Decided to take some photos on this very humid day and share them with you. Accompanied by Jackie Evancho (this song was paid for and downloaded from Amazon).
Sep22
Category Archives: PA.
Aug30
Longwood Bruce Hornsby concert
Brian and I had a nice time at this concert. It was the perfect evening, just cool enough to be pleasant. Bruce sang the songs I knew ‘The Way It Is’ and ‘Mandolin Rain’ near the end. I didn’t know many of his newer songs, but he has a great band. I saw a h.s. pal at the end when we had gotten up to leave and he came out for an encore.
Aug28
We survived Hurricane Irene!
It’s been a tense few days, but when we woke up with power and less rain we were very happy! According to the weather people, Hurricane Irene made landfall around 5:30 am in Little Egg Harbor, NJ, south from here, about 2 hours or so away. Unfortunately, my mom lost power around 10 pm or so and they think they heard a transmitter blow. Mom is more suburban than us. We do have a little water in a few places in our basement, but very manageable. Because it didn’t rain as much as they thought, that saved us. Also we put plastic around outside. Brian and I are dopey from nerves and achy from doing stuff outside. Thank goodness he cleaned the rain gutters out more as that probably helped too. Whew!
Now to look forward to the Bruce Hornsby concert on Tuesday and the Beatlemania trip on Saturday. No more hurricanes for my last hurrah of the summer. ; )
Update: 11:14 am is history-she’s a tropical storm now!
Aug26
Getting prepared
This is a scary, bustling time here. Definitely the calm before the storm. Today I was moving plants and stacking chairs up. I filled both watering cans, a metal bucket and the garden cart with water. When you have a well, when the power goes out, so does the ability to flush a toilet. We learned the hard way back in 1998 when we didn’t have power for 3-4 days. Brian was getting water from the stream out back to use. Not a pleasant experience. I am making ice, but bought a bag for the big cooler. I did get to the store. We have several groceries stores within a 5 mile radius, so I chose one outside of Kennett and it wasn’t bad at all. It’s funny what people buy when they think they will be stuck inside. Other than water, lots of canned nuts were gone. Not a lot of meat was purchased. Like me, they are worried about wasting money on food that may spoil. I bought tuna, soup, crackers, pudding, celery, and other things that may be easy to eat. I figure we could do soup on the grill. I’ll have to be really hungry to eat it that way though. ; ) I cooked half a dozen hard-boiled eggs and also some bacon. I boiled up some pasta. I think we will be okay, much more prepared than all those years ago. We have lots of bottled drinking water. I’m more worried about my two large windows. I told Brian we need to make sure there isn’t any metal that will be flying around the yard. Of course another thing is 6-10 inches of expected rain that may have no where to go. We just had a lot of rain yesterday. Last year we had an issue with water pouring out of where the hole in the wall is for the well, not fun. I was thinking if we used the big funnel (we have) at the end of a hose and had the other end in the big sink in the basement, that may work or help. We have a few things to figure out, but I am worried about all the stuff in that basement. I’ve been wanting help to clean it out for years, we do a piddly clean up and stop. I do have a terrible dust allergy and I got pneumonia after putting Christmas stuff away last year. Not sure if that’s a connection, but it could be. It’s been smelling musty, so I put on the portable fan and spray Lysol aroun. If you don’t hear from me for a while, you know we lost power. I will try to ‘tweet’ until the phone battery goes (I’d have to charge it up again in the car) which shows up in the left side bar. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as I will you who may be affected by this monster storm.
Aug24
Us in the audience!
Us in the audience!, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
Sean and I did get down to see the taping of a local Philly chat show. It was lots of fun to be part of the audience. We got up at 6:30 am, left at 7:50 am and got there at 9:20 a.m.-that was close! We were some of the last people to check in, but we got to sit in the second row behind women and their kids who won a Phillies photo contest. They had added that stip on to their Facebook page and I do have some good photos of us at that smoldering game last year and Sean standing in the parking lot of the stadium. Sean tries to go to a game a year with his dad, but couldn’t afford it this year as he purchased the car. So this was a fun thing to do and he got to see the ace pitcher Cliff Lee.
I photographed these off the tv when we got home as they re-broadcast the show at 5 pm.
Who we came to see: Cliff Lee
Author and cook Cynthia Goch was on and made a few dishes-one of which was Eggplant Pizza. Here’s the recipe:
Me outside the studio with our goodies-a towel, a photo and a Chester County Women’s booklet (Sean gave his to my mom).
Jul22
Please send a cool breeze…
(The above photo is from my walk at Longwood Gardens last week)
We are in our 6th day of a heatwave-murder! I was out setting up a hose and sprinkle for the garden that Sean purchased yesterday. It’s one of those little round sprinkers and I had to move it around and get a little wet, but in 97 degree heat it was worth it.
I thought I’d share this photo of something that looks like it would blow nicely in the breeze…ornamental grass.
Not sure if consigning is right for me as out of 28 items, only 4 have sold so far. And I was peeved as some of my things are missing and the lady shrugged that off. I really like browsing around and finding some treasures, but when they aren’t watching their clientele that closely, that’s if they are stealing the Phillies t-shirt we couldn’t find along with a few books and a little shelf. I have an appointment for next week-think I’ll just wait until August now to pick up the things that didn’t sell. This time of year people are spending money on vacations, not used stuff.
I’m waiting on a few things for the car like mats and a seat cover. The driver’s seat is a bit ‘wrinkled’ (it’s leather), so I found a cover with the Chrysler logo. I’ll have to take a few photos when everything is in place. Did I tell you it’s the best car I ever drove? This surprised Brian for some reason. The van was good, but it was hard to see over the hood sometimes and Sean had problems galore parking it. I had a Crown Victoria which was nice, but that was a typical big 1980s car. ; )
Guess I’ll keep myself busy around the house.
Stay cool!
Jul15
Monochrome flowers
I went to Longwood Gardens by myself as my mom said she wasn’t able to drive as her back was bad. She said she doesn’t think she will be able to drive out here that much anymore. : (
I was sitting fiddling with the camera settings as the files were too large and my card was filled up. I decided to try the monochrome and shot this right next to where I was sitting. Pretty cool!
I walked around almost the entire place and did well, not too hot! I walked up at least 50+ steps. I guess losing 6-7 pounds is a plus. More photos…
I ❤ you!
Reflection of sky with water lilies
For Zoey!
Jun24
Lancaster landscape
Sean and I went up to Lancaster later in the afternoon. I got this photo of the Gap, PA clock tower from the car and edited it right before we went around the corner to head toward Strasberg first. The top part was lit up at night. My phone was acting a bit wonky-seems you have to have 4G and the 3G just barely picks up anything. I tried to take other photos (got a few) but then I got a gazillion error messages. Must be all the open space.
We stopped by sweet ‘Hidden Acres’ farm and the little Amish lady who waited on me before was selling off stuff for buy one get one free. She also had a table of freebies. I got about 15 things, plus a wicker plant stand for about $23! She gave me some green tomatoes and I may try and ripen them up. Her daughter was doing busy work pulling weeds out of pots of hostas. The highlight of going there was seeing a foal less than a week old-so sweet. I took a few photos, but only one is good. They were in their shelter and when we stopped to look, the mama came out and paraded the baby for a bit and went back to the shelter. Ahhhh.
We did some shopping. The Gap and Banana Republic had almost everything in their stores on sale for 40% off-even the already marked down things. Also got some goodies at Bath and Body Works and the Christmas Tree Shops (they have a huge one up there). Sean cashed in quarters from Pop-pop-so we had over $80 to play with. : ) Why not? We ate at Red Robin, but I was still hungry as I thought my chicken and salad would be bigger, so we stopped at a Creamery in Strasberg and got ice cream-Sean got coconut and me lemon chiffon. I was below calorie count, but that was about all. Ugh. I walked down the street and tooks some photos of this old town. There was a tour going on with a young man in a cape with a lantern, We should do that sometime like Carole and Steve do!
It was a nice time spent with Sean. : ) He went out to meet friends right after we got home!
Jun23
I keep adding to the mix
First of all Happy 88th Birthday to Brian’s dad Frannie! Wow, that is a milestone birthday. The guys are seeing him after work. I’m not as they both are taking separate cars. He was rather ill last year and could barely get around. He is so much better this year though we worry about him living on his own. The yard is way too much work. He has a guy cut the grass and trim some stuff, but he got poison ivy bad in the backyard and doesn’t want to tackle that! I don’t blame him. He needs a super duper bottle of weed killer.
Yesterday I was down in my hometown to accompany mom to the doctor. She has had a sore right arm off and on and the doctor thinks it’s a pulled muscle. He took blood to keep her sugar in check. After she was finished, we went across the street to an Asian market and produce place. I was snooping around (lots of their things are picked over now), but I found this beauty, a Passion Flower for only $14.99. I know if I had gone to the garden center I went to later to purchase the same thing, it would have been at least $40 or more.
My friend Meg had one a few years ago and I couldn’t stop looking at it. I will have to see if it gets fruit.
Mom and I had some salad and gourmet pizza next. I only eat one piece and eat mostly salad. I lost 5 pounds in a month which is a small feat for me! I’m trying to loss in 5 pound intervals which is the safest and most practical way.
After dinner we went to JoAnn’s and their lawn decor is down to 60% off. I got a few more gnomes as some here getting old and broken. I didn’t stop there and usually overdo it at that store.
After I dropped mom off, I headed to the fancy Terrain garden center again. Remember the pocket gardens from a few weeks ago? I looked closely at them and they could surely be made from gardeners’ block fabric, maybe doubled. My camera was losing it’s charge or I would have taken a photo to show how bushy everything got! Great idea. I was looking for things for a few bowl gardens. Remember they are pricey and I went ahead and did buy some things like an ice plant, etc. Also found a chocolate Cosmo-it sure looks like the color of chocolate.
Today it’s like a sauna outside and the catkins are falling from the Chestnut trees. I did up two bowls with the new plants. I think they need a few decorations in them! I’ll share soon.
Not sure if you have heard of the ‘Jackass’ tv shows and movies, but pretty sure you have. It was all over the news that one of the stars, 34 yr old Ryan Dunn was killed early Monday morning in a firey car crash along with his friend Zack. They were driving at 130 and his alcohol level was twice what it should be. That happened near the hospital I was in for my appendix in January as they both lived in West Chester, PA. So some people are cashing in on this tragedy-this one lady sold the local paper about the crash for $10K and another is up to $100k on eBay! Not sure if they are legit, but they do look like they are. I hope she donates some of her winnings to MADD (Mothers against drunk driving). Although this is indeed a tragedy and it took 2 lives, he could have hit other vehicles instead of going through a grove of trees. By the way, Brian works for the paper that got the big bids.
Jun16
Red Trumpet Espalier trained vines
I went for a much needed walk at Longwood Gardens today. I will always take my camera! I didn’t realize a few weeks ago that this espalier was trumpet vines. I have some orange ones growing over the shed. I haven’t uploaded all my photos yet (something going on at Flickr). Here are a few to share.
Even Amish people like the gardens..
I thought this was an interesting perspective shot:
Peaceful flow of water:
Perfect veggie patch:
Adorable child’s seating area in the big veggie garden:
Pinks in the Conservatory:
Collages & Creative Goodness 