My girl....

Wouldn't you know it?  Lorelei was all set to go trick or treating...has had her outfit for a while.  She goes home Sunday, and comes down with a cold.  I think she has hardly slept the past two nights.  When Sarah called me this evening, Lorelei had stayed on the couch all day.  And her little cousin just does not know what to think.  He keeps bringing her toys, wanting her to play.

Lorelei's daddy came up with the idea of putting candy in each room and having Lorelei go from room to room in their house to find it.  Instead, she wanted to wait and open the door and give it out.  Sarah sent me this picture of her as she waits for children to come.
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Another cold day here...with bitter cold wind.  We hooked the trailer to the truck, loaded up, and took the stuff to the auction house.  She said it may be the first of December before it is sold.  I told her that was fine...it is out of my house and out of the way.  So, will be waiting a while before we see what surprises there will be on what sells for how much.

 I captured this hawk sometime before we left for Tennessee...I think we were on our way home from Paris, Illinois.  Luckily, we could pull off the road.

He didn't sit still long once I got out of the car...but I considered myself lucky to get these.  They are a bit better if opened up in a new tab/window.
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So, the cold wind has blown all day.  I suppose we have Sandy to think for that.  I think we won't know for a while the extent of the damage from the hurricane.  It is hard to imagine what people are going through while the rest of us sit in the comfort of our own home. 

Fall....

The leaves are almost totally gone now.  I feel like we are about to be looking at fall through the rear view mirror.
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Lorelei went home yesterday....even though she is not a loud child, the house just seems so totally empty when she leaves.  

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I am in a decluttering mood again.....we have been getting stuff ready to go to the auction.  Some of it is things we don't use....some is stuff that had been Roger's mom's or grandmother's....the girls didn't want it and I have no place for it so will let someone else enjoy it.

I am putting the baby crib...we had got it used to have when we babysat Lorelei when her mom worked.  Ended up, I think she spent maybe a total of 3 or 4 hours napping in it in all the time we babysat her, and she has spent a couple or three nights in it when she was spending the night.  It is a nice Simmons wooden crib.  We gave $35 for it used, so am wondering what we will get for it.  Since she didn't ever really use it much, it is not hard to part with.

Things really can surprise a person....I put in this old game joystick the last time we put stuff in the auction.  It really had not been used much, but it was probably at least 15 years old and it sold for either $20 or $25.  I had come so close to just pitching it a time or two but always held back.  Now I have a couple more things to put in....an old scanner that still works.  I just got a better one that scans both photos and documents AND slides.  I think there is an old  microphone here...again, it hasn't been used, but it is old.

It is always fun just to see what people want.....

From last year....

This is from a drive in Parke County...taken in 2011.  It looks about the same type of weather we are having today.

It rained during the night, and has definitely taken a cold turn.  I checked the temperature some time after noon, and it was 47ºF.  I wish it had stayed warm one more day.  I was afraid Lorelei would be bored, but she has just played around, watched some cartoons, went down in the basement with me and even let me quilt some while she messed around.

Kids can find entertainment anywhere.  She found a bunch of twist ties that had came out of my garbage bags.  I never use them on garbage bags, but usually lay them aside thinking they will come in handy for something.  Well, she played with them for at least half an hour...she would unroll them and say they were her mat.  And she would spread them out like she was going to sit on them.

Then she found a place to hide them...then she would go find them like it was the first time she had ever seen them.

She was worrying last night about Santa Claus and our lack of a fireplace.  So I took her and showed her the chimney down there...and showed her the old opening for when this house had a coal fired furnace.  I told her he just snaps his fingers and he is instantly little enough to fit through, then he just comes up the stairs like we do.  And that seemed to satisfy her.

Our Princess...

We went this morn and met the kids half way to pick up our Lorelei...oh, she is changing in ways I cannot explain.  In other ways she is still the same Lorelei.  She only wants to come straight here...does not want to stop along the way...does not want to go anywhere once she is here.  I guess I should cherish these days that she is satisfied to just be here. 

Jackson, her little cousin had gotten her the jewelry and sent it home with us.  It had to be opened first thing...and she put it on.  But then we had gotten her a couple dress up outfits at the flea market...she took the jewelry off while she put one of those on, then put the jewelry back on.
I hurried and snapped a photo or two while she was willing.

We have played on the front porch with bubbles, and squirt guns while visiting with other family...and now I suppose we are in for the night.  She is playing with Papaw now...and I had a minute so thought I would just do a quick post.

 Every time I or Neal are down home, and if we are up to our old home place, we take a picture of the old chimney.  It is all that remains of our old home. 

What is bad, we don't have a single picture that shows the old homeplace.  We are sure a few must exist some place, but none of us have any.  We would love to have one showing the house, and I would love to have one showing the house from a distance, which would also show the outbuildings.

Views from Clinch Mountain....

 I think the above view is looking south or southeast off the Veterans Overlook on Clinch Mountain...

 not sure about the view above but the one below is looking East.  Maybe a little bit northeast.

Just thought I would show a bit more the part of the country that I grew up in.

When we took Driver's Ed in high school we drove over Clinch mountain....then it was a two laned highway with one switchback after another....I was glad it was not me doing the driving.  Now it is a four lanes.  Such a big change to how it was.  I bet the truck drivers really appreciate it...

I also wish I had views from back then...I don't know how the big rigs made it over.  Or maybe they took a different route. 

Just a little preview

 I couldn't resist a little preview of the quilt....I have also got the row of reds surrounding the center quilted.  Not sure how I am going to quilt the next row of the colors shown here.  But need to get busy and do something.  I would love to get this quilt finished by the weekend...at least the quilting. 

It isn't perfect, but it is my first time trying to free-motion quilt feathers of any type.  I was quite happy with this center part of the quilt.  The feathers in the red fabrics does not show up hardly at all.
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It was cloudy then sunshiny by turn this morn...I hurried and did one load of towels.  I had to take them down and finish them in the dryer.  It rained for 3 hours or more....a lot of leaves came down with the rain.  I hope they last a while longer though.  I am not ready for winter to begin yet.

More from Veedersburg fleamarket

I don't know why, but some wood planes make me think of women's high heeled shoes...just my own personal thoughts.  These photos are from the same guy's place as yesterday's photos.  He sure had a load of different stuff.  His name is Kenny, and I found an article about here....it was published in 2008.

I forget how many auctions he said he goes to, but I do remember him saying there are some auctioneers who buy for him if he can't be there.  You could tell he just really enjoys doing this.  I think more a way to meet people than anything.

Not sure what I did with this picture...but it is dark for me.  I tried messing with it and couldn't do much good in the time that I had, so publishing it as is.

If you read the article listed above, be sure and note their slogan:

If we don't have it, it's not junk yet.

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Another beautiful day here....we made a Wally World run this morn, and all afternoon I have been quilting on my little log cabin...the one in Reds and neutrals.  The top of the quilt does not look too bad, since the thread matches the background.  But, not sure I will be brave enough to show the bottom side when it is finished.

Flea market at Veedersburg

We headed out for a drive today, and did visit some of our usual haunts...but then ended up on Interstate 74, heading east.  And got off at the exit for Veedersburg.   To go to a flea market. 

The first place we visited sure had a variety of old stuff...I couldn't resist the box of hammers.

I don't think I ever saw such a variety of rolling pins in one place...and the gentleman said he bet he had done sold 30 of them.  Said they seemed to be the item of choice this week.

I couldn't believe this dinnerware...I don't think I have seen any quite like it in all my times of looking at flea markets and junk shops.

I had on a long sleeved waffle weave shirt, plus a heavy flannel shirt over that...most of the time it was enough, but for the first few minutes I thought I was going to have to go back to the car for my regular jacket.  The wind was really chilly.

Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer and more sunshine...I guess we best appreciate these days while we have them.

From down home...

This is the doorway of the barn on property that adjoined some of our farm...we rented the house that this barn belongs to in our younger years.  The house burned down a couple years or so ago...and everything is just so grown up it did not even feel like home.  Always before, when I would go up there it involved a certain amount of heart ache...this time I guess it still did.  But more in the form of heartache that things have changed so much.  The barn is falling apart....and it is full of junk.

When young, our family raised the tobacco allotment to this place....raised it on the halves.  They supplied fertilize, seed for the tobacco bed and all that included, and we supplied the labor.  Some of my earliest memories are of going there to grade tobacco.  I was too little to do anything much at all, and can remember my mom setting me in hay and telling me to be good.  And it was loose hay.

And out the road just a bit is a spring house, and we had milk sitting in it to stay cool for dinner.  And I think we had bologna sandwiches...I do not know how they washed their hands, unless it was in the water running from the spring, or else, just kept the wax paper around the sandwich while they ate.

In case you have never been around tobacco...when you grade it, your hands get this sticky, yukky tar like substance on it...and it is hard to get off, and very bitter to the taste if you happen to have it on your hands and try to eat something without washing good.
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I did more laundry yesterday.  Funny, when I hang out laundry, it makes everything seem alright with the world.  Even if just for a little bit.  It is something that  is calming for me.

And I have been trying to get started quilting...yesterday I prepared my machine.  Cleaned all the lent out, oiled it, and also experimented with this thread I had gotten.  I will not name brands, but is is one of the higher priced ones...and it is the second time for it to be almost impossible to quilt with.  I got to looking and had some King Tut thread from Superior threads...in the color that I needed and it just sews like a dream.  I just fall in love with this thread every time I use it.

Then I had to change color, and this time I went to Aurifil....really expecting to need to change something if only a little bit, but in my testing it, it sews just great.   Which I didn't expect it not to sew, but thought with it being slightly heavier that I might need to adjust the tension.  I have always had good luck with Aurifil, too.

Well, it is back to work for me...got to make decisions about how to continue the quilting.  Wish me luck!

Back to daily life...

In case you haven't noticed, I have been absent from blogging for a few days.  We headed to Tennessee last Thursday  and got back Monday evening late.  I have no one to take care of the kitties, so don't like to stay gone any longer.

On the way down, we took a scenic route and went over the Ohio River at Madison, Indiana.  We definitely want to return there when we can spend a night or two.

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Since being back, I have been trying to get things caught up.  Doing laundry is the main thing.  And I have been sewing just a tiny bit.  Plus, we went to the Covered Bridge Festival yesterday.  I really would love to have a nice little P&S camera to take with me to things like that because I don't feel like carrying my DSLR around with so many people.  And yesterday was not bad crowded till late in the afternoon.

I go to stuff like that, see so much stuff, and then bring home very little or nothing.  It is just too much for me to see and pick and choose...unless I go with something definite in mind.  Roger wanted to talk to this guy that makes black powder rifles.  They had a nice visit and took each others names, phone numbers....the gentlemen would like for Roger to teach/tell him how to case harden metals.  And Roger wanted to know where he got some of his supplies for making/working on black powder rifles.

Anyway, will try to start visiting again, but I may be slow to get caught up with everyone....

Tipped in red....

This is another from our drive...

I was out taking photos of it when Roger got my attention and pointed to my left.  I looked and this is what I saw coming.

I messed around till he got to me...he was an old, old doggy.  A Siberian husky I assume since his eyes were blue.  He walked stiffly...but at least I got to give him a pet.  I miss having a dog, and always enjoy chance encounters with them.  I have got to get some doggy snacks back in my car...though he did not try to get in with me.  I have only had that happen once when taking pictures...and it was a big Great Dane...he was huge and would have jumped in in a heartbeat if given the chance.  I was so glad to have something to distract him with.

So far, I have been fortunate to only have nice dogs to deal with...though there have  been one or two in the distance that I was glad I didn't have to decide if they were bluffing or not.  One time I paused to pet this one dog and didn't pay attention....took a few more photos, and looked down and I was engulfed in mess of them...well, 4 or 5 were surrounding me and waiting their turn for a kind word.

Feeling their age....

A couple photos from yesterday...one of the best days I have had for photography in a while.

I am not sure about the tractors...I always assume a green tractor is a John Deere....did not know till sometime not too far back that the Oliver tractors were green also.  I did a quick glance at google pics and am pretty sure these are John Deere but if you know different, feel free to correct me.

I would love to have this old truck and have the know-how to fix it up.  There is just something about old trucks.  Well, even though I drive a Rav4, a truck is my choice of vehicles.  We have the Rav for convenience.  I really like the new Camaros and the Chargers, but if I had the chance to choose between either one of those and a truck, I would pick a truck any day of the week and six times of Sunday.
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Do you ever go to a blog post and just cannot find anything nice to say...I am talking more about when I join memes....I like to visit EVERYONE that joins....I know I sometimes honestly miss a few.  I only join two simply because I don't have the time to visit a big long list everyday.  Well, I have the time most days but have other things I like to do as well.

I generally cannot lie and say I love a picture if I don't...have a hard time saying nice if I don't think it is nice.  So wondered what your phrase is if the picture does not appeal to you in any way?  Usually I can find something to like about almost any photo...it is just every now and then,  probably when I am in a mood, I just don't have any words, so rather than asked why in the world they chose to post that particular photo, I don't say anything.

Sometimes blogging gets to be a chore...but then there are the people that make it so worthwhile...I have met a quilting buddy through blogging....plus she is a nature lover....she lives in southern Indiana and we both wish we lived closer to each other.  Then there is another that just slays me sometimes with her humor.  Well, there are a couple that do that....used to be a third but she no longer posts and I miss her humor so much.  Her humor reminded me of my older daughter's type of humor. 

And then there are the ones whose appeal is their photographs.  There are a couple people that even if I have been absent from blogging for weeks, I will go back and look at every photo they have posted...
Edited to add:
I really don't mean to offend anyone, and heaven knows I have posted my share of photos that are not all that great...and some that only I would like.   I do agree with Mildred that blogging is about liking people...and also like Lois, making a comment is a way of acknowledging someone's time and effort....and to encourage them.  The thing of just not having anything to say very seldom happens, even in memes.  In fact, I am sure there are two or three  bloggers that might wish I would limit my comments sometimes.

 

I won this!

Back in September, Gill at That British woman  was giving the Blu-ray disc of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and I won!!!!  When I saw that it had Judi Dench in it, I immediately wanted to see it, but didn't get the chance to set down and watch it till the past two days.  It is not anything I will watch again, but yet I don't regret watching it at all.  Its setting was India and I loved  seeing it..even if it was just the market and city streets, etc.  That is all interesting to me.

The characters all came to India for one reason or another, to stay at this hotel advertised as luxurious...but luxurious it was not.  The characters were all retirees...Maggie Smith (Muriel) came to have an operation, Judi Dench's(Evelyn) husband and just died and everything had to be sold to pay off the debts, and the others came for various reasons.

It sure made me wonder how I would react to be set down in some country where all was foreign to me.  I wonder if I would be as adaptable as some.  And if I had not already been thinking about the aging process, this would have made me think about it.  I don't know if that is good or bad.

If I were rating this on a scale of 1 to 5, I would probably give it a 3.8....mot quite a 4 but almost.

B&W with a twist of yellow....

I take this shot several times a year...never really managing to capture the feeling I want.  So I was trying to do something with it and this is what I came up with.  I must say I like this a bit better than the full-color version.  Something about the way the B&W part feels.  Just look at the power lines...they seem to go on forever.
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There is definitely a chill in the air today...not even 45ºF yet...and high is predicted to be 53ºF. It is quite the change from a couple or three months ago.  We have had to turn on the heat.  In all the years of picking apples, I do not remember it being this cool this early.  This type of coolness came at the end of October.  Oh, the mornings might have been cool...and I think I remember there being a skim of snow one year for Covered Bridge Festival, but I think that was before I started working at the orchard.

Granny Smith apples were the last thing we picked every year....we waited as long as we could....in all the years we worked there, I think we waited too long one time.  What is too long you might ask...that is when it comes a hard freeze.  Well, one year we did wait...it came a skim of snow...this was around November 2 or 3...well, the boss still wanted them picked.  I don't remember why...he couldn't sell them.  But maybe it was to use in cider.  Not even sure about that.

So I picked them...had gloves on...but my hands still froze.  Every so often I got down off my picker and went and held my hands in front of the muffler of my picker to get warm!  I think that was the one and only time my hands got numb with cold while picking apples.

Call the Midwife

(This image is from Amazon--I will probably be buying the actual book)
Have you seen it yet...the show on PBS called Call the Midwife? It aired on our PBS this past weekend but I didn't get to watch it...I recorded it later and got to sit down and watch it last night.

It is one more show worth watching for us. It is based on these memoirs of Jennifer Worth who left a comfortable home to become a nurse and midwife right after WWII...she moved into a convent to work with nuns and other nurses who were already doing the work. There is a housing shortage at that time and people live in ways UN-imagineable to us today. Just so crowded...and such squalor.
 
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In my opinion, PBS has some of the best shows on television...we have been hooked on it forever.  One that was a favorite with both of us is Foyle's War.  We are now re=watching the episodes through Netflix.

I was going to try to list more of what we have watched and/or rewatch...and the list is endless.  We almost always watch Masterpiece Theater or Masterpiece Mystery....we are very seldom disappointed with those shows.  Let alone shows like Red Green...for fun, or The Joy of Painting, Quilting Arts, or Fons and Porter for instruction.

I just wondered, are there shows you always watch...and what are they?

Good times!

This is what Sarah was working on this past weekend...

As you can see...it is a big hit.

She doesn't want to go inside when it is time to quit and go in...

Fun!

We have been talking about things she says and what they really mean...the ones that really stand out are:
 'It's okay.  I didn't do anything!' means I definitely did something and am not sure if I will be in trouble or not.

'Mamaw, be nice to me!'  means she is going to ask me something that she done knows the answer to.

'Mamaw, you are mean to me' means she is not getting her way.

'I want something good' means she wants candy.

'I want something like a circle' or 'I want something round' means she wants a Rollo candy.

I know there are more Loreleisms but right now they escape me....

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It is funny....twice this past weekend she came to me and told me she wanted to go to bed...and we weren't up that late--9:30ish.  I think both times after we get to bed, she is asking me things, and I am trying to answer her and she tells me to be quiet, she wants to go to sleep!

Oh, and the one night she wanted to sing songs...and she likes Rock-a-bye Baby in the treetop...so I sang it and made up a bunch of lines to it... then I told her I was tired and needed to rest.  She started singing it and she sang Rock-a-bye Mamaw in the tree top......I about lost it.  I thought poor tree!

Did you know...

Would you ever guess that I love fall?  Just kidding...

What I wanted to say is this...and is probably most of you know this.  When I had Windows XP, if I was reading something that was hard to read, I could highlight it and then hold the curser over it, and roll the scroll button and it would increase the size of the print.  Well, I had noticed that didn't work with Win7.  I don't remember really thinking about the situation with Vista...so don't know what worked with it.

But the other day I had open something that was hard for me to read, so I googled how to increase the size.

To increase the size of the page you are looking at, hold down the control button and hit the '+' button...you don't have to hold down the shift. 

To shrink/decrease the size of a webpage, hold down the control key and hit the '-' sign.

Of course, you don't use the apostrophes either time....just thought maybe someone might use this.
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Misted rain this morn, but finally cleared up this evening.  It will be tempting to get up and take off somewhere tomorrow. 

The dam at Mansfield, Indiana

The above photo was taken in May of 2010....the water is maybe up a bit, but now much.  Notice the wide expanse of water below the dam...then look below at the photo taken September 19 of this year.

What a difference in the amount of water coming over the dam.  The kids used to take their inner tubes and drag them up to just below the dam and then float down and come over the ledge of rocks.  They would not be doing that in the bottom photo.

We have had misting rain all day long...hopefully we will eventually get enough to get things back to normal.  We still have a long way to go.  Sometimes I wonder if we will ever catch up.  The creeks just seem to stay so shallow.

It has been a trying sort of day.  We went to Walmart this morn...I try not to go to Walmart on the first of the month, but was out of catfood.  The canned variety.  My cats had been living on dry catfood for two or three days and they thought they might starve if they had to go another day without a can of food.  So off we go.

Well, there was this one little old lady that probably thought I was a stalker...everywhere I went, there she was.  Right where I needed to go.  And she was a real lady if you know what I mean...just a gentle soul.  So some of the time I just went somewhere else, and others just waited till she moved...and I wondered how much longer would it be till I was that little old lady that wasn't aware of anything or anyone. 

So, we get checked out and are heading to the Rav4 when Roger remembers he meant to get oil to change the oil in it...so he unloads everything and heads back in to get the oil and filter.  I thought about telling him to be sure to get the right filter...but I thought he always checks and double checks.

We come home and unload and he takes the Rav to the garage and drains the oil and removes the old filter before looking at the new one.  He had picked up the wrong on...he comes to tell me he has to go exchange it. He leaves.  He comes back in a minute...the truck would not start.  Dead battery.  So he puts the charger on it and kills a bit of time.  Goes back out and it wouldn't start, but he ran the cables from the Rav to it and it started fine.

Goes for a drive before heading to get the filter.  He gets the filter and comes back out...the battery is dead.  He tells me to go next door to get a neighbor to come give him a jump...and I hate to...and think of my girlfriend...we hang up and I do head over to the neighbor but he is not home.  Another neighbor would have gone, but he has a condition with his eyes where he is not supposed to drive...so I end up calling my girlfriend for her to go.

Well, Roger makes it home..he had decided to just get a new battery...but Walmart didn't have one so it was a good thing my friend went...she took him to an auto parts store to buy one.

I know I am leaving out something...maybe even more than one, but this is enough to share at the moment anyway.  I am just glad the day is done and I can mess around a while.

Splashes of color everywhere....

We took a scenic route today coming home from meeting Lorelei's dad...oh, so much beauty.

I did not do a good job of capturing the beauty, but I gave it a try.

I will probably be doing several posts from this day alone...but can't wait to get out for more photos.
It was just glorious to see.