The Baby's Quilt

Sewing on the Binding

I have been waiting on the U.S. Postal Service to post this blog.  In what seems like a lifetime ago, Ross and I were neighbors with two sisters.  They gardened and we gardened.  They liked to cook and Ross cooked (and I like(d) to eat). They liked to make drinks and we liked to sit outside, talk, and imbibe (remember the red roofies anyone?).  There was chemistry there.

Well time moves on and so did the sisters, and then we eventually moved to Connecticut.  Ross has kept contact over the years.  We were excited when the one sister got pregnant with her first child.  She had a girl, and Ross made her a baby quilt. She is about ready to give birth to her second child, and lo and behold, a second quilt was sent.  Of course I could not release this blog until we had confirmation that the blanket was delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, or else I would ruin the surprise.

Ross does a great job making his quilts.  When we were at the Post Office, a gentleman had overheard the conversation between us and the postal worker about the blanket. He stopped and complimented Ross on his work.  It's nice to get such positive feedback (I never get tired of that small town feel).  Maybe one day Ross can sell his quilts too!

Pumpkins!

Its that time of year again folks! How I love to pick pumpkins from my garden to make pies, ravioli, breads, and cookies! When spring arrives each year I am eager to plant my sugar pumpkin seeds. As the seeds emerge from the ground the excitement begins. It is an exciting process to watch the vines grow hoping to have a fruit grow on them. I try not to pay too much attention because "watching the water boil" will take too long and the hope and excitement just can be too much. So, I tend to peek on them every once in a while with excitement. As summer comes to an end, the growing pumpkins really start to make me chuckle inside with excitement. When the day finally arrives to pick them, I become like a kid in a candy store. After picking them I tend to marvel at them and enjoy their simple beauty. Now what shall I make first? Hmmmm!

Poor, Sick Chicken

Our poor, sick chicken.

I wrote that line a couple hours ago, and then I had to stop...  

On, Monday Ross noticed that one of our chickens, Myrtle, was making a weird noise as she breathed.  On Tuesday, she was making this wheezing whine as she exhaled. We called the vet and got some medicine for her.  He said she possibly had either a gape worm that infected her trachea or a respiratory infection.  She got worse throughout the day and was even worse this morning.  We had her secluded from the rest of the girls.  As you can see in the picture, Ross was comforting her earlier today.  Unfortunately her illness got the best of her.  She passed away while I was holding her.  

I hate death.  I hate suffering.  I hate that moment when you're sitting there watching a poor, little creature suffer and you know there's no way back and you welcome death. You ask for it, beg for it, and then once you get it, you rue it.  That confliction-it's the cost of living, of loving, of feeling...

We buried Myrtle with her other fallen sisters up on the hill.  The area looks down over the house and is under an old apple tree that sprung up there probably from some deer's pooh dropped years ago.  She was a good, little chicken.  She will be missed.

Birthday Wishes & Empty Plates!

Helen debating seconds on dessert.

 Happy Birthday Helen!

Over the weekend we had the chance to celebrate the birthday of our neighbor Helen, with our other neighbors Mike & Marilyn. She has lived on the hill for a while. It is always a pleasure to talk with her and hear her stories of the people who once lived on Looking Glass Hill and have a good chuckle or two. We look forward to more stories, memories, and laughter!

May you have many more wonderful birthdays!

Mike & Marilyn

Spectacular, Spectacular!

Tonight was the penny auction fundraiser for our church.  Ross made some cookies for it.  Now you should know that two of my favorite tastes are plain, old sugar cookies and anything lemon.  Combine them and you have just made a super food for me.  Ross has done that with this cookie.

As part of Ross' longtime desire to open a bakery we now take pictures of items that he feels he would like to sell on an ongoing basis.  These cookies made the list.  Along with the pictures Ross also has to name his product.  He called this the Lemon Drop Cookie (look closely at the picture and you can see the yellow from the 'lemon drops' that he added to the mix).  I, given the fact that this is Shannon tongue heaven, decided that it needed a different, more realistic, name-The Spectacular, Spectacular Pucker Up and Kiss Me Lemon Drop Sugar Cookie.  Now that's a name!

As I said earlier, Ross made these for a church fundraiser; this means keep your mitts off Shannon! His downfall was asking me to taste test one.  As if. One led to two, which led to three.  Three was the best because I ate it while standing right next to him.  He was so busy taking pictures that he did not notice right away that I was eating his centerfold.  When he finally did notice, he was quick to catch me red handed on film.  I think that this must have been a look that I developed when I was six; it's that one where you know you should be upset with me but I'm just acting too darn cute for you to get there so I just saved my own hide look!  I guess I'm good at naming looks too!

P.S.  I hope you like my Hurricane Irene beard.  It grew over the several days we were without power post the hurricane passing through.  By the time the power came back the beard had grown on me !  (Ha, ha, ha...I just crack myself up).

Fresh Eggs for Sale

Well the time has finally arrived where Ross and I cannot consume all the eggs that the chickens are laying so our little cluckers are now in business for themselves.  We put up a fresh eggs sign last evening (handmade by yours truly).  We are using the honor system where people can stop by and take eggs out of our cooler at their convenience. They just leave their money (and hopefully all the rest of the money) in the cigar box.  The top sign says "today" for when we have eggs, and if we run out then we can switch it to say "out."  We did not get any takers today, but every business starts out small, right?  Let's hope.

Water, Water Everywhere!

Hurricane Katia just passed by the east coast, and thank God that it stayed out to sea!  It unfortunately did give us more rain-rain we did not need.   It has rained for the last couple of days only subsiding today.  The ground is still saturated from Irene so all this extra water is just causing more flooding.  We woke up to an inch of water in the basement; there was just too much water for our sump pump to handle.  Ross and I have discussed adding a second sump pump.  I guess this just jumped to the top of my honey-do list!

Instead of boring you with pictures of us standing in water, or the impromptu brook running through our flower garden or...  (Unfortunately for us we have way too many 'living with water' pictures for our own liking.)  How about instead I share with you some of the awesome beauty all this water can create.

Our neighbor called this morning.  He was working at Kent Falls State Park in Kent, CT and told us we needed to get there.  Normally there is a healthy brook that runs into and out of this park.  In the park the brook drops 250 feet in the span of a quarter mile over a series of falls.  These are stunning on any given day, but today they were massively incredible.  Someone our neighbor was talking to said that this was a once in a decade event (let's hope)!  In the above picture, Max and I are at the lower falls after we completed going up and back down the trail.  If you look closely you can see that I am wet from all the spray that was flying at the top falls.  The force with which the water was running was incredible; the sound of the water was deafening.  It was so cool.  I have compiled a video of the various tiers as we climbed to the top.  I hope you enjoy.

It's Labor Day!

It's Labor Day!  Time to sit back and relax just like Max here to the left. Not in our household; it's called Labor Day so you'd better get to work.  It seems that I always have something else to complete, and every time I look at my list it just gets longer.  Ross had started a list for me that had eight items on it. I've completed three and then added sixteen mores tasks.  Some of these are simple-such as vacuuming all the cobwebs from the basement rafters-while some are a bit more complicated-like adding a second sump pump to the basement.

Before

The most recent cross off on my honey do list was replacing the basement windows.  I'm big on doing lots of research before starting a project, and I did not find as much info as I would have hoped.  Ross and I have installed regular windows before but the basement windows do not get nailed into studs so I was a bit perplexed.  Oh well, if you're not quite sure what you're doing just keep going forward and you'll get somewhere (seems to me that this is a man trait-no honey I don't need to stop and get directions cause I know it's around here somewhere).

After

I have now replaced four of the five basement windows.  The fifth window was knocked out by the previous owner and a sheet of plywood was set in its place.  They placed a dryer vent through this and there it has set since (no paint, no sealant, just a sheet of thin plywood exposed to the elements).  We decided to replace that window with glass block and found a nifty glass block dryer vent that will be installed as part of the window.  I have everything on order for that installation; looks like I get to learn something new!  I have to admit that the new windows do wonders for the light and the general atmosphere of the area. Ross was correct to add this to my honey do list!

On another note, we were walking Max down the street the other day, and I noticed a strange (for here) but familiar looking nut on the ground. Lo and behold, it was a buckeye.  I guess Ross and I aren't the only transplants to the hill as the buckeye tree is not native to Connecticut.  I would think that this was some lost souvenir except that is was still in its outer casing when I picked it up. Looks like we have a tree to hunt down-now let's just add that to my list!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

We took Max swimming at Bantam Lake.  The water was still high but had receded some.  Ross said that it was very cold, but Max did not seem to mind.  Here is some video of our water pooch.