Mountain Musings

More Birdhouses by the Woodworker!

Tom had such a good time making birdhouses with the Georgia grandchildren earlier this month, that he decided to make a couple more...for our grandsons in Maryland!

So...he whipped them together in time for our trip this past weekend to visit them and to help celebrate little J's 4th birthday.

After finding out the boys' favorite colors from their dad, he started painting the roofs:

Everything's looking good, and we hope the boys will enjoy watching birdies make nests in their own special birdhouse, complete with their initial:

Presenting the birdhouse:

And here's the other grandson's birdhouse, all installed side-by-side on a tree close by a viewing window for the boys to watch the comings and goings.

It turned out to be a wonderful 4th birthday party with turtles and snakes and all sorts of interesting creatures for all the kids to touch and handle. This Granny stayed far away!

That was our Saturday! We don't get to see these boys often, so it was a treat to visit even for a few hours!

~ Deb

Spring and Early Summer Happenings ~ Part 3

Part 3 ~ Summer Visits!

Long years ago we visited friends in Tennessee who welcomed us to their home with a hand-written chalkboard on their porch, "Welcome Girotti Family."  I'll always remember that thoughtful touch.

That is now our practice...it says "Welcome Bet and Sonia."

My sister is now retired and can travel to see me any time. On this visit she and her teacher friend, Sonia, traveled to spend a few days with us here in Virginia. So fun! Sonia was last here in 2011. I had no clue it had been 12 years!

I planned some outings for us in downtown Staunton because I knew they would enjoy walking a small town street and browsing some shops:

It was definitely a fun morning as some of us found treasures at The Sparrow's Nest:

Tom joined us for lunch at The Pampered Palate, but we failed to take pictures inside. It was delish as always!

The next day was spent antiquing at one of the largest antique malls in America located only 10 minutes from us (at least they advertise that it's the largest!)...Factory Antique Mall in Verona.

This is one of the signs I saw and really loved! It's a 2-sided Amish Grass Clippings Sign.

Mainly I liked it because I collect grass clippings for the garden. Plus love the color! I would have mounted it down by the compost bin near the garden:

 However, on further inspection of the price tag...$15 maybe, $69 nope.

And since I love geraniums, I loved this geranium sign!  Same deal....price prohibitive at $75!

But it was a productive morning! We all came home with a little something in our bags!

That evening Jonathan had invited us down to his house for a meal and a tour! Jonathan, always hard at work:

I think Bet and Sonia enjoyed seeing his house, and definitely we all enjoyed the meal. Here's his menu:

All too soon it was time for our guests to travel back to their homes in South Carolina. Come again y'all!!

A few days later, long time friends from Texas arrived! They had been visiting family members in New York and had wanted to stop by here on their way back home:

It was just a quick overnight and breakfast the next morning, but we so enjoyed their visit and getting to see them again. They traveled here for Hannah's wedding in September...but, it's hard to truly catch up with everyone at a wedding:

Thanks E family for the visit! Y'all come back!

Now we're gearing up for missionary friends from Papua New Guinea to arrive next weekend! Will post when that happens.

~Deb

Spring and Early Summer Happenings ~ Part 2

Part 2 ~ Grandchildren, Birthdays, and Birdhouses

Can you think of a better birthday gift than having this crew show up on my doorstep? The holiday/birthday weekend was wonderful! Aren't they growing up?!

Sarah, Eric, and the five children drove in from Georgia; and Hannah and Christopher drove in from Michigan! Fun times!

When I was growing up, my parents worked at a company that gave their employees the week of July 4th off every year, so we celebrated my birthday all vacation week in the Smoky Mountains and Gatlingburg, TN...every year!

Little did Tom know when we got married that I was accustomed to celebrating my birthday for a whole week! LOL! He does a great job of stretching out all the fun....

 

Sarah was in the kitchen making a mini 6-inch birthday cake...aaah so special to have her in the kitchen again!

Just perfect having both girls working together. I miss scenes like this!

 Here's the cake all finished and decorated and ready for me to blow out the candles!

While everyone was here visiting, Jonathan wanted to have us all over to his house for a meal. So we all loaded up and made the trek 25 minutes south of us. There's his house in the distance:

Here's Chef Jonathan performing his magic!

What he fixed for us:

Seated around his table for a nice meal!

The red/white/blue S'more trifle! Oh my goodness!

 

Christopher and Hannah relaxing after the wonderful meal. So good to see them together:

One of the special activities Tom/Grampa planned for the kids was building a birdhouse in Grampa's Workshop (lots of pre-visit prep!). All the kids were super excited!

Here's the master woodworker with the newest member of the family looking on:

Grampa had plenty of helpers directing the little ones...much needed! It was a hubbub of activity!

Hannah watched little Miss L play with her birdhouse pieces:

The kids loved using the drill:

Almost done! Her dad helping her drill:

Everyone lined up with their finished birdhouse projects, complete with their favorite color and their initial. Even the littlest munchkin got his own birdhouse! 

Thank you, Grampa, for an exciting productive activity...now Daddy will have to find spots in their yard for 5 birdhouses!!! LOL!

 
What July 4th visit would be complete without some slip and slide water fun:

Or a trip to the ice cream shop for some birthday ice cream:

Or some fireworks:

And sparklers:

The weekend came to an end sooo quickly!  We loved it all! Here we are saying goodbye to Sarah...until next time!

~ Deb

Next up: Spring and Early Summer Happenings ~ Part 3

Summer Visit from my Sister

Spring and Early Summer Happenings ~ Part 1

Hello everyone! If you happened to stop by the blog recently and read the post just before this one, you'll see there's a new way to sign up for email notifications whenever there's been a new post. Hopefully if you did just that, you were notified that this new post is now up and live! Would you be so kind as to let me know it worked?
June found us on the busy roads headed to Massachusetts to visit friends for the first time in their new home. We have enjoyed many visits with T & D here in Virginia over the years, so we were looking forward to traveling to a new place to visit them.

While we were in the area, they took us to Plymouth...and we saw the Mayflower 2 in the harbor. It was a beautiful day, as you can see:

Here are our friends, T & D, with the Plymouth Rock structural canopy in the background:

This next photo shows what's under that canopy...Plymouth Rock, where the Pilgrims first landed!

It actually doesn't look very impressive, does it?  Have you ever been to see the Rock?  You can read more about the story here:

Our friends took us on a very informative historical tour of the area, and we enjoyed it all! I could post so many more pictures!

We also loved spending time at their home and seeing T's flower gardens and being with D. in her kitchen. She planned some great meals while we were there! Thank you both so much for the wonderful visit!

We also were in Massachusetts for the wedding of our nephew...so after leaving T & D's we headed to the weekend wedding festivities. Our son Micah flew in to attend, so that was a treat to see him there:

The happy couple...

I'll post just one reception photo which shows Tom with both of his sisters and brother-in-law enjoying the table conversation after the wedding. Always a fun time seeing family members:

While we were away, the garden was growing! And we came home to some wonderful veggies!

We've had a bumper crop of cucumbers and yellow zucchini, and the tomatoes are just coming in. Yay for gardens!

I've also been harvesting and drying rosemary, oregano, and basil and jarring it for using and/or gifting. I'm trying my best to do the exact same things that Hannah would do if she were still here managing the garden. :)

Who wouldn't enjoy cooking with a jar of fresh aromatic oregano?! My kitchen is smelling like an Italian restaurant!

Here's a treat for you....if you've made it this far reading our blog...leave me a comment telling me where you're reading from and share something encouraging or an answered prayer request that will make my day.  I'll draw a commenter's name on August 1st and send you a jar of oregano or rosemary (your choice) from the Mountain Musings 2023 garden!

(And if you grow your own and have no need for oregano or rosemary, still comment and let me know you're out there and share a story.)

~ Deb

Next up: Spring and Early Summer Happenings ~ Part 2 ~ Grandchildren, Birthdays, and Birdhouses

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