Weekending 10/30/23

 Good Moroning All,

How are you this Monday morning?  So hard to believe that it is October 30th!  How did that happen.  Around these parts tonight used to be called Mischief Night.  Kids would go out and do not nice things to neighbors' properties - like cover bushes in toilet paper, soap windows, smash pumpkins.  Luckily I don't think that goes on these days.  I do remember one of my brothers hiding in the bushes with a hose and when some unsuspecting kid would come up to do something on our property, my brother turned on the hose and sprayed them!!

How was your weekend?  Mine was different.  I did not meet up with Dee as I usually do (she and Steve went away for a little vacation).  I decided to switch out my wool sweaters, warmer leggings, etc. and put away my summer tank tops and shorts, etc.  I don't nearly have the amount of clothes that I used to.  Thank goodness!  Part of that is no longer "dressing" for work (jeans and a nice top do just fine) and part of that is realizing I just don't need that much.  Still, there is a lot.  I managed to pull aside quite a lot to donate (and I drove it all over to a thrift shop that afternoon!!), including shoes, wool jackets that no longer fit, winter pants that are beyond tight, and a whole lot more.

Of course, moving winter clothes to the front meant that it needed to be warm outside.  And it was - nearly 80!  But Sunday saw us struggling to hit 55 and it rained all day.  By this Wednesday night (11/1) we are forecast to dip into the 20's, so just in time!

Our colors are finally coming on strong.  Our crepe myrtle is a brilliant bronze color and simply shines in the sun.  And look at this contrast:

That is our redbud whose leaves have turned golden and one of our burning bushes which still has a lot of green on it, but also a brilliant red streak down the middle.  So pretty.  Fletch was tidying up part of the vegetable garden and brought in some of the asparagus shoots that are all feathery gold with red berries.  So pretty.

(Messy Table = Reality)

If you click to enlarge, you can see the asparagus shoots much better.  Our snapdragons are still blooming like crazy!  So I cut a few of them, and that is a branch from a burning bush in the other vase.  I finally put a fall tablecloth on the table!

Sunday, as I mentioned, was not a pretty day.  After breakfast I pulled together a pot of baked beans using one of the packages of yellow eyed beans I had ordered.  I forgot to take a picture, but wow were they delicious!  I used This Recipe omitting the bacon and adding a little bit of liquid smoke.  I also realized that we had garden tomatoes with every meal yesterday!  I made eggs and sh*t for breakfast (scrambled eggs with left over ham, peppers, mushrooms, onions and a few tomatoes); lunch was grilled cheese (with bacon, onion and sliced tomatoes) and dinner included a salad made from garden lettuce with some shrooms, sugar snaps, radishes and a chopped up tomato from the garden.  Yum!

I need to get out and pick some green tomatoes (for fried green tomatoes) and also pluck all the green figs before Wednesday night.  

We decided to head over to Colin & Mailing's Sunday afternoon.  I wanted to water the house plants and Fletch wanted to rake up a lot of leaves to bring back to cover our garlic bed.  We had a nice surprise to find Mailing at home!!  She had flown to California last week for a conference and then flew here Saturday morning - she has to be at her local office this week. She decided to stop at the house for a night or two so that she could get laundry done and just relax there rather than in a hotel room.  It was so good to see her!

Another surprise was this:

The only "souvenir" I brought home from our trip to Erie this past Fall was some acorns I gathered in Cook Forest State Park - they were some of the most beautiful acorns I had ever seen.  A striking gold color with beautiful green caps.  I put 8 or so into a little zip lock bag and threw them in my purse.  When we got home I rediscovered them.  One had a nice root already growing so I decided to plant a bunch of them.  The one with the sprouted root hasn't shot up out of the dirt yet, but another one did and there are tiny leaves growing!

The last two weeks were so freakin' busy at work that it is like a blur in my memory.  But, I think that wicked busy-ness is finished now (fingers crossed) and this week should be much better.  Fletch and I are getting our RSV vaccines later this morning and Wednesday I am taking Mabel to the vet - she is due for her shots and I just want to have her checked over anyway.  She is back to her normal self - in and out a hundred times a day.  We are keeping her inside at night and, so far, that is going ok (until 4 or so in the morning when she starts whining to go out!).

I hope you all had lovely weekends and are now prepping for a fabulous week!  Enjoy.

Mabel is Back Home!!!!! 10/25/23

 Oh Friends,

Our hearts are full this morning.  Our sweet, sweet Mabel is home again.

It is so hard to believe and I'm here to tell you that miracles do happen and that there are kind people in this world.

Here's the story - or as much of it as we know - so far Mabel is not speaking in English so we don't know her sisde of the story.

The last time we had seen Mabel was the morning of July 3rd!  She had been in that morning, ate and then went out.  She did not show up at any time during the day and didn't come around at 4:00 when Fletch and I were sitting on the patio (she would join us each day at 4 on the patio, so that was weird).  We called and looked for her for days.  I kept having dreams that she showed up (the last one was only a few days ago) and Fletch kept swearing he was hearing her meowing.  Weird.

Anyway, yesterday afternoon I ran my errands.  When I got home a little before 3:00 the phone rang.  I did not recognize the number, so didn't answer.  The guy - Mike - on the other end started to leave a message about having our cat Mabel!  Immediately I picked up the phone and started talking.  He had taken Mabel to a vet that day and a scan showed her chip.  Turns out I received an email from PetLink after Mike called telling me that Mabel had been found.  A miracle!

Fletch and I immediately drove over to Mike's to get our sweetheart.  She was roughly 10 miles away!  On the other side of the King of Prussia Mall, across the Schuylkill River and Schuylkill Expressway.  I think Fletch's idea is correct - she may have climbed into a UPS truck or an Amazon van (both are on our street daily) and then ended up somewhere over in that area.

Mike and his family first started seeing Mabel around July 11th.  They have been feeding her, caring for her, bought her a lovely scratch pad, toys, etc., etc.  They fell in love with her and actually offered to buy her yesterday.  They hated to give her up.  Mike said she was finally comfortable enough with them that they could take her to the vet and the rest is history!

She looks good.  No sign of fleas or ticks.  They said she was skin and bones when they first saw her, but she looks great now.  Her coat is healthy.  She barely stopped purring yesterday.  She was in all night (on the bed, curled up at my feet) and periodically purring rather loudly.  She has gone down to the basement several times - hopefully to use the litter box so I think she remembers her home.  So far she has not been crying to go out, so we will try to keep her in for a little longer - I don't think she will put up with that forever.  Mike and his family would let her out...just keeping her in at night.

Mike's son (teenager) was sad to see her go too.  He had used an app and thinks she is an Egyptian Mau cat and I think he is right!  Some of the pictures look exactly like Mabel!

I will be calling our vet and taking her in as she is due for her shots.  In fact I had just finally called the vet a week ago to let them know that she had disappeared in July.

Such a happy ending to have our girl back - I still can't believe it!

No TNT Today

 Hello Everyone,

How are you?  My computer says it is 35 degrees outside, my phone say 34, and the thermometer on the patio is reading just about 40.  Not sure what the exact temperature is, but it is chilly!  It is also still dark out.  I looked to see when we turn the clocks back and it is not till that first weekend in November.  Didn't it used to be earlier - maybe the weekend before Halloween?

Yesterday turned out to be a longer time in the office than I had expected or wanted.  But it was ok.  Much was accomplished.  I managed to do some (not all) of my errands...so more errand running today

My apologies, but I have no TNT updates for you (or for me).  Last week afforded me no time to stitch and the hope/plan is to remedy that today.

We did get something exciting in the mail though!  Or, exciting for us that is:

We LOVE beans and with the cooler weather moving in, it is time to think about making soups, stews, red beans & rice, chili, etc., etc.  I'm particularly excited because Rancho Gordo carries yellow eye beans.  We bought two bags (upper left) and then as I was reading descriptions of other beans and looking at recipes, my cart kept filling with more and more!  Anyway, I grew up eating home-made baked beans.  My Grandmother always maade them when we were in Vermont, my aunt made them a lot and my Mom would make them.  Yellow Eye Beans were always the beans used.  I've never seen them down here in PA.  I used to buy several bags whenever we went to Vermont, but in recent years I did not see them.  Now I'm looking forward to making baked beans (with maple syrup thank you).

Another item we used to buy in Vermont because it was never here was Buttercup Squash.  It is now found around here in some stores.  As you know, I roasted some on Sunday and it was not that great.  I'll have to try a different recipe.

Last week I did make a new dish with Delicata Squash which I had never had or cooked before.  I roasted it and made This Recipe and it was delicious.  Definitely one I will be making again.  The squash, apples and kale just went together so nicely (and there were leftovers!!).

My hope is that today I can find some pockets of time where I can pick up a needle (stitching and/or knitting) and have some quiet meditative time.  I wish the same for you my friends.  Take care.

Weekending 10/23/23

 Well Hello Out There in Blogland!

How are you?  Last week was a week for sure!  Many PITA moments and very long days (working most nights till 10 or 11).  I tried to keep in the front of my mind that a year from now I would not be dealing with all this work crap...it worked sometimes, but often I felt like I was tearing my hair out.

But the weekend came and that week was behind me!  Whew!  And, the weekend was very nice.  Naturally I met up with Dee for some quality time.  We do laugh an awful lot which was exactly what I needed.  I even managed to get some knitting done inbetween laughing and sipping my coffee.

That was the only knitting I did all week and no stitching was done.  At all.  Which is pretty much unacceptable in my book.  Oh well, c'est la vie.

Sunday Zhongren came over for dinner.  Bonnie, Mailing's Mom, is in Europe on a Viking River Cruise with some girlfriends.  Fletch grilled some wings (both hot and BBQ) and I roasted some buttercup squash (with EVOO and maple syrup) and Brussels Sprouts (with onion, garlic and a sweet chili sauce).

Everything was delicious (except the squash was really, really dry...Zhongren loved it, so he took all of the leftover squash home!)  He had brought a beautiful bottle of Sake (that was also quite tasty) to go with dinner and I had also made a pan of brownies for dessert.  Yum!

Today it is back to reality.  I'm heading to the office in a little bit.  Two of my bosses will be in, so I will catch up with them and do a little work.  I don't plan to (or want to) stay all that long.  I need to stop at Trader Joe's and a few other places on my way home.  This week is most likely going to be another PITA week, but after this it should (fingers crossed) calm down a bit.  I want to get back to my making and work is interfering!

Our low tonight is supposed to be near freezing...I need to remember to harvest the green figs.  I don't think any of them will ripen at this point, but I've read of some things I can do (make) with the green figs.

Here's hoping the week ahead is a good one for everyone - get out and enjoy it if you can!

Weekending 10/16/23

 Hello Everyone!

There is a bit of a nip in the air this morning (currently 42 degrees at 7 a.m.).  Looking at the weather forecast ahead, it appears that we have fallen into a pattern of rainy Saturdays.  I hope this does not go on and on and on.

Despite being in busy-busy-busy work mode, I managed to find pockets of good times.  Saturday Dee and I met up at Broad Street Grind in Souderton.  We used to go there regularly and then fell into other places, but Saturday found us back there mostly because across the street and down a little is Northbound where we wanted to have lunch (to celebrate someone's birthday...).  Lunch was delicious.  It was raining pretty hard by the time we left.

Before the rain, or in between rain showers, a few last miinute harvests took place.

Those little eggplants are so cute!  Fletch also picked a good serving of green beans (which we will have tonight) and about a dozen more cherry tomatoes.

Saturday night I decided not to work and instead spent time knitting.  I hadn't really felt like it much recently (getting bored with those socks I'm working on...but determined to finish them up and move on to something else!).

That meant Sunday was going to be busy work-wise.  However, again I found pockets of time to do other things.  I made banana bread in the morning (it was out of the oven before Fletch even came downstairs for breakfast!).  I added some walnuts and chocolate chips to the batter.  YUM!!!

After lunch Fletch and I drove over to Colin & Mailing's.  I wanted to water house plants and Fletch repaired (again) their mailbox.  And, he planted garlic for them!

Colin's garden is way overgrown with weeds, but luckily he had some big pots in his shed and a large bag of soil in the garage.  Hopefully the cloves will do well in the pots and come next year they should have a nice helping of scapes and then a lot of garlic heads.  Fletch will be planting our garlic this week.

It wasn't all that nice yesterday afternoon (sunny while we were at Colin's and then clouds and a bit of rain moved in), but Fletch and I sat out on the patio for about 15 minutes.  In the department of weird, I spotted this:

(Sorry it is so blurry - I could not get a really good picture.)  Yes, that is our apple tree (with a few shriveled apples left) and a pink apple blossom!  I remember once before we came home from a Fall camping trip to find apple blossoms on our tree.  It sure is strange....

I hope you all had nice weekends and I hope your week is off to a good start.  I will be busy-busy again, but hopefully Fletch and I can escape at some point - we both need to order new glasses.

Have a great week!

Busy, Busy

 Hello My Friends,

I would say TGIF, but really...this is my crazy week and I will be working through the weekend.  Yuck.   It is that end of the fiscal year time and the folks I support are supposed to get their bonus calculations/roll-ups to me by today.  It's a lot.  And, I can't trust those people.  I received a few roll-ups yesterday where (for example, not actual figures) there was available funding of $10,000 and submitted bonus requests totaled $12,500.  Do people not look at what they submit?  Apparently not...it's the same every year.

Then I have to look at calculations for higher ups and see that some (many) of them will receive bonus payments well in excess of my annual salary.  I really can't or shouldn't spend much time on that.  Out of my control, same old, same old, etc., etc.  It's frustrating though as you can well imagine.

I did manage to cook dinner yesterday and it was somewhat of a failure - LOL

Crispy tofu with shallots, bell pepper, garlic and brocolli with an Asian-inspired sauce.  I thought it was ok - could have used a bit more flavor.  Fletcher left all of the tofu on his plate!   Not a recipe I will be keeping.  Oh well, I give Fletch bonus points for at least being willing to try it.

Time for me to get back to work - emails are flying in one after another.  I will take a break from work tomorrow to meet up with Dee for some sipping, chatting and knitting.  Also a lunch celebration (someone is having a birthday...).

Have a great weekend!

Unraveled Wednesday 10/11/23

 Good Morning!

6 a.m. and the crescent moon is bright out my bedroom window.  When I got up, I saw the moon and also a buck grazing for apples under our tree.  I don't really think I made much (if any) noise when I got up, but as soon as I stood, the buck lifted his eyes to the window and then he turned around and walked off!

Here we are at mid-week again and it's time for linking up with Kat and her Merry Band of Unravelers to talk making and reading.  My second sock is moving along, albeit a tad on the slow side.

I'm a third of the way through the heel flap and soon (hopefully) will be turning the heel and then cruising down the foot.  I'm growing a bit weary of this sock!

There was unfortunately a bit of unraveling this week.  Remember the fingerless mitt I had started to go with the purple cowl?  It now looks like this:

Yes, that is the misbehaving skein of purple yarn, but I can't really blame the yarn this time.  The fault is all mine.  I cast on the recommended number of stitches and was happily knitting in the round when I realized the mitt might be a bit small...or rather it could be a compression mitt!  I had completely forgotten that the pattern was written for worsted weight yarn and larger needles...this yarn is fingering weight.  Oh well.  I will cast on today with additional stitches and hopefully that will work.

As far as reading goes, I have two finishes!  The Art Thief was an enjoyable read that I found hard to believe was true.  The end got a little draggy for me, but otherwise I really liked it.  I picked up Wicked Autumn that Kat mentioned last week.  I'm roughly 2/3 through this easy-to-read mystery.  It makes me think of Grantchester.

Fletch and I finally finished The Broken Road by Patrick Leigh Fermor.  It seemed to go on and on!  The first two books in this trilogy were better I think.  We are now 2 nights into Finn by Jon Clinch and so far, so good!

I'm happy to report that if any of you stop by, the bathrooms are safe to use.  Yup - got those rooms cleaned yesterday.  The kitchen floor?  Not so much...but there is always today if I am so inclined.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Tiny Needle Tuesday 10/10/23

 Hello, Hello

How are you all this morning?  It is a bit warmer this a.m. (46 instead of 42), but kind of cloudy.  Hard to believe, but it was 3 years ago today that C&M tied the knot!

My nephew, Ed, married them.

They will celebrate another day since Mailing flew to London last night for work.

And here we are at yet another Tiny Needle Tuesday.  Progress was made this past week on both pieces!  First up the Cacti Triptych.

Please click to enlarge.  Ocotillo in the middle had the final blooms added and the last of the three, Claret Cup has been started.  Still quite a bit to stitch on this one, but also still fun to do!

The BIG sampler also saw a bit of love.  

Hard to get the whole piece in one picture.  

The last alphabet at the top has been started.  This one is not in one solid color, but rather incorporates all the colors in the sampler.  Also at the bottom a snail was added!  And, the big floral part has begun.  Like the Triptych, there is still lots to stitch, but it is still fun!

My time at the office went smoothly and quickly yesterday.  I was ready to leave by 9:15 a.m.!  I stopped at TJ's on the way home and picked up a few things.  Among those things was this:

These are good!  We had them last night instead of rice or potatoes or whatever!

I successfully managed to avoid all the cleaning chores yesterday.  LOL  Still hoping to wake up and find everything sparkling clean!  Really though, work got a bit busy in the afternoon and then last night we sat out with a fire in the pit (until around 9:30 when it started raining).  I suppose I will need to face those chores today.

Meanwhile, I hope everyone's week is going well.  

Weekending 10/9/23

 Good Morning!

How are you and how was your weekend?  Fall came in for sure on Saturday here in Eastern PA.  It was warm Saturday morning when I got up - almost 70 degrees at 6:00 a.m.!  But, while Dee and I were chatting, sipping and knitting in Panera's (no bad music, thank you very much), the winds picked up, the sky turned black and a bit of rain fell.  By the time we left it was much cooler.  And now, this morning (6:10 a.m.) it is just 42 degrees out.  Definitely feeling Fallish.

While Dee and I were busy doing our thing, Fletch went off to the Lansdale Farmer's Market where they were having a pie contest.  I was tempted, but am glad I did not go.  He was very disappointed.  He had been hoping for maybe some pumpkin pie, apple pie, blueberry pie or whatever.  Instead he said almost everything was gelatinous or like cheese cake.  Not what he had been hoping for and he came home with NONE!

We are getting ready for Fall planting!  Our garlic arrived the other day.

"Music" on the left and a German Red on the right.  Another type arrived Saturday, but I forgot to take a picture.  The hope is to plant some next weekend at Colin & Mailing's and also to get ours in the ground.  I love how BIG these are and I hope ours grow like that (the past few years our crop has yielded fairly small heads).  Like everything else you grow, home-grown garlic is just so much better (plus you get the benefits of scapes in late Spring).

Sunday I managed to do a bit of cooking.  First we had pumpkin waffles and bacon for breakfast.  Oh yum!  I did not gake a picture, but the waffle recipe I used is THIS ONE and they were quite good.  There are a few left and I think they would be good just popped in the toaster and then a little bit of butter put on top.

Since I had opened a can of pumpkin to make the waffles I went ahead and made a pumpkin sauce for coffee.  The sauce is just some of the canned pumpkin, some water, a smidge of sugar and a little bit of pumpkin pie spice.  It turned out ok - not great, but ok.  I had a cup yesterday afternoon and then added some to my coffee this morning before pouring in my frothed (and heated) milk.

It's tasty, but I think I like other flavors a bit more (peppermint, maple walnut, or caramel).  And actually, just straight, strong coffee is my favorite.  Next time I may just sprinkle some of the pumpkin pie spice on top of the coffee grounds when I brew my coffee.  I do that with cardamom and it is delicious!

It was way too windy and chilly to sit on the patio yesterday afternoon before dinner.  But Fletch donned a jacket and cap and grilled some steaks for us.  Delicious!  We had green beans from the garden and garlic bread (made with garlic we harvested in July).  The last time I made a peach/rhubarb crostata I had extra filling that I froze.  I defrosted that and made a crisp for dessert yesterday.  So wonderful to have the peach flavor again.  It was certainly a banner year for peaches.

I'll be heading to the office in a little bit.  It has been weeks (!!) since I was last there.  I need to check mail and I have some personal printing I want to do in color.  Then I will head to Trader Joe's to pick up a couple of things and hopefully be home in time for lunch.  I need to buckle down and do a bit of cleaning this afternoon - I spent my free time over the weekend stitching and knitting and reading.  And guess what?  The bathrooms and kitchen floor don't clean themselves (as much as I wish they would).

I'm hoping you all had a wonderful weekend and that the new week ahead of us is a good one - enjoy!

Thursday Stuff 10/5/23

 Good Morning!

Only 51 degrees this morning...the cooler air is moving in.  So is the dampness.  Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow and (of course) for the weekend.  And it is supposed to start feeling like FALL!

Just a quick post to show you two things.  First, our Hibiscus is still blooming!  Who would have guessed that we would see a bloom in October?

When I took this picture, I counted 15 more buds on the plant!

Next up I spotted this bumper sticker when I ran out to the library yesterday afternoon - LOL

Love it!!  And, it cracks me up!

OK, time for me to hop on the work wagon  I've a lot of stuff to do this morning so I'd best get moving.  Hope you all have a wonderful Thursday - we will be moving into weekend mode shortly!!

Unraveled Wednesday 10/4/23

 Greetings Everyone!

We have another pretty day on the horizon here in Eastern PA.  This first week of October has just been marvelous weather-wise.  Not to spoil the day, but Fletch and I are scheduled to get our Booster shots at 10:30 this morning.  Hoping for no ill-effects.

On this first Wednesday in October (!) it is time to link up with Kat and her merry band of unravelers to talk making and reading.  Friends!  I have success to report!  The Purple Cowl has been finished, soaked and blocked!

Abstract Leaves Cowl (Ravelry Link)
COBASI Yarn by Berocco (cotton/bamboo/silk)
#4 and #3  circular needles (16”)

Still on the blocking mat in the above picture, but T pins removed after drying in the sun outside!  I love it and the only explanation for the trouble I had was attempting to knit when too tired.  Now I want to knit another one - perhaps in a variegated yarn!

There is plenty of the purple yarn left (the misbehaving skein plus a little of the other one), so I started some fingerless mitts to go with the cowl.

Just a basic fingerless mitt pattern from Leslie Friend...but I can't seem to find it on Ravelry now...I think it was just a freebie off her blog many, many moons ago.

My second sock saw a little love this past week.  I'm almost half way down the leg (we have long legs and big feet in my family).  

Once this sock is completed, another gift will go into the gift basket!  (Same with the fingerless mitts to go with the cowl.)

On to the reading side of things.  Fletch and I are moving steadily towards the end of The Broken Road by Patrick Leigh Fermor.  It is good (though many words in languages I do not speak or read...like Greek or Bulgarian or Rumanian), but not a fast read.  

I was excited to finally get (from the library) and start The Bee Sting particularly after so many great reviews by folks.  But, I am finding myself not sold on it.  I'm more than a bit bored with it and at times even finding it trite!  But, that's just me.  I'm into the third section and the lack of punctuation in this particular section is annoying (to me).  Will I finish it?  That is up in the air.  There are so many books that I want to read (my TBR list in Excel is over 200 lines long...) that I hate to spend time on something that is not really compelling for moi.

Yesterday I picked up (from the library) another book I had been in the queue for:  The Art Thief and that is what I read when I went upstairs to bed last night.  I only managed 2 chapters, but I'm hooked and enjoying this one a lot.

Time to pour another cup of coffee and get to work - emails have been flying in while I've been typing this.  Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday!

Tiny Needle Tuesday 10/3/23

 Hello My Friends,

I'm hoping this Tuesday morning finds you all well and enjoying life.  Our nice weather (warm days and cool evenings) is continuing.  Monday was a long day of conference calls (only 2, but they lasted much longer than was necessary), but by 4 p.m. I was able to break away and sit outside with Fletch.  We both started nodding off!  LOL  We are just two old folks.

Yesterday also brought an invitation to a meeting in Delray Beach (FL) at the end of the month...but I declined.  Years ago I would have loved that...and would have booked a nice spa treatment.  But, with Covid on the rise again...and getting ready to announce my retirement soon, I really have no interest in being in a crowd at a resort.

Now it is Tuesday and time for a Tiny Needle update.  After ignoring my stitching for a couple of weeks, I finally got back to it this weekend.  Woo-Hoo!!  Not a whole lot was accomplished, but some.  The one motif at the top of the BIG sampler (Sampler Aux Bouquets) was filled in.

My plan had been to either begin the alphabet to the right or begin another big vase of flowers toward the bottom.  However, I ran out of time.

The Cacti Triiptych is moving along.  All of the green has been stitched in the second (Ocotillo) block and more orange blooms were added.

There are still a number of orange blooms to fill in (again, I thought I would accomplish that, but ran out of time) which I should be able to wrap up this week.  Then it will be on to the third and final block!

Today will be another busy one.  We are having some bathroom "work" being done and I have an eye doctor appointment in the afternoon.  I also received an email from my library that a book I have been in queue for has come in, so I will stop to pick up that.

Hope you are all having beautiful Fall weather - enjoy!!

Weekending 10/2/23

 Hello, Hello!

And Happy October!  Whoosh is exactly what September did.  How did we get to October already?  After many days of grey, damp, wet weather, our skies have cleared and it has been gorgeous out (and is supposed to continue this way for a couple of days, at least).  We had a great time with Colin & Mailing on Wednesday for dinner (BBQ Shrimp!! and salad with lettuce and tomatoes from the garden!)and even managed to have a nice fire in the pit.  We saw them again Saturday night for dinner at Mailing's parents.

Friday night I made a new-to-us recipe that was great!  Slow Cooker Chicken Fajita Chili.  I used This Recipe and it was so easy and tasty.  Lots of leftovers in both the frig and freezer too.  I did end up adding a third can of Rotel tomatoes and also an extra cup or more of water.

Saturday morning Dee and I met up as usual.  This time we met at a Manhattan Bagel in Lansdale.  It was a great time (as usual) EXCEPT that there was live music and the guy (playing the guitar and singing) had to be the absolutely worst singer I have ever heard.  Seriously!  Off key and just horrible.  That dude played for two hours straight with no break.  I thought I would go crazy.  LOL

We've been enjoying lettuce and chard from the garden in salads.  I've been picking 25-40 cherry tomatoes daily and our large tomatoes are finally ripening!

There are even more on a windowsill in the kitchen.  Sandwiches are so much better with garden tomatoes!

I even managed to find time to get back to my stitching this weekend (updates tomorrow).

C&M had come up to PA for a friend's wedding Friday night.  The couple are huge history buffs and had their wedding at the Museum of the American Revolution and Ben Franklin officiated the wedding!  LOL

C&M with Ben!

It was a great weekend and it's so nice to know that the kids will be back pretty soon for Thanksgiving...and then will be moving back permanently at Christmas!  We cannot wait.

I hope your weekend was a good one - let me know what you did.