The Dackel Princess

We arrived back home just before lunch time this afternoon. I’m rather tired after being up late and not sleeping too well. Yesterday was quite interesting and I learned so much. Not just about fruit production, but vegetables, and the trials and tribulations of fungus’s, winter kill and insect damage. I was really interested in all but one of the presentations, and learned quite a bit about the vegetables I have in my garden.
The conference was held at the Mountain View Grand in Whitefield, New Hampshire.

At the conference they had two sessions in the morning, one on marketing. The second was on how to keep birds and pests away from your fruit trees and the garden. All in all, the best way is to net the cherry tree. But, the man speaking was really good and very funny as well, which made his time fly by, at the podium!
At noon we went into recess and adjourned to the main dining hall where they had a buffet lunch. Mostly it was salad or sandwich fixings, and coffee, tea or iced tea. They also served home-made chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

Rain seemed to plague us all day long, and at one point walking back to the conference hall, I was taking a picture and it started to rain again. I stood there posing with the giant chess set, anyway.

After that we ran back down the hill and had the afternoon session. The first man was a Professor that both Jack and I know pretty well. He sat with us at lunch and we laughed a lot with him. Anyway, he spoke about the difficulties of growing fruit in the “arctic” climate of Coos County. It is colder up there than where we are, but we do see a lot of the same problems with winter kill and winter damage to the trees.
Then a woman spoke about problems in the garden especially to cucumbers and squash plants. Hers was truly fascinating and I learned quite a bit about Powdery Mildew. I also learned during her presentation, quite by accident, how many people in my State of New Hampshire are now getting food stamps. My gosh, it is so terrible that there are so many people unemployed and having to get help from the government and from local food banks.
At the end of the show they had a door prize raffle and they had many wonderful prizes. I so wanted the new pruning saw, but no, what did we win? A basket full of gourds!

Oh they are pretty, but, I sure did like that pruning saw! LOL!!!!!
We drove back to our friend, Jon’s house in Vermont, and just as we went over the pass we could see clearing a bit in the distance. I told Jack to pull over so I could take a picture.

We had a great meal of fine lamb chops grilled on the barbecue and stir fry vegetables and couscous. We drank champagne and sat around chatting. It was such a nice evening.
The next morning I walked around Jon’s yard and enjoyed the cows. Jon leases some of his fields to a local farmer to graze his cows. They were so friendly and followed me every where.

Jon’s dog, Sammy, also followed me everywhere too. He is a nice dog, but he is high energy! That is until he snuggles up with you and then he is a real cuddler!

l got one good shot with my macro lens. What do you think?

And that was how I spent my two days away from home!

It’s been a while since I have done one of these. However, since I won’t be home in time to post on Thursday morning, I’ll get this set and join in for the first time in a long time.

So here we go. Here are 13 things about me that you may or may not know.

1. I was born on November 17, 1958 in Wareham, Massachusetts, as Falmouth did not yet have a hospital.
2. I was one of the first children admitted to the Pediatric Unit at Falmouth Hospital when I had appendicitis at the age of three and a half.
3. I have an older sister, Melodie and I had a brother Dickie. He was seven years older than me, and passed away at the age of 26 of cancer.
4. I lived in Falmouth my first 20 year, and both my children were born at Falmouth Hospital.
5. When I was 4 I was in the community theater production of “The King and I”. I was the King’s youngest child, and I still remember showering after each performance and watching the pancake make-up wash down the drain!
6. At the age of 8 I was in “The Sound of Music”. I played Gretel.
7. I studied classical singing, and remember how tongue tied I got singing in Italian!
8. I used to sing for large assemblies, but developed terrible stage freight in my mid teens and stopped. So the only one who hears me sing now is Hubby and the puppers.
9. I enjoy singing in choirs, but since we moved back from Florida, I haven’t found one to sing in.
10. My favorite food is Lobster, but only in New England. In Germany it is Wiener Schnitzel.
11. I was 30 years old before I met my Grandmother’s sister (on my Dad’s side). My Great Aunt had no idea I even existed.
12. Worked for Hubby before we even dated. Helped deliver apple, and press cider. I guess he was impressed, because eventually he married me!
13. Found my wedding dress for Hubby at a salon in Ft. Lauderdale Florida. Then had to hand carry it back on a plane without Hubby seeing it.

Next week if you have any questions that you want me to answer, then ask them in the comment section and next Thursday I will answer them in the Thursday Thirteen. So, here’s your chance!

Here I am, Tuesday night and nothing to write about. I had a very ordinary sort of day. Had the bone density test and learned that despite my advanced age, I have the bones of a twenty year old. Went to the Post Office and my book finally arrived from Amazon! Yay!

We did have a marvelous day with sunshine, blue skies and warm temperatures. A single Indian Summer day!

I came home and did housework and actually worked on a few little projects until it was time to make dinner. What did I make? A very plain and ordinary dinner of meatloaf, baked sweet potatoes and asparagus.

Later in the day I packed a suitcase for Hubby and I, as we are going off for the night up north. Our house sitter arrives in the morning, and we will be at a fruit growers meeting in smack dab in the middle of the white mountains! I’m hoping for good weather so I can take some photographs, but the forecast is for fog and rain as a cold front approaches us.

Keep your fingers crossed for good weather.

Monday I had planned to sew some new toys for the dogs. I was not able to accomplish this, due to sewing machine failure. I tried everything to get the silly machine to work, but after going through all the steps to troubleshoot the true nature of my problem, I just finally gave up and decided that the blasted thing is kaput!

I’d thought about getting it fixed, but the machine is 30 years old and just to have it looked at (before anything is even done) it would cost me $50.00! For $65.00 I can get a new machine with all the current advances, which will make my sewing experiences much better than in the past.

Truth be told, that machine has never really worked well. I’ve had to bring it in for adjustments three times, and I am not what you would call an avid sewer! I guess three times isn’t bad in 30 years, but…I just sort of think these things should work, you know?

So the dog toys did not get made, although I did make two braided tug toys. In the next week or so, I will get over to the sewing center and check out their machines. I want one that threads itself, and is easy to use.

This could be a good thing. Just think of all the things I can do with a new machine? New curtains, dog toys and maybe even a dog costume or two!

This might just be interesting!

Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend!

I attempted to get a lot done this weekend, but instead of doing house work and boring things, I filled my time with movies and cooking and scanning.

Friday night we watched a movie on the TV. I can’t even recall what it was, so I’m guessing it wasn’t very good.

I made clam chowder and it was simply terrible! This doesn’t happen to me too often, so I rinsed off the clams and the potatoes and saved them to remake the chowder over the weekend.

On Saturday we decided to go to the movies and see “Hereafter”. I really enjoyed and found value in that movie. I find that either you like this movie or you hate it. I think much of your reaction to it will depend on your life experiences.

On Sunday morning I made a creamy soup base, and added the clams and potatoes to it. I simmered it for 20 minutes and it came out splendidly. I now know what I did wrong when I made it originally!

I also spent a few hours scanning in slides. I am the keeper of the slides from my family. About a year ago, Hubby and I bought an Epsom Scanner that was capable of scanning in slides and cleaning them up. I’ve started scanning slides that my Dad took, way back when.

This is my sister Melodie on her fourth birthday!

Also, my brother and sister on the first day of school. Melodie must have been 5 and Dickie probably was 7.

Anyway, there are probably 10 reels of slides down in my basement. I’ll keep working to scan them in and then make up flash drives for Mel and I and our kids.

We watched a segment on 60 Minutes about Jane Goodall and now I am winding down, getting ready for the week ahead, which notably includes a bone density test, my first. Yes, I am that old that I actually require this to be done!

So, that’s what I did this weekend. What about you?

I’ve never been a big movie go-er. I figure that eventually the movie will come onto HBO or Starz, so unless something really amazing comes along, I tend to avoid the theater. I’m not exactly sure why, really. Our ticket prices aren’t that bad, and the theaters are close enough, but I just hate to commit to sitting still for two hours with no bathroom break! (I mean, you could go potty, but you’d miss the film now, wouldn’t you?)

However, the month of October has found Hubby and me out to the movies THREE times! I do believe in all our married years we have not been out to the movies three times in one month…EVER!

Now, what has brought about this miracle at the Box Office? Three unique and compelling movies. Two were rather serious and then the third was just plain fun. Best of all, the three films were well acted, well written and well directed!

The first being “The Town“,

the second one was “R.E.D.“

and now “Hereafter“.

I’m starting to look at the newspaper so I can plot and plan what Hubby and I might see next weekend.

Somehow I know that this run with the movies cannot last. Hollywood is all too predictable. There is a lot of junk made and very few really good films.

I’m not into gore, or movies that are horribly violent. I also don’t really go for the current favorite “vampire” movies. I enjoy good stories. Stories that make me think, or feel or dream.

So I recommend all of the three movies mentioned above. “The Town” and “Hereafter” are a bit more serious and “R.E.D.” is just plain fun!

This morning after breakfast I felt like having New England Clam Chowder for our dinner. Creamy, yummy, simple chowder! I’m sure that the cold “snowy” weather encouraged these feelings, so I went down into our freezer and grabbed a container of clams that a neighbor had given us a couple of months back. They’d dug these clams up in Canada and frozen them and brought them home. Ah yes, hot, lovely chowder.

All day I thought of this and looked forward to my soup. At 2 pm I started chopping onions and celery and getting things ready. Everything smelled so good, and my spirits were high.

Then about 5:15 my stomach started talking to me. As if laughing at my daylong desire for chowder, it began to turn and twist and not feel so good. Shoot! I want chowder, but I’d really only like to have it once tonight…if you know what I mean.

So, I’m sitting here thinking if I should attempt to eat it, or just feed it to Hubby and wait until tomorrow to try to eat it, myself.

It’s frustrating to have worked hard on this, in my Julia Child apron, and with my wonderful heavy cast iron soup pot, only to have my stomach betray me!

Since I know my stomach better than most I’m going to wait. I’ve put a couple of apples into the oven to bake and perhaps I will just eat that and hope for better times with my stomach tomorrow.

This is just another reminder that once I hit 50 my lead stomach, suddenly turned all wishy-washy and I have to baby it! Where are the days of hot nachos, spicy chili and all the rest?

Yeah, I know. I’m getting old!

Post Script:

Well, dinner time came and I ladled out the chowder for Hubby and myself (small bowl). I served it up and when I lifted the spoon to my mouth…YUCK. What did I do? Hubby politely choked down two servings, but I was suddenly glad that my stomach was bothering me and that I couldn’t eat. I’m too cheap to toss those lovely clams, so I think I will rinse them off and try a new soup base tomorrow!

So…here we go!

1. One of my strongest beliefs is…one day we will all be together again in a far better place.

2. The piece of cake I was served today was…huge!

3. The sky is cloudy with a threat of rain and wind and cold, so…I think I will curl up in my pajamas and read my book.

4. My faith in God…is comforting to me.

5. I always thought I’d be…a better Mom than I have been.

6. I thought of the people I love all around the world and I thought that no matter how far they are, we all see the same moon. It made me smile…and then I went outside to look at the full moon.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to…working on a new toy for Fritz…, tomorrow my plans include…sewing the new toy up…and Sunday, I want to…take one closet and clean it out!

Friday Fil-Ins are sponsored by my cousin Janet. Come on and join the fun!