Mountain Musings

The Simple Woman's Daybook ~ June

For Today, Father's Day, Sunday, June 16

Outside my window...

It's a beautiful sunshiny day with an expected high of 82 here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The last few days have been wonderfully cooler days...windows open with the breeze blowing in, and actually I wore a turtleneck one day! In June! But...today the A/C is back on, and it seems summer has arrived.

I am thinking...

That I'm missing the fellowship of our church family. I'm home today and not feeling the best while the rest of the family is away at church. So I slept in, and while I'm resting quietly, I'm writing this overdue post.

Shared verse...

Hannah texted me this most appropriate verse this morning from her daily scripture calendar:

I am thankful for...

My husband....the most faithful husband and dad ever! Happy Father's Day!

"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good." ~ Luke 6:45

This photo was taken on Memorial Day when we traveled to Massanutten Ski Resort and rode the chair lift to the top of the mountain:

Here's another picture of the Valley taken on our way back down:

From the Kitchen...

Grilled Pizza is always on the Father's Day menu! Here's a pan of individual veggie and smoked sausage pizzas all assembled and ready to go on the grill last evening.

Along with some Peanut Butter & Oreo and Chocolate Cupcakes... Let's just say Dad was a happy man!

From the Garden...

Don't you just love fresh oregano from the garden? Here's Hannah stripping a new batch of dried oregano and filling the canister. Looks like spaghetti sauce may be on the docket soon...another Dad favorite!

One of my favorite things...

I absolutely love using old containers...watering cans, tea kettles, dishpans...for flowers. Here's a tea kettle filled with a shamrock plant which Hannah spotted at Appalachian Piecework this week. I have a tea kettle just like that and use it for annuals. But this gave me the idea to not put it away for the winter but fill it with shamrock just like this one and enjoy it year-round!

I am hoping...

That Granny will like these cheery flowers...I took this photo down by the garden gate this past week and emailed it to Granny. She usually can see this bright orange lily blooming from her recliner, but since she's visiting my sister this summer, she's missing these bright blooms:

I am wearing...

Burgandy skirt, blue/green/burgandy blouse over a white tank top.

I am creating...

Two quilts! I participated in two quilt-alongs online this year, and when you're under a deadline to keep up with the group, it definitely helps to get the quilt finished! I absolutely love quilt alongs!

The Stars and Stripes flag quilt that I finished recently is being quilted this week, and I understand why quilters send their finished quilt to a long-arm quilter to get it quilted professionally! This is a hard job wrestling the quilt in my small machine.

This is my Room and Board quilt that I pinned yesterday to be ready for quilting after the flag quilt is done. Jonathan gave me this fabric for Christmas, so this one will be a keeper for ME:

I am praying...

For my sweet grandson, Andrew, who will have surgery this coming Thursday, June 20. Please pray with me for the doctors to have skill and for Andrew to be a brave little boy!

Around the house...

These rose petals arrived in the mail this week from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello gardens. Hannah's soap is in their catalog and gift shop, and they send rose petals for her to incorporate into her products:

Closing photo from the week:

Newborn fawn born a few days ago that we spotted in our front yard under the forsythia. Our neighbor sent us a picture of a newborn in their backyard, too. Sure enough, they were twins! We saw them both nursing with their mom near our driveway:

Thanks for stopping by Mountain Musings!

For more Simple Woman Daybook posts, visit The Simple Woman blog.

 

~Deb

17th Year of Gardening!

It's hard to believe this begins our 17th year of gardening in this location. Those years equal a lot of weeding, planting, mulching, harvesting, canning and freezing (and enjoying!)...and starting the whole process over again!

In almost 40 years of marriage we've lived in many places across the state of Virginia...Hampton, Newport News, Richmond, Charlottesville (Afton Mountain), Williamsburg, and Staunton.  The first year we started a garden was in Afton in 1990...it wasn't productive with very poor red soil. I was told it was quite pitiful actually. But it was special because it was our very first.

Fast forward to 2002 when we moved here to the Shenandoah Valley. With space for a garden finally, we decided to try again! Hannah was our Garden Girl and loved helping get it started.

Here's an old picture I pasted in from March, 2010, when the picket fence was first installed. The garden had already been established for several years, and the chicken wire around it was old and rusted.

This was one of my favorite days of all time....so many spring chores were getting accomplished, and I was getting a picket fence! Jonathan and his friend, Erich, helped a lot.  It's 9 years later, and that picket fence is now peeling and looking quite dilapidated (as you can see below)...and needing a new paint job. That's next on the list. 

Here's a view of our two fenced gardens taken this morning...the picket fence garden and the larger two-board fenced garden which I've been priming and painting for the past two weeks. Three sides are done with the fourth yet to go. What a job!  This year some of our raised beds needed replacing so Tom got busy making a couple of new ones:I love having a retired husband and a woodworker ready to do anything when needed!

Below: one of those new beds is now installed here in the picket fence garden, and Hannah just yesterday planted lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, radish, kale, sugar snap peas, and turnips (only for the greens)...all in this one 15 x 3-1/2 foot bed! The other replaced bed was here in the bigger garden for the blueberry bushes. It's 16 x 4: These blueberries hopefully will love their new borders and produce well for us this year. Additional soil, some amendments, and weed pulling still need to be done in this bed:
Tom also re-installed the birdhouses that were taken down when I started painting. I hope I didn't keep any bluebirds waiting to build a nest!

I see some rhubarb ready for picking in the distance in the photo below. Hannah mentioned making a rhubarb dessert for Easter.

So much work still to be done out here...the strawberry and asparagus beds are an absolute mess! Just being honest.

My goal is to be done with the garden clean-up, painting, and maintenance projects by Mother's Day. And then comes mulching all the regular flower beds. Hannah's goal is to put in all the warm weather transplants and seeds by our area's frost date of mid-May.

I'm looking forward to seeing all the flowers grow up around the picket fence garden again this year.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him;  and with his stripes we are healed. ~ Isaiah 53:5

Have a blessed Easter weekend! 

~Deb

Birthday Outing and Adventure at Appalachian Piecework

A week ago my sister came to visit us on her spring break and to celebrate her birthday with us here in Virginia.

We started planning the birthday meal: (Sweet & Sour Chicken from Mel's Kitchen blog), the cake (Lemon Bundt from A Pretty Life in the Suburbs blog), and the outings (The Factory Antique Mall and Appalachian Piecework, which I've written about before when we've shopped there).

Come along with us to our favorite local shop, Appalachian Piecework: Right inside the door we spotted this shaving pony setup -- she was in the process of crafting wooden bracelets: Granny was feeling well enough to go with us this time and gravitated towards the baskets, of course! There were many different ones!

Here's the write-up describing this particular basket: Here's Laurie, the owner and folk artist, talking to us about her wares: Absolutely love this egg basket holding spindles! I gravitated to the antique quilts you see on the back wall. Laurie rescues them, mends and launders them, and displays them for sale. The striking red one had a price tag of $750: Quaint and primitive wool coasters displayed in a handmade basket: Another photo of the handiwork displayed throughout the shop...a special method of dying the wool was used on these: Laurie is at work on her loom, demonstrating her weaving. We all thought everything was so fascinating: The scarves were amazing. My sister actually took a weaving class years ago and learned how to do this...so she could understand the work involved and the prices attached! She gave me one of her woven masterpieces back when she made one, a beautiful purple scarf which I use as a long dresser scarf: Appalachian Piecework also carries Hannah's soaps, and here's the display for those: A spinning wheel was also in use in the shop: And here's the black wool waiting to be spun: I thought this custom order below was very special. A person had brought in a variety of old shirts which had belonged to her parents and which were then torn into strips as shown in this photo: Laurie was weaving them into a rug so the customer would always have this display item in their home as a memory of the parents' clothing. That's different!: Here's a picture of the four of us together before we left: What a very, very enjoyable excursion! We all loved it!

Time to head home to celebrate:

My sister, Betty, the birthday girl, is ready to blow out the candles: Let's light those candles! Granny is patiently waiting for her piece: Thanks for joining along on our outing. So glad that my sister spent part of her spring break with us!

~Deb

Celebrating National Quilting Day

Did you celebrate this weekend with your sewing machine and some fabric? It was National Quilting Day!

I spent Saturday afternoon at my machine and sewed three Room and Board blocks to add to the eight blocks I'd already completed. Here are those three on the design wall:

I joined the online Sweet Escape/Room & Board quilt-along hosted by Camille of Thimble Blossoms on her Instagram. Knowing that hundreds of other quilters across the country are sewing the same pattern makes it extra fun.

Quilting Day was an added reason to make sure some blocks were finished! It's always productive for me to quilt with a deadline.

Here are the previous eight blocks completed: All this fabric was a Christmas gift from my son, Jonathan. How did he know to buy Thimble Blossoms fabric!?? Perfect! Here it is all laid out as I was deciding which colors to put together: Also in honor of Quilting Day...

• stuffing and finishing my heart pillow from the previous post.
• binding a baby quilt that I've already quilted.
• quilting the Sewing a Village houses, another sew-along I participated in last year.

Then I can start my original plan of making a quilt for Hannah. Of all things, I've never made Hannah a quilt! Fabric and pattern are already purchased, so I'll post my progress when it happens. Spring mulching may interfere a bit....but she'll get it eventually!

Nothing to do with Quilting Day....but everything to do with Saint Patrick's Day, here are Tom and Jonathan playing some Irish music to end our Sunday evening: If you'd like to hear a short clip of Be Thou My Vision and an Irish ditty called Billy Brocker's Reel, check out Jonathan's Instagram at jonathan_girotti for the real music.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

~Deb

Quilty Girls Weekend! ~ Sewing Retreat ~ Part 2

Our time at the 2019 Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, which you read about in the last post, quickly came to an end....oh, but so much more quilting fun was in store for the next day!

Here we are ready to start our secret sewing project day: Barbara, Chris, and Deb: Chris first showed us the project she had selected for the day's sewing. She's holding up her almost completed heart pillow for our example. Instructions for making your own are on Chelsea Stratton's blog: To increase the excitement, below is the pile of prizes to be awarded throughout our day of sewing: Our sewing retreat was located in Chris's beautiful sun room, bright and airy and perfect for our sewing table setup. I was pretty much all smiles, all day: We had to be alert! We never knew when Chris would bring out the ol' bullhorn and call a winning number! So. Much. Fun! One of the first prizes was a mini design board for our heart pieces. You can find instructions to make your own either on Lori Holt's Bee in My Bonnet blog Part 1 and Part 2 or on Fat Quarter Shop's YouTube channel.

Barbara was so excited when her number was called: Here we are with our design boards ready to start sewing. The boards came in quite handy when we transported our pieces back and forth to the ironing board: Yes, we did get lots of sewing done...as you can see two of my hearts sitting there with my design board in use...but time out for another prize! Yay for opening gifts throughout the morning! What wonderful prizes...in addition to the design board there were pins, sewing machine needles, seam ripper, a magnetic pin holder from Pleasant Home...and fat quarters!! Thank you, Chris! Well, after all this excitement and sewing, we worked up an appetite. Butternut sausage soup and ham/cheese pie wedges were on our delicious lunch menu: And what do you think the guys were doing all this time?

Well...the day we girls were at the quilt festival, the menfolk all went to a indoor shooting range and practiced shooting handguns. They said they "had a blast." 

And while we were home sewing, they conducted a gun-cleaning party out in the garage. Here's Tom with Chris's dad, who also went on the shoot with them: Must keep the guns clean! Uh-oh, someone took a break and commandeered the bullhorn! And Barbara wins again! And this time a wonderful packet of fat quarters! I won fabric, too! By the end of the afternoon, we were basting our pillows and ready to start quilting the front: A good day's work! We will finish the remainder back at home: And some good accomplishment for the guys, too! They also installed a new weather vane for Chris on her garden shed: All in all, it was such an enjoyable Quilty Girls' Weekend ~ 2019...both at the festival and at the sewing retreat at home. Being with friends made it the most fun of all!  And I have a beautiful heart pillow for my bed to always remember our special time!

Thank you, Fred and Chris, for opening your home and hearts to us! I love making memories with y'all!

~Deb

Quilty Girls Weekend! ~ Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival ~ Part 1

What an exciting and wonderful few days I spent with my friend attending the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, Virginia!

This was my 5th year?  It's become an annual tradition! I'll link the previous years' trips in case you missed seeing those posts.  2013--Part 1; 2013--Part 2; 2013--Part 3.  2016.  2017. 2018--Part 1; 2018--Part 2.

This was the first year Tom traveled with me...and since he's retired now, why not?! My friend's home is in Gloucester, about 3 hours' drive from us. Tom was scheduled to have some "guy time" with Chris's husband while we were at the quilt show. Husbands of quilters can have fun, too! :)

We were graciously welcomed at my friend's home with so many sweet touches....here's our guest room bed with a welcome bucket full of necessities. She wanted me to sleep under the Christmas quilt I made her before she put it away for the season. Sweet! Another basket of "necessities" was nearby on the desk, along with our itinerary and menu for the week. I truly felt like I was in a Bed & Breakfast! So fun! After a quick bite to eat, we left for the one-hour drive to Hampton. The first night was preview night at the quilt show. We arrived, checked in at the registration desk, and received our souvenir pin for the 30th anniversary of the show and the packet of materials: Here's the badge holder that my friend made last year for us to keep our quilt pass in and a place to pin our collected pins! There's a zipper small pouch on the back for money and/or credit cards for hands-free shopping. It worked great! The first night is usually low-key with crowds. It's a time to preview the vendors to see what products are available in case we need to think about purchases we want to make the next day when we return for the all-day show: Let's start with the Best in Show or maybe it was Judges' Choice...whichever, it was intricate and beautifully quilted:

Here's another beautiful quilt which was on display as a winning entry, and my friend Chris and her mom, who attended the show with us, stand by it: Aisles and aisles and aisles of vendors...miles of walking and walking. My poor feet were not happy with me! The below photo was taken on the less-crowded preview evening....but for the main show the next day, aisles were jammed with quilters: This next photo was my favorite part of the quilt show! Really! Former long-time owners of our local Patchwork Plus quilt store were at the show as vendors for a long-armed quilting machine company. I hadn't seen Ken and Phyllis in years! It was such a highlight to chat with them a few minutes, and it brought back many memories of taking classes at their shop: Here's my friend Chris trying out one of the machines....hey, it's only $9,500: I'm standing in front of a unique selvage quilt. I've been saving selvages forever! I'd love to duplicate this pattern! A few other quilts I snapped photos of:

Butterfly: Artsy Floral: Kaleidoscope Quilt:

Picking out some fat quarters for a new project: Chris's sister Edie attended the show on Thursday with her two daughters. It was fun having them with us this year! Here's Edie trying out a new craft: Sooo many different vendors for many different interests: Here's a very artistic quilt....not your typical for sure. How did the quilter do this??: As you can see, the very colorful displays caught my eye and camera: Lots of beautiful quilts on exhibit, lots of supplies and fat quarters, and lots of quilts hanging for inspiration filled our day! It was very fun! And especially fun with friends.

Soon the end of the day arrived, and it was time to head back to Gloucester.

The next day would be even more fun and exciting than the quilt show! We were going to have a Quilty Girls Sewing Day at my friend's house! I couldn't wait to see the project she had cooked up!

Stay tuned for Part 2!

~Deb

The Simple Woman's Daybook ~ February

For Today Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not knows not God; for God is love. ~I John 4:7-8

Looking out my window... a very sunny and quite chilly February day. The wind is gusting, especially here on this ridge we call Mountain Musings. The front porch lawn chairs are tumbling upside down and being flung to the other side of the wrap-around porch.

I am thinking...of interesting questions to ask Granny. I've been googling "Questions to Ask an Elderly Person" for an interview post for the blog. I thought that might be fun! If you have any questions that you'd like her to answer...about her growing up years, her life before she came to live with us, her favorite memories, etc...ask them in the comments below, and a future post will feature Granny.

 

I am thankful...that Granny is doing much better and healing more each day from her fracture in early January. So thankful that she's able to get around and hopefully will be able to travel back to church soon to see her friends. I've heard from so many of you blog readers that you had been praying for her! Thank you!

 

I am wearing...a "winter white" skirt, aqua turtleneck, and denim over-shirt...my "going out" clothes since I was at my physical therapy foot appointment today. 

 

In my Kitchen...this week Hannah is planning meals and cooking for the family. She's always been such a great helper in the kitchen, but she also likes to do all the planning for some special meals. She usually picks Valentine's week....so I'm enjoying a kitchen-free week and sampling new recipes that I don't usually prepare. I'm especially looking forward to her Valentine's Day dinner.

 

Here is one of the delicious meals this week, Rosemary Dijon Chicken, Roasted Vegetables, and Strawberry Mandarin Spinach Salad:

We are creating: If you stop by to see us, most likely you'll find all of us involved in our various hobbies. Since Granny has felt better lately, she recently made a basket, her first in quite awhile...and here she is staining it outside. Everyone knows she makes baskets from old potato mashers, so someone sent her this one. She immediately wanted to get started!

Hannah collected aloe juice one day to use in her skin soother soap. Thank you to our friend Cindy for the healthy aloe plants she gave us:

Tom keeps occupied in his workshop. This bed has been in the works for quite some time...many, many setbacks and re-dos, but it's looking good now:

And Jonathan has been cooking in the kitchen recently....last week he made a chipotle-flavored chili for his co-workers...quite yummy. This photo below shows him in the middle of some cookie baking--orange creamsicles, which were a big hit:

I am reading...Brave Love. The author is Lisa Leonard, designer of jewelry for her own company and mom of two boys. My new favorite necklace is a Lisa Leonard design with 4 charms, each with the name of one of my four grandsons....with hopefully more charms to come one day. Her Instagram is here.

I am looking forward to: the end of the month when I again travel to Hampton's 30th Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show for a Quilty Girls Weekend!! I've posted about these quilting excursions in past years, so stay tuned in early March for a recap of my adventures.

 

I am hoping...the groundhog was right this year...an early spring would be nice!

 

A moment from my day...enjoying all the pink and red decor...Valentine table topper, floral bouquet from Tom, and reading a Valentine card from a dear friend that arrived today:

 

Great peace have those who love Your law, And nothing causes them to stumble.

~ Psalm 119:165

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

~Deb

Three Quilts + One

My sewing room stayed quite busy last fall, and I loved spending a lot of time in there creating special gifts for special people! This post is to finally document those quilts that I couldn't post about until they were gifted.

Quilt #1: Handmade with Love pattern by Thimble Blossoms This was such a fun, fun quilt to make! There were 20 different packages...and bows on top of each. I bought the quilt as a kit so the fabric choices were already made for me, but this quilt could also be made using various scraps making colorful celebration gifts rather than Christmas themed packages:Here are all the blocks laid out which equaled a 74x75 quilt. This is where I usually sandwich quilts...living room = project room: Since this was a Christmas gift for a special friend, I wanted to have a long-arm quilter quilt it for me. It's the first time I've ever had long-arm quilting done so I was excited to see how it would turn out!

Day trip excursion to The Quiltery in Fairfield....such a nice little shop in a quaint little town. Loved seeing the porch decorations! Maureen promised me she could have it ready the week after Thanksgiving, which worked out just fine: She chose this holly and berries pattern to go with the Christmas theme: Thanks to my hidden, but nifty, quilt holder-upper! I've sewn on the binding and washed the quilt to make it all crinkly. It's ready for gift giving! Usually every December we meet as a foursome with our friends, Fred and Chris. This year we met again at Whole Foods Food Court for lunch and exchanging gifts. Here's Chris opening the box, having no idea there's a quilt inside: And now she knows it's a quilt just for her! She loves it! Mission accomplished! Holding up the quilt together--success!:  

Quilt #2:  Pumpkin Seeds by Pattern Basket

Sarah asked for some decorative fall pillows for Christmas since she's a lover of holidays and seasons. So in addition to finding her some pumpkin pillows, I decided to make her a pumpkin quilt to decorate the back of her sofa for the fall season.

Here's my first pumpkin block. I absolutely love that the pattern makes a white star in each pumpkin: And then there were 5 little pumpkins... Here's a view from my sewing table....there are the 5 pumpkins up on the design wall. And on the table I'm auditioning the next set of oranges that I'll use. I love that design wall...it's great incentive to keep going to add to my quilt: The pumpkins are all finished and being sandwiched together for quilting. I decided to straight line quilt this since it was a smaller quilt, plus other quilters online making this same pumpkin pattern suggested straight line as a good method.

Two things to notice in the picture below. First, of the 12 orange pumpkins I decided to switch-a-roo a bit and make one white with an orange star. I love it! The second thing to notice above...any guesses? There's a bed headboard in the living room. Tom has been making a bed for Hannah for the past several months. Our living room/project room is the landing place until he's ready for staining. Okay. No problem.

Here's the last picture I have showing a portion of the quilt labeled and quilted with a soft minky backing. I packaged the quilt and brought it with us to Atlanta at Thanksgiving and put it under Sarah's tree. We were able to watch her open it using Skype on Christmas Eve. I think she liked it!

Quilt #3: And the third quilt I already wrote about in a recent post when we welcomed a new grandson in November:

With so much activity in the sewing room this fall, I have to say that I haven't even been tempted to sit down and sew....just needed a break!  Until this week....

Plus 1:  I just brought out the Sewing a Village 132 houses that I finished back in early summer when I participated in a quilt-along with Stitch Supply Company. The top was completed on time but was set aside for awhile.

I don't think I ever posted about this quilt on the blog...only photos on Instagram last spring:And, drum roll....this quilt will actually not be gifted! I decided to keep this one for myself, so there wasn't a rush to finish it. It will have a minky backing, and I'll do vertical straight-line quilting. There are so many different fabrics and just as many memories attached to some of these houses. I will enjoy this first quilt for me!

Thanks for reading about my projects!

"As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God...so that in all things God may be glorified." ~ I Peter 4:10-11

~Deb

Eat, Shop, Linger...at Spring Creek Barn Sale

This feels a little backwards to be posting pictures of fall leaves, vibrant mums, and pumpkin displays...but I did want to document on the blog our excursion this past fall to Spring Creek for their annual Roller Mill Barn Sale.

We attended last year for the first time, and if you missed that post, you can read about it here.

The displays and unique craft and food vendors did make us want to eat, shop, and linger. But our lingering turned out to be a quick walk around the venue to see what vendors were there, and then we headed back to the car....where Granny was patiently waiting for us.

The parking area this year was changed from the convenient field right beside the barn and vendors to another large field...a short drive down the country road...which made it difficult if you needed handicapped access. This tractor was the designated shuttle bus to get us to the Barn Sale:

Hannah and I ended up walking instead of waiting for the tractor since it was such a pretty day, and we promised Granny we wouldn't be long. It turned out to be a very pleasant walk across a one-lane bridge and this gurgling stream: Below you can see a portion of the road we walked to get to the entrance and the eye-catching flower displays along the roadside: We took advantage of the antique truck display for a fall photo op with Hannah:

Here are a few of the vendor tents positioned around the home owners' garden in back of the barn, and I really enjoyed exploring the garden just as much as the vendors' wares: It's always fun to spot a friend among the crowd...Hannah and DiAna enjoyed catching up with each other, and we found out her baby was due at Christmas! Congratulations, DiAna! Another view of the vendor tents and the beautiful October sky: Since Hannah makes and sells soap, we like to check out other soap makers' products whenever we go to craft shows--size of bar, price, and any unique fragrances. This soap display was fun to see...the maker posted a hand-written sign that said, "Made from local goats milk...and I milk the goats myself!" Cute! We made the rounds and left with a couple of purchases...a very enjoyable morning!

While we were in the Spring Creek area, located not too far away was The Barn at Creekside Farm (you can read about that post here when we visited there this summer). We decided to swing by this barn filled with various vendors because Granny could get out with us here since the top floor was easily accessible from the handicap ramp:

Some vendor booths inside the barn, top floor: Here's Hannah checking out her purchase with Granny waiting for us. This is the smiling Granny we want to see again...for those wondering she's slowly recuperating from the latest surgery: I secretly made a purchase, too, for a Christmas gift for Hannah...thing is, Christmas arrived, and I never remembered where I hid it! The only thing I could think of was to keep looking after Christmas was over, find my hiding spot, and wrap it up for Hannah's birthday last week.

Well...I guess the only positive is...I've purchased my first Christmas present for 2019...if I ever do find it in my closet!

Thanks for coming along with us!

~Deb

Up next: Fall Guests

The Fishing Room at Bedford Landings

Last week Tom and I celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary at Smith Mountain Lake....no, we actually didn't go fishing, but that sign seemed like the perfect graphic to use for this post seeing as we were lodged in the Fishing Room at the bed and breakfast where we stayed.

I've always wanted to run a B&B...probably good that it never worked out, but I do enjoy staying in them!

Bedford Landings was a delightful bed and breakfast run by Karen and Jack. We enjoyed their decorated themed rooms. Here's our Fishing Room, complete with a fish shaped basket on the trunk, a wooden box with a deck of fish cards, fish bedding, pictures, and a guest journal filled with rave reviews: Above the bed was an alcove with various fishing paraphernalia including a large metal fish with lights controlled by a remote...used for decoration and/or a night light...it was my favorite item in the room:

More fishing items on the dresser...the innkeeper must have thoroughly enjoyed furnishing their lodge. That RELAX rope on the wall doesn't quite apply to our times away, however. We try to fit as many things as we can into a quick getaway: Wall decor outside the bathroom door where you can spot another fishing basket filled with washcloths:

This unique fish bowl served as the bathroom sink. Even the Softsoap container had a fish on the label: Looking outside our room door towards the upstairs sitting area for guests...the quilt was made by the innkeeper's grandmother:
The below was an interesting write-up on the quilt found in a journal in our room:

Here's Bedford Landings and the scene as we drove up to check in: And the breakfast part of the Bed & Breakfast experience didn't disappoint! Fresh fruit, wild rice scrambled eggs, pecan encrusted bacon, and homemade cinnamon rolls. I want to make all of this when our missionary friends arrive for an overnight in a couple of weeks: And the reason we were at Smith Mountain Lake for our anniversary was for a cruise on the Virginia Dare:

Happy 38th anniversary celebration to us! Here we are on the Virginia Dare after enjoying a taco bar lunch on the cruise:

We also toured Appalachian Power Company's Visitor Center and the Dam on Smith Mountain Lake. On the boat, we cruised up to the red barrier that you see there in the water. This is the dam seen from the other side of the lake at the Visitor Center. It was all very interesting, especially for the ol' retired power company guy above: That about wraps up another anniversary...and I didn't even mention the mini-golf, antique shops, and the inevitable ice cream stops. All in all, a wonderful getaway!

~ Deb