Comforts of Home

Fall is almost here, and apples are abundant in our yard. It has definitely made me think of the comforts of home as we get ready for the cooler seasons.

I have finished all the machine sewing on the coverlet. I will do the "tying off" later. That is when I make a little tie in each joining corner. And it will need pressing too. I did bind the edges of the coverlet using the backing which was larger then the front. It went very well. I will enjoying using it, just don't want it to be too soon.

While harvesting the many apples we have from our trees I made some plans for dinner tonight.

I went on line to find a recipe.......... This recipe was excellent, the pork was VERY tender and flavors blended well together. Because it was just the two of us for dinner I cut the recipe in one third, just using 1/2 pound of pork. It worked very well. I bet I make it again soon.

TENDERLOIN OF PORK WITH APPLE-RAISIN GRAVY

I found this recipe at Cooks.com

1 1/2 lbs. pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground sage

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

3 tart apples, sliced

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1 c. orange juice1 tbsp. vinegar

1/2 c. raisins
Season pork with salt, sage and pepper. Roast, uncovered, in a preheated 350 degree oven 30 to 40 minutes.
Combine apples, brown sugar, flour, orange juice, vinegar and raisins. Pour over roast. Return to oven and roast about 30 minutes or until meat thermometer registers 170 degrees. Baste several times during roasting. Serve with hot cooked rice, if desired.

And for dessert, it was time for apple pie. I messed up on cutting one of the vents but it didn't hurt the flavor or consistency at all. The pie won't last long anyway.

The Kitties

I am still working on coverlet. More pictures this afternoon I hope..... but now for a bit of a change of subject................... Just a couple of pictures of our kitties.

Our kitties keep us entertained as long as we feed them I suppose.

Tuffy is on the left, Bentley is in Back and Spooky is on the right.

And here is Tuffy taking a nap in a little "nest" she created for herself behand the pillow on the couch.

Quilting for winter warmth

Winters in Pennsylvania are NOTHING like they were in Maine...... but they still get cold and I like to be comfy in my house.....

A few days ago on one of my shopping trips I found an upholstery store that sells lots of goodies...... and you can get fabric samples there too...... So wandering around in the store and seeing what was
available led me to the samples that I ending up picking through. I found enough to make a nice patchwork coverlet. And then picked out a piece of fabric for the backing. I won't need to add batting to this. It is plenty heavy. And will keep me toasty warm on winter nights when I sit in front of the tv. Or curl up on the couch with a good book. Here is the fabric I picked out.

The first step was laying out all the squares in a random fashion. Then starting to sew up the rows. That didn't take too long. The best part of this type of quilt is NO CUTTING. I labeled each by pinning a small yellow square paper at the top left of the row and numbered so they would go together in the right order.

My sewing machine is set up in an area where I can watch my shop for customers. That helps a lot.

I started putting the rows together, there will be 7 rows of 6 squares. That should make it approx 42 by 49. We shall see. But meanwhile you get the idea. I hope to get a lot more done this afternoon and then put the thing together. Well before winter arrives.

I hope to have real progress tomorrow.

A Trip to the Beach

It is rainy, cool and dreary here so what better day to think about Sun and the Beach.

While on our trip to New England we stopped to visit friends in Gloucester, Mass. They live very near to Long Beach, just a short walk actually so we took a leisurely stroll. It was a beautiful day, weather wise and because it was a work day the beach was not as full as it would be the next day. So it was a good time for us to be there.As you can see there weren't the big crowds like on weekends but those who were there were enjoying themselves. There are a lot of rental homes along the beach and close by so, if you like the beach, it would be a great place for a vacation.Or to build a fancy beach house.

Just across the harbour from the beach are The Twin Lights. It was such a beautiful day the picture really show well.

Gloucester has great restaurants, fun shops and lots of good sightseeing. We hope to go back soon and get to see a lot more.

The next town north of Gloucester is Rockport, another great tourist destination. We ate at Brackett's restaurant while there........... And I had my first clam dinner of the trip.

Tomorrow I will interrupt my trip again to show pictures of my latest projects. I am making a coverlet to use in the winter when I sit on the couch watching tv.

So until then..................

Too Early...

FALL COLORS Are Beginning


I know I promised a trip to the beach but changed my mind when I saw the tree across the road that was ALREADY changing color..... Too early I think......



















But some fall colors are really welcome..... Here are a couple of pictures of the Rudbekia (Black Eyed Susan) in my yard. They seem to thrive in the place they are located in my garden. They are just outside my kitchen window which is even better.


































I found this nifty "Rusty Rooster" to put amidst the Rudbekia. My daughter took a picture of this a few years ago and printed out a sign for the eating area of my kitchen since it over looks this scene. I always wanted a Name for that area.... sort of like a cafe.


WELL, hope you enjoyed the pictures. Will try to do the beach tomorrow.

Summer Travels

Traveling Down the Highway

As some of my loyal readers probably know we took our annual trip to Maine and New Brunswick this August.

We do it most every year so that it has become a ritual but this year we did add a couple of elements.

The beginning of our trip took us to Mass, to the town where my husband grew up. Out hotel was just a block away from his old teen hangout. Unfortunately it is gone and there is a Wendy's there now.

We took a couple of pictures of places that WERE......

but are now something else.

If you had driven by here 35 years ago you would have seen his house here instead of the parking garage. And actually the street to the right wasn't there, it was another house. The parking garage is for the hospital where his mom worked when they lived there.

His old elementary school was converted to condos a number of years ago. We couldn't get very close cause of all the trees but of course he recognized the grounds. An interesting aside to this story was that while we lived in Maine there was a fellow that worked at the tv station where I worked........ who was in construction in Mass. before he moved to Maine. He actually worked on this project!!! So this was probably done 35 years ago, or so.

Tomorrow we will head to the beach.............. I have already collected up a couple of pictures and will have it written up this afternoon some time. I will post tomorrow.

Some visitors in our Yard

I know, I have been missing lately. After we returned from our travels life just got in the way.

But.... perhaps things are going to get a bit less hectic so I can start blogging again.

I have not done any mini making since our return. Mostly working in the antique shop as we bought a lot of stuff and it needs to be tended too. AND customers have waked up from their non shopping time and have returned AND with money. So that has been good too.

For my first back to blogging I thought I would show you what showed up in our yard yesterday. Our cat Bentley has them under surveillance too.

If you click on the picture to make it bigger you can see the deer up by our apple trees. They love those apples and can be seen there often in late August and early September as the apples are ripening. Bentley is quite curious about them as you can see. I had to take this picture inside the back door so as to not disturb them. But it didn't turn out too bad.