Moonflowers

“Good things come to those who wait.”

All summer I have watched the moonflower vine growing and spreading. It wound around the small iron trellis and reached out for the porch light and nearby plants. It grew and grew and I thought the frost would claim it before it ever got one flower on it. But yesterday I was rewarded with not one, but three beautiful large moonflowers. It had rained last night and the drops were still on the flower. How beautiful it was.
The air this morning had a crispness to it proclaiming that fall was officially here. This dusty Miller has the look of frost. Soon there will be real frost claiming the flowers. But for now I will enjoy the last of their beauty.

Are you nesting?

Fall is in the air and the temperatures are in the low sixties with the promise of an even colder weekend with highs in the high 40’s. Meanwhile the nesting instinct has taken over my body and I’m finding that each day I want to clean and organize. Those of you who know me well will recognize that it is not my favorite thing to do. But today I went into our basement and cleaned…and organized…and felt darn good about it! It’s the time of year when you want to get your “winter” home ready and comfortable because you know you will be spending a lot of time indoors from now on.
   I’m making a list of little projects that need completed before winter sets in. There are outside things that need done..but I’m waiting for a warmer day to do those. Meanwhile I find myself arranging shelves and cleaning out drawers.
  Don is feeling better now since he’s on his second round of antibiotics for his bad cough. He fixed the drain in the basement today and helped me carry the garbage bags up the stairs. Every time I clean I throw away more and more “junk”. It’s amazing how much accumulates around the house that you really don’t need any more. If I keep this up someday I may actually be organized.

Tag Sale

What a beautiful Monday it is here in Bradford. It’s 73 degrees and sunny. I’ve been busy catching up on household chores. For those of you without a scorecard I returned on Sunday from my trip to Fredericksburg, Virginia where I was spending the weekend with my sisters. It’s always fun when the 3 of us get together and this weekend was no exception.
   We decided to have a quick yard sale while we were there on Saturday morning. I took down some boxes of items that I’ve been wanting to get out of my basement for quite awhile along with those wonderful large folding tables that I have. We set up in the parking lot in front of Linda’s Curves.
It was a great location and attracted a lot of customers/lookers. Although we didn’t have a lot to sell we made a little money. The best thing was that any item left over went directly to Goodwill on the way home. The only exception was a box of old girl’s and boy’s ice skates which I donated to Snow Creek Farm. The lady there uses them to make the neatest arrangements at Christmas time.
  We had a great time celebrating our birthdays..all of us were born in September. Lots of laughing and reminiscing.

Hurd Orchard

At Hurd Orchard we first went out by the zinnia and flower beds. The owners told us a little of the history of the orchard. While they were talking girls passed around our appetizers….puff pastry with apples, cheese, crackers with spread, and a plum stuffed with an interesting cheese spread.
They even had a special garden of garnishes along with the annuals, perennials, herbs, and sunflowers.
Then we entered the huge barn. what a delight! Our long table sat under a ladder with hanging paper lanterns. The flower arrangements on the tables were outstanding and huge!

The first course was a beet and raspberry warm soup with creme fresh and an edible flower. Our cider was served in mason jars with the lid to keep out the bees. The main course was chicken breast with sauce, roasted tomatoes in a chutney and peaches and pears.
The food looked as delicious as it tasted.
For dessert we had warm applesauce with gingerbread. It was a delightful day!



 

Hurd Orchard

Today my Red Hat group took a trip to Holley, New York to have lunch at Hurd’s Orchard. After a two and a half hour trip we arrived at our destination.

Along the road was the fruit stand which not only had gorgeous produce..fresh peaches, pears, radishes, raspberries, plum, nectarines and many other things…but also was a feast for the eyes with all it’s flowers and herbs for sale.
I have never seen so much jelly and jams for sale in one place. They make it right on the premises and combine the most wonderful fruits…raspberries and apricots or blueberries and peaches.
They also had herbed vinegars at the windows.
  The baked goods looked delicious..raspberry and peach breads, cookies and pies.

 

Marilla Trail

It was a beautiful Sunday today with temperatures in the mid sixties. Sadie and I decided to be adventurous and walk the Marilla Trail. This trail winds around the Marilla Reservoir and is just about a mile long.
It is a gravel trail and easy to walk with a view of the lake from all sides. There are benches along the trail to rest on.
It winds it’s way through the forest.

There is even a gazebo.
At one end there is a dam wall and a covered bridge. Sadie and really enjoyed the walk and getting outside on this gorgeous day.






 

Books

A room without books? I was in someone’s house recently and there wasn’t a book  to be seen. It felt sterile to me. The house was beautiful but where was the life? I’m a voracious reader and there are always books laying around. I recently finished Folly’s Beach and am starting The Devil’s Corner. I always take a book with me on a trip. Hell to me would be to be stranded without a book to read. Like at the doctor’s office where the only reading material is old Field and Stream magazines. Or Forbes. Every well put together bathroom should include a magazine rack.

Yesterday we went to York, PA to hear the Penn State Blue Band play at the high school halftime. Dan joined the band this year and we got to talk to him before the performance. I’m so proud of him!

Let me catch you up

If you’ve been to this site lately looking for a new post…my apologies. My computer has been running very slowly to the point that each page loads sooooo slow that it was hard to even surf much less blog. I am going to get someone in here next week to clean it up. Meanwhile right now it seems to be behaving so I’ll catch you up on what has been happening. Yesterday my three friends took me out to lunch at the Beef and Barrel for my birthday. It’s always fun to be with friends. There was a little shopping involved, of course, afterwards.  
I wish you could hear these melodic wind chimes. I used a gift card from the Tin Ceiling downtown and picked out this gift.
   You might also notice how bare the courtyard looks. It was so beautiful and warm outside the other day that Don and I spent our time taking down all the summer decorations, etc and carrying them down to the basement for storage. We left out the swing, table, and big table in hopes that we will still have some sensational warm days left.
Aren’t these apples huge? They came from our crab apple tree out front. You will probably remember that years ago Don grafted regular apples onto that tree. These make great pie apples and I spent the day today peeling and freezing apples for pies.
The front door is decorated for fall. Here’s a view you don’t often see. It was taken looking onto my breezeway.









  

I knew it would happen

I knew it wouldn’t be long before I gave in to the season and brought out my fall decorations. I carried them down from the attic today and now my sunroom fits the autumn weather.