Do you realize that the US now has over 300 million People?

According to this site it just recently went over the 300 mil mark.

My Breck's Order Arrived Yesterday

I hope it's not raining this afternoon so I can get outside and plant everything.

I was surprised at the smallish size of the dracunculus vulgaris bulbs. I thought they would be really huge.


Is anybody else still planting bulbs?

Do I Dare Mention the "C" Word?

Christmas!

Today I received my first Christmas magazine (Romantic Homes).
Last Friday while shopping at Walmart, I bought these cute ornies. I am really into the food theme - suckers, candy, gingerbread men. When I saw these, I just could not resist. I can't just buy one either. I am a firm believer in using a lot of the same decoration to give continuity to the tree. If I had just one of those suckers, it would be lost among the other things. I really would have liked about 6 more of them, but I bought all they had.
Do you all realize that decorated Christmas trees will begin appearing in less than a month?

I know you all want to slap me for bringing it up, don't you?

 

Fudgey No Bake Cookies

1-1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 stick butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2-1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

Mix the butter, cocoa, sugar and milk in a large saucepan.

Bring to boil stirring constantly. Make sure it's at a good rolling boil and boil for 1-1/2 minutes.

Remove from heat and add the vanilla and oatmeal. (If you like peanut butter you could throw in about 1/2 cup here, too. I did not)

Drop onto wax paper and let harden.

I like this recipe because the cookies remain somewhat soft. Be sure to boil the full 1.5 minutes or they will be too soft too pick up. Don't boil longer or they may be too hard. It's all in the timing for these cookies!

Trip to the Apple Farm

It was a decent day today, so we decided to take the 40-mile trip to the apple farm.

It's a quaint little store/orchard that we like to go to every year.

I took pictures of the hilly road filled with gold-leaved trees on the way in. Once there I got nice pics of the apples still on the trees, me sitting on the cute bench near the orchard, and pics of a few interesting displays inside the store.

I came home eager to see how the pictures came out. I downloaded them and went into my picture program to take a peek.

I could have just cried! They were all gone. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
Not one picture of the apple farm was still there.

The only apple-related picture left was this which I must have taken after I inadvertently deleted all the rest:


Yup. That's me eating one of the apples I bought.

I bought a 1/2 peck of Runkel apples. I've never heard of them before.

Tomorrow I plan to bake a couple for dinner to go with left over pork roast.

We decided to travel a bit further and ended up going about 200 miles round trip.
Here we have snow still on the mountain from Friday's storm. Some places in this area got over a foot of snow.
I thought it was neat with the fall color on each side of the snowy ski mountain.

So I had a nice weekend. Productive and still fun.

When I got home I talked to my son who lives in the Detroit area. He had just gotten home from a Lions football game. He was happy because it was the first game the Lions won this year.

Getting My Winter Project Ready

I hate this part of quilting!
It's called "sandwiching" the layers together.

It wouldn't be so bad if I had a place large enough to lay out a nearly 9ft. x 9ft. quilt top.

I have given up basting the quilt since I discovered the baste-by-safety-pin method. It's much easier.

I've worked on this for over an hour this morning and am not yet done. The problem is that I used some of the batting for other projects and now I have to piece it together which takes a lot of time.


I decided to take a short coffee/blog break and then will sew the last piece of batting and finish holding it together with safety pins. I will feel really good when it's all folded up just waiting for me to get in the mood to quilt it.


Last night I went to Wally's World and found another tablecloth marked down.
How could I resist this one?

I knew it would be a perfect match to my 1950's Pyrex turquoise dishes.

Deep Cleaning, Fall Cleanup and an Old Wine Rack

I woke up to a little snow cover on this cold fall morning.

While I waited for it to melt, I did some inside cleaning. Since I was gone all last weekend, I had a lot to catch up on. I scrubbed floors, dusted, vacuumed, changed the bed linen and washed the bedroom wall after I noticed how badly it needed it when I was stripping the bed.

During the fall and winter, I have about 9.5 productive hours in a day (5:30am to 3:00 p.m.). As the sun goes down, so does my energy level. Since I am at work until 3:00 p.m. on weekedays, my productive time is spent. When I get home, the most I want to do is get a quick dinner ready and clean up the kitchen.

I have no dishwasher.

I hear you all gasp!

LOL. I had a dishwasher many years ago and really never found it all that wonderful. I always did all the tough pots/pans, etc. by hand anyway. I can wash all the dishes, dry them and put them away much faster than it takes a dishwasher to wash them. Anyway, I've strayed from my point, which was that I have a lot of housework to do on the weekend.

About 11:00 a.m. the snow had melted and I went out to cut off all the canna leaves and dumped the rest of the annuals. I put all the sweet potato tubers in a paper bag (just like Giddy said in her comment). I will overwinter them in the crawl space which is cooler than my basement. I really never have much success overwintering them because I never bring them out early enough to get going. Giddy said she brings hers out in Feb., which is probably what I should do, but I probably won't. I really have no place to put pots of stuff in my house. So I wait until May and since they take forever and a day to come up, I end up buying more for my containers rather than waiting until August for the first leaf to sprout. I am saving these just to stick them in the ground someplace and see if anything happens. The ones I stuck in the ground this year never even came up.

I also cut down about 4 wheelbarrow loads of perennials.

I deep cleaned my crocs with a toothbrush and Bar Keeper's Friend. Is there anything that Bar Keeper's Friend will not clean?

Now I can use them during the winter to run out to the garage and down to the basement.

Last night I went to JC Penney and bought some new hand towels for the bathroom. They had a 50% off sale.

Who has an old wine rack that is never used?

I have an idea that may appeal to some of you.

Use it as a holder for extra towels in your bathroom.

(You will have to go to the post below to see the picture since Blogger would not allow me to put it in this post. )

Do You Think Size Matters?

Just take a look at the size of this sweet potato vine tuber that was dug out of one of my planters at work.
I just planted one of those $1.79 vines in the 4" pots. Here is the size of the freshly planted vine.
It grew well all summer. If you remember, it grew all the way down to the ground.

I planted 4 containers and all 4 grew down to the ground. However, all 4 did not make mammoth tubers like this one did. In fact one had hardly any tuber at all...just a few fat-looking roots.

I wonder why some get so big and others do not?

This is a very special post. Know why?

It is my 1,000th post!

Holy cow, how could I possibly post 1,000 times in less than two years? My profile says I started in April or something, but I only signed up then. I did not make my first post until November. I guess I figured out what to say and haven't shut up yet!

My Little Treasures, (continued)

Blogger is finally allowing me to post more pictures.
Judging from the shape of this casserole dish, it must be from the 1950's. I just love it, too (I love them all, LOL). There are few things I love more than collecting dinnerware...DH comes in a close second.... JUST KIDDING, my little darling (after I go to bed, he winds down on the compter and will probably wander in here and read this).

It has the little candle warmer holder. On the bottom it says, "Pasedena Florence Ceramic company, California." I could not get a clear pic of it. Last spring I tried searching for info on it, but could not find a thing. Maybe one of you are a collector and know something about it.

I love my treasures even more when I have a little info about them.

This Moorcroft flower vase is truly beautiful. I know a little bit about this one as it came from a now deceased family member. I am not sure how old it is. I can account for about 35 years of family ownership, but beyond that, I don't know.


I actually use this vase all the time. I think this one has a little value.
But it does not matter to me how valuable they are. I like the 25 cent garage sale find as much as the hundred(s) dollar vase. Although I would certainly cringe a bit more if I dropped the vase. :)

Some of My LIttle Treasures

I know almost nothing about this tray. About six years ago I saw it a flea market and was immediately drawn to it. I picked it up, admired it and then put it back on the table and walked away. It has chips on all the feet. It didn't cost much, but I didn't really have a place to put it. My storage areas are all bulging at the seams.

DH kept saying, "If you want it, get it."

I tried hard to resist, but after walking by a few more tables, I came back and bought it. The older lady selling it said it had been her mothers, so it must be quite old.

That is all I know about it.

This is the marking on the bottom.

Someone must know what that trademark above the "Austria" is. I would be grateful for any info.

Here's another one I just love.

I bought this about 20 years ago in an antique/junk shop. It's a casserole dish. That veggie-covered top is very heavy. I loved it then and I still love it now. I've never actually cooked anything in it.


Here's the marking on the bottom . This one is not nearly as old. I am guessing maybe the 1960's for this.

If anyone knows any info about these, please post a comment. That is, IF Blogger will let you. I am trying to add more items, but Blogger is on the blink again, so I will have to do a second post later.

A Little Fall Color Right in my Own Backyard

I had to snap a few shots yesterday even though it was cold and rainy outside. We are predicted to get some snow today and high winds, so the leaves will probably be gone by the weekend.

I received my capachino tango lilies from Breck's and planted them on Monday.

I am STILL WAITING for my bigger order of red lilies, hardy glads and those three big stinky v i a g r a lilies.
I really wish I had not ordered those. Sometimes I am gripped by some evil spirit that makes me do such things! If you can't remember what those lilies are, here is my original post.

Sorry to cut the post so short, but I have to get to work.

That darn job is interfering with my blogging time! I don't even have time to recheck this before posting. Hopefully I have no glaring errors.

What can you make with Romaine lettuce, pecans, dried cranberries, sliced banana?

My very own banana salad. It makes a fine light dinner when you are eating alone, like I did last night.

I like it drizzled with this salad dressing:

3/4 cup oil

3/8 cup vinegar (I like rice wine vingegar, but any will do)

2 tsp. soy sauce

1/3 cup sugar (I use slightly less)

Put everything in a jar with a screw top lid and shake vigorously until well mixed.

40 Mile Point Lighthouse

Our last adventure over the weekend was exploring this lighthouse near Rogers City, Michigan.

With its exceptionally long coastline, Michigan quenches a lighthouse aficionado’s thirst for these beacons of the night. The state of MI supports lighthouse preservation with a grant program, providing restoration funds for volunteers who painstakingly repair these structures.

This lighthouse station was built in 1896. It is still a working lighthouse that is now automated. It is owned and maintained by the 40 Mile Point Lighthouse Society.

As soon as you enter the house, you are in this little kitchen, which has been stocked to resemble an earlier era.

My husband had a hoosier cabinet very similar to that white one in the house he rented before I married him. I really don't think I would like to cook on an old woodstove like that. Can't you just imagine all the work involved in making dinner in those days?

We were allowed to climb up 53 tiny winding metal stairs to get to the light on the top of the tower which is 52' high.





The light was so important to navigation that it could never go out during the summer navigation season. If it was ever extinguished —no matter what the reason, the keeper could be fired.

This is the view of Lake Huron from the tower.

Tigers Beat the Mighty Yankees

The Detroit Tiger's coach, Jim Leyland, shortly after the big win:

"I said, 'That's the level we want to get to, and we've got to get that quiet swagger and confidence that the Yankees got,"' he said. "I used them as an example. It's kind of ironic that we got to play them, and fortunately beat them."

We sat in a bar Saturday night sipping our libation of choice while watching the underdogs earn the right to play in the American League Championship Series. We were waiting for an empty table for dinner.

The things I do to get a blog picture!

Imagine sitting in a dark bar full of sports fans glued to the tube and someone stands up and snaps a FLASH picture. Just a tad embarrassing....but I'm getting used to people looking at me wondering what kind of nut I am.

I rarely go into a restaurant anymore without photographing my meal.

See, here's my dinner salad

My main dish of shrimp fettucine


and breakfast Sunday morning!


That's what blogging has done to me.
Be careful.
I hear it's a contagious disease.

Mission Hill Cemetery

Directly atop Mission Hill and across from the Spectacle Lake and Lake Superior lookout shown below, is a very peaceful and serene setting for a cemetery.

Many of the graves here are well over 100 years old, like this unattended site of a 20 year old woman named Hattie. I first spotted the finial lying on the ground and went over to snap a picture. I suspect it simply fell from age and was very surprised that vandals had not picked it up.

I snapped this engraving rather quickly (just to have the name)and did not realize what a poor job I had done until I had it on my computer screen. I then realized there was a touching engraving from the husband at the bottom:

Tis hard to break the tender cord,
When love has bound the heart
Tis hard, so hard to speak the word
.................

Unfortunately I did not get the last line.

Now I will have to go back to find out what it says!

I also noted that I did not see any other graves next to Hattie. I wonder what happened to the grief-stricken husband? I would guess he found another wife, raised a family and was buried in some other plot.

How interesting it would be to find out more about the person behind the name on the tombstone.

Autumn Splendor

I have been all over this weekend taking pictures ... a cemetery, a couple of lookout points, a lighthouse, bar, restaurant, and even made DH stop the car a few times so I could get out and take pictures.

I had an absolutely wonderful weekend. I will tell you more about it in future posts.

For now here is some beautiful fall color in Michigan.

This is a lookout stop in upper lower Michigan, about 30 miles from the Mackinac bridge. There are not a lot of hardwoods in this spot, so the color is sparse.

This is a golf course. We did not golf, I just walked around and took pictures.

I really did not see many reds, so when I saw this way up near Sault Ste. Marie, I snapped the picture.
And this..........oh, it was breathtaking! This is one spot where DH stopped and I walked down that little dirt path and found the red ones above off to the right. That road sign says that the road narrows to one lane, which it did just beyond these trees.
There was a short, sometimes scary ride. There was a drop off to the lake on the right side of the road. When a car was coming at you, you had to get way over to the right and yet not too far or you would drop off into the lake!

Ah, but it was worth it to arrive at this lookout point!

Way across the water is Canada.

On the opposite side of the road was the cemetery. I will post a little more about that later.
Right now I have to finish unpacking.

While I Ran Around the Golf Course, DH read the newspaper