What a Weekend

22°f/-5.6°C this morning when we left Nashville, TN. Light snow most of the way home, and about 3-4" on the ground here at home.

It has been a wild few days. With way too much food. 

Oldest son George and his son Clayton arrived Saturday afternoon. We visited, then Larry and Clayton changed the oil in the truck while George and I made spaghetti for dinner. 

Sunday morning we all went out for breakfast in town: eggs, biscuits and gravy, coffee...then George, Clayton and I were on the way to Nashville for granddaughter Cassie's wedding, while Larry stayed home to care for critters and deal with whatever snow might happen. It was in question whether we would go to the wedding or not as the weather forecast was all over the place, with no meteorologist giving a clear view of the coming storm. But we decided to chance it anyway.

Our route took us across Kentucky, and I thought about Jim as we passed all the bourbon distilleries! 

We stopped for lunch at the neatest place; I am not sure what the little village was called, but I can tell you that The Whistle Stop Cafe was a fine choice.

It was about 2 hours from Nashville and I would bet that the area was a day trip destination for the city folks, with its cute antique stores, coffee shop, etc. 

One of my less than stellar photos. Oops. Mr. Wavy got in the way!

Lunch was homemade bread with homemade jam, fried chicken, lima beans, and mashed potatoes. Carbs, much? But so good.

The wedding was fabulous! So much family, so much joy, so much music and dancing and talking! I will post photos as I get them; I didn’t take any as I wanted to focus on my family and not have to step away to be photographer too. Here, though, is a sneak peek, taken by one of my granddaughters. 

And of course, there was food. I ate little because I wasn't hungry, and avoided the wedding cake entirely! It was nearly midnight when we got back to our hotel, and I was soon asleep.

Morning came too fast. I was up at 5 to get ready for the return trip home, and was glad I was awake because my son who is vacationing in the Philippines texted me. That was nice, as I had not heard from him since he left February 3rd.

By 7 this morning we were on the road again. We stopped at this place called Buc-ee's, which is apparently very trendy right now. It's like a huge convenience store, with probably 100 gas pumps and everything from clothing to perfume to food of all kinds in a store the size of a giant department store. 

Not my kind of place, but interesting. We got gas and picked up breakfast to go.

Six hours and lots of snow squalls later, we met Larry in Charleston (WV), I hugged George and Clayton goodbye, and an hour later was home in my comfy chair. Fortunately we didn't run into any real snow, but the two guys sure did as they continued on to their homes on the other side of our state. They had no trouble, but it took a little longer than usual as those higher mountains got quite a few inches, around a foot I think. I don't know how George could see where he was going!

Here we had only a few inches.

When I got home Larry had a chocolate cake waiting! He decided to bake while he was on his own. I ate a small piece but declined his offers of ice cream and hot chocolate. I swear, I feel like I have eaten 5000 calories this weekend. Time to get back to real food, and plenty of veggies. 

I learned that my throat is entirely out of practice when it comes to loud music, crowds, and much talking! I woke up with an almost nonexistent voice, and I am still squeaky, but slowly improving.

I was glad I did not go to the after-party, which didn't break up until the wee hours, or I am sure it would have no voice at all! But it was so good to see grandchildren from California, Florida, and Colorado, and to be surprised by the presence of my sister Maggie and sister-in-law Bonnie! I hope I will get photos of us three together.

Tomorrow life goes back to normal, but my goodness, what a weekend it was.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Signs of Spring and Hope

48°f/about 9°C, beautiful sunny day but very windy. Last night was thunderstorms, hail, lightning, and apparently a tornado warning, but we slept right through that.

Buds on the silver maple! They won't last though, if the forecast for this weekend is correct. 

Wild, wild weather! The wind today was incredible, blowing things around. One of our antique malls called and said the eibd was pushing in the garage doors which form our back wall, and a few things had broken! They were moving other things away from that wall. I can't get back in to rearrange until next week, as i am leaving for granddaughter Cassie's wedding this weekend. I'm sure it will be fine until I get back.

It has been busy days here. I am working hard to get me ebay room cleaned out and am about 75% finished with that project.  I take totes of stuff out, sort it for booth or thrift. Then price what I am keeping, which of course means research. It's slow and time-consuming, but i have priced 13 totes so far, and 8 of those have been put into the booths. So, progress! In addition, I am also painting a few things: a high chair, a small table, an old chair that will be sold as a "garden chair", a chest of drawers, several picture frames, etc. 

Yesterday was haircut, pedicure, and booth restocking day. Larry ran errands (picking up oil change supplies for the van, post office to mail an ebay sale, etc) while I got prettified,  when we added stock and tidied booths at both locations before coming home. I made steak, baked potatoes and broccoli for dinner before we pretty much collapsed in front of the fire. Still no TV, just haven't had time to go pick out a new one yet, but we have really missed it. 

I've also been getting into a little spring cleaning, and that feels good. Chasing winter's dust out the door! Larry has been doing cleanup around the garage, getting manure spread on the gardens, and tidying up his workbench. Pretty sure the heavens are going to crack at that last one, as he has never done that in the 10 years he's had that workbench! 

My long campaign to get him to cut back on drinking is finally paying off--- he has realized the damage it was doing to his health and has switched to zero beer (0 alcohol, 0 calories, 29 carbs) during the week, quit drinking any hard liquor, and has his Guinness, in moderation, on the weekends. Hallelujah! He has more energy, is less tired, and is much, much more cheerful and easy to get along with. It has been a hard slog, friends, but we're getting there. I know there may be some backslides, but I am thrilled that he is finally doing this by his own choice. 

In other news, I heard Spring Peepers today! Also saw the first snowdrop in bloom, and was buzzed by a pollen-laden honeybee who apparently was working the buds on the silver maple. I worry about that bee; surely the wild bees haven't opened their hives yet? The weather will turn cold and snowy again Sunday,  so that will not be good for them.

It was lovely to have the doors open and to go outside and putter around in the flowerbeds a bit, and to have coffee on the porch. Oddly, I am not feeling the usual urge to get out there and plant lettuce,  which I have often done in February. Just not feeling it this year, and I think I am beginning a gradual reduction in the amount of veggies I plant. I think. We shall see as the season progresses.

I was thrilled to hear of the Supreme Court decision today that the Orange One's tariffs were illegal! What great news! But, it has cost businesses, and us, dearly. The other great news was Springsteen's concert tour. Yes! Finally,  people who are listened to are stepping up. It often takes the artists to make the first strong move, doesn't it? Politicians are too worried about their own skin. 

Of course, our state continues to slide into the Dark Ages. A vote to allow 18 year old to carry concealed weapons without a permit, a change to election rules to hide information about donors to political campaigns,  moving ahead with legislation to allow data centers to be built in some of our most pristine wilderness, and the list goes on and on. It's infuriating that they are so backward, but a whole slew of Democratic candidates, many of them women, are running this year. So maybe there is hope for this benighted state yet.

Leaving you with this photo of our thermometer, taken 11 years ago on this date. Our low that day was -16°f/-26.6C. Brrrr! Link to that post here. 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Roses, Cookies, and Other Random Stuff

56°f/13.3°C, overcast. A warm start to the day.

Roses from Larry, which he gave me yesterday. He gave me beautiful red carnations and Pacski

doughnuts on Saturday. If you know those doughnuts, you'd know how delicious they are, and only available for a brief time each year. When he went to the store yesterday he found the roses marked down from $22 to $5. Aren't they lovely?

Irish Shortbread cookies. Oddly, I can't find the online Dr recipe I used! Basically, it was 1 cup softened butter, 1/4 tp salt,  1 1/2 cups sugar, 4 cups of flour, and 2 tsp vanilla. I preheated the oven to 350°. I creamed the butter and sugar, added the vanilla, then the flour and salt. Idid not use cornstarch as most recipes call for, and did not refrigerate the dough, but they came out great. I rolled out the dough on a floured surface, cut them out, pricked with a fork to keep them from puffing up. Baked for 8 minutes, took them out and sprinkled them with sugar, then returned them to the oven for 5 more minutes. I allowed them to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. It yielded about 48 cookies.

An aerial photo of our place, apparently taken recently as Sarah's is in the photo, upper right. Our house is sort of center, and not easy to see.

⁴

Found in my stash as I continue clearing out my ebay room. Centennial plate for WV's 100th year.

Also found this very old paper packet of tobacco. I bet it's dry as dust 

Time to break out the Belleek Irish tea set! 

I spent part of Saturday morning cleaning silver. Such rewarding results, after much elbow grease.

A new for us medicine cabinet. Our old one (it really was old, probably from the 30's) was replaced by this even older cabinet. This was likely from a hospital or industrial setting, as it is stamped Uwanta Linen Service inside. It doesn't match the other cupboards, but I am not painting it.

Found this stored away; we bought it prob10 years ago and planned to sell it, but I am glad we still had it.

Found on my bookshelf. Want to know what it says about your birthday? Shoot me a message! 

Last week on Joe's Run:

We stocked our Ravenswood booths yesterday.  This little table and chairs sold last week so we came in to find an empty space. Usually they call to tell us, but didn't do so this time for some reason.

And last but not least, I framed this anniversary card, sent to my mother from my father, probably very early in their marriage,  as he signed it "Billy". No one ever called him that in my memory, so this was likely late 40s to early 50s. 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.