Mountain Musings

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

Empty Nester's DayBook

Well, several blog readers have contacted me--February, March, and April--wondering if we're okay, since the last time I posted was in January!

Yes, we are still kicking and doing as well as two old empty nesters can do! Not a lot of exciting activity around here to post about, to be honest. Things change and activities quiet down once the kids are gone.

So I thought I would start with current events and work my way back to get you up to date.

I've been slowly heading out to the garden since it won't be long before our last frost date of May 15th is here, and it's up to me to plant our garden this year.

Most of the garden veggies, in years past, Hannah and I either ate fresh, or she froze and canned. I will plant less variety and much less quantity, mostly for immediate consumption. The guys around here aren't big veggie eaters to help use it up.

Here's the picket fence garden in early spring....with cardboard covering the beds to prevent weeds. It's overwhelming all the cleanup that needs doing just to get going. But whenever Hannah comes to visit, I want it to look as good as when she was here taking care of it! Big task!

Also this month Jonathan recently hosted his first guests, other than immediate family, in his new home.

He is enjoying his home tremendously and hopes to have more guests come to visit in the coming weeks:

Tom is continuing to help furnish Jonathan's home by building a laundry room cabinet. It's now almost ready for staining and then installing. Then next on the list....a queen-sized bed:

I brought these award-winning cream cheese cupcakes to church last week. It's an old time recipe that my Aunt Bunny used to make and bring for Christmas every year. Let me know if you'd like the recipe:

 

 

Moving backward to the month of March...it was an exciting month!!  Our 8th grandchild (and 7th grandson!) was born. We haven't seen him in person yet but hope to in May! Congratulations to Sarah, Eric, and the excited brothers and sister!

Here they are, eagerly awaiting their new baby brother's appearance!

I stayed busy making a green quilt to send to Sarah as a special gift for her before she had the baby. Her favorite color is green, and she loves to decorate for all seasons. I focused on green clovers for this quilt.

Snowbird Quilts over in West Virginia quilted this for me...you can see more up-close photos of the process on her instagram here. Here it is shown thrown over my bed before mailing:

Being spring....as in past years...the Spring 100 Walking Challenge began for our family on the first day of spring. However, the main organizer of the annual online event is taking a year off for 2023 as it was becoming quite the task with organization and expense with over 3,000 walkers across the country and world participating.

So our daughter Sarah's mother-in-law organized a Spring 100 just for their family, our family, and the extended married in-laws. 

I hope others across the country will take it upon themselves to challenge their families and friends for their own Spring 100.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's Tom participating on the treadmill while he has his morning quiet time:

And below is Hannah, in faraway cold Michigan, walking around her property there:

National Quilting Day also took place in March, so I celebrated by making a small wall hanging for my friend, Chris. 

She had commissioned Tom to make her a small quilt hanger, so I thought she needed a small surprise quilt to go on it when we gave it to her.

 

 

Here's the wall hanging that I made ..a new pattern called Flower Shoppe by Sherri McConnell. Tom has it attached inside the just finished quilt hanger he made.

Snowbird Quilts did a fabulous Rush Job of quilting it so I could get it to Chris when we met up in Richmond as she was passing through on a trip. Scroll through all Snowbird's photos on Instagram of this quilt, and you can see the quilting pattern Nectar up close.

We were so excited about the chance to meet up unexpectedly that we totally forgot to get a picture of her opening the quilt!  But here's a photo she sent me after she returned home and the perfect spot on her sun room wall she had picked out for it. Nice!

And here I am in my sewing room resting from my sewing labors:

  So we've made our way back to February....I worked on a couple of quilting projects this month but I can't post until they're gifted.

Newlyweds Hannah and Christopher are well...a lot of you have asked me how they are doing. I think married life suits them both! Just a quick picture of them celebrating six months of marriage in February. We are looking forward to seeing them in person again:

The last subject on this very long post is to document a visit from our long-time friends from Massachusetts who stopped by on their way to Florida in February.

We took them to Lexington and toured Washington & Lee University and also VMI Museum. The grounds were beautifully landscaped and it was a perfectly beautiful warm day for our excursion:

The campus:

Leaving Virginia and on their way to Florida:

I think that should catch you up on all the happenings, or lack thereof, around Mountain Musings since January. Let us know if you're still out there, faithful ones!

We wanted to wish you all a very Happy Resurrection weekend! He Arose!

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”  ~ John 11:25-26

 

~Deb

 

Christmas Memories Part 3 ~ Jonathan's First Christmas Goose!

Our second wave of Christmas guests came in after Christmas to celebrate with us.

Our son Micah and his family spent a couple of days here. Sooo glad they could come!

It was great seeing our 14-year-old grandson, whose birthday we celebrated during their visit. Grampa played guitar and led in singing Happy Birthday:

The newlyweds, Christopher and Hannah, were also back home at the same time! It was great having their visits overlap! They especially enjoyed Virginia temps in the 60's on their walks around the property!

We got the distinct impression that they are enjoying married life!

One of the highlights of the visit was a special meal prepared for us by our daughter-in-law while they were here...excellent beef tenderloin with Apple and Cheddar Crisp Kale Salad, which was absolutely delicious! She also baked the birthday cake we all enjoyed! Thank you, thank you, Kerri!

Jonathan invited everyone over to his house for a meal again! He is becoming quite the exotic chef! And this time he served...Christmas goose!

On the menu: Roasted Goose with Five Spice and Honey, Pink Peppercorn Lemon Thyme Spiced Potatoes, Spiced Pears, Tossed Green Salad, and Chocolate Coffee Babka Wreath.

Hannah helped with the potatoes, which were cooked with some of the goose fat instead of olive oil:

Waiting for the meal to be ready...I am in the far background...just relaxing and enjoying all this special treatment of other folks fixing three of the meals for me! Amazing!

Exploring Uncle Jonathan's property before time to eat:

After the successful meal...we played Five Crowns card game and took photos again for Jonathan's guest book, although the younger ones needed to get back early for bedtime and missed the guest book photo:

All too soon it was time to take the traditional grandparents-and-grandchildren-on-the-sofa photo before Micah and family left headed back to their home! These times don't come often...so we enjoy them when we can:

Then we got down to the business of celebrating Tom's birthday. We were thankful for the warmer weather since his birthday meal request is usually Grilled Pizzas with Diavolo sauce. (To simplify, we use Greek pitas for the personal size pizzas which are sturdy and hold up great on the grill.)

The next day everyone wanted to do an outside activity before the rain began, so these four hiked the Blue Ridge Tunnel and sang the Doxology in the darkness before finishing up the hike.

I stayed home--using the much needed extra time with no one in the house--to finish working on the quilt label and sewing it on before I gifted it later on New Year's Eve. Whew! Washed and dried and finished in the nick of time!

New Year's Eve I received more help in the kitchen for chopping Sunday's veggies. I am grateful for everyone pitching in!  I thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas visitors....we just missed those munchkins in Georgia being here this year!

This post almost wraps up this blog series of our Christmas guests and the fun times we had together.

I do have a few more photos to post about the two quilts I made for gifts....stay tuned for a final Christmas Memories Part 4 ~ the Quilts!

 

~Deb

Christmas Memories Part 2 ~ An Invitation to Jonathan's House

Long time blog readers know that Jonathan has been building his own home over the years in his spare time on weekends and whenever his job doesn't demand his time and attention.

This fall he has gradually been moving his furniture and belongings over to his new place about 15 miles down the road and has moved in. Congratulations, Jonathan!

He wanted to host us this Christmas for a meal when my sister visited, so he did all the planning and cooking....keeping the menu a secret until we arrived.

The house was smelling delish when we walked in, and it was cozy and Christmas-y with candles and the tree's sparkly lights as we awaited the meal:

He had even wrapped and arranged "host gifts" on the counter for each of us. Now that was a special touch to welcome his guests! And that certainly did my momma heart good!

One of the gifts was a bag of sweet treats which we were told was a forerunner of the special dessert he had prepared.

His menu consisted of: Slow Roast Leg of Lamb, Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots, Roasted Potatoes, Toasted Bread, and for dessert a Wreath Cake (with Candied Fruits).

And here are some photos he took and captioned:

Christmas Sweet Treats for the Wreath Cake:

And more goodies:

Colorful simmering:

The cake with all the goodies added:

Well, that was a feast! Thank you, Jonathan, for all your hard work and hosting!

Afterwards he took photos of us for his new house guest book...like he's seen his mom do sooo many times!

1 - 2 - 3 - GO!

My sister, Aunt Bet:

To conclude the evening's activities, we played a couple of rounds of Password...always a fun vintage game!

What a very fun Christmas gathering! Thank you, Jonathan!

~Deb

Celebrating Aunt Bet's Birthday

From the previous post about my meet-up with a blogger friend, you know that I was in South Carolina last weekend. The occasion was my sister's birthday, and Hannah and I traveled down to help Aunt Bet celebrate! It had been well over two years since I'd been able to travel to visit her, so this was definitely a special trip!

One of the places she took us was to this little joint...nondescript on the outside for sure...but lots of buzz happening inside and definitely interesting!

Our mission was to purchase Morning Buns or A.M. buns, as the Bakeroom called them, for the next day's breakfast. We had never had this delicacy, but we found out that it was definitely worth the trip!

Located right next door to the Bakeroom was Methodical Coffee, but it was too close to lunch for Hannah to sample their famous brew, even though we had heard so much about this place.

Another place we've been to many times when we've visited is a little garden and antique shop located somewhat close by in Saluda, NC, The Gardener's Cottage:

For anyone who loves plants, there are so many things here for a gardener to delight in, as you can tell from this photo:

The owner had displayed several eye-catching arrangements by the door as you enter, and one of these little teacups came home with me:

And the building next door, The Brass Latch, is worth a browse also. Saluda is a unique little town, and I always enjoy driving through there:

I wanted to treat my sister to a special birthday meal while we were in town, so we decided on Lieu's Asian Bistro:

The food was delicious and plenteous enough that we each had lunch all set for the next day:

 

Hannah also wanted to treat Aunt Bet to a special meal...this time home-cooked. So she set to work in the kitchen and prepared a menu of Roasted Honey Garlic Butter Chicken with Sweet Potatoes, asparagus, salad, and Focaccia Bread:

Hannah enjoys cooking and thought it was extra fun to prepare Aunt Bet's birthday meal:

Landrum, SC, is another little town with various shops housed in vintage brick buildings. It was fun to visit an Amish furniture store, and we loved browsing several antique stores. This unique sign was in the furniture store...I loved it!

This antique wrought-iron piece caught my eye which could be used as garden decor with possibly a climbing clematis wrapping its tendrils around it..however, the price tag of $65 means it isn't down in my garden today:

Last, but not least, another adventure was a trek to Abbott's Frozen Custard in downtown Greer, SC:

Sisters enjoying custard:

Well, did we fill every minute we were there with something special, or what?!  Yes, I definitely like to do things on vacation...but sometimes even I need to rest. I brought some hand sewing with me to work on just in case we were home long enough..LOL!

I'll leave you with a final photo....taken in my sister's house of her beautiful calligraphy:

It was a very good trip, but I have been recuperating all this week! :)

~Deb

Meet-Up in Real Life...Fun!

This is Spring Break Week for my sister...so Hannah and I decided to make a trip down to South Carolina to spend a few days with her and help celebrate her birthday this weekend.

She always has fun things planned for us to do while we're visiting....and this time I thought up a fun adventure...for me and with someone I'd never met!

An online friend of mine, Susan, moved to the Greenville area from Canada about a year ago. We've known each other for at least 15 years and met by reading and commenting on each other's blogs.

When Hannah and I planned our trip, I remembered Susan had moved to this area, and I contacted her about having lunch together and the possibility of meeting in person for the very first time.

She agreed, and we both started getting excited! The Bleu Porch and Kitchen was our lunch selection of choice, located in Greer, South Carolina. It was our first time there, and we would definitely recommend this restaurant for anyone local in the area.

I love old houses made into small quaint little lunch spots!

As we arrived, we enjoyed all the interesting decor on the front porch.

And as we waited the 50 minutes for a table (it was a popular place!), we enjoyed getting acquainted and looking around. The Bleu Porch provided a very enjoyable atmosphere for their customers:

This cabinet full of antiques was right beside our table, so it was interesting to check out all the items they had on display:
This is my lunch selection: Chicken Salad on a Croissant and Broccoli Salad. Susan's Monte Cristo sandwich likewise looked delicious!

This was such an enjoyable day, and I loved finding out more about Susan and her family!  I'm sooo glad I took the chance to meet an old friend. Thank you, Susan!

~Deb

 

Doughnut Cupcakes

Having a grandmother with the maiden name of O'Connor, and a sister who is a big holiday celebrator (but no longer lives here to make her festive desserts), I couldn't pass up the chance to make some green-tinted treats today for the family.

Adapting this recipe for Doughnut Muffins, I colored the batter green and added some green glaze dipped and drizzled on top.

Sprinkles and chocolate chunks completed the cake-doughnut style muffin. This bird is ready to try one - and for springtime!

~Hannah

Valentine's Week cooking

It's about time for a recipe post! If you've followed our blog for awhile, you know that when February rolls around, there might be a special cooking week with lots of new dishes happening. Valentine's week was my (Hannah's) chance to plan, shop for and make our supper meals for the family and give Mom a complete break.

Follow along for photos and links of what I chose to make! Various ethnicities were featured on each night. Everyone seemed to think the new recipes tried were a success, to varying degrees of likeability.

Monday's meal on Valentine's Day was Asian-inspired and full of red berries:

Strawberry Balsamic Chicken Meatballs over Rice

Strawberry Cucumber Salad and Roasted Broccoli

Strawberry Limeade (idea from a favorite past meal of Sarah's)

Raspberry Velvet Tart

Tuesday's meal featured a Cajun main dish:

Blackened Tilapia

Asparagus and Salad

Baked Cinnamon Sweet Potatoes (Granny's specialty)

Wednesday's meal was Italian-themed, and everyone here thought it was tasty to definitely make again sometime.

Beef and Pasta Soup

Seeded Focaccia

Thursday we had leftovers, and Friday we enjoyed the following:

Chicken Fajita Pasta

Apple Cinnamon Whoopie Pies (at Jonathan's request)

The pasta could be topped with lettuce, tomato, and/or avocado:

On Saturday, my final night, I decided to try out the new pizza peel and pizza stone given to me for my birthday.

While I forgot to get a photo of the finished baked pizza, I'm sure you can imagine what it looked like. There was a learning curve to handling the peel and stone, but the delicious crusty results were worth the effort.

Hope you enjoyed this tour for your tastebuds!

~Hannah