Mountain Musings:

« August 2017 | Main | October 2017 »

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Spring Creek Roller Mill Barn Sale

This past week, after living in this area for 15 years, I heard about a "barn sale at Spring Creek" taking place this weekend. I couldn't believe I was just now learning about this gathering of crafty, vintage, and antique treasures, since this is their sixth year of operation!

I started researching exactly where this barn sale was located and ran across this youtube of the event filmed two years ago. It gave us a good flavor of what we would experience! So we made definite plans to go check it out!

Hannah, Granny, and I headed out on this beautiful fall Saturday morning, and when we arrived at Spring Creek, this old building... ...and these signs greeted us:

There were about 30 or so vendors set up in the grassy area out behind the barn and lots of cars arriving: I loved the unique and creative green pumpkin Entrance display: Granny and I were ready to tackle the Barn Sale! Always the sales person, Granny brought one of her Gathering Baskets to carry around.

Just in case someone asked her which vendor was selling that beautiful basket, she could reply that she made it and would gladly make them one! Hannah and Granny took advantage of this Fall Prop Photo Op setup by Valley Heirlooms -- great display! This was a favorite booth, too, (scripted grain & co.). I always love signs and word plaques like this: A few vendors were also set up inside the barn...this is the back entrance. I loved seeing some fall display ideas to incorporate here at our house: Closer photo of the back door to the barn. I loved everything about this venue:

This was a favorite food vendor, and yes, we enjoyed the apple fritters served here:

I bought a few gift items from this vendor, Embellish Decorating, and it was my favorite booth at the Barn Sale: This is another area of this vendor's wares--a display of wire pumpkins: Flowers for sale! Beautiful Globe Amaranth blooms:

And now I'm in the mood for fall decorating...first I'll put up my hanging yellow mum baskets on the front porch that I purchased today. Then I'll go pick some goldenrod in the garden and put it in a huge glass antique jug I purchased long ago at Toots Creek. That's a good start!

All in all, today was such an enjoyable excursion!

"hello, pumpkins. warm sweatshirts. apple cider. hayrides. falling leaves. cinnamon. hello, fall."

~DebSave

Save

Posted at 11:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Slow Blog Loading Fixed ~ Feedback?

I've heard from several folks recently about our blog loading v-e-r-y slowly or not loading at all--both on computer and on their phones, and they've just given up reading the blog altogether.

We recently heard back from our Typepad Help Desk what the problem was (a defunct widget on the sidebar making the blog not load!).

So we've corrected that problem. Can we have some feedback from your end? Had you experienced problems with our blog loading in the past?

Are you experiencing slow-loading now that we think the problem is fixed?

Thank you to those folks who have contacted us and asked what the problem was! We didn't know there was a problem!

Okay...on to faster blog loading! And more frequent posting? Maybe! :)

~Deb

Save

Posted at 05:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)

Longwood Gardens ~ Anniversary Trip 2017

Longwood Gardens, located in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and containing 1,077 acres of beauty, was certainly a gardener's delight to visit! Ever since Jonathan gave me the trip as a Christmas gift, I'd been planning an adventure in PA sometime this summer.

As it turned out, their Main Fountain Garden was closed for renovation for two years and recently re-opened following a $90 million revitalization. So I patiently waited....knowing that I'd want to see the more than 1,700 fountain jets spraying water in all shapes, sizes, heights, and color combinations in time with the music. Believe me...I'm so glad we waited! It was breathtaking!

Here's a photo taken during the afternoon program with beautiful classical music being played during the fountain display: We took our seats to watch from a distance, but visitors were allowed to stand near the fountains, too: The Conservatory was my favorite part of the Gardens. It contains 4,600 different types of plants and trees in 20 indoor gardens within 4.5 acres...all under roof: This flower display really made me want to repot my snake plants! These were so lush and healthy: This water garden was just outside the Conservatory: Back inside the Conservatory....we spent a lot of time visiting the indoor gardens: After the Conservatory, we took a Flower Walk outside in the Garden, which was amazing! We walked a brick pathway the length of two football fields with a wide expanse of flowers on both sides: Here are more photos during the Flower Walk...the yellow section: And the red section: And last, but certainly not least....because purple is my favorite color, here's the purple section on the Flower Walk: Did you notice all the yellow boxes along the pathways everywhere? Here are more of them in the Gardens. There had to be hundreds and hundreds of these candles all over the property, and we assumed they would be lit for the evening shows. That would certainly be a huge chore to be lit by hand: Here's Tom taking a rest break with a grassy field full of lights to be lit behind him:

And...we were right...close to 5 p.m. we saw workers beginning to light the candles in all areas of the property. I wish I had asked how long it took to light them all for the evening fountain shows. They were prettier and even more striking as the night approached: We found a good seat for the evening fountain show, and I liked this picture because it included a sliver of the moon. There were crowds of people everywhere getting the best spot for the show to begin: Well, it certainly was worth the wait. The lights changing and the music were all spectacular: For folks who live close enough to PA, a year's membership fee would definitely be worth it to go and see the Gardens and lights at each season as the flower displays change. This will probably be the only time I get to visit Longwood Gardens, but it was certainly inspiring...and I've been weeding my flower beds more since I got home! Have you been to Longwood Gardens? What was your favorite section? Did you see the Fountain Lights? Tell me a little about your experience.

A big thank you to our friend, Kyle, who introduced us to Longwood Gardens (I had never heard of it!)...and to Jonathan who bought our tickets...and to Tom who made our anniversary possible!

~DebSave

Save

Posted at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Wednesday, September 06, 2017

Celebrating Our 37th Anniversary in Philly!

Two weeks ago....off Tom and I went to PA to celebrate our anniversary. Since Pennsylvania is relatively close to Virginia, we've been there a few times before; but we'd never been to downtown Philadelphia! This was a new set of adventures!We walked the downtown streets, saw the Liberty Bell for the first time, toured Independence Hall and the Betsy Ross House, and enjoyed browsing the Benjamin Franklin Museum:Here's the only picture taken of the two of us on our anniversary...surrounded by other tourists visiting the Liberty Bell, too: This photo of a carriage rumbling down the old brick street toward Independence Hall reminded me of being back in Colonial Williamsburg:Here's Independence Hall which we toured after going through security: We took a picture of each other in front of the George Washington stature here in front of the Hall....just in case this one was toppled in the future:

I stood where Abraham Lincoln stood:

Lo and behold...Benjamin Franklin was still walking the streets of Philly...he actually was walking better than I was! Some of old Ben's sayings are quite wise. Here's one of them that was in the museum gift shop. This one is easy to do...'cepting when the U.S. Open is on...zzzz. Any other tennis fans out there? We spent the entire day touring Philly, and I have many more historical pictures I could post that were taken at the Betsy Ross House and inside Independence Hall...and even more from the Benjamin Franklin Museum. We had an enjoyable day!

I will end with this representative picture of the Visitor Center at Valley Forge. We didn't have much time the next morning to do Valley Forge justice and only drove a small portion of the car audio tour. I'm sure Tom and Jonathan would love to come back and visit here one day: We left Valley Forge and found our way to Kennett Square because we had purchased timed entrance tickets for Longwood Gardens, which actually was the main reason for our trip to Pennsylvania.

Jonathan had given me the gift of tickets to Longwood Gardens for Christmas, and this was our first chance to go. He knew I would love this....and I did!

Stay tuned for the next post...flowers, flowers, flowers at Longwood Gardens!

~DebSave

Save

Posted at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Friday, September 01, 2017

Hello, September!

Hello, patient blog readers! Summer has been busy around this old homestead! How about where you live...did your summer pass in an absolute flash?

We've celebrated milestone birthdays, hosted relatives visiting from Connecticut (which I posted about here), Georgia, and Maryland, and we traveled as well...back to my hometown of South Boston, Virginia, for a quick weekend; and Tom and I experienced Philly for the first time as part of our 37th anniversary getaway!

So...lots of summertime fun times!

Thomas Jefferson's Monticello gardens were a delight to browse, and I promised you some photos: We walked this dirt path around the perimeter of the backyard with our tour guide who talked about all the various flowers: The plant stake stated that this flower was Prince's Feather, which I'd never heard of, very tall and leggy but pretty. The Shop at Monticello sells various collected seeds from their gardens: I loved all the purple flowers, especially this grouping: This photo below of Cockscomb near the Reflecting Pool is one I recently posted on my Instagram, but I'll post it again here.

By the way...do you follow me on Instagram? I don't post a ton, but sometimes there are things there that I don't get around to posting on the blog. The button is on the left sidebar under Subscribe:
Okay....who wouldn't be happy when your grandchildren are coming to town?!! Did you hear all the hand clapping??

The visit from Sarah and her family from Atlanta a few weeks ago was absolutely W.O.N.D.E.R.F.U.L.! It was their first visit to Virginia since both babies had been born. Here's Aunt Hannah with Matthew:

And here's Uncle Jonathan teaching Andrew how to strum along on his guitar: We were able to get a 4-generation picture with Andrew and me (now the Granny around these parts), Great-Granny (formerly just Granny....it gets confusing and we forget!), and Sarah with Matthew. I will treasure this picture: Sarah enjoyed walking around the property while they were home, and Hannah took a family photo of them out by the old barn next door to us...this was also the scene where Eric proposed to Sarah two years ago on Labor Day, 2015:

The next weekend we traveled to my hometown of South Boston to celebrate my dear friends' 50th wedding anniversary, held at Berry Hill Mansion. Here's the view as we approached: Here I am below with Carolyn after the wonderful celebratory festivities at Berry Hill Mansion. I don't think it looks like she's been married for 50 years, do you? She must have gotten married when she was 17! Yes, she did! Here I am with a very faithful blog reader and dear friend, Doris, who is Carolyn's sister: I grew up with Donna and lived right down the street from her in South Boston. Here she is with her husband, Allen, and they now live in Chesapeake and just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. It was so fun sitting at their table and catching up on our lives: Lots of years of marriage represented in this room...Tom and I were getting ready to celebrate our 37th: A final picture taken in South Boston...we took Great-Granny to visit several friends on Saturday and then back to her hometown church on Sunday. We thoroughly enjoyed the conversation and a meal out with the pastor and his wife after the services. All in all, it was a great weekend: