Life in the Bristolwood

Yesterday, I met with one of my very special friends!  Yup, Jeanne and I met on the internet, then in real, live person, last year.  Jeanne and I both blog and we both love doing crafty things.  We both love dogs and the list goes on and on.  What a treat to make a new friend any time, but even moreso when we don’t live too far apart!

We met at Wegman’s and had lunch and hung out together.  We always have so much fun giggling about things and it seems like the time passes much too quickly.   We had a good time and talked about getting together again. 

I brought along two of my little Scottie Bells for Jeanne, along with some candy.  She gave me such a pretty necklace!  I am having problems uploading photos again….what is up with that, anyway?

So, I shall leave you with an interesting photo.  The past couple of nights, it has been so very, very cold at night!  When I woke up in the morning,  upon going outside,  I could hear the hydrants over at Bristol Mountain, making snow.  Now, we have no snow at all on the ground. Truth be told, the woods are looking kind of drab with tons of brown leaves and stark naked trees….so this photo kind of tells it all!

You can see the snow is somewhat sparse, but the funny thing?  People were already skiing!

Michelle has finished up this quarter of the school year.  Rochester Institute of Technology does things its own little way. Instead of the typical semesters, the school does quarters.  Each quarter is made up of a ten week (intense) session.  This will be changing, but only after Michelle has already graduated next year! The following year, they will begin doing semesters.

Michelle is now awaiting her final grades, which will certainly be good ones.  She has studied and worked hard and it has paid off.  So, I wanted to do something a little different and fun today as a bit of a celebration.  I asked and Michelle thought taking a ride to Bath would be fun.  We planned to do a bit of shopping, pick up some Chinese, and visit with Eunice, my Amish friend, on the way home.

We did the shopping and then the Chinese, then headed off to Eunice’s house.  Upon arriving there, they had just gotten home from attending a wedding.  It was so much fun to see little Chris (3) dressed in his white shirt, black pants with suspenders, and a little black coat.  He is such a cutie and Michelle was so impressed by how much he knows!  I bought him a book that has pictures that you place stickers on and as he looked at the pictures, he called out the name of the animals!  Amish kids typically speak Pennsylvania Dutch (a corrupt German) at home and the kids don’t learn English until they begin school at age five. Eunice began getting High Five Magazine  (a publication of the same company that produces  Highlights Magazine)  and Chris is learning so much! Michelle said he also called out the names of letters as he pointed to them. Very impressive for a three year old!

Little Susanna is now about fifteen months old.  She has grown so much and is about the size of a baby her age. She sits on the floor on a blanket and watches everything going on around her. She was wearing a pale blue dress with a pretty white apron and white kappe. She also had on black stockings and little knitted black booties.  She was so adorable to watch….she is happy as a lark and kicks her little feet in excitement.

Eunice was baking up “just seven dozen”  cookies.  She has a woman in Bath that sells them for her.  I was so surprised to see her using a recipe for Pumpkin Whoopie Pies that I had given her!  She baked as we chatted away. She wasn’t using a timer for her cookies…she would just pull them out from the wood cookstove and then rotate the tray and place them back in the oven until they were golden brown.  Eunice moved here two years ago and before that, she had a bakery in Michigan. She said she baked tremendous amounts of cookies, pies, and bread back then!

As always, I so enjoyed our visit.  As always, it ended too soon!  It was beginning to get late and the sky was getting dark. Michelle and I said our good-byes and went outside.  As we left the house, it was pouring down snow.  I quickly opened the door and called for Chris to “come!”  As soon as he saw the snow, he threw his curly little blonf head back and let out a tremendous burst of laughter! Then he went over to a piece of equipment sitting outside the door and “tasted” the snow.  He was so funny.

The family buggy was still sitting outside the barn, so I asked Michelle to snap a photo of it.

Between the dusk setting in and the snow falling, this photo looks out of focus, but  you can see the trails of snow against the black buggy.

I drove home and was glad I did!  As we headed north, the snow got progressively heavier as we traveled. I could keep the high beams on the Explorer on for awhile, but had to dim them most of the way home.  This was scary, as this is the time of the year when deer are a bit giddy and have a tendency to run out onto the road. 

By the time we finally reached Naples, the center lines and white outside lines on the road were totally covered in snow.  There had to have been at least three inches of snow on the roads and there wasn’t a plow anywhere in sight!  I drove so slowly and opposing traffic all came toward me with their flashers on.

We reached our hill and I stopped at the bottom to place the Explorer in High 4 x4.  I am so grateful for the tires on that vehicle…they are wonderful, even on snow-covered steep hills! Here is what we came home to…

The snow has stopped now and the wind is picking up. Thus, the fickle weather continues with Saturday being warmer once again.  We just never seem to know what is next!

I will leave you, Dear Reader, with this.

When my dad gave me the planter filled with Begonias for my birthday back in August, he made a comment that the flowers ought to last at least “one more month”.  How about *three* months!  Although the flowers on the front side of the planter were killed by frost, the ones facing the house are still continuing to bloom!

Tonight, I am thankful for friends! It is always so wonderful to get out and visit with Eunice and Noah.  I miss so many other friends…it seems like my friends are mostly located long distances from my home!

Last evening,  I went for a little walk down to the lake at the campground.  I wanted a photo for my journal since I had missed the day before. No matter how hard I tried to connect,  I just could not.  Bound and determined to get a “Blip”,  I found a rather cute (or ugly!)  capture. Thankfully, it published just fine last night.

While I am at it, here is the photo that did not upload the night before.  These ducks were at Darien Lake Park.

Okay, so back to last night. After my frog photo,  I walked back to the campsite when what should happen to be parked directly kitty-corner to our site?

Yes! That is a Scotty camper that is a 2010 remake of a camper  produced in 1963. As I looked at it,  I noticed Scottie statues placed here and there. Sure enough, guess what ELSE was there?

That is Flora,the Wheaten Scottie,  and her brother, Murdo, a Brindle. On the Scottie forums, when a Scottie lies down with his legs straight out like that, it is called “froggin’”!

I spoke to the friendly couple who owned the camper and pups.  They were so happy to hear about our Scotties, too!  They are both of Scottish descent and Frank plays the bagpipes!  Of course they would have a Scottycamper and two Scotties!!! It was so fun talking with them.  They gave me a card and we are going to keep in touch.

Before we left this morning,  Bonnie and Frank came over and took a picture of Michelle and I with Angus and Murphy!  I really enjoy camping because one often meets such nice people!

Argh!  I have not been doing much  here, as I have not been doing much!  I have been staying put at home and tending to all the typical “spring” things, that just are not too exciting.  I have not taken many photos lately either.  I’m not burned out or such,  but there just isn’t that much to photograph!

Saturday afternoon,  we drove the kids down to Bath for an “event” featuring eight different bands.  The show began in the late afternoon and ran on until late evening.  We dropped the kids off and then went to see Eunice and Noah.  I have not seen Eunice in a couple of months, so this was a highlight of my day!

Little Susanna has grown so much!  She will celebrated  her nine month markthe 17th and I am thinking she must weigh about fourteen pounds now.  Pretty good for one who began life under two pounds!  She smiles and giggles like crazy and it so adorable in a little white bonnet she wears.  Eunice said Susanna did spend five days in the hospital in late February after having a bad cough and breathing difficulties.  She was tested for pneumonia and was negative.  No whooping cough, either.  Eunice said they were unsure what,  exactly, the trouble was.

I had taken a garlic press for Eunice as she said she has never had one before.  She loves garlic, so I thought it would be a good gift for her.  She was quite happy to get it, too!  I also took along some “fancy” marzipan candy I bought at Aldi. It is special for Easter, and wrapped in pretty pastel wrappers.  Little Chris climbed up on the table and peeked inside the bag, finding the candy.  Eunice grinned and told him he would have to wait to eat it untl later.

I didn’t intend to stay long, as I was unable to forewarn Eunice of our rather unplanned visit.  She was so happy to see me,  but I didn’t want to interrupt her day.  We said our good-byes and I walked out to the truck.  I opened the door and there was Noah, sitting in the passenger seat, talking to Mark.  He finished up what he was saying and hopped out.

After we left,  Mark said that a doctor gave Noah a form to fill out regarding help with their (still) insurmountable  hospital bill for little Susanna.   The form  is for help from charity….the Amish will not take government help, but will welcome charity help.  At the bottom of the form,  there was even a question that asked if Medicare was received. (government)  It then asks,  if not,  why?  Of course, Noah would answer his church does not allow it.  We are praying this is the long awaited answer to our prayers for them!

Other than our day out on Saturday,  everything was been about “home”.  It seems there is so much to do! Last summer,  Mark and Ben picked up a fantastic porch swing….in order to mount it,  Mark decided to make some mounting blocks to bolt into the porch framing….convenient when he was the one who built our house….he knows where everything is! The only problem is that the weather has not been cooperating so the swing remains “seated” on the porch!

As you can see in the photo, the porch is wet. We have not only been “blessed” with  lots of rain, but also winds that were merciless for two days and yesterday and the day before….snow!  Our spring weather has been frightening!  Cold, grey, damp, and did I mention cold?  Seriously,  I would rather endure freezing temperatures and snow than this hovering a few degrees above freezing and continuous rain!  Wow!

All the spring flowers that have sprung seem to be in “on hold” mode!  The daffodils are partially opened, seeming like they refuse to show their faces until it warms up!

Tomorrow is the promise that it will warm up!  With rain…(of course!)  Hopefully, these “April showers” willgive way to some heavenly “May flowers”!  Of course, if the weather is getting to be too much and your sunny disposition has just been overwhelmed, take heart!  Just go to Aldi and pick up some of that fabulous marzipan candy….it is chocolate coated, after all….AND,  we know that chocolate can cure almost any blues!

Since my friend Eunice is Amish, she doesn’t allow herself to be photographed.  She knows how much I love photography and I even gave her a photo of the tiny fawn I had found in the woods.  There was one moment during one of my visits when she looked so pretty with her sparkling white Kapp on her head and she leaned forward, bringing tiny baby Susanna up to her face.  At that time, Susanna didn’t weigh even four pounds, but her tiny face came almost nose to nose with her mama and her eyes focussed and studied Eunice. Oh, how I longed  to capture that moment, but it was not to be.  I would never ask Eunice to allow something she feels is wrong.

Having explained the above, I received a letter from Eunice last week.  I was so surprised, as we have not written to one another for awhile. We both knew she was going to be very busy with a new baby that had some catching up to do, as well as keeping up with a young man two years old! I do try to visit at least once a month….Eunice said in her letter to let her know when I am coming so she can have some snacks ready!

After finishing up her letter,  I turned it over, seeing something on the back.  Oh, how precious!!!

I guess if I cannot have a photo, a tracing of those little hands is really special! (Eunice was holding Baby Susanna on her arms, so her writing is a little hard to read)

Ain’t me! hahaha

As I was reading on Facebook this afternoon, a friend of mine posted that she was making up a batch of Buffalo Chicken Wing Soup.  My curiosity piqued!  Our family loves Buffalo Chicken Wings. We have even traveled to Buffalo to buy authentic wings.  With about 10 grams of fat per wing, however, this is not a food we would desire to frequent.

After giving up his love of spicy, hot wings, Mark and I put our heads togther and came up with Buffalo Wing style chicken breasts.  These are good and I make them with boneless skinless breasts, so they really are healthy compared to wings!

I began searching the internet for a Buffalo Chicken Wing Soup recipe and several came up.  I gleaned ingredients from a couple of the most appealing to me recipes. Here is what I came up with.

I sauteed 3/4 cup onion  and 3/4 cup celery in about a tablespoon of butter.  (as soon as the juices from the onion began to come out, I covered the mix and turned the heat to very low so they would remain hot) When I make this again, I will up this to almost double this amount.

Into the Crockpot, I placed:

5 cups milk 

1 cup water

3 cups chicken (I used the leftovers from a WaMart Rotisserie chicken)

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of celery soup

Franks or your favorite hot sauce to taste

1 cup sour cream

The onion and celery from above. Mix together well.

Turn heat to low and allow to cook about 3 hours.

How easy is that?  The best part is that if some family members want more spicy soup, they can add more hot sauce.  And, speaking of hot sauce,  the Dollar Tree has a nice sauce that is more tasty than just plain Frank’s.  That said, I make my own hot sauce.  The recipe was given to me by a cowboy as he was breathing his last breath…

1 Tablespoon butter or margarine

8 ounces Frank’s Hot Sauce (Yes, I buy this stuff at Sam’s Club by the gallon)

2 ounces Tabasco Sauce

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

pinch of sugar

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Dash of Worchestershire Sauce

This is a (very) spicy sauce with a more flavorful “bouquet of hot” and sometimes to make it even spicier, we add a tiny bit of Habanero powder! Weehaw!

Well, that does it for the fare on our table this evening.  Oh, I did make some Magic Cookie Bars from a recipe on the side of Eagle Brand Condensed Milk.  They turned out YUMMY! I also made some rolls that will go into the oven in a few minutes and I will add a salad as well.

What better meal on a cold winter’s evening?  So glad my friend, Debbie, mentioned this!!

***Will add a photo in a bit***

Yesterday, I had a delightful day.  It all began fairly early as I dropped the kids off at school.  I had a few errands to run, so that was first on my list.  It was weird going into the store and not have to worry about the family or Scotties sitting and waiting in the truck.  Instead, I could wander around as much as I wanted without feeling uncomfortable!

After running my errands, I went and got a bagel to munch.  Since the Tim Horton store is located just a short distance from the lake,  I thought I would eat my bagel on the city pier.  I pulled the truck over and began eating when I spotted that Peregrine Falcon once again.  I dutifully set the bagel aside and hiked on over to see the bird again.  This time, however, I did have the telephoto lens on the Nikon!

If you click on the photo below, you can see that naughty raptor sticking his tongue out at me!

Try as I might, it was so hard to crop this photo so it wasn’t so gruesome. I wanted to show this particular photo as it is pretty good of his face.

Of course, there was the typical waterfowl….

and then some….

Of course I did try to get a closer photo of the heron, but when I got to where it was, it was gone.

The was a lot of activity on the lake, though.

There were also several ice fishermen with their little tentlike structures on the ice.  Seeing the great variety of things to do made me think there was a city on the ice!

I sat and looked through the numerous photos I had taken of the falcon and before I knew it, it was time to meet with my friend,   Jeanne! We met at a restaurant that is situated at the north end of the lake,  very near to Kershaw Park. 

Jeanne and I met and we chattered away, laughing and just having a great time! We ordered burgers, and they had to be some of the largest burgers I have ever seen!  What could be more fun than meeting up with a friend and just having some unrushed, fun conversation?  Well….

As we were getting ready to leave, Jeanne gave me the most beautifully wrapped gift!  She said to go ahead and open it when I got home.  Oh my goodness!!!!

Jeanne’s husband is a very talented woodworker and Jeanne gave me this beautiful Zebrawood candleholder he made! AND,  Jeanne made the adorable little card! Jeanne crafts all sorts of lovely cards…so creative! These treasures are being showcased on the table so everyone can see them!

What a fantastic day it was. It is like a breath of fresh air having a day with no great obligations or time constraints!

Jeanne, thank you once again!

I cannot believe I have once again allowed this blog to get behind, but I have! It seems like each day brings on more tasks and we are always going upwards! (as in pushing a very large boulder uphill!)

Today, Mark had a dental cleaning appoinment late this morning.  After the appointment, we drove down to Hornell to get the snowmobiles registered.  It is always so much easier to go to the Hornell office, as Canandaigua requires one to go to three different clerks before getting out the door.  The system sounds good, but when going, it is wise to pack a lunch!  Okay, slight exaggeration, but I don’t like waiting in line for hours…and yes, it really is hours!

After visiting the DMV,  we were off to get a late lunch.  We had a tremendous lunch at a Chinese restaurant there and then we were off again…this time to the home of my Amish friend and her husband.  Mark has been trying to help them in negotiating with the hospital for their baby daughter’s care.

If I may rant for a bit…

We are asked to be *tolerant* as far as skin color, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, etc.  Why, then, are the Amish treated like second rate citizens?  Let me make note that an organization that works with Amish and Mennonites has tried to negotiate with the hospital to no avail.  It is a known fact that hospitals charge well above the actual cost of services and goods provided.  The company that tried to do the negotiating offered a higher amount than Medicaid would pay, and they were turned down.  The hospital  never even came back with a counter offer.

My heart aches for my friends. They don’t have a third of a million dollars for their bill.  Why is the hospital being so stubborn!  Well,  my friends have begun making small payments to the hospital and as long as they are paying something, I hope that will keep the wolves at bay.  Why would the hospital have turned down a large lump sum only to be given a small amount each month?  In all actuality, the amount will take probably more than a lifetime to pay off.

Well, sorry to rant, but I feel so helpless! 

Tis the night before the night before Christmas!  Is everyone ready?  I feel like I am behind, but I will leave it at that.  I am tired of feeling like Christmas has to be perfect.  After all, the perfect Christmas gift was offered to all mankind in the form of a precious baby, and He is the best gift of all!

How’s that for a title?  Let me tell you, that is precisely how life feels right now.  Every day, it seems there is some new plot/ploy/scheme in which I am conned into playing!  Well, it isn’t that bad, really, as it sure beats sitting around like a couch tater!

Yesterday afternoon, I got to meet in person a blog friend who lives not too far from my home!  We got together at one of her favorite places to eat, called Simply Crepes. 

 I was about ten minutes late for our one o’clock meet, but let me tell you, Jeanne and I chatted away like we’ve known each other for ages!  We giggled and laughed and ate the most incredibly delicious crepes!

Jeanne selected a tasty-looking Thai Beef Crepe….

While I opted for (yeah, Mrs. Spicy….that’s me!) a Buffalo chicken crepe.  It was fabulous! Mmmm!

I love the decor in this store. I am always trying to do the umexpected when it comes to decor.  For me to walk into a room full of furniture in which everything matches perfectly,  I feel like I am in a showroom.  I *like* mismatched pieces and feel much more at home with styles and designs that might just contradict one another.  (I am sure there must be a test somewhere that would analyze such characteristics!)  When I looked up and saw crossbraces supporting the floor above the ceiling with chandeliers hanging below,  I really, really liked this place!

A cozy mantel, complete with  fireplace just added so much to the atmosphere!

I love the red and gold Christmas theme placed on the mantle as well!

Our waitress was a delight. She was amazed Jeanne and I were meeting for the first time and she laughed and had fun right along with us! Now, where might the photo of Jeanne and me be? Oops! For that, you need to take a peek at Jeanne’s blog ! Yes, although I had my Nikon with me, Jeanne was more forward thinking in having our very accommodating waitress snap a shot of the two of us!

This meeting was such a treat!  Jeanne was the same in person as she is in her blog….a personable, caring, sharing person!  And the best part?  Well…this just might become a tradition!

Well, once again, I am in a rather “stale” mode; or is that “stall”?  I’ve not been inspired to take any photos the past couple of days.  Today, however, I did have somewhat of an excuse. The wind has been howling mercilessly the entire day…I am convinced that were I to take a camera out in this, it would either shake so badly, all my images would be grossly distorted, or, (worse scenario) the camera would sail right out of my grip and fly into the atmosphere!

Today was a very boring day with the highlights being the food we consumed.  And it was not all that exciting!

My Amish friends have been on my mind a lot the past couple of days.  They are being faced with some whopping big bills from their little Susanna’s birth.  Since the Amish do not subscribe to insurance,  the price tag seems a bit insurmountable in my book.  If you are inclined, please keep my friend’s family in your prayers.  I know they are greatly appreciated!

Hopefully I will be getting out and doing some photos again soon.  My poor trigger finger is itching badly!