwinkle color. In reality, the called for linen is a drab gray. My friend and I were shocked when it arrived since it was nothing like the photo. Apparently a lot of other stitchers were surprised too as we have heard tell from shop owners. Anyway, I still think it is adorable. It was a lot of work, especially stitching all those single snowflakes. 

I have several stitched items that I am working on for holiday swaps, etc. So I will not post those until after they are given.

I needed to begin a rug project so I would have something to take to our monthly hooking group.  I decided to make Karen Kahle's "Compote with Camillias" pattern that a friend gave me. If I am lucky, I will hook this entirely from worms that I have saved. Pictured below is my planning process. Rug making can be messy and dusty. First I need to clean the room to make space to play with patterns and colors. Later on, after I make the rug, the room needs another major cleaning from wool dust, wool strips, and snippets everywhere. In between times, I need to clear and clean the room because it serves as a guest room when our granddaughter comes to stay. Hoping a pretty rug will make it all worth the effort.

 

Halloween

 

We had a fun Halloween with three of the four daughters and their families trick-or-treating in Fincastle with us. Our little town goes big on Halloween! The old Fincastle Baptist church is a residence now and the owners always have fun props for Halloween. This year, the bell tower was lit up in spooky colors. Sometimes there are ghosts or bats flying up there too and one year they had an antique hearse parked out front. 

The annual Halloween festivities always begin with everyone gathering in the courthouse square at 5:30pm. Each year, our town sheriff  dresses as Woody from "Toy Story". At 6:00pm he makes an announcement to officially begin the trick-or-treating. With his go-ahead, everyone pours down Main Street and then scatters throughout all the side streets. We made a point to stop at friend Karen's house and friend Eleanor's house. Unbeknownst to me, Steve went inside Eleanor's house inside to say hello to Eleanor's husband. Apparently he sat down and stayed a spell because at that point we lost him as the rest of us continued on our way trick-or-treating. 

As we walked along, a friend came up to us and told us about a very special house about a block away, at the top of the hill. They encouraged us to go up there because there was a scary maze, free light sticks, and full sized candy! Of course we had to see for ourselves! Sure enough the place was all rigged out. There was an animated monster rock and roll band, a scary maze, costumed monsters, and full sized boxes of candy. It was dark and very hard to tell the dummy monsters from the live ones. I got spooked twice and screamed in fright, much to my kids' delight.

 Somehow we all managed to find each other an hour later at St. Mark's church on the other side of town . No small feat considering Steve had no phone on him and it was pitch dark. St. Mark's always opens their fellowship hall with hot dogs, lemonade, and other snacks, all for free or donations. It is also a good place to warm up if the holiday turns out to be chilly.

Since Claire's family drove into town to spend the weekend with us and to come trick-or-treating we all headed back to our house. The three grand kids dumped their candy out onto the dining room table. They spent some time sorting and admiring all the candy. I caught Matthew before he emptied out his bag so I could weighed it. It weighed 4.8 pounds! I told them my childhood story of Halloween. I told them that knew every year I would get thirteen pieces of candy. They asked how I knew that. I told them I lived on a dead-end street out in the country. There were thirteen houses, which always meant thirteen pieces of candy. It was always great fun and I have happy memories of Halloween, the fallen leaves, the early darkness, and the chill in the air.

 

Weekend Fall Vibes

 It was a busy weekend with a good balance of work and fun. It began on Friday evening with a delicious corned beef and cabbage dinner at our house with Tim and Kay. Steve saw the corned beef briskets at Sam's Club and asked if we could make it. I questioned the timing as it wasn't St. Patrick's Day but he was convincing so we went ahead and bought it. It was delicious! Everyone enjoyed the meal. I expect it was so good because it is something we only eat once (or twice) a year. 

We woke up Saturday morning to a chilly thirty-four degrees! We had a work day at church planned. Boy were my fingers frozen in no time. Our tasks were to spread mulch and cut back some shrubs. As we got moving we warmed up quickly and began shedding layers of jackets. We were a team of seven people and had the work done in four hours. It always feels good to step back and gaze upon all that hard work.

 Back at home, I gathered up all the summer potted pants and dumped them into the lawn cart. I added all the dead marigolds from the raised beds as well. It was time to tidy up for winter now that the frost had come. The porch plants were still bright and cheery so it was hard to say goodbye to this part of summer. Out they went. This was no time for plant pity; things had to be done.

In the evening we went with Tess and Blake to the Fincastle Ghost Tour. This was put on by the Historic Fincastle Society. Our group walked around town with a host and made several stops where various characters told ghostly stories. One stop was at the Godwin Cemetery in the photo above. We stood below the national champion Honey Locust tree, deemed to be over two hundred years old. As the photo shows, it is growing right around a grave stone. It really is a stately, gorgeous tree. Fincastle is an old town with log cabins dating to the late 1700's. (Two of my friends live in them.) This evening's walk was a foretaste to the Halloween walk we will make next weekend. On Halloween night the town will be filled with trick-or-treaters and happy sounds echoing through the streets. Tonight, we shuffled through crisp fallen leaves and enjoyed the warm glow of lighted windows as we passed by homes.  

On Sunday evening, Tess and Blake invited all of us to their bungalow in town for Tess' twenty-ninth birthday. I can't believe our youngest is this age. Tess made rosette ribbons with fun titles on each for us to choose and wear. Steve chose "Queen" and I chose "Lovely". Others said, "Boss", "No. 1", etc. We ate yummy foods and then went outside for some wood burning. They recently had two large maples cut down with one being hollow. Tess counted the rings on the solid stump and counted ninety-two. The guys used the hollow logs as stoves for the smaller logs. It was fun to be outside and we all enjoyed the fire. We ended the evening with Tess' traditional birthday dessert, fruit pizza. For the first time ever, Steve helped me decorate the pizzas. My happiest times are when we are with our children. This was a perfect ending to the weekend. We look forward to gathering again at the end for the week for Halloween and trick-or-treating.

 

Open Studios, Botetourt, VA and Cake Pops

 

The weather was so pretty on Saturday that Steve and I decided it would be a fun day to go out for a drive. The annual Open Studios event gave us some good destinations. Each year in October, local artists open their studios for anyone to visit. We visited seven artists at three locations. 

Willie Simmons' family opened his wood shop to display and sell some of his prolific work. Mr. Simmons died suddenly in a motor cycle accident earlier this year. His sudden passing was a painful loss for his family and for the community. I purchased some Christmas gifts here. We also visited Ed Bordett's studio in town. His is a fun space to explore as it is in an old Oldsmobile dealership in the heart of Fincastle. The cavernous space has a tin tile ceiling, loads of antiques and all kinds of artist materials. Brett LaGue also displays his art there. I have always admired his Impressionist paintings and his wonderful colors. We bought a demure painting of azaleas from Mr. Lague. We went on to visit three other artists located on a farm with the beautiful view, above.

 

After we got home, I decided to take a broken chocolate cake out of the freezer and do something with it. I stashed it in there over the summer after it didn't turn out of the pan very well. It was too good tho throw out but too poor in shape to frost. I decided it was a good candidate for cake pops. I never made cake pops before. I figured that I did not have much to lose. To make them, you basically crumble up a cake, mix it with fluffy, homemade frosting, form it into balls and dip them in melted chocolate. In this case, I used white candy melts since the cake was chocolate. Voila! We ate them on Sunday when Tess and Blake came over for dinner. The crunchy candy coating with the moist cake interior make them delightful.

 

Stepping Into Fall

We left the summer vibe behind when we drove home from Holden Beach last weekend. Falling leaves and chilly temperatures greeted us upon or return to the mountains of western Virginia. It feels good to be in autumn. Our evening walks on the beach have been replaced by walks up our road. During our last walk, we came out of the wooded section and saw a beautiful rainbow over the Peaks of Otter. It was not raining but the sun was setting through some clouds which (I guess?)  is what formed the rainbow. We stopped and studied that rainbow for quite some time, enjoying all the colors and light, before we headed home.

 

Holden Beach, NC

 

This is our third year at Holden Beach in October with Kay, Tim, Sandi, and Dan. We have been lucky to have perfect weather all three years in a row. (You never can tell when booking a beach trip during hurricane season.) Days typically get into the low 80's and evenings and nights are cool.

Dan loves to fish. This year Steve asked him to bring an extra fishing pole so he could give it a try too. They caught a lot of little Croakers, as Dan called them. He showed me one so I could hear it croak. It sounded like a purring cat to me. All were released back into the water. Other fisherman up and down the shore caught similar fish. One neighboring fisherman caught a thirty seven inch Drum up near the pier. Anyway, while the guys fished, I sat in my beach chair or walked in the waves. The water was nice and warm. We recently invested in a Cool Cabana for our beach trips. We saw Chelsea's back in August when we went to the beach in Massachusetts. It provided nice shade when we needed a break from the sun.

There was a beautiful Harvest Moon during our vacation. I especially enjoyed our evening walks.

The sunset on our last evening walk.

 

 We always have a lot of fun with our friends. We get together almost every week at home so we are well acquainted with each others' idiosyncrasies. We all have a sense of humor and everyone likes to have fun. We also have our serious moments when we discuss our lives and when we pray together. As we get older, we do not take these friend trips for granted. They are precious and they have given us many cherished memories.

Who knows what they were discussing. It could have been anything from world politics to the Three Stooges.Whatever it was, the view was nice.

Mom's Meatballs and Sauce, Painting the Kitchen

Grandson Jack, who is nearly thirteen, came to stay with us last weekend. Amid the weekend activities I asked him what he would like for dinner on Sunday. I gave him a list of options and he chose spaghetti and meatballs. Our meatballs and sauce recipe comes from my Italian mom. I recall my mom and Aunt Katherine both making their sauce the same way so I assume it came from their mother, my grandmother. Grandmother Irene was an immigrant to the United States from Italy. My mom did not have this recipe written down. She dictated it to me and I typed it on a recipe card in the early 1980's. It has endured a lot of wear.

Recipes for meatballs and sauce are as varied as Italian regions. Every Italian family has their own sauce and meatball recipe. If you have been raised eating a particular sauce and meatball, (eating it at least once a week throughout childhood), it is hard to accept the taste of any other. So, I am not offended if this recipe is not to someone's liking. It does benefit from adding the red wine. The only change I have made is to the meatball recipe. I make breadcrumbs from the bread slices and sprinkle those with water. This makes a more uniform consistency. My least favorite part of making meatballs is frying them in olive oil. It is time consuming and I dislike standing at the stove frying things. In the past I have tried baking them instead. I thought the taste was not the same. They need the olive oil for flavor.

  

Jack helped me make the meatballs. In my opinion, if you are going to make a batch of meatballs and sauce, you might as well double it and freeze a batch or two. It is the same amount of work either way. 

We cooked in a chaotic kitchen setting because we are in the midst of painting the kitchen cabinets. I procrastinated this job because it requires all the cabinet contents to be removed in order to sand the wall and base boxes. The cabinet contents were scattered between the living room, dining room, basement, and our bedroom. Once we finished the sanding, we washed all the shelves and replaced the shelf liners. Now it feels like move-in day, all fresh and clean! I purged a lot of unused items and then put everything else back in place. The next step is to prime and paint all the sanded doors and drawer fronts. This will take another week or so. The last time we painted these was about fifteen years ago. I used a paint sprayer that time. I did not like using a sprayer. Aside from having to create a spray "room" with plastic sheeting, I was not adept with a sprayer and I hated the whole process. This time I am rolling the paint on with a four inch roller. The finish is uniform and lovely. I also feel that I am much more in control. We are using Benjamin Moore Advance for cabinets, doors, and trim in a satin finish. We are using the same color as before, Dove White. 

The kitchen is nothing fancy but it is highly functional. We bought the refrigerator in 1991 when we built our house in New York. The thing won't quit. We are ready to upgrade it and the laminate counter top to granite but that's for another day. Steve and I were both brought up with the mindset, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." So, we tend to wait until something needs doing rather than doing it just for the aesthetic. I cannot say if this is sound advice, it is just the way we are.

 

A Spontaneous Act of Kindness

 I witnessed the loveliest thing at church on Sunday.

An older couple sat in the pew in front of us. The lady was slightly bent and walked with a cane. She wore a smart dress and a denim jacket with the collar turned up. Her husband stood close to her and I noticed a slight tremor in his hands. In front of them sat another older lady who I know just a little bit. She devoted all of her time to operating a food pantry for veterans. She wears her hair very long and dresses in flowy clothing. This week she was wearing a beautiful, turquoise necklace and large, dangling, turquoise earrings in the shape of a cross.

As we sang the last song of Mass and began to leave our pews, I noticed the lady on front of us lean forward to the other lady and compliment her earrings. Without blinking an eye, the earring lady took them off and gave them to the admirer. This lady gestured as though saying, "No. No." But the earring lady lovingly pressed them into her hands.

 At that point we were walking away so I did not see if there was any further interaction between these two strangers. I thought it was the loveliest thing.

Williamsburg, VA...A Crafter's Delight

 I could visit Colonial Williamsburg many times over and never tire of it. Two friends and I drove there for a three night, mid-week, girl's getaway. We rented an Airbnb which was a ten minute drive away from Colonial Williamsburg. 

The three of us have gone away often together and we have our travel routine down pretty well. We typically go exploring during the day and settle in with sewing or hand work for the evenings. On this trip, we met up for lunch with a mutual friend who lives in Williamsburg. She recommended Carrot Tree Kitchens . It was a very nice, bustling place. I had a slice of spinach and feta quiche and a cup of tomato bisque soup. It was a rainy day and this was a cozy, satisfying meal. After lunch, we headed over to Liberty Hill Needleworks . Oh my, this is a wonderful shop for cross stitchers! I was here last December and thought I shouldn't need anything this trip. But that thought went down the tubes fast. 

 

A wall of linen, nicely arranged by count and color.

All types of floss plus another wall of DMC and yet another of silks.

After that bit of fun, we checked into our Airbnb. It was pouring rain and we got soaked to the skin carrying in our suitcases and gear. We changed into dry, comfortable clothing and settled in for an evening of stitching and gab.

The following day, we headed out to Willow Grove Primitives.  What a fun and well stocked shop. It consisted of two buildings, one being an historic house. It was nice to see that much of their stitchery, applique, and hooked items were crafted by local people. I found a pretty fall garland and three stuffed pumpkins made of gold flowered cotton. Next, we went to the New York Deli for lunch. This place is a must. We dined here last December and I could not wait to come back. After lunch, we stopped at Lightfoot Antique Shop where Kay found two nice antique frames. From there, we went to the Premium Outlet Shops. This conglomerate of stores seems to still be doing well as far as outlet malls go. I found two shirts for Steve at the Columbia outlet and nothing for myself anywhere else. After this full day, we again headed back to the Airbnb for an evening of stitching. For dinner, we had ordered Greek salads to-go when we were at the New York Deli for lunch. They kept in the car until we got home.

 

Now that's a Reuben!

 

The next day, we once again headed out early. The rain stopped and the day was beginning to brighten. Our first stop was back to Liberty Hill Needeworks. I am not sure why we did this, but Kay wanted to go back. I wasn't planning to get anything more until I spotted a pattern that had been on my wish list for a year. I don't know why I had not seen it when we were here two days ago. It is a sampler titled, "Louisa Barney 1892" by Reflets de Soie. The pattern is so beautiful to me that I decided to add it to my purchases. The Needleworks shop owner and her staff gave me a huge amount of time to get this pattern set up. I decided to stitch it in silk floss and they needed to convert all forty colors from DMC to Needlepoint Inc. Due to the cost of silk floss, I bought only fifteen colors for now. This is enough to get started. I may have to stretch this project out over a couple of years. The pattern is so beautiful and I know it will give me joy to stitch it.

After the Needleworks shop, we drove over to downtown Williamsburg. We were all hungry and decided to at at the Cheese Shop on Merchants Square. They make delicious sandwiches on all kinds of wonderful bread. We dined at the tables outside and enjoyed our lunch while we watched passersby. We ducked into the candy shop next door and each bought a milk chocolate covered caramel turtle to eat while we walked up the main avenue to take in the town and sights. (What great restraint it was to walk out of this candy shop with only one candy!) There were many people out and about. As always, it is easy to imagine oneself in Colonial times when walking around this place. Since we were just here last December, I did not take many photos. 

 

All the gardens are lovely here. I like the simplicity of this boxwood and Gomphrena.

This man was playing a lively fiddle tune. I hooked arms with Kay and got her to take a turn with me : )

Sadly, our week was coming to an end. Our plan was to make one more stop on our way home the next day. We wanted to go to Millstone Quilts in Mechanicsville, VA. Kay and Pat had been there several times in years past, but not recently. It is getting harder and harder to find reproduction quilting fabric and they knew that this wonderful shop carried a lot of it. The old mill building was fun to be in, albeit a little dark. There were several rooms of fabrics within two and a half stories. I was able to find yardage I needed for backing on a Jo Morton quilt I am piecing. There were so many beautiful prints that I was quite overwhelmed with wanting to buy everything. In addition to the backing fabric, I carefully chose some fat quarters to use in specific doll quilts I hope to make. We agreed that we will need to come back to Millstone Quilts again some time.

Back home to reality. There is work to be done! 

 

 

 

 

Reworking the Perennial "Step" Bed

 

 

We have garden steps that go nowhere. 

Twenty-two years ago, the vision was to replace this barren hillside with a garden. In reality, it  would have taken a crew of men with machines plus an expensive amount of plantings to bring that vision to fruition. But all was not lost. We found ourselves always climbing this little portion of hill when we wanted to walk up to the gravel road at the top. So we put in a mini version of the hillside garden. Back then, Steve got free railroad ties at his workplace. He brought a bunch of them home and then axed and shoveled out the clay hillside to set the steps in place. We then topped each step with pea stone. Over the years I have tried several different plants and shrubs to cover the area. It still a largish garden I always struggled with what to put there. It gets weedy very easily and it never looks pretty at the end of a hot summer. 

Lately, I let the weeds go for a long while and everything got really overgrown. When I knew Steve would be away for a few days and the weather would be cooler, I decided to tackle the task of cleaning it up. I drove the pickup truck to the landscape store and got a load of garden mix soil. I pruned back the shrubs and dug and weeded and dug some more. I pulled out old landscape fabric (what was I thinking using that stuff?!) and shoveled new dirt onto the area. I transplanted things I wanted to keep and added a few new plants to fill in.  

It took two days of hard labor. It also gave me great  satisfaction to complete the job. When I finally turned on the sprinkler to water everything in, that was my, "Hallelujah! The job is done!" I sat in the shade of a tree with a can of sparkling water and watched the sprinkler oscillate back and forth. The air was cool with a little breeze and it felt so good to just sit there and be finished. 

One of my best memories of the day was going back to the run-in shed, where we used to store hay for the horses, to get the garden cart. It has been years since any horses have been in there but it still smells like hay and horses. I love that smell.

I skipped the gym the next morning. I figured I had earned it, the hard way.

Ecclesiates 3:4, A Time to Cry

 Grief came to visit this week. It often lingers in the dark corners of everyday news. Most of the time I address it with prayer and introspection, determining to do more good and counterbalance the evil in this world with good. Love more, love better, love unconditionally...look to our Lord and Savior for guidance. But Wednesday's news of the assassination of Charlie Kirk darkened the sun and stilled the breeze. It caused a vacuum that momentarily sucked all common reason from the world. 

My heart is so heavy for what we have lost in the death of this good man. Evil attempted to take away our freedom of speech and open, civil debate. This same darkness wants to take away so much more. 

I found comfort in Charlie's widow's words of faith and encouragement and in her vision for her husband's legacy. And I find eternal comfort in knowing that darkness has lost. It was finished the moment Jesus defeated death on the cross. 

Erika Kirk's Words 

Wind's From the North!

 

The sky is clear and the upper and lower fields are mowed.

 Oh what glorious, cool air comes through the windows on the north side of the house! We have waited all summer for this change. It lifts our spirits and fuels our creativity. It induces me to clean and freshen every room in the house. I open windows on opposite sides of the rooms so the air flows right through. We keep some windows open at night and let the sounds of crickets and owls lull us to sleep. The screen porch is our evening haven now that the heat and humidity are gone. It was tolerable to sit there on a hot summer night but now it is downright pleasant. 

We have also begun to refresh the garden. The fields are mowed for hay which makes the entire property look brand new. The sweet scent of cut hay is everywhere. We tackled the tired vegetable beds and pulled out all the sodden, rotten tomato plants. What a disappointment they were this year. The pole beans came down too. They produced like gangbusters but were all spent now. Steve is harvesting hot peppers every day. He dehydrates some and grinds them into powders. He also makes a lot of hot sauce. I know it involves brine but I don't pay enough attention to his process. I took a turn with the dehydrator and filled it with sweet basil. I also made two batches of pesto which I will store in the freezer. 

Grandkids romped around the hay bales.

 

 

 

We had a happy Labor Day weekend with three of the four daughters and their families here for a cookout. It was an easy picnic with meats on the grill, a few sides, and two kinds of fruit cobbler with ice cream for dessert. We took walks, played outside, ate good food, and shared stories and dreams for the future. Tess and Audrey have declared that they enjoyed the family gathering for Violet's birthday party so much last month that they want to keep the gatherings going throughout the year. I say, "Amen" to that! Next month is Tess' birthday, Halloween, then Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will have plenty of opportunity to celebrate.

Dried basil leaves ready for crumbling into recipes and three jars of pesto for the freezer.

 On the quiet front, I finished stitching a large-ish cross stitch pattern. Now I must find a frame. I also took two quilts to the quilting studio and just picked them up this week. I need to bind them and then give them a wash so they pucker up. I will include them in my next post. Tomorrow Kay and I are driving to Lewisburg, WV to browse the antique shops and have lunch out. It is a very pretty drive with barely any traffic. It is my reward to self after having a routine c _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ py today. ; ) 

PS. I can't decide which font I prefer. ??  

 

Visiting New Hampshire and a Day at the Beach

 

Photo from our 2022 visit. It looks exactly the same today.

 

 

 

The Follansbee Inn at Kezar Lake, NH has become like an old friend to us. This is where we stay when we visit our daughter and her family in New Hampshire. This year, we made our annual August trek to the beautiful state of New Hampshire in our old pickup truck. It is not the most comfortable for long range travel (and I questioned its road worthiness) but we had a load of furniture that Chelsea wanted and I was happy to endure the truck ride in order to clear it out of our basement.

The common rooms at the inn are lovely and comfortable and the breakfasts are a culinary treat. We always enjoy the dock and the beachfront area. Guests have free use of the inn's kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards. We spent two days exploring the lake, swimming off the beach and dock, and relaxing under the big pine trees. One afternoon we formed a three boat caravan and Simon guided us over to an inlet at the lake where we paddled through rushes and lily pads. We looked for water birds, turtles and little fish as we paddled along. Our three grandsons are already energetic outdoorsmen and keep up quite well with their father. 

Other activities we enjoyed were the League of New Hampshire Craftsman Fair, a beach day on Plum Island, MA, dinner in Newburyport, MA, a home cooked lobster dinner eaten on the picnic table, an afternoon of candlepin bowling, reading books to the boys, and quiet evening chats with our daughter and son-in-law. I had hoped to get away from the Virginia heat but it was also hot in the north. We were able to sleep with the windows open at night and that was nice.

We spent a total of twenty-eight hours driving to and from New Hampshire. It is a long, painstaking drive in the moment but it is always worth it in the end. We try to have an audiobook, which helps with the long drive. This trip we listened to Peter and the Starcatchers on Audible and it was fantastic! The narrator was excellent and Steve enjoyed it as much as I. I don't often give five-star ratings but this was a full five star book for me.

It is always sad when we have to drive away from our family. Our final morning leaving the inn, we drove to the highway instead of to our daughter's house. I fought the lump in my throat, as I always do at times like this. I feel like I straddle two worlds, the north and the south. My heart longs for one but our life is rich and full in the other. There is no solution and I have come to accept that this is how it must remain. 

The dock at Follansbee Inn

 

Watching the family from my napping spot under the pines

Scotch eggs, roasted potatoes, pear tart, fresh fruit

 

Egg- brie- prosciutto and pear quesadilla, beignet, roasted potatoes, fresh fruit

Our three grandsons at the League of NH Craftsman Fair. 

The beach at Plum Island State Park

Steve at candlepin bowling