Mountain Musings

Watering Can? Quilt? Mailbox? Planters?

Earlier this week I showed you this collage below and mentioned that I brought one of these items home with me from our little antiquing adventure. Were you like most commenters and guessed the watering can?

The watering can was actually perfect with no dents, and I especially liked the red spout. But I didn't like the price of $48! So, unfortunately, the watering can remains at Duke's Antiques instead of sitting on my front steps.

Here's what I did bring home. It's a vintage nine-patch!It seems there's a lot of discussion out there in the forums on the difference between vintage and antique. Very interesting. I'm calling it vintage.

When I spotted the quilt on top of an old trunk at the Antiques Mall, I immediately checked it out. The tag said: "Found in an old farmhouse in Beckley, West Virginia." No date.

I took my treasure to the check-out desk and asked the manager to hold it for me while I continued to browse. After mulling it over, I used some birthday money and decided that I'd like to give this nine-patch a new home.

My sister arrives from SC later this afternoon for a few days' visit, and she wants to go check out these same antique shops. Should I hope that they've marked the watering can down to $20? Then everyone who guessed would be right!

~Deb

Bloomin' Tuesday ~ Someone Planted a Garden

One of my favorite things to do on weekends is ride out on country roads looking at all the yards, flowers, and gardens and seeing how other folks keep their property.

I think that's why I enjoy MsGreen Thumb Jean's Bloomin' Tuesday so much because flowers and gardens in other places besides Virginia are featured each week.

Today I wanted to show you a garden that we pass by regularly on Route 11 near Greenville. I always ask Tom to drive by slowly so I can see how much it's grown each week. Here are a few photos--mostly lots of green because the flowers aren't blooming yet, and the tomatoes haven't started showing color on the vines. But isn't it beautiful?!

Starting at the left side just inside the fence and going all the way around are zinnias! They're so thick and healthy, they're like a privacy hedge around the garden! I can't wait to see them in bloom:

Below is the right side of the garden:

There's so much to see, and you realize how much work has gone into making this garden quite the showplace! I love this garden!

Below: We pulled off the road on a small narrow strip right in front of the garden just to take in everything at our leisure instead of quickly driving by. And we took pictures so I can get ideas of some new features for our gardens.

Those are huge bins of strawberries that line the side of the gravel road (above photo and below photo)

The two men working in the field were adding composted leaves to the vegetables. They could have been the owners or hired gardeners. When they saw Hannah taking pictures, they called out to us to come back next week...because "the garden will be prettier!"

Oh my! How could it be prettier? Maybe we'll go back another time and see all the flowers in bloom.

Check out this week's MsGreen Thumb Jean's Bloomin' Tuesday here.

~Deb

AAAA ~ Another Antique Adventure Alert

In my last AAA post I sent out a call to my friend Jean to "let's set a date to go antiquing." That date was this past Friday, and we had a fun time traveling to Lexington and shopping at Duke's Antiques and The Antique Mall.Below you can see a few of the items that caught my eye, but only one of them came home with me. Can you guess which one? I'll show you in a later post.  Granny is always on the lookout for antique potato mashers, and she found four of them to use in her baskets. I was going to take a picture of all of them lined up, but she's already made two potato masher baskets since Friday! I'll post on those finished baskets soon.

Antiquing almost always works up an appetite, so we found a neat little sandwich shop called Blue Sky Bakery.

Who wants the special of the day? Potato Leek Soup and a half Pesto Club on freshly-baked focaccia bread with Black Bean Salad--three votes for the special!

The next photo is dim but gives you an idea of the sweets behind the counter--harvest cookies, brownies, lemon squares, and carrot cake. Granny had to have a piece of the carrot cake...it was delicious and a very generous slice for all four of us to taste.

I think I'd definitely come here again!

We all enjoyed ourselves and had a good day on our antiquing adventure! Thanks, Jean!

~Deb

Organic Gardening Magazine

I love mailbox treasures and especially love when each issue of Organic Gardening Magazine comes in the mail!

Right now Amazon is having a special -- if you subscribe through June 24, a two-year subscription is just $5.00, which is $0.42 an issue!

If you currently subscribe, your subscription will be extended by 12 issues. Start a new subscription, renew, or give a gift. That's what I'm going to do!

~ Deb

Guess Who Came to Dinner?

This past weekend we enjoyed a very delightful visit from one of our faithful blog readers and commenters--Victoria. Vicky's family was headed back home to Georgia after a trip to New York, and they stopped by Mountain Musings to have a meal with us.

We met in real life for the first time last March at the Economics Conference in Raleigh and wrote about it here. So we were very excited that they stopped by and visited us here in the Valley.

We took a garden tour, of course! Here are their girls and our girls together in a photo:

Down in the garden shed, Granny showed everyone the latest baskets she made this past week:

The guys had plenty to talk about and also took a tour outside while Jonathan checked on his beehives:

Our menu: grilled Southwestern chicken over salad greens from the garden, grilled fresh pineapple, Hannah's homemade Rustic Tuscan loaf, and Sarah's turtle cheesecake for dessert.

Fun fellowship around the picnic table:

As has become our usual tradition when we have folks visit, we gathered together for hymns. In this picture below Jonathan is explaining one of his favorite ways to sing during hymn time...singing the words of one song to the tune of another. Have you ever tried it?

Here are the girls singing:

And before we knew it, the time had come to say good-bye. Here's their family picture that will go in our guest book, along with memories of our friends being here.

Thank you, Vicky and family, for stopping by and blessing us with your visit.

~Deb

 

Bloomin' Tuesday ~ Coneflowers & Yarrow

I've always loved sunflowers.

But coneflowers rank right up there as one of my all-time favorites, too. For some reason, these days I catch myself referring to them as pinecones instead of coneflowers! Oh my, the mind does crazy things, doesn't it?

Turn the corner, and there are more amongst the yarrow:

And there's a family of white coneflowers, too:

And one lone yarrow:

Today I'm joining MsGreen Thumb Jean's Bloomin' Tuesday.

(Thanks to Hannah for the photos.)

~Deb

Random Round-Up

Oh, my! It's been ten days since I last posted...and when emails start rolling in asking if we're okay, then it's time to slow down, catch my breath, and start writing!

So here's a smattering of what's been going on around Mountain Musings this past month:

Back on Memorial Day we were invited over to our friend Kendra's home for a cookout. The red, white, and blue decorations were very festive and patriotric, and we had a wonderful time of fellowship with her other guests.

Kendra asked that we bring hymn books and instruments for a singing time after we ate:

Sarah and Hannah played their flutes, and Jonathan accompanied on guitar:

Thank you, Kendra, for inviting us and for being a super hostess!

And in other news...on the last day of May we rode an old farm wagon out to the fields for some strawberry picking and came home with over 40 pounds of beautiful berries to freeze. We picked near the end of the season, and very few folks were in the fields. Normally this checkout area is quite crowded, and the parking lot is jammed:This week we're going blueberry picking...our freezer is filling up already!

Farmer's Market update: 

Sales are going well, but honestly, there's no rhyme or reason to what will or won't sell or how many folks will show up! It makes it quite hard for planning how many baked goods to bring. Each week Sarah is busy in the kitchen making homemade marshmallows, candies, fudge, pies, and cheesecakes. Here she is in action:

Homemade marshmallows always sell well at market: On Sarah's non-baking days, Hannah takes over the kitchen with making and cutting soap. Below are bars that have been cut and are ready for labeling. She'd better work fast...she just received an order for 95 bars!

And if you haven't checked Hannah's latest post over on her blog, she's been kidding around over there!

Granny has been making baskets left and right in preparation for a couple of fall craft shows. Unfortunately, the last pictures I took of her weaving down in the garden shed were accidentally deleted! I'll have to take more for a future post.

Here she is enjoying watching Hannah in the kitchen. On tap for our Father's Day meal was grilled pizza with freshly made bratwurst purchased from the farmer's market and served with fra diavolo bbq sauce. Yum!

We all enjoyed celebrating Father's Day yesterday, and we are so thankful for such a godly and faithful dad whom the Lord has given to our family.  ~ Deb

Meadows of Dan Excursions

My favorite stop during the time we visited Meadows of Dan recently was at Lover's Leap Birdhouses. Here we are heading into the quaint little shop:

Lover's Leap Birdhouses is located on a pretty significant curve on the mountain making it difficult to turn in and pull out. But knowing there were birdhouses awaiting inside, we managed to safely arrive in the parking lot.

We learned the shop has online cameras set up showing the scenic mountain views, the parking lot to alert the owner of customers arriving, the feeder area in back to record any bears approaching, the road heading up the mountain, and the road going back down the mountain.

We thought it'd be fun to call the family back home and tell them to check the internet and see us waving at them from the parking lot! They never could connect and find us though...oh well.

The shop has a limited shopping area with both smaller and larger birdhouses filling the shelves. Granny told me to pick out one to bring home, and I picked the small green one on the far right. I think she's keeping it for a gift because I haven't seen it since!

The owner and birdhouse maker himself told us that his birdhouses have found their way all around the world--over 30,000 of them! Visitors from all 50 states and 26 different countries have passed by their little shop. And I'm wondering how in the world they found this place! Have you ever been to Lover's Leap?

Next stop: a little country gift shop that advertised Hungry Hillbilly sandwiches and Possum Pie! We just browsed through and didn't eat here...so I can't tell you whether or not to order the Possum Pie if you visit!

They sold beans in baskets with a scoop and bags to get just what you needed. Country shopping at its finest:

Also on the agenda while we were out was Nancy's Candy Company:

Hannah and I checked out the various fudges so we could tell Sarah some new flavors to possibly offer at Farmer's Market. The shop had so many delicious sounding ones...Strawberry Cheesecake, Snickers, Grasshopper, Chocolate Explosion, Key Lime, and Peanut Butter Chocolate.

So Sarah got busy right away and made a sample batch of Key Lime Fudge. This fudge is y-u-m-m-y, and we have been nibbling all week. I hope it will be a big seller at market.

We're home from our travels and thoroughly enjoyed our excursion to Meadows of Dan. Thanks for coming along with us via the blog!

~Deb

Bloomin' Tuesday at Meadows of Dan

Today's Bloomin' Tuesday edition is coming to you from Meadows of Dan, Virginia.

A couple of weeks ago Granny, Hannah, and I traveled to visit my cousin and her husband at their lovely home at Meadows of Dan, located near Lovers Leap.

This was not only a wonderful day adventure, but it was an overnight one as well! We had a great time visiting family and strolling their property seeing all the beautiful plants and landscaping.

Here is an overview of the shade garden. There is a running stream (just to the right of the center) that is fed by three underground mountain springs. Wouldn't it be delightful to relax in that porch swing hanging from the tree?

Actually, there were two swings...another was hanging from a branch in the yard, and Hannah decided to try it out: This was a perfect shady spot for hostas and bleeding hearts:

Another stream view:

And here's the view looking back towards the house:

Below: The bright colorful annuals along the sidewalk were eye-catching, and I loved all the many garden flags and lawn ornaments roundabout the yard. The twinkling color-changing solar lights I could see from my bedroom window throughout the night are on my wish-list whenever they are in stock again:

Granny, Hannah and I had a wonderful time. Thank you so much, Carolyn and Bud, for your gracious hospitality!

If you'd like to see other Bloomin' Tuesday participants, check out MsGreen Thumb Jean's blog.

~Deb

(Next up: Part 2 Meadows of Dan excursions)

AAA ~ Antique Adventure Alert

A couple of months ago I was passing through my childhood hometown of South Boston, Virginia, and decided to stop in at Toots Creek Antiques Mall in nearby Halifax.

I don't think I've ever been to this shop and left empty-handed (should I even admit that?), and on this particular visit this framed antique quilt block immediately caught my attention.

Stains and all, this lovely pattern now resides in our guest room, and I love seeing these unique colors every time I walk down the hall and glance that direction.

By the way, does anyone have any idea what this unusual pattern could be?

That's one of Granny's older egg baskets sitting on the quilt rack, and the antique log cabin quilt on the rack belonged to my aunt. I wrote about it here.

Hopefully, there's another AAA event in my near future. (Jean...let's set a date!)

~Deb