A busy week but crawling now........

...........This week started with me helping with a Destination Occasion wedding at Cypress Grove Park. The park is large and a very pretty place.  I discovered this statute which I had not seen before. It was erected in memory of Mrs Russel.  I am assuming it is the Mrs Russel who established The Russel House located next to the park. The Russel House is a family-run house that takes in the kind of people who desperately need help but would have a hard time getting admitted to most places. Much praise for the Russel family!!!

Maybe next time I am here I will take several pictures of the park and do a whole post on it.

Monday we were there for this wedding.

This cute little two year old guy was the best man and ring bearer.

Here is Stanley digging in his cargo pants pocket for some very important cargo - the rings!

He did great but needed a little help from dad.

This picture was made near the departure time. You will notice Stanley is having a rest on the steps.

Now, on to another subject.  I have really enjoyed this scene lately out of my dining room window.

Several times I have seen a hummingbird here on the agapanthus. As hard as I tried I never was able to get a picture at the right time.

Around in the front the pineapple continues to develop.

I think it probably will not get to an average size as it is still a little small (except for the top) but is turning yellow. I think that would be a sign of ripening. Hopefully, the raccoons will not discover it before it gets picked.

            We have had great rains lately and the Resurrection fern has been green and upright.

You never know where it will choose to grow.  Here it is on a big palm.

Since Wednesday I have been watching things grow from inside.  I had a second round of oral surgery. I am looking forward to being totally healed and eating normal again.

The low part of my backyard is still quite a jungle.  I can't see my pathway anymore.  My plan for next week is to try to gain control back here again.

I just "play" at gardening but have enjoyed the onions this year.  You might remember seeing them growing in a planter.

I used these in some soup I made the morning of the surgery. I don't know what I was thinking this morning when I tried to eat cereal, as usual. It didn't work at all!  Maybe the soup will be easier. I am going right now to give it a try.

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Hanover and Lancaster County.........

...........Showing the last part of my vacation posts.  Hanover, Pennsylvania was our shopping town when I was growing up on a farm at Glen Rock, R.D. #3.  We stayed four nights in a motel there this year. It was very handy and served our purpose quite well - just a short drive to where our family reunion was held. It also put us close to some other spots we wanted to "check out". 

 The first big picture above is on the square of Hanover. And, the bottom left is a Clarks Shoe store outlet. I was happy to get into that store since Clarks has become my favorite for sandals.  The middle picture on the bottom is my sister and it looks like she has found her shoes! Putting the pictures in this size collage and then making it larger distorts some of them a bit. I found out that day that Clarks originated in England.  I have always been a potato chip nut! And, Hanover is the home of the best potato chips EVER. The UTZ company has operated there for many years. I am always happy to get into their outlet store. I know most of you are familiar with the Snyders company. We also loaded up there. Just around the corner from Clarks is The Famous Hot Dog eatery. It also, has been in business there a long time and one of my relatives is the manager.

After getting our shopping done in Hanover we left and drove to Lancaster county.  I never get tired of paying that area a visit. The farms owned by the Amish people are about as pretty as you can find! It was a very hot, dry, day and this corn looks twisted. It is silage corn and has a tendency, I think, to look this way anyhow.  There must be more silos here than anywhere on earth. They are very large silos.

I have always had an admiration for the Amish. While some of their beliefs seem strange to me I know they are good people and they sure do know how to farm and cook!

We are always there during the same week that they have their big fund-raising auction.  They gather on this same farm each year.

I think she is headed to the auction.

They hold the auction under this very large tent, selling small household items, etc.

Under another big tent they sell food.  You will always see some of their specialties like shoefly pies.

I am not fond of those but I can vouch for the yummyness of these - especially the lemon!

I think their children are so cute and I love to see their clothes.  Since they really don't like to have their pictures taken you have to be candid and discreet.  My niece, Freida has a lens that takes great pictures from far away. She took all the pictures I am using in this post.

Don't they look sweet!!!

After leaving the auction we stopped in a favorite store and then decided to try to find some of the many covered bridges.

Most are still in use today.

The way they are structured is quite interesting.

Most of them are painted red but a few are white.

This one is in a beautiful park-like setting.

Even though we had a map they weren't very easy to find.  We saw a lot of the beautiful farms as we were searching for bridges.  It is fun to ride the back country roads.

This one was the only one we saw that is not in use.  It was either moved or the creek moved!

                        On another trip I saw about five different ones so I have seen a lot of Lancaster county covered bridges. I will pin these on Pinterest because I have noticed a lot of people have covered bridge boards.
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Reunion and farm fun........

......Every year for the last twenty-four years the Bare family has gathered at the Colton farm in south-east Pennsylvania for a reunion on Saturday near the 4th of July. This year around 75 family members (my siblings and their extended families) gathered from near and far on a beautiful, perfect-weather day.

 We share lunch, organized games and planned activities for all ages. There is lots of "catching up", reminiscing, picture taking and just having family fun in this perfect place.

One of my nieces, Linda and her husband live here  and she must "work her legs off" to have such a large, beautiful yard and vegetable garden.

Every where you look there is something to capture your interest!

One of my favorite things this year was enjoying her chickens.

                                                      They sure do enjoy watermelon!

He seems to be the king of the roost!!!

These ladies are all named and I am wishing I would have taken notes so I could introduce each one.

We are already anticipating a record crowd and much fun next year for the 25th!

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A big thanks to another niece, Freida, for several of these pictures.

Of lavender, family, shopping etc,.......

I have returned home after being on a vacation trip for two weeks. I had a great time but missed "blogville"! I have many pictures to show and will probably divide the trip into about three posts.  The first part of my trip was to Jonesborough Tennessee to visit family. Before I left home I had made a request to a family member that we visit the lavender shop in Jonesborough.........

 I had made several of these little bags and took them empty, hoping to find lavender flowers. As it turned out we went straight from the airport to the lavender store. She had lavender but she sold it in pound bags. A pound is a lot of lavender! It is also $40.00 a pound!  Thankfully, she agreed to sell half a pound.

I filled six or so bags and still had what is showing here in the jar left over. I used a rubber stamp on the bag, embroidered a lavender sprig across it and glued on the metal fleur de lis.

My niece & nephew gave me this and another bundle that they had grown in their Tennessee garden. I gave all but this one bag to family members. 

I picked out this little bowl and my sister insisted on paying for it.  By the way, I am starting my trip post with some little treasures I found - not because they come first in importance but because they are quicker to get posted.  I have tons of pictures to sort through for the next posts.

I will admit that part of the pleasure  of my trips to see family is finding inexpensive little things to bring back home. In the store next to the lavender store was this tea towel.

It is a good souvenir of my home town - Jonesborough.

This is the court house in Jonesborough - a beautiful structure. This picture was made from a lawn chair on the street!  Every Friday night in the summer they close off the street and have Music on the Square.

Last Friday night this group was there. I forget their exact name but I think the words Town Country are included. It is a bluegrass band - very good musicans. They had just come home from touring Europe. They are from North Carolina.

Here we are on the street. I am the one behind the big yellow cup and my ninety one year old sister next to me.

 

You may have glimpsed this old linen under the lavender bag, etc. in the first pictures. I found this in an antique store in Kingsport while on a traditional shopping day with two nieces (sisters). They are one and two years younger than I am and we were playmates when we were young. I guess we still are! This picture shows about a fourth of the table runner. It is made of linen and is in very good condition.  I was surprised to see the price of $6.00 on it!

This purchase has a story of its own. I thought for awhile I would not be bringing it home because I left it in the next store we went in!  How convenient that a nephew had a ball game near the store (quite a drive from his house and from where I was staying) a few days later and was able to reclaim it for me.

Can you tell that I like linens?  I found this new tea towel in the first antique store we went in that day. As you can see, I am using it on my small butcher block table.

The one dragon fly on it made it an easy sell for me.  That and the two shades of green.

Next came this Lenox sugar and creamer set.  I doubt it is antique but I liked the unusual shape of the creamer and its leaf design on the back. Plus, the price was surprisingly low for Lenox.

You might see this pictured again in my fall blog posts a little later.

Besides several antique stores we hit Hobby Lobby too.  That is where this chicken said she wanted to go home with me! How could I refuse her!

Isn't she a fine specimen???

At 66% off Hobby Lobby was practically giving away this large bag. I had it in my cart in the wink of an eye but one of the nieces put it in hers and then paid for it. This sure came in handy as a plane carry-on to help me get my purchases home.

After I knew I would not be paying for the bag I went back and got this cute little apron also 66% off.

It is well made with four different size pockets across the front, giving it more style.

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I traveled to Pennsylvania with my Tennessee relatives to attend our family reunion. I will continue with that in the next post.