A pleasant surprise

My sister and her husband who live in Nashville were up in Pittsburgh visiting their son and made a stop here for a few days.

Jeff was lulled to sleep by the sound of our waterfall. Last night we went to Kabob's for dinner. It was very hard for me to eat since I had an endoscopy and had my throat stretched yesterday. I've had it done about Steven times and have never had any trouble before but for some reason this time I can hardly swallow. So I ate some stuffed shells while everyone else enjoyed their Greek dishes.

 

 

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A hidden gem

Last night we went out to dinner with our friends at the Corydon Hotel. Calling it a hotel may be stretching it a bit. this little restaurant is miles out of town from Bradford near the Willow Bay branch of the Allegany Reesevior. I do think they have a few rooms for rent.

Despite its remoteness it offered a nice selection of delicious food. Don and I both got the T-bone steak while Jamie and Gary ate surf and turf.

The decor was rustic with paintings of wildlife and a huge stone fireplace. Earlier in the day they had hosted the end of the Willow Bay triathlon.

Corydon has a unique history and sad history. When the Kinzua Dam was build to control the flow of water to the Pittsburgh area a long standing Indian treaty was broken and the Indians displaced in a cruel manner.

In 1796 Seneca War Chief Cornplanter was granted 15,000 acres along the Allegheny river by Pennsylvania for his assistance to the State as a loyal and a steadfast protector of American families settling in the wilderness of the upper Ohio River basin. In what would become the oldest standing Indian treaty, George Washington granted the land to Chief Cornplanter and his ancestors forever.

Forever ended in 1965 when the completed Kinzua Dam flooded the Allegheny river and covered the ancestral lands of the Seneca leader. Their homes, their only viable farmland, and the graves of the ancestors were now under hundreds of feet of water. Despite petitions from Tribal leaders to JFK to stop the proposed Dam in 1960, the President and United States broke the longest standing treaty between the Government and the Native Tribes of North America.

The residents of Kinzua and the adjoining town of Corydon were relocated, the Indian burial grounds were dug up, including that of Chief Cornplanter himself and the remains were entombed on the nearby hillside with a memorial.

Then they also moved Cornplanter's grave. Our nearby Seneca Indians have a museum and there is a moving video that shows the takeover where the white man came and burned down their homes after only giving them hours to move out. It makes me cry

 

 

 

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Fun day at Dollywood

The family had fun at Dollywood's Splash Country in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

 

 

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Playing around with apps again

The flowers are giving me lots of photo ops and I enjoy manipulating them.

Just another quiet day. Right now the thunder is causing Sadie to shake and sit on my lap for protection. Soon it will be raining. It was warm today..eighty two...and I took Sadie for an extra walk around Marilla Reservior. Don picked blueberries again....I'm in the market for recipes...LOL!

Has this ever happened to you...you dial the phone...wait a minute..do they even say dial a phone now? Anyway I called my sister and got her answering machine but at the same time my phone beeped another call in. It was her. We were calling each other at that exact same second. Of all the seconds in the day we chose that second to connect. How do you think that happens?

Time to hunker down for the night. Sleep tight.

 

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Blueberries

Don went blueberry picking today. This is the season for them and he went about an hour away where he picked for a few hours and came home with the biggest blueberries I had ever seen. All together he picked eighteen pounds which made ten quarts to put in our freezer. We'll take some to Ryan to use in his blueberry pancakes. Some will be made into cobbler. And some just eaten or put I yogurt parfaits or fruit salad.

 

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Rules

 

Thomas Jefferson...now there was a smart man. He set down some common sense rules that are just as applicable today as they were back then.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.

Never spend money before you have earned it.

Never buy what you don't want because it is cheap.

Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold.

We seldom repent of having eaten too little.

Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.

How much pain the evils cost us that never happened.

Take things always by the smooth handle.

When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, count a hundred.

Do you have any common sense rules that you live by? Old sayings your mom taught you? Quotes that guide your life? Here are some from the web.

 

 

 

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Our town....Bradford PA

We love in a small northwestern Pennsylvania town about a hundred miles south of Buffalo and a hundred miles east of Erie. Once a great oil metropolis Bradford now is a cozy town nestled in the valley amid hills.

Our biggest employers are Zippo which makes the famous lighters, Dresser Manufacturing which makes couplings, the Medical Center, and the school system.

In August every year we have an Italian festival which celebrates the heritage of many people in our town. There is Italian food and lots of entertainment.

 

The bell tower building is our old city hall.

This wood cut is the Option House which used to be an oil exchange back in the day. Then for many years a restaurant and bar. Currently it is Kabob's, a Greek restaurant. It had been recently remodeled and is beautiful inside.

I love living in a small town. Everything is five or ten minutes away. There is very little traffic. All the waitresses know your name. You can always chat with someone you know in the grocery store. News travels fast.

 

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The watch story

When my father passed my sisters and I kept some of his things. I inherited two watches.

I didn't give them much thought until this year when I was cleaning out a closet and rediscovered them.

One had an art deco face and I liked its style so I took it to a local jeweler to have it restored.

Little did I know that it would take months and months.

There were parts that had to be ordered since watch repairing is becoming a lost art.

They finally had to end up sending it to a Rolex dealer in Buffalo to repair some of the inside parts.

I thought I would never see it again but yesterday I finally got the phone call that it was ready

I bought a new band and now I will proudly wear it.

I couldn't get very good pictures of it.

 

 

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Br-br-Bradford summer

We had a very cold spell today..down to sixty two with rain and wind. I used the time to catch up on indoor chores and read the Daniel Silva book...The Heist. It felt like Autumn and reminded me that the cold weather will be here before you know it. All the more reason to try to do things outdoors. And enjoy the beauty while it lasts. Are you a carpe Deim kind of gal?

 

 

 

 

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Sadie in the summer

If only Sadie could talk. She has a way of letting you know exactly what she wants that’s for sure. She loves to sit on the porch swing with me while I read, of course with her head on the pillow.

She’s always snooping…just looking for trouble. We fenced in our back yard a few months after we got her. That is after she ran away clear up into the woods and I thought she would never stop running.


The fence didn’t exactly keep her in for long. Daily she checked the perimeter and if a gate was accidently left open out she ran.

Or if she found she could squeeze her body through the openings in the railing of the porch…bye, bye.


So we have to be careful and make sure Houdini has no way of escaping.  One night near dark I heard her barking viciously and checked to find her outside the fence. I couldn’t see her but I heard a commotion and thrashing like a big animal was tearing down the weeds.  Then across the back of the fence ran a little bear cub. I think Sadie had tangled with the momma.
  Oh yes, Sadie is a sweet dog. But Jack Russells can’t be trusted to make good decisions. So we check the fence like the Wichita Lineman.

CREATIVE WOMEN WORKSHOP

For the first time our Landmark Society sponsored a Creative women Workshop at Crook Farm. We are so lucky to have this beautiful setting right outside the town.

Visitors can enjoy a walk back in time as they tour the nineteenth-century restored farm house, barn, one-room schoolhouse, tool house, train depot and outbuildings. A beautiful herb garden grows on the premises. Open from Mid-June through September, a variety of historical activities and programs are offered including: historical tours and demonstrations, luncheon tours, meeting grounds, a living history program for high school students, church services and weddings. The Crook Farm Country Fair held annually in August features entertainment, food, craft demonstrations and artisans.

I had a wonderful time taking classes in photography, pencil drawing, and making appetizers.

I took some beautiful shots of their lovely gardens.

Crook Farm

One of the classes offered was about raising chickens and this big chicken showed up.

 

Here is the drawing class. That's my picture in the empty chair place.we were drawing the farm house.

 

The Zen class made gardens of sand and rock. There were quilting classes, knitting classes, bead making, wood burning and many others.

A lovely lunch was served.

 

 

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