On Saturday, April 4, at 1:30 in the afternoon, 13 guests gathered at our home to experience Serena’s class project for “Tea Room 101”. This is a half-credit class which has included 5 sessions with Debra Richardson, the proprietor of The Yellow Carriage House Bed and Breakfast (who also conducts periodic teas), and work assisting her with teas in December. Although Serena has put on at least 5 high teas before, this was the first on which she was to be graded, and therefore Mom kept her own help to a minimum. Serena had her friend Caitlin come to help with last minute preparations and serving during the tea. I was the official hostess — getting to greet guests, sit at the table and enjoy scrumptious treats, and leave all the cleanup to Serena and Caitlin. I like this kind of entertaining! Continue reading “Serena’s Daffodil Tea”
Thomas Archeologist Trio Unearths Mudroom!
We FELT like archeologists, and we certainly did a lot of unearthing as Lydia, Serena, and I spent most of the day Monday turning Ben Allen and Emily’s cluttered mudroom into a usable space once more. I didn’t think to take any “before” pictures, but you family members know what it was like — barely room to walk through it to the garage. Continue reading “Thomas Archeologist Trio Unearths Mudroom!”
I set my husband on fire, mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!
No, really! Well…I put something in his ear and set THAT on fire. Continue reading “I set my husband on fire, mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
Living in 2009
Gotta love this!
YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2009 when…
1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail Continue reading “Living in 2009”
Artist in Residence
Serena’s art is going to the dogs….in a manner of speaking. Her art tutor had her playing around with different shades of red and red-brown on brown paper, as a break from oil painting (in which she is doing extremely well, by the way). Serena chose a picture of a dog’s head to experiment on. Continue reading “Artist in Residence”
Another Catalpa tree bites the dust
Actually, the dust (driveway) bit the Catalpa. Catalpa wood isn’t strong, and this one shattered when it hit. The day, Wed., 2/11, brought high winds(gusting up to 40 mph), and a short but heavy storm. This is always a bad recipe for old trees. The ground gets saturated, the wind blows, and the roots come out. Much of our 1/2 mile front avenue was once bordered by Catalpas, now probably 100 years old. A wind shear a few years back took out 5 in close proximity to each other, and other storms have claimed a few more. Continue reading “Another Catalpa tree bites the dust”
The surprise that almost wasn’t
In the midst of Iceland, we had been making surreptitious plans with Rainey (Sarah’s husband), to come down and surprise her for her birthday. The ice threw a kink into those plans. Serena volunteered to stay home to look after things, since she had to work Friday, anyway. But we weren’t comfortable leaving her when it involved kerosene heaters and generators. Enter our wonderful cousin, John Graham, who lives in Shelbyville. He agreed to come out and be with Serena during the nights, and help her oversee the mechanical devices that were powering and heating the house. His wife, Ann, took Serena to work Friday, after Serena hiked down to the end of the avenue. (By then, we’d had a few more inches of snow over the ice to make the driveway even more treacherous.) More on that in a minute. Continue reading “The surprise that almost wasn’t”
Encased in ICE
This year has been busy happening, and my posts haven’t, so I’m going to try to catch up today. The biggest recent happening (and the coldest, most destructive and pestiferous) was the now famous ice storm that swept over 6 states — KY being about in the middle. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. Oh, we’ve had sleet. It left a beautiful icing on the trees for the sun to set asparkle, and maybe resulted in a lot of small twigs falling to the ground. We had one of those late in 2004.
Raise that kind of storm several exponential powers! Continue reading “Encased in ICE”
Our gift from China at Christmas
We have a special gift with us this Christmas. Vanessa Liu, our daughter’s Chinese roommate at OSU, has come to stay over the holidays,
and in only a few days she has become dear to our hearts. (Here she is with Rene, her friend from OSU who brought her down.) We talk about China & America, the ways our two cultures are different or the same, and why we do all the things we do. She has been helping clean and decorate some, she went to the ornament exchange with the CPC ladies Mon. night, and yesterday she had fun feeding the chickens. She will join us in gift giving and receiving on Christmas day, and be at a big family dinner this Sat. Though she doesn’t understand much of it, she has also joined us in corporate & family worship.
This Sun. evening past we had Continue reading “Our gift from China at Christmas”
Do not farm
Almost 200 years ago our family came to this area to start farming. My information on the first 75 years is sketchy; about all I’m sure of is that they didn’t move to our present location until the 1840s, when my great, great grandfather built the “old place” now restored by the Paul Hornback family. In all that time, there were many ups and downs for farming, and no doubt many pessimists. Nevertheless, we’re still here, growing mostly crops and a little jet fuel.
Victor Davis Hanson is a conservative commentator I respect, who is widely read and very well educated. He is a college professor, and a farmer. Here is what he Continue reading “Do not farm”