We lived in Cary, North Carolina in the 1980’s and kept a home there until 2000. The first person we met in Cary was our realtor, and the second person we met was Garry Gardner. Garry built the house that we were buying which was’t quite finished, so we had to meet with him to discuss finishing options. He and his wife, Sue, took Mike and me out to dinner. It was the first of many dinners and vacations we would share.
We have so many pictures and videos of the years since that time. Here’s an old picture…I’m trying to remember when and where it was taken. Check Mike and me out. I’m Miss Skinny and he looks like Hitler’s brother. And wasn’t I a little old even then for barretts ? And folks…I can assure you that was Koolaid we were drinking! 🙂
Garry and Sue came to Virginia about two years ago. It was a visit that culminated all the years of friendship and we had a wonderful time. He went fishing. We went to see “Always Patsy Cline” at the Barter. We sat out on the porch and the night air felt like velvet. It was the last time I would see him.
Sue called last spring and encouraged Mike to come visit Garry. I didn’t want him to go for reasons that do not really matter. I’m glad he didn’t listen. He did go and spent about three days with them at their home in Morehead City, North Carolina. It was the last three days that Garry would have the strength to work in his shop. He knew his time was short and Mike asked him what he could do. He replied, “don’t forget Sue.” Mike came home on Sunday and within ten days, we received the call.
So I’m going to Raleigh for a blogger’s conference this weekend, and guess who is coming home with me? Sue!!
Mike has been working hard to get the guest house hardwood finished for Sue’s visit. She and I are going to be doing quite a few things in the coming week. Busy.Busy.Busy! I’ll introduce you to her and take you along.
It is one gray, rainy Sunday here in Mendota. Mike asked if I wanted to turn the heat on, but I think the gas fireplace will knock the chill off in our house. “Turn the fireplace on”…that is a term that I did not hear until the 1990’s. We used to build a fire in the fireplace, but now we “turn the fireplace on.” We have two gas fireplaces…the one in this picture is a direct vent, and it throws out a very modest amount of heat which is perfect for a day like today.
While the small bit of heat this fireplace throws out is good for today, it’s not enough during the winter. At that point, we use it more “for looks.” There is something about a fireplace and candles that lightens my mood.
I’ve got a candle stuck in one of the bowls of gourds in this picture although it doesn’t show up that well. That’s okay as the prettier part of this picture is one of my dear girls taking a snooze. That’s Princess Gracie Barker Beaule. She a member in good standing with the American Kennel Club…she proudly mentions this to Luckie daily. Luckie, of course, is of questionable lineage, and as Gracie constantly reminds her, she will never be a member of the American Kennel Club.
Here’s Luckie…it’s an old picture you’ve seen before of her eating her Dogster icey treat. She could care less about Gracie’s snobby remarks.
Back to candles… I put tea candles everywhere I can. They burn about four hours.
While everyone was sleeping and all these little candles were burning, I decided to cook up a pot of something…
My husband Mike knows me pretty well. Gifts from him? That he picked out? I don’t think so. Maybe once in a while. He did get the iPad right a few years back.
However, yesterday he did buy me something, and I like love it. I may like it as much as that iPad! That’s alot!
While I don’t know exactly how this will be used, I know it will be in the Master Bedroom (the room that it’s pictured in).
It was $9 at an antique store in Church Hill, Tennessee.
I may have to go back with him. I may need two. Or even three. Wonder how one without the glass would look with chalkpaint behind it in the garage as a “Reminder Board?”
In a post last week, I gave you Muriel’s Mom’s Pumpkin Bread Recipe and I boldly stated I was going to make it that night. Actually, that didn’t happen. I didn’t get it made until today!
I always keep my camera near and on the spur of the moment while starting the bread, I took this picture. Here is what the kitchen counter looks like for someone with the attention span of a gnat. I started getting the ingredients out for the pumpkin bread. See the canned pumpkin, the flour and some baking powder? Apparently, I also started unloading the dishwasher while starting to make the bread. I opened a can of paint to paint on the kitchen foyer, and I was watering a plant. I see a Mason jar which has white vinegar in it, and I recall using that for cleaning. I was doing all of these things at the same time. And…I was taking pictures. Yikes…please get me on medication!!
Actually, I like doing a lot of things at once. It works for me. A few hours later, I was looking at these babies…two little pumpkin breads to take to my neighbor tomorrow morning. There was a third one but it’s not currently wrapped in a bow! We’re eating it!
That pumpkin bread was easy to make and the batter was so light and fluffy. I was licking the spoon the whole time I was working with the batter.
I didn’t do too well getting the batter in the pan. Still, it was delicous when I got it out of the pan! There are bloggers who focus on how to photograph food. I haven’t got to read their stuff yet. I just snap pictures and hope for the best.
So…I had a paint can on the cabinet as I was touching up the walls on the small foyer area off our kitchen. I really like this area of the house. Lisa Snead of Bristol came out a few years ago and painted some lyrics of one of my favorite songs near the ceiling. It’s “Keep on The Sunny Side.” This song reflects how I want to live my life. It’s also a Carter Family song. I love it.
Here’s some not so great picture angles…
Keep on the sunny side of life…always on the sunny side…Keep on the sunny side…it will help us every day…
It will brighten all our way if we keep on the sunny side of life..
It continues on saying…
Let us greet with a song of hope each day though the moment be cloudy or fair..
Let us trust in our Savior…Keep on the sunny side of life.
Also in this foyer is a little whimsey…I like this black cat…she’s after something!
Here’s what she’s after…Mr. Mouse will always be just out of reach!
And when everyone else was in their rooster phase about ten years ago…I joined them..
And I’m still there. I like my roosters, and in my house, they still are working…still crowing! I don’t have too many…just a few.
And then there is this guy…He was so sick last week, but he’s fine now. He still hates everything.
Sam the Cat really hates this pink cat carrier. So girly!
Wow…September is over!! Did yours go fast? Mine was a September of change. I said a warm goodbye to my first “real” job at AGC GLass Company on August 31. I’d been off most of the summer on a leave of absence so I’d got a taste of not working and I was prepared for the change. Once I knew I was not going back to AGC, I called my pal Sue Cressel and asked if I could work part-time in her business, About Face Aesthetics, Skin Care and Weight Management. She graciously said yes, and I’ve been there about three weeks. I’d helped her a bit in the very earliest stages of her business, and it was something I always wanted to do. And now I’m doing it and really liking it.. Working three days per week allows me to have a little jingle in my pocket, access to some skincare products that might have been cost prohibitive, and time to spend on other activities that are important to me–like yakking it up here on this blog with you!!
I don’t have a picture for this post, and some of you have noticed that I’m in almost no pictures. Mike shows up rarely and I show up even less. Anyway, here’s a picture of me and my beloved Luckie Dog. Look at how she smiles! And there are the ever-present gourds from my garden..they are in every picture. Gourds and vacuum cleaners are my decor accessories.
I’ve enjoyed blogging, and this week I had my 100th post! I appreciate your reading RiverCliff Cottage It has keep me “on track” on days that I might have been less productive. Even if I don’t clean the house or check everything off my mental list, I wonder what I can share that might make you read this blog and return to read it again. And then I get moving! Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I do not, but I always try!! In two weeks I’ll be attending the Southern Bloggers Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina to learn how I can improve the content of this blog. Keep your fingers crossed!
I love our rural life in Mendota and while I try not to gush about it, I really like sharing it with you. It is special. Other projects that I enjoy writing about almost always include the “red thread” of using what is on hand…less about spending money and more about being creative. It has been rewarding.
During the month of September, I turned to my dull and boring laundry room, gagged and then changed the look and feel of that space for under $40. Here’s the results of that project. Since I live in the country, I like a natural, organic look rather than bling, and it was hard to find a fall wreath that I liked, so I made one! You can read about that here. One of the most fun fall projects was making fabric pumpkins. That post did not get the views that I thought it would, even though I only have about 40 cents in each one….check here if you want to take a second peek! Please look! My post last evening was a chalkboard paint project with a Salvation Army find…I enjoyed this project first thing this morning as I brushed my teeth. Smile!
I love it when you comment and let me know who you are and what you think. At some time in the future, I’m going to revisit the blog design and make it easier to find the comment section. I think it takes a little “hunting” right now. For those of you who hunt and find it, THANK YOU!! And as for my typing errors, please forgive me.
I hope October is a good month for you. Thank you again for visiting RiverCliff Cottage.
I have not been productive this weekend. At.all. In fact, so the weekend was not a total loss of productivity, I decided to clean the teeniest, tiniest room in my house, the “powder room” (basically commode and sink) and I could not even find the Windex. It was lost! Laid aside due to lack of use.
I did make one fun thing. I could not sleep last night, and at 2:00 am, I decided to work on a little project to pass the time. I’m not sure if I showed you my latest Salvation Army find for $3. It is a little silver-plated serving dish. Kingsport’s Salvation Army on Stone Drive rocks!!
It was a little dull, and I bet that is why it was at the Salvation Army. I tried to brighten it.
While this copper cream works well on copper, it worked only marginally on this. However, no fault found–it does say copper cream after all!
Once cleaned…what to do with it? I decided to try and paint the center and use it for an inspirational quote. A very short inspirational quote, but still….
I had no idea if this would turn out. It either was going to work or not going to work!!
It’s drying in this picture. It took two coats. This was the type of chalkpaint that you brush on which is about $9.50 at Lowe’s (my True Love).
Keep in mind…all this is going on somewhere between 2:00 am and 3:00 am. I was trying to take my mind off the fact that I was so hot!!! (Women of a certain age will understand this.) Watching the paint dry made me sleepy.
Here ya go! I’m working on my calligraphy and I’ll probably redo this or fix it a bit. If you are thinking of learning calligraphy, don’t contact the Washington County Public Library to get any books…I went online last night and reserved them all. They are headed from the Main Branch on a roadtrip to the Mendota Branch.
Sammy the Cat came home this afternoon feeling so much better than when he went to visit Dr. Steve Dotson at Bristol Animal Clinic. His abscess has been drained and he’s been pumped full of antibiotics (as there is no way I could get a pill down that throat). We’ve been trying to keep him in the house, and he’s been fairly pleasant, although he’s swung at me with his paw, bit at me and growled. I will admit, however, that some of those were in play.
After spending $170 on this little devil, I don’t want to let him out. However, about two hours ago he slipped out. I’ve been calling and calling.
I went and got Mike up and told him Sammy was gone…probably eaten by a coyote.
He went out on the porch with me to call and look for Sammy. He looked up toward the pergola and guess what he saw?
He won’t come down. I’ve held out ham and cooed at him. He just looks at me like I’m a small bug.
Sam the Sinister Cat went to the vet today. He normally gets very sick in the car, but he felt so bad that he did not eat this morning, so he was “running on empty.” He wasn’t very sinister either.
The lump that seemed so hard and didn’t seem painful when I first discovered it turned out to be an abscess. It was opened today by Dr. Dotson and he is spending the night at the Bristol Animal Clinic. I know it is scary for him to be caged and at the vet clinic overnight, but I’ll bet he is much more comfortable there than he was at home last night.
Since I’m working tomorrow, Mike will be picking him up.
I miss that mean little face tonight. I’m the only one he likes!
We’re in about the 4th day of fall, and the nights are getting very cool here in Mendota. I love sleeping in on these cold mornings.
Tomorrow I will not be sleeping in. As I mentioned in the post earlier this week, Sam the Cat has a lump on his little neck/jaw area. I did not think it was bothering him. I just found the lump on Monday while petting him, so I made an appointment for next Monday. Sam is a challenge to drive to the vet, and I wanted to be the one to drive him. Since I’m working on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week, I felt Monday was best since he did not appear to be in any discomfort and was eating normally. Now, however, he is in pain, and I’ve left my vet a message that he’ll have to see Sam tomorrow. Sam was abused as a kitten and he’s really a mean cat. He’ll have to be sedated before the vet will even be able to touch him. He also gets car sick. Poop pee puke. You get the picture. I hope you weren’t eating when you read that!
We’re still working on projects and getting ready for winter. This weekend, I worked on the beehives. I worked and took these pictures just as it became daylight as I wanted the bees to be inside their hives and not hanging around the entry way as they do during the day.
Here’s Hive #2. If you look at the base of the hive, you’ll see an opening going across the width of the structure. We leave that open during the “honey flow” so the bees can get in and out easily. If all is well, these hives have many thousands of bees bringing in pollen and nectar, and traffic can get quite congested. It reminds me of Federal Express in Memphis during take offs and landings. Quite fun to watch as they zoom in with their little pockets full of pollen.
As the weather cools and the bees become less active, we close this off. We do this to keep out cold and pests such as mice.
Here’s a picture of the same hive after I inserted a spacer. Look at the bottom now…
When it gets much colder, we’ll close this off to a very tiny opening which is much smaller than what you see in the picture above. I’m very worried about my bees and how they’ll do this winter. They are positioned so that they don’t get strong wind, but they also are in the shade. I’d really like for them to get the morning sun and the evening shade but it’s reversed. If we know in advance that there is extreme cold this winter, we may bubble wrap the hives to help hold in warmth. The bees will cluster around the queen and keep her at about 85 degrees. In summer, they fan her to keep her cool.
It is also time to remove the vents from the top of the hive. In the picture below, I’ve removed the cover, and I’m getting ready to remove the vent. The dark brown that you see under the screen are a few hundred bees.
The vent is very useful in the summer. Just like in your house, the hot air rises and the vent allows the heat to escape. If you have attic vents, it is a similar principle.
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In the picture below, I’ve removed the vent and placed the heavy block back on the hive to keep the roof in place. I left the vent on the side of the hive so that the bees will be able to get back into their hives. On the day following, I picked up the vents and took them home. I’ve now got to ask Gerald how I clean them up to store it for winter. We’ll be using these vents again next summer.
I really enjoy these bees. I was up at the hive this evening swapping around Mason jars of sugar water for these little guys. They’ve got used to my being there every day and are paying little attention when I make the swap. For some reason, one got up my sweatshirt sleeve (I wasn’t wearing the protective clothing). “Yikes,” I thought..”I’m going to get stung.” Wonder of wonders…I did not!! Thank you little bee (who by the way would have been dead tonight had he or she stung me.)
There is so much to learn and so much to risk if you do something wrong.
I will be so happy if next spring I have four hives of healthy bees.
To those who buy our honey, we greatly appreciate it. We are working hard to provide a quality honey and to to our part in restoring honeybees to Southwest Virginia.
I learned today that Southwest Virginia, particularly the Carter Family Fold, is being featured in this month’s Southern Living Magazine. I’ll be sure to pick up a copy of that! However, we had our own Southern Living Sunday right here in Mendota today at the Timmons’ Family Farm’s Third Annual Pig Pickin’.
It started as a beautiful fall day. I believe the high temperature was around 68 degrees. Look at the blue sky between the leaves of our red maple tree. Imagine this same picture in a few weeks as the leaves begin to color.
Our minister was away this weekend, so I stayed home from church to make deviled eggs and a berry cobbler for the “pig pickin” which was down the road from our house. When Mike came home from church, he had six pumpkins from Neal Faust. Neal is the farmer who mows our hay, and in payment , he gives us six pumpkins a year. We settled up this morning! This is how we roll in Mendota!
I put a few in around my foddershocks..
A bit after 12, we drove the golf cart two miles down Swinging Bridge Road to the Timmons farm. It was also their 40th anniversary. Connie is a wedding floral designer and her artistic eye touches everything so I’ve got a few fun pictures to share.
I love the very clever use of Coke bottles. I’ll bet she enjoyed that little Coke, too! They are the best!
The Timmons’ provided the pig which had been smelling really good all day, and they asked everyone to bring a “side” and/or a “dessert”. My friend Muriel brought this pretty pumpkin bread. I’ll be sharing her family recipe for this great bread later this week. I wish I had a piece right now.
I love the utensil table. Connie mixed Mendota’s “road” flowers that grow alongside the road with flowers from her garden. The arrangement is beautiful. This is typical of her talent…if she’s missing something in an arrangement, she just drives along the road for a bit and she always runs into something that works great!
Over at the beverage table, there were plenty of cups available…
The tea and lemonade were hidden in their burlap sacks. Great idea!
It was also Connie and Kernie’s 40th wedding anniversary celebration, but they were so busy playing host that they were seldom standing together. I did get a few pictures of them..
Here’s our host Kernie and his sweet grandson…
And here’s our hostess Connie with a young friend…
Lots of people attended…this picture includes Connie’s best friend and gives an idea of what the barn looks like with the lights. I call lights like these “fairy lights.”
Connie has been hard at work on a project that I’m very interested in. She has a quilt square for the barn. It’s not yet in place, but it will be beautiful when it’s hung on the barn. I am extremely jealous.
I’ll be sure in take a picture once she gets it hung.
The pig was a local boy who had a very good life, and this event’s success was largely in part to the talents of Jason Timmons, Connie and Kernie’s son, who is a professional chef. He cooked the pig! Here’s Jason…
