A Smattering of Pictures

Thank you for your sweet comments after my tour-around-the-farm post. It doesn't seem like a farm most of the time. It feels like 4 acres that require lots of mowing. Maybe someday we'll figure out what to do with it.

Adam and I dashed over to the North Carolina mountains to see our youngest girl in college.

We decided to stay in a KOA campground. Did you know how cheap they are? Goodness!

I was glad to find a cabin during peak leaf-color season.
Julia gave us a tour around her very favorite place on campus, the Printmaking classroom.

She loves this discipline and works in this studio on the weekends.

We toodled around Asheville for the day with Julia and her best friend, and enjoyed a visit to a super-cool tea shop, Dobra Tea, where you sit on little round pillows on the floor and ring a bell for service.

Adam and I viewed this as a mini-vacation too. On the road, we found a park in Greensboro and stopped for a lunch picnic. Much nicer than fast food.

I wanted to share a few pictures from a copy of The Wind in the Willows I ordered lately, illustrated by Tasha Tudor - what a lovely combo!

The wintry adventure to Badger's home is my favorite part of the book.

This past week Adam made the prettiest veggie plate for dinner -- simple, delicious.

his homemade ciabatta, spinach, potatoes, fried okra and squash

I have a few fun photos of our grandson Isaac from a recent trip to West Virginia he took with his delightful parents to see family up there.

Do you have time for one more thing? Here are a few cards I painted before the trip. I think I'll paint lots of seasonal wreaths. They're so fun!

A Break in the Busy

 It's very blustery today.

We had a wedding at our church.

Adam made the cake.

 I did the flowers in the sanctuary. 
I don't have my mother's gift of arranging.
Mine have a "plopped-in-the-vase" look.
Lady Banks Rose, white irises, carnations.

 It's azalea time now. I pulled over on the road to take this picture.

 Last Thursday I went to a tea seminar in Oriental for ladies. A Tea Master instructed us all about the benefits of tea.

 Before that I was at Prayer Shawl in the morning. A lady brought us a container of fabulously delicious morsels as a thank-you. We could not identify what they were. An accompanying sauce seemed curry-ish.

 And one nice evening Adam made salads:

 I'm still painting a little, but life has gotten busy, and I have lots of cards. So I've slowed down.

Adam is preparing his potato bed today and putting in white potatoes. Lots of mowing to do too, with the rain and sunshine coming down and yelling at everything, "Time to grow!"

The Best News Is at the End ....

I'm still working on gourds. Here's a youtube video of some of what I did today:

(While you're over on Youtube, click "subscribe" if you'd like to subscribe to all my little crafty videos from my studio.)

Since then I've added metallic paint and 2 coats of varnish:

 I do love the swirly magic of these gourds! Who'd've thought that watercolor paints could look so good on a dried plant?

Philip and Kara gave me a gorgeous assortment of Darjeeling teas for Christmas -- my very favorite type of tea. Look at all of them!

 This morning Julia, who is a coffee lover, joined me in a cup of this, augmented with a bit of my dried herbs. It really did have a deep golden color. Delicious!

 And what did Anna and Gramm give me for Christmas, you ask? They gave me a children's book -- Anna's favorite, I think.

 On the inside cover were these sweet words:

 Yes, you've probably guessed it ...

We have a BABY COMING!!! Oh, my goodness, I am so excited. I have BEEN excited since late October, but we were sworn to secrecy. Shhhh! But now, the happy parents have announced it, and I am free to share with my friends that I am going to be a Nana!! I am joining the ranks of the most privileged of women. I cannot wait to cradle that little bundle of wonderfulness in my arms and quietly cry for happiness. (Okay, I do need to remember that it's not all about me and the baby. The baby does have parents, ahem. So much tender-loving-care will be showered on a certain daughter who is very precious and very petite and very tired from teaching school.) Anna, I love you. That's my big news, world!

A Week of Autumn

At last: sweaters, gloves, warm pants, hot tea all day, egg nog, fuzzy socks, frantic knitting, snoozy dogs, cold rain, space heaters humming, cold sheets, silly Christmas movies.

I brewed up some chai this morning with these spices.

 However, my new favorite tea is my herbal tea with lemon juice and lots of honey. I picked more herbs this week, probably the last of the year before they die back.

lemon balm, mint, tarragon -- lots of flavor!

 I hope I have enough to last the winter.

Until we can buy a new AC/heating unit (the mini-split system) we're using our space heaters like last year. They are cozy.

 

I took the old handmade wreath from the front door, removed the dead decorations, spray painted it a little bit red, and added new Christmas flare. It's rather plain and rustic, but I'm no good at interior decor, that's for sure!

I also picked plantain, yarrow, and dandelion leaves and made some more Healing Herb Ointment. I get such good reports on this product!

 Around here, we just call it "green goo."

I've been knitting a la Miss Marple lately ... in other words,  a lot!! This bulky infinity scarf is actually a bright gem blue.

 And this one's a nice pine green. Camera color is crazy!

 They'll both go to the market tomorrow for sale, along with the ointment.
I finally started a new weave this morning. Crazy yarn.

 I haven't gotten very far. My back is achy and I need a nap :) 

 Years ago a friend gave me some nice yarn. The pink yarn in this weave is some of it. She'd started some little baby booties but not finished them. I thought, "Why not unravel those booties and put that yarn right onto my warp?" So I did.

 What am I reading now? I finished Elizabeth Goudge's autobiography and have moved on to a favorite of hers, The Little White Horse. It's very good, very fun, a delightful children's story. 

 I've seen the Moonacre movie (which I regret). It's not a bad movie, but I can tell already it's woefully inferior to the book and takes great liberties. If you have a choice, go for the book.

It's nap time. Then it's knitting time. Then it's dinner time. 

 The October days have sped by much too fast, and my favorite month is nearly over. I've also been singing more and playing the piano more, since I'm back in the community chorus this semester. And I have a second piano student now! Yay! It's a good thing I'm not working a regular job!

Nearly forgot -- for anybody that didn't see the video I made of the little jewelry pouch:

Here's the youtube video:

Love to all! Enjoy these last October days!