Thankful

I know this is a late post but I did want to put up some pix of our Thanksgiving. This is just one of the tables that was set for the 13 of us, well not quite set but about to be.


My friend and neighbor, Susan, gave me this card she made for Thanksgiving. After dinner we passed it around and we all wrote what we were thankful for. Everyone wrote they were grateful for their friends and family, especially their girl/boyfriend, wife/husband.


The little turkey on the left has been on our Thanksgiving table for 26 years. Our oldest son, Aramin, made it in an after school crafts class when he was 6. It's a large pine cone with fuzzy pipe cleaners and googly eyes. It's so damn cute! We've spent T-day at Chincoteague, cabins in New Germany, the house in Cumberland, and Aramin's turkey has had a place of honor on all the thanksgiving tables. It's nice to have a tradition.


I arranged the fall gourds one last time before bringing them in to make pies, soups and breads.


These apples made perhaps the best apple pie I've ever made. Homemade crust and not too sweet, yummy. I didn't have any room for pie that night though. Even though I had a little plate (I only had a place setting of my fancy dishes for 12) I managed to fill it up too much and was moaning by the end. I guess once a year is ok.


We all look pretty satiated and happy.


...and some of us just went into a tryptophan coma. Good times!

Run, Turkey, Run!

Yesterday while driving down a country road towards home, I saw a wild turkey in the woods. So beautiful. It looked right at me as I slowly drove by. I said, "Run, turkey, run!" Not a good day to be seen. But what a hypocrite I am....I had a dead, beige turkey bird in my back seat. To all you live turkeys out there, Happy Thanksgiving!

Fairy Slippers

The third Thursday of the month is our felting study group. We don't really study, we create. This month's project was making slippers. Above are Sharon's fairy slippers. She first made the felt material with wool roving and bits of yarn. Then pieces were cut out, sewn together into these adorable little shoes and embellished to make them even more awesome.


Sharon showed us how to stitch the ribbon on in this flower like pattern.


But it started here. When Sharon takes on a project, she does it in the most thorough way. She had lined up bags filled with various felted slippers, each done a different way. She explained each one, giving directions and showing a pattern for each. She even bought a pair of boots, deconstructed one and recreated it in in hand made felt, even adding a zipper.


These are just a few of the samples. They'll be decorated in time for our studio tour.


Grace wearing green, working with green, being green.


Roz fashioned fairy slippers for her granddaughter.


I decided to make regular slippers, not fairy slippers. I laid out layers of colorful roving first. It's hard to believe that mess of fluff.....


turned into these wearable booties. I need to turn down the tops, add some beads and ribbon and they'll be fabulous, and warm.


Cathy made hers with the cherries facing out when turned out.



This looks like the foot of Sasquatch but it turned out rather nice when it was felted down to a reasonable size. These are definately Bev's colors.


Sharon designs clothes and has plenty of beautiful material stacked on the shelves.


Her idea board.


and idea wall


Her thread is lined up by color. Sharon is an inspiration to us all and has the best studio for 'celebrating our spirit!' Thanks for putting up with us every month Sharon.

A Good Day for Eating, I Mean Spinning!

The third Monday of every month is our meeting of 'Spinning Tales'. About a dozen of us gather at member's homes for a few hours of spinning wool and knitting and of course, eating amazing food that we all bring. Last Monday we met at Marsha's home. Marsha has lived all over the world, working for the state department before she retired a few years ago to settle down in Barnesville. Twenty-five years ago Houston, Aramin and I lived in this house and Marsha was our landlady who we never met because she lived in Egypt. It's really strange for me to go back to this house after living in it for 3 years back in the 80's. At that time it had orange shag carpet and dark wood paneling. The house was built around 1900 but I guess it had been 'modernized' in the 70's. What were they thinking?!!!


I took a walk around her home and saw so many vignettes, I just had to capture some of them. Marsha has been to many markets in foreign lands and has collected an array of artsy objects. She is also a very good cook, creating ethnic delights. I try to never miss an event at Marsha's! She has a keen eye for displaying her fruits and veggies too. Pomegranates, apples and leaves make a beautiful autumnal display.


The wall in the 'great room' with 'art'ifacts from around the globe. Some day I'll have to have her tell me about them all. Even though they are all very pretty objects, they all have a purpose too.


Marsha has a wall of floor to ceiling shelves in the kitchen filled with wonderful crockery, woodenware and textiles.




Instead of upper cabinets, she has these little shelves chockablocka filled with items she can get to readily.






These might be the 3 wisemen riding on their camels. Not sure though cuz it looks like they're carrying weapons.


Every room feels like one is in a different country. I need to just sit on a cushion and take it all in. Handwoven rugs cover all the floors, overlapping each other, making a myriad of color and texture.


I should have gotten a photo of our meal. One woman is from Iran and brought these delicious delicacies, almondy and sweet. We had lentils with a hint of curry, rice salad, grainy bread, two kinds of wholesome soup, beet puree spread and for dessert 3 kinds of apple delights, baked apples, apple crisp and apple pie. See what I mean?!!!!

Women's 'Backpacking' Trip

For 20 years now a group of my women friends has gone a backpacking trip. We hike in the mountains of West Virginia or Virginia. Some years there are only two of us. The largest group we've had is ten. The first trip we took was up the 'Priest' on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia. My youngest son was 5 months old at the time and I was still nursing so I had to pump on the trail. All of us were mothers and left the kids behind for a weekend in the woods. We've had some amazing times in those woods. We were in our 30's and 40's then but 20 years later, in our 50's and 60's, we're still out there, hiking up mountains, sleeping in tents and hanging our food so the bears don't get it.

But two weeks ago, things turned out a bit different. We'd planned the trip for Tuesday through Thursday. Monday was nice but looking at the upcoming weather, a cold front was coming through until late Thursday. Great! Cold front meant 24 degrees, but with 24 miles per hour sustained winds, gusting up to 45, which meant that it felt like 15 degrees. Great! Kick in 6-8 inches of snow, and this was becoming a major expedition. We packed our 4-season tents, our warmest sleeping bags and layers of long underwear, fleece and down.


Because of the winter weather, I had looked for a cabin near Seneca Rocks, near our destination of Spruce Knob, the highest peak (4,863') in West Virginia. We would travel to the area and see what the weather was like before making a decision to camp or cabin it. The closer we got, the worse the weather looked near the tops of the peaks. We decided to stay in the cabin for the first night and see what the next day held for us. We hit the jackpot on the cabin.


The cabins that I had seen in this area the many times I had been through were little log boxes lined up along the roadside. We got the key to the cabin and the directions: go across the road, over the bridge (the North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River), go 1/4 mile and look up to the left.


All 8 of us went through the 'cabin', marveling at the two wide screen tv's, the hot tub, 8 beds (with mattresses!), 3 bathrooms (with showers!)


Comfort beyond belief!

After high fiving, picking out our beds for the night, and unpacking, we took a short hike, leaving right from our cabin to an overlook nearby.

Instead of being hunkered down at our campsite by 6:00 p.m., three to a tent, with no hope of a fire, we made a nice dinner of pasta, salad and bread, hopped in the hot tub, and drank wine around the fireplace, reminiscing on past backpacking trips. We really are adaptable! Sharon brought out her West Virginian moonshine, which is SO smooth going down.

Mrs. Smith got into the bottle for a nip at the moonshine. Needless to say, she was a bit tipsy. Mrs. Smith has joined us on many backpacking trips. She leaves Mr. Smith, Buddy and Suzie behind to enjoy time with the girls. She's a seasoned traveler, having been all over the world and has had many exciting experiences. She welcomes these with open arms.

After a warm night tucked away under covers in a real bed, we all expected to pack up our packs and head out to our destination, Seneca Creek Trail, Judy Springs, near Spruce Knob. We awoke to snow on our deck and still a whiteout on the mountain peaks. I listened to weather radio and it called for high winds, freezing temps, even a weather warning. So I thought it best to hunker down in the cabin for another night, 'roughing' it. It took awhile to talk the girls into this plan, say 1 minute.

We put on ALL of our clothes and took a hike up to Chimney Rocks, a trail that goes on for 28 miles to Seneca Rocks. We did just 6 miles of it.


It started out in autumn colored woods, with a blanket of leaves on the forest floor.

Mrs. Smith laid down on the moss for a wee nap.


As we hiked up, the leaves became covered in a light dusting of snow.




It was as pretty looking down as it was looking up.

Melanie is a naturlist, leading hikes for the Audobon Society. Luck would have it that she comes on many of our backpacking trips, teaching us about the flora and fauna of the forest.


Chimney Rocks overlooks the narrow valley that meanders along the North Fork River.


I said that if my eyes go over, I could go over, so I backed off.

We had lunch on Chimney Rock, everything tasting really delicious.


After our short day hike, we drove on down to Seneca Rocks area.


We wanted to get in the snow so drove up a the road a bit.


Most of the back roads up here follow rivers, streams and creeks and this one was no exception. Otter Creek had large rock faces, coming right down to the water with rhododendrons cascading over them.


Our first snowfall make for happy smiles.




We probably should have brought another SUV, but wanted to save gas with the Prius. But the Prius just couldn't barrel its way up through the mud, then snow, then ice. We drove as far as we could, then turned around to go back to lower elevations and fall colors.


The next day, we attempted to drive up to Dolly Sods for another day hike but ran into ice so just parked the cars and walked a couple miles up the road.




The weather cleared as the day went on. We went back to the North Fork and had a long, leisurly lunch. We threw rocks into the water, built cairns, laid in the grass, looking up at the azure sky, watching the birds soar overhead, not wanting anyone to tear us away from the idyllic setting.


Most of us bought these shirts at the cabins' lobby. They say "River Dreaming Makes Me Happy".

Unfortunately, Mrs. Smith was held up at gunpoint while attempting to cross the road to get a t-shirt.


Julie was one happy camper! This was her first trip with us seasoned hikers and she fit right in. I hope she can come on all our future trips. She's the youngest so should be able to keep up with us!