Sean is all dressed up to attend his first dance with Lillianna. They have been best friends since they were both in diapers.
Sara is in first grade this year and was a queen candidate for her home room.
I can't believe how big they are now. I don't get to see them very often and miss them terribly.
Our little girl is doing a lot of resting since her surgery. She still doesn’t want to put weight on that leg but otherwise is doing well. The redness and swelling seem to be going down and her temperature stays normal. She is eating well and seems alert.
In 1888 a prominent Bradford woman and her friend decided that although our town was booming with oil there was not much culture for ladies so they started a Women’s Literary Club modeled after one they had seen in Buffalo. This was the beginning of a club that has been around for so many years and has such a long history. In the beginning the woman adhered to strict rules and presented programs and served on committees. They had outside speakers who came to town one being Carl Sandburg. They met every Friday and enjoyed tea after the programs.
Still after all these years our club has not changed that much. We meet on Fridays, have tea, listen to outside speakers and some members do programs. I joined the group which meets in the afternoons when I retired from teaching. It is a lovely group of women who are intelligent and cultured and kind.
Today’s program was on the history of the Literary Club. The tables were decorated with dried hydrangeas and pumpkins. Tea and cookies were served after the meeting. We have three new members this year one of whom was a girl that I taught third grade with. We had a wonderful time catching up on each other’s lives.
Sometimes it takes music to make you feel better. When I am down listening to James Taylor’s mellow music can allow me to own my feelings and let me dwell in my misery for a while. I have discovered that life can’t always be roses so when things aren’t going as well as expected or stress overwhelms you it is best to just let yourself have a bad day knowing that it won’t last.
James Taylor’s old songs playing the background while I’m doing other things just makes me more relaxed. And having instant access to music to me is just an amazing part of this new technology world. Have you discovered Pandora? It’s a free app or website that allows you to determine your own listening music to play. You can choose an artist or a general type of music and listen. Pandora gives you personalize radio that plays what you love and continually evolves with your tastes. You can create personalized stations from songs, artist, genres, or comedians. If you creat an account you can listen on your desktop and mobile devices. I take my phone with me on walks and listen.
James is such a classic. His simple lyrics and guitar and easy style is so soothing.
Sadie is resting with her bunny after her knee surgery. She will have to take three pain meds and lose weight. I know we have been guilty of giving her too many treats and people food. It is critical that she lose weight now. I think this will be a slow recovery. She has strict orders for no big activity for six weeks.
I subscribe to Wordsmith and am sent a new vocabulary word every day. I loved today’s word…obambulate which means to walk about. It’s earliest documented use is from 1614. It is from the Latin ob (to) and ambulare (to walk).
And obambulate I did! Yesterday it was such a gorgeous afternoon with temperatures reaching 77 so I went down on the University of Pittsburgh’s trail for a nice walk. I sure miss having my Sadie with me. It has been a long time since she has been able to go on a walk with me. She was the one who asked me to take her for a walk daily. 
These precious days before the long weary winter are so welcomed.
Sadie came through the surgery well. It was quite extensive. He repaired her torn ACL and fixed her dislocated kneecap. He said thing were complicated and out of line and he did some major work. She stayed overnight and will have more if antibiotics today. We will pick her up at noon and she will come home with two pain meds. We are praying that this will finally be the thing that will help her. For over a year all we have been doing is managing pain.
You can see out the window that our leaves are turning fast and the wind has blown them half off. The rain today will wash the colors away now.
Are you a soup lover? When the weather turns nippy there is nothing I like better than soup. I will resort to canned soup but there is nothing better than homemade. I remember my mother's tasty vegetable soup or having grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for Friday night's supper. It wasn't until much, much later in life I learned to like squash. I first had butternut squash soup at a country club in our home town. I was so impressed that any time I saw it on the menu I would order it. Panera Bread always has it on in the fall but their's is a little sweet for my taste. The recipe above came at Weight Watchers this week. It is easy to make and very good. I hope you will try it. Do you have any great soup recipes to share?v
I buy a few herbs at the beginning of summer and put them in my little herb garden by the kitchen door. This summer I planted pineapple sage because of its fragrance. But I was surprised when it bloomed and showed these red flowers. An added bonus.
We had a beautiful Indian Summer day with temperatures in the low seventies.
Our leaves are falling a lot today with the wind. There are a lot of different trees in our back yard but the oak leaves seem to be making there way onto the courtyard. I don't know why but they will still be there in the spring unless we make an effort to use the leaf blower and get them off.
I've been reading The Girl in Cabin 10 this afternoon while keeping one eye on the Buffalo Bills game. Sunday is such a relaxing day.
I love to go to the movies and a perfect date day is an afternoon matinee followed by dinner out. Yesterday we saw The Accountant starring Ben Afflec. He has been one of my favorite actors since Good Will Hunting. This movie lived up to its good reviews..
"Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is a mathematics savant with more affinity for numbers than people. Using a small-town CPA office as a cover, he makes his living as a freelance accountant for dangerous criminal organizations. With a Treasury agent (J.K. Simmons) hot on his heels, Christian takes on a state-of-the-art robotics company as a legitimate client. As Wolff gets closer to the truth about a discrepancy that involves millions of dollars, the body count starts to rise."
It is that time….
time to get all tucked in for winter. Our winters are harsh and we can’t leave much outside for the elements to ruin. We clear off the courtyard by putting tables and chairs in the shed and taking down the lights. We pile all the planters around the lion fountain and cover it with a tarp for the season. I don’t like to have to clear the decks but it is part of that changing season routine. We will still have some warm fall days but the mornings are cool now.
This is the first weekend in a while with nothing on my plate and I am looking forward to spending it just relaxing. I have books piled up to read and tv programs recorded. Sounds delightful doesn’t it?
How quickly the season changed. Bradford made the national news for its low of twenty seven degrees the other day. As the day passes it warms up to make a pleasant afternoon. The hills have begun to color and the sun paints the leaves with golden light.
A little update on Sadie. She has been through a lot with the Lyme disease but the antibiotics have finally seemed to make her feel better and now we will deal with her joint problems. She had X-rays and the results show dislocated kneecaps. No wonder she can't walk. Next Tuesday she will have surgery. We are praying for a good result and some pain relief.
One of my favorite things to do is tour homes. This past weekend I went to Smith Mountain Lake for their annual charity home tour. Over the past 26 years, the home tour has raised nearly $4 million for the local charities. Last year, each charity raised about $23,000. The tour was open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday when we went unfortunately it was pouring but that didn’t dampen our spirits as we put on booties at each home and walked through the amazing homes. These beautiful homes right on the lake were spectacular. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
This is the outside of the Boyer home and her kitchen.
The kitchen beckons visitors to Mary and Ken Boyer’s home in Huddleston. It includes a fireplace (with a hearth room on the other side). Cabinets are made of lyptus wood — a renewable resource — while two islands are in distressed black. The counters are in two colors of granite, and the floor is tile. “We put in a floor that doesn’t show doggy slobber,” Boyer says with a chuckle. She and her husband have three rescue dogs, all Labrador mixes.
It was my very favorite house. They loved dogs and it was evident from all the bronze dog and boy statues around the property. The inside was totally mindblowing with Remington statues.The 9,200-square foot Boyer home features large windows with a wide-water view over their 350 feet of Craddock Creek shoreline. Located on five acres, this traditional home with four fireplaces has 10-foot to 14-foot ceilings, a great room that soars to 30 feet and oak woodwork throughout. The kitchen has two islands, leather-textured granite counter tops, floor-to-ceiling cabinets and a double-sided fireplace. The animal-loving owners have many unique bronze dog statues and several huge Remington bronze sculptures.
I am spending the weekend at Smith Mountain Lake near Roanoke Virginia with my two sisters.
Linda with andirons and Diane with a blue candy dish of course our first stop was shopping!
Diane also has the decorating bug and her house is beautiful! She recently traded out a farmhouse table for this smaller round one.
It's always fun to visit the lake house. Tomorrow we are going on a tour of some lake houses nearby.
She also does her own flower arranging.
So beautiful!
The question, "Which is the happiest season of life?" was asked of an aged man.
And he replied: "When spring comes, and in the soft air the buds are breaking
on the trees, and they are covered with blossoms, I think, 'How beautiful is spring'; and when summer comes and covers the trees with its heavy foliage, and singing birds are among the branches, I think, 'How beautiful is summer.' When autumn loads them with golden fruit, and their leaves bear the gorgeous tint of frost, I think, 'How beautiful is autumn.' And when it is severe winter, and there is neither foliage nor fruit, then I look up through the leafless branches as I never could until now, and see the stars shine in God's home.
unattributed
When I first started this blog in 2006 I had to choose a name for it. I chose Season to Season because where I live in western Pennsylvania there is a definite beginning and end to each season. And through the years the time passes as does the seasons. And it related to the seasons of my life.
“Embrace this season of life, for it is just that….a season.”
Fall has always been my favorite. September to me was like January is to everyone else. It was when school started. I loved going into my classroom as few weeks before the first day to settle my room and get myself into the teaching mode again after a summer of activity. I love the fall smells and colors, the textures of sweaters, the hot apple cider.
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