Christmas morn

A tired Autumn Redd dawg lies under the paper, Melissa played Santa, her year since she was in Austrailia last Christmas diving the great barrier reef. Matt and Susan open gifts on the sofa and
our pup dog roots under paper for a lost treat.

Beautiful

The popcorn was replaced this year. The other was 16 years old and was past even resembling "carmel corn" Susan, T.Tom and myself strung air popped corn on quilting thread with a red wooden bead spaced about every 16 to 20 inches to resemble cranberries. An airtight ziplock will insure the popcorn garland to last a few years.

Christmas at Home!

T.Tom,the antler guy, Matt and Susan are here to help trim the tree. We had a nice night, chili for supper and fun with the ornaments. Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree, however green your branches...





Walt puts on the lights!

Just a bit of the cookie craze!

If you notice the three separate gingerbread, they are a bit morbid! Melissa gave me some cutters that actually had body parts the were missing due to 'teethe' marks! Yikes
when we make the plates and platters more pics will be posted. This year I have made Peanut butter balls, Coconut birds nests, Walnut stripe cookies, a new one this year-Brown sugar cookies and they are yummy, or course - Spritz, Magic cookie bars, and fudge walnut brownies, plus the sugar cookies and gingerbread you see posted. Still to come, oatmeal scotchies.

some posing!

David and Laura, Matt and Susan and Don and Dana

Wow, TV Addictions!

So are these guys watching anything interesting, of course not, they are watching the tv play christmas songs! Matts pal Paul takes a pic of the tree!

2 Dads Tackle Tree!

Walt and Donald take on the chore of putting the lights on Susan and Matts tree! Lots of fun! Donald sports some Christmas bling, reminds me of Sinbad!

Christmas tree

Here we are deciding why we want such a huge tree! Walt, Susan, her dad and Michele in pic. And Down comes the monstrosity! After some whittling on himselfs part, it will be doable in our modest living room!

Winters Reflection

The blanket of snow begins to fall
the earth is sleeping quietly
A poor man fertilizer I have heard it said

All is gray this early morn
crisp cold stinging air
as one steps from the warmth of home

The birds frequent the feeders
looking for a morsel of food
Their colors bright against the white backdrop

We do not lament, we cry not
we know it is for a season
and all will again awake, spring forth

The black cat looks blacker
the red dawg looks redder
invigorated by the cold as they run about

It is time, time to reflect
to ponder ones life
to be in the moment, at peace

Has it been good, yes
what does the future hold
whatever it is, it will be for me

you see, we love, we sorrow
we despair, we hope, we care
without any of this, what is life

the blanket of first snow has fallen
this beautiful gray morn
it is for a season

The gift He has given
the Author the Finisher
my Lord and Savior

cl

Turkey and Three Generations

And... Dad goes for the bird! It was fun!



So here are the menfolk at Matt and Susans home. Matt learns from the best the art of carving the bird! More pics to come of the table!

Just a note!

I hope when you are viewing, you click on a picture. It will fill your screen and you can view them better. Also, please leave a comment, I like them, Keeps me real ;-)

Thanksgiving Pics

 
 
 
 

So here is the table all dressed with the meal and the folk seated. The 4 empty seats were for the troopers who would show up for a brief time. The one pic with the pies has Stan keeping guard over the table. We had pecan, pumpkin, apple, chocolate cream, and coconut custard which mom brought. I did not get a shot of my fruit cake, but boy is it ever yummy! An old Irish recipe from my gram, dads mom, which I made my own with a few changes (for the good). Got rid of the citron and added dried cherries and craisons. use a heavy gage bundt pan also and viola! I also found out that I am basically lactose intollerant that evening and suffered mightily! Thank goodness for Melissa and lemon water. Tom actually suffered a bit also and she had to treat him to a glass also! Maybe it the Irish in us.

Mom and Peter

This was a nice photo of mom, sitting with Peter chatting it up. She is doing well and is 72. Peter likes talking with her, they were from the same neighborhood in Masspeth NY in the city. Just different eras is all.

A Country Thanksgiving!

What a Blessing! We had many seated at our table this year. Mother, my brother Jack, Melissa, Matt and wife Susan. Michele and Stan with Stans brother Peter and their son Paul, Matts best friend. My 'sista' friend, Kathie and her hubby Paul. Matt was on duty so he had 4 other troopers come for a Thanksgiving meal. Unfortunately they had to respond to a call before finishing their meal. His buddy Tom came back and visited awhile with us and had desert. The menu consisted of our traditional food choices and a little bit more. I had celery stalks, scallions, and olives to pick on. The meal was fabulous, hats off to the cook!
A good friend from church raised a dozen natural organic turkeys and was giving them away. Yes, I took Hector up on his offer!
The bird was stuffed with our families traditional plain stuffing, croutons, sauted celery and onions, sea salt, pepper thyme and eggs. We still stuff the bird and we are not dead! We had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, yam casserole with apples and marsh mellows, the biggest and sweetest brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, creamed onions (skinned the easy way), ambrosia, buns, gravy, some vegi dinner Roast for Susan. Jack brought some cider (not hard) and green bean casserole. A new dish for my table, second Thanksgiving in a row, Corn Pudding! YUM! As usual, to much food and some cancelations to boot! We were blessed with good weather good friends and good conversation. No issues, no arguing, just lots of love and thankfulness! To God be thanks!

Canada goose

 

I noticed one goose on the cow pond, next 2 flew in and assessed her situation. Apparently she was stuck in the ice. They left and came back with help, more geese. I finally went for the camera when I realized what was happening. Some left again and even more came back. Their weight eventually broke the ice and she was able to free herself. Talk about nature at work. It truly was a blessing to see God's creatures care for just one of their kind. Maybe us humans should take note. No one exploited this poor thing because she was down and out and in a predicament!

Carving our squash!

 

 

 

 

Susan and Matt came over tonight and we all carved pumpkins together! From left to right, dads pumpkin, mine, Susans then Matt! They all came out nice and not to scary! It was a blast and we have quite a bit of seeds to bake tomorrow. Tonight they shall be washed well and laid out to dry on tea towels. Then spray them with some olive oil and a little sea salt and bake them in a slow oven until lightly browned. A little more salt and put them on paper towels to cool, yummy!

Be still my soul...

I thought this was quite a picture. The sphere of the sun glowing through this multiple trunk tree.
The mountain is getting ready for winters rest as the leaves fall as a carpet laid on the forest floor. Soon it will be blanketed with snow, never to be seen until springs arrival once more. Amazing how the world as we know it spins out of control, but God in his mercy causes the sun to rise every day, the seasons to come and go. The worlds are in the palm of His hand and yet as humans we think our way is better, we run to and fro, looking for answers that are in front of us at all times.
Be still my soul, be still and know that He, Jesus the Christ, Yeshua, is thy God.

country roads

The top photo is our road at Bearfoot Corner,
our retreat in the fabulous mountains of NY.
The bottom photo is a logging road that
was made when we had trees taken down this
past year. Amazing how the colors are past peak.
There were many leaf peepers out and about!
Beautiful weather this weekend.
Ahhh, Country Roads
take me home, to the place where I belong!

Jakes

These young fellas were hanging abound by the back yard Friday morning.
They did not seem at all alarmed upon seeing me. Short 3 inch beards on them, they are probably from last years brood. They certainly are not a handsome bird. God sure had a sense of humor when these guys were created! One can understand why the American Eagle was made the National Bird!

Turkeys!

This is the same group that I took and posted a pic of earlier. They are out in the far field. The sun was low as you can see the shadows from the tree. Maybe one of these will grace our Thanksgiving table this year! Go get em Matt!

Fall harvest

Well, we are expecting a Nor'Easter and it is the 25th of September! I went out to get the 'rest' of the tomatoes and peppers and found that my second planting of peas were just starting to put out. Then a few smallish onions surprised me, and romaine lettuce, some chard and I picked a few leaves from the rutabagas. I did hold off from harvesting at least one because they should really be hit with a good frost to sweeten them up. I pulled a few carrots for some stew over the weekend and found a bunch of red potatoes under the earth! In the foreground I took only 1 jar of each of my canning this year. I did not want to scare anyone from trying their hand at it! Left to right- Applesauce from our Early Mac tree, canned tomatoes with tomato sauce hiding behind. Corn relish, blackberry jam, seedless for the faint at heart one who lives here. Pear butter, apple butter, peach butter and spiced seckle pears in a simple syrup. I also have a ton of froze peach slices, canned peach halves in a simple syrup and more peach butter in the fridge that needs processing tonight along with tomato sauce that is on the stove, as well as the tomatoes on the tables which will just be skinned and canned. And there is more in the Garden!
A passion or obsession, you decide!
The beautiful hand towels are from a friend who just came back from Italy, one is Narciso (narcasis) and the other Iris.