AWE

Sometimes the beauty of snow and ice is overwhelming. AS we traveled over to Eldred to visit Don’s family we came across this scene in the flats. 

This area always floods when the river rises but this time the water had turned into a skating rink. 

The sun was shining through the trees and creating long stripes on the ice. 

It was so beautiful I had to stop the car and get out to take a picture. 

And of course I had fun playing around with apps to make the pictures more dramatic. 

A fairyland

Overnight the land turned into white. The snow hangs heavy on the trees and the world is fresh and new again. The branches form patterns and the shrubs are turned into mounds. It is beautiful. 

Yesterday after coffee and the gym I met the Giggle Girls for another time of fun and laughter. Just to show you how silly we can be one girl came in a Pocahontas wig with black pigtails (just for fun). We played Marbles and had a great time. During this time of bad weather it is nice just to get together with friends. 

Mid winter decorating

I remember my mother saying to me while in the midst of our long Bradford winters “I’m tired of looking at these four walls”. Our winters are rather long in western Pennsylvania sometimes lasting from the first snow in early November to the end of April. And the snow was long and deep. The weather has changed here (maybe global warming?) and our winters are not as bad now..in fact we don’t have snow on the ground right now. But I do tired of looking at the same thing day after day. I guess that is the curse of being a visual person. I get easily bored with the same sight over and over and need a change. So I decorate and move things around in my house. 

Maybe you remember my chandelier over the dining table which I filled with various blue green foliage. 

When I was taking it down the greenery was just too pretty to put away so I started adding it to the trophy cup and filled it up. 

On the table I added a tall flour de Lis planter stand and an armillary. 

I changed things around on the table too adding some red to give me some color in the room besides white and green. 

This terrarium came from Pier One. When I saw it I knew it had to come home with me. I filled it with moss, stones, a licensed stick, a nest, and a little white gazebo. 

I always enjoy changing things around. This will do till Spring. 

I shopped

Shopping is a pleasure for me and always has been. I know there are those who just don’t go to a store unless they need something specific. But I go just to look. I call it “seeing pretty things” and I need the visual stimulation like other people need water. It’s not about the buying as much as it about just enjoying seeing the colors, patterns, and decorative items that are out there.  It doesn’t matter if I go to a fancy store or to a consignment store the thrill is the same. In Erie I am able to find all my favorite stores within a few miles of each other. (At Home, Home Goods, Michael’s Christmas Tree Shop, Pier One) I rarely see the inside of the mall as most of the stores I like are around the outside. This time I did go into Macy’s as I had a credit to spend. I found…

a teal top…

a cute pink hoddie..

and a grey striped top with a beaded swan..

They remind me of spring.

Getting out of Dodge

Sometimes I feel like we are in the West when going to the nearest big town was a real event. It is that way for me when we go to Erie. First of all it’s an hour and a half away.  The first thing we do when we get there is pick a place to eat.  Today it longhorn Steakhouse. You just can’t get food as good as that in Bradford. Parmasean garlic fries and a shaved prime rib sandwich 

Do you use the Retail me Not app on your phone?  I always check for coupons and today we got a free appetizer. 

  Then there was shopping. But that’s a post for another day 

New blouse

Just fooling around this morning with some new apps. This is the blouse I bought yesterday. You can see the black vest a little on the chair. 

Justa shoppin’

The above photo and artwork are from Susan Branch who is one of my favorite bloggers. You can find her blog at Susan Branch.com. I hope you visit her and see how an artist lays out a blog. I have always admired her and her art and am pleased to periodically use it here on season to season. But I want to give her full credit for her achievement. I have bought her books which are amazing. Enjoy her blog.

After morning coffee I hopped over the hill to Olean to return some books to their library. I use both the Olean and Bradford library and am yearning for a good page turner. I picked up a few James Patterson(always a quick read), stopped at the mall for a little shopping (found a cute blouse and vest), and to BJ’s ( butternut squash ravioli, anyone?) The sun is shining and the mood is elevated. Great day!

FEED THE SOUL

checking from computer

Just a test

It seems the problem was not with me or my programs but with the site instead. I tried this on the iPad and the picture went through. Now I’ll have to try it on my big computer too. 

It smells like spring...looks like winter.

We continue to have snow...this time just a dusting. My hyacinth is in full bloom now and when I put my nose up to it I can imagine that spring has come. But it's a long way off yet.

I have always called this the "Laying by time". Even though I try to be productive by cleaning and organizing I find I'd rather just sit and binge watch Game of Thrones.(this is totally addictive)...and eat. Why is it this time of year I want all the hardy and carb filled stews? I've made it a point to go to the gym. I used to really not like it but now I put on my earphones and listen to podcasts and it makes the time go by quickly. My favorites are Gretchen Rubin and Decorating Tips and Tricks.

How are you spending these indoor days?

It seems I'm having an issue

Last Friday I went to the Literary Club Hospital luncheon. This annual event always has an interesting speaker and the topic was Reflexology. The speaker talked about how the pressure points on your feet connect with organs of the body and rubbing those points are like acupuncture without the needles. She gave a treatment to a volunteer. 

Well, I'm having trouble. It seems that I can't blog from my regular platform Open Live Writer. I can write and publish words but if I put a picture in it gives me an error message. I haven't changed anything or done anything different. I thought it might be Live Writer but then I tried to blog from my ipad with Blog Touch Pro and it wouldn't publish the pictures either. So I am back to blogging with the original Blogger platform but I'm not happy. I've researched for hours on how to fix the problem and can't come up with any solutions. I'll keep working on it meanwhile I'll use this to blog. Oh, those little woes. It is seeming these days that things are getting more complicated instead of less. I'm afraid one day that the whole blog will crash and I will lose all of my posts forever. A while back I converted some of the years into books. I think I'd better do that to the rest soon.

Choo Choo

When Don and I were younger we loved to go to auctions and estate sales. At that time my house was done in the country style and those old crocks fit right in. On the weekends we delighted in sitting all day at an auction to see what was there and bid. So many of the thing in our house were treasured because they were old. But as times change so did I. My style evolved and the house got crowded and we started exiting the antiques. For a while Don had a booth at a consignment place and we sold some that way. Others I put out at a house sale. Now we have very little left.
But in our basement I found four boxes of train tracks and cars. We had been ignoring them pushing the boxes from place to place never really making a decision on what to do with them.

So today was the day. I brought the boxes upstairs and sorted through all of them, organizing the tracks and transformers and bagging them into a neat pile. The next step of course is to actually get them out of the house. First we are offering them to our grandson. If he doesn’t want them I have a business card of a man who collects trains. This will be the next call. Wish me luck.

test post

trying a test post without pictures

It’s Roses time again

Last night Don and I celebrated our 52nd anniversary with our friends Jamie and Gary. We had dinner at the Runway cafe at the airport. It is a small restaurant but always busy and last night was no exception. The food is delicious and worth the wait. It is the only place that serves Loretta dressing on  their salad. This dressing is a local favorite from a long time ago when a restaurant called the Castle was nearby. When I was a teen the Castle was the best fancy place to go for dinner. It actually looked like a castle with stone walls. 

I found this review online. 

The entrance to The Castle was its best feature: the echo of one's footsteps brought to life the convincing looking round foyer with its stone floor and ancient decor, including a suit of armor that did not look like a copy. Although the foyer was dimly lit, the passages leading from the foyer were more shadowy, adding to the effect of venturing deep within something solid and very old. The dining rooms, perhaps eleven in all, featured authentic touches like leaded glass windows, hardwood custom paneling, and restrained decor (no Las Vegas styling!).

I cannot verify this, but according to some of the staff, in 1972 The Castle was listed in something like "the 50 best restaurants in the USA" (or in the world or some such). By 1983 that Golden Age had already become a memory as Olean limped through the 1980s. In 1983 we common folk were lapping up the Friday evening seafood buffet, charmed into our best behavior, if not our best clothes...

The salad dressing was so popular that they bottled it and sold it locally. 

LORETTO DRESSING
1 pt. mayonnaise 1/4 c. sugar 1 1/2 c. tomato juice 1/4 c. tomato soup 1 tsp. garlic powder 1/2 tsp. salt 2 c. Crisco oil 1/4 c. Parmesan cheese Mix together and refrigerator. Makes 1 1/2 quarts.

Afterwards our friends came to the house for dessert..cherry cheesecake..and we played cards. It was a great way to celebrate. 

Can't get it out of my head....Havana oh na na

There are just some songs that you love. When I first heard Havana by Camila Cabello by the time it was over with it had me hooked. The rhythm just had me swaying in the seat of my car and I wanted to hear it over and over. I watched the Youtube video of her recording but this Youtube performance on the Jimmy Fallon show was amazing. Enjoy. (Don't blame me if you wake up humming it in the middle of the night)

 

Hyacinths and Photoshop

I had a spare moment today so I played around with my new Photoshop program. Here are the results.

Snow day

This is what my grandkids do when they have a day off school. 

My son works at this water park resort...Wilderness in the Smokies. 

Issuu

Have you discovered Issuu? It is an online source for magazines and a great place to browse. These magazines are of all categories and I particularly like the Home and Garden ones. If you have some time to just go through the different ones it is fun. The quality of the writing is excellent and the pictures are professional. You can find them at issuu.com.  

Another EGD

Yesterday morning I went to the surgical center in Olean for another EGD ..throat scope. I have a narrowing of my esophagus which causes me to choke on food periodically and I need my throat enlarged or stretched. It is not a long procedure and you are put into a twilight sleep. Unfortunately my esophagus has scarring from acid reflux and it is hard to expand it but he did his best. I was sleeping most of yesterday and all night last night from the anesthesia. I’m so glad that I have a husband who takes such good care of me. He waited on me and fixed me something to eat. I really lean on him in times like these. 

My isn’t it beautiful?

Just yesterday there was no snow on the ground and today we have a foot. It’s so pretty. Especially if you can stay inside. Don went out and said the road by our house was full of ice. Yesterday's rain had turned to a glare of ice. 

We have been watching all the playoff games. Our two teams. Buffalo Bills and the Steelers lost their games. I also was reading and finished a good book. Switched by Joseph Finder.  Don and I also made bubble buns.  He remembered how good they tasted and we haven’t made them for a long time. I had some frozen roll dough and when we let them rise....they didn’t.  So I made some homemade sweet dough. Not only did we make the bubble buns but a pan of cinnamon on rolls too. It was a good day to have the oven on. 

Willow Dale

I have often shown pictures of the Willow Dale Cemetery pond which is a stone’s throw from my house. It is a lovely little pond with ducks and in the summertime many people and children sit on the benches and feed the ducks.

The little bridge is often used in wedding photos.

 



I often walked Sadie in the cemetery and around the pond.  In all season this pond was a thing of beauty.

But Mother Nature sometimes has her own way. Yesterday we were hit with a lot of rain which melted all our snow and caused flooding all over the area. The little pond was flooded and rose high over the highway which had to be closed.

And our little beautiful bridge was destroyed.

It is sad to see.