Merry Christmas everyone!

Vignette

Our pie safe from NC

Our dining room another angle

Our dining room

Autumn Weekend

Last weekend hubby and I went out riding in Allen Co. Kentucky to go to a great Country Shop. While there we stopped at an Amish market and followed a buggy for a short while. Perfect Fall day!

Mr Turkey

This Tom Turkey didn't want anyone near his territory. His colors were pretty though.

Fall Pictures in Amish country

Amish Horse and Buggy

On Saturday we spent the morning at the Mennonites in Allen CO KY and took this picture

Tobacco Barn

Today Eric and I went riding on the back roads between White House and Gallatin and we saw some barns smoking/drying tobacco.

Tobacco Barn

 

I have been away from blogging for quite a while as my computer has gone out and we are working on our move to the Nashville area. I will miss North Carolina and certainly our friends here. I am excited about decorating our own house, though and turning over that new leaf. Nashville is a beautiful area to live in and we will be closer to our family, although we will be farther from our SC family. I will try to post more often as we go along!

Bagpipes Cryin' Tribute to our Troops

Annabel Lee - a poem by Edgar Allan Poe
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;

But we loved with a love that was more than love- I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-

Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we- Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

The ocean was so calm and warm.

The girls at the beach

A soft Sea washed around the House by Emily Dickinson
A soft Sea washed around the House
A Sea of Summer Air
And rose and fell the magic Planks
That sailed without a care --For Captain was the Butterfly
For Helmsman was the Bee
And an entire universe
For the delighted crew.

The beach

We spent the weekend with one of our sons and his lovely wife and 3 darling daughters at the beach at North Myrtle Beach. We had a great time as the water was like bath water and the waves calm.

The Bed and Breakfast is called Eagle Hill Manor.

A bed and breakfast

On our recent trip we saw this pretty Bed and Breakfast in a small town called Bloomfield, Kentucky. It looks like a nice place to spend the night!

Grandpa Henson

Grandpa's Front Porch

To this day I remember sitting on the porch with my grandpa Henson; He was a wonderful man with a bald head head ringed with white hair, blue eyes, loving hands and shiny black shoes.

It wasn't a large porch, a concrete one with 4 porch posts and concrete steps.
A porch swing hung on the porch, where I used to swing and pretend to be riding in a spaceship that flew to the moon;
Sitting in that swing I had asked my grandma such important questions as "why are you so hungry when you wake up in the morning?" And she answered me, patiently.

When we visited my grandparents we would always sit on that porch during the day and it was a cool place to sit and catch the breeze. In the evening, when a million stars came out and darkness fell heavily around their country home, it was peaceful and quiet. We would sit and watch the lightening bugs rise from the yard and hear the night birds call to their mate.

Then someone would ask my grandpa "Tell us about the time..." and he would. First he would tamp down the tobacco in his pipe and light it with a wooden match. The sweet smell of pipe tobacco would reach us as we sat in our various places on the porch. Then my grandpa would start to speak and tell us stories of when he was a child in the early 1900s. He would tell ghost stories and stories of panthers and walking the railroad line and ghost lights.

As I sat on the stairs of the porch, suddenly the peaceful darkness became full of shadows. Panthers hid behind the Rose of Sharon bushes that minutes ago were just bushes. Ghost lights bobbed over the yard that minutes ago were full of lightening bugs. Couldn't anyone else see how we were all now in danger?? Didn't anyone else see the ....

Suddenly, the back door opened and Grandpa walked into the house to get a second cup of coffee. The light from the door chased the ghosts and panthers far away and I feeling foolish went inside for some ice cream.

Until next time Grandpa told his stories, everything on the porch was peaceful again.

Come and sit and rock for a spell

Welcome - Come on in

We had a fun day yesterday. We went to Plain and Simple quilt shop with the "girls". They carry some awesome fabrics and have some great ideas for more quilts. It is located in Apex, NC and was rated a top 10 quilt shop in Quilt Sampler Magazine. We stopped for lunch in Fuqay-Varina.

"I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.- Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from an Old Manse

First day of June

Remiss

Sorry I haven't posted for a while - have been traveling to Kentucky and Missouri. We took some new barn/quilt photos.

Strawberry Preserves

Here is a Strawberry Preserve recipe that I got from an old book "The Anderson House Cookbook," by Jeanne and John Hall.

2 pints Strawberries, destemmed and washed
7 cups sugar (3 pounds)
1/4 c lemon juice (optional (I didn't have any)
1 box of sure-jell (another box or a large box if you prefer a more solid preserve)

Measure 5 cups whole ripe berries (a packed measurement, but without crushing)(In the second batch, I sliced my strawberries smaller instead of leaving them whole as they were very large, again its your choice). Layer in broad heavy pan with sugar; let stand 10 minutes. Bring slowly to a boil, stirring gentle to keep fruit whole. Remove from heat. Cool at room temperature 4 hours. Add lemon juice. Bring mixture to full rolling boil over high heat; boil hard 2 minutes , stirring gently. Remove from heat; at once, stir in Sure Jell. Skim off foam with metal spoon, and stir for 10 minutes to prevent floating fruit. Ladle into sterilized jars. Seal and cover at once with hot parafin. Makes 7 cups.

Asking For Roses

A house that lacks, seemingly, mistress and master,
With doors that none but the wind ever closes,
Its floor all littered with glass and with plaster;
It stands in a garden of old-fashioned roses.

I pass by that way in the gloaming with Mary;
'I wonder,' I say, 'who the owner of those is.'
'Oh, no one you know,' she answers me airy,

'But one we must ask if we want any roses.
' So we must join hands in the dew coming coldly
There in the hush of the wood that reposes,
And turn and go up to the open door boldly,

And knock to the echoes as beggars for roses.
'Pray, are you within there, Mistress Who-were-you?'
'Tis Mary that speaks and our errand discloses.
'Pray, are you within there? Bestir you, bestir you!

'Tis summer again; there's two come for roses.
'A word with you, that of the singer recalling— Old Herrick:
a saying that every maid knows is
A flower unplucked is but left to the falling, And nothing is gained by not gathering roses.

' We do not loosen our hands' intertwining
(Not caring so very much what she supposes),
There when she comes on us mistily shining
And grants us by silence the boon of her roses

Robert Frost

a pillow my friend made for one of the "girls" for Christmas

She is truly a master!

For those of us that learned to sew at Mother's knee.

Me and my Mom in the early 60's. What a simpler time!

A Busy Woman's Dream - for my Daughter-in-Laws

A Busy Woman Dreams
Tomorrow,With a careless air,
I shall say, I will be gone for the day!
I shall put on my blue gown,
And in leisured way
Go to town.
There, I shall stop
At the newly opened shop
Where they keep such lovely things,
And, in unhurried way
Choose from some intriguing place
A richly colored robe,
Or some fine old lace;
Then, I shall browseIn the bookstand nearby,
Selecting some new book...
Tomorrow, I shall put
All waiting tasks upon the shelf
And spend one easy, carefree day
With my own self.
- Katherine Edelman

Happy Mother's Day

Sorry for the delay in blogging - been a little under the weather with a nasty cold.

Marking my quilt

I spent the day at a Sandy's house (a fellow Carolina Lily, and quilt master). We marked my Vintage Valentine for quilting on the border. This was quite complicated as I am doing feathers and hearts that do need to be marked. Picture tomorrow.

We went for a drive last weekend and snapped some pictures of Wisteria

This old building is near our home.

Cranford

I checked out a video from the library called Cranford. The series was a series of stories about 19th century Cheshire. The characters and the scenery was wonderful!! I'm going to buy the video and the Return to Cranford that came out in Dec. I can't wait to see the Return.

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;

And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.
Robert Frost

The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven -
All's right with the world!
~Robert Browning

Let's walk down the garden path past the bees drunk with pollen, past the hidden garden statue that looks like a bunny, past the iris', roses, and bleeding hearts because it is Spring.