GOT TO GET ---

--- GUSSIED UP ... NOVEMBER 21 2013

Whatever that is.  I have already started this a.m. because it takes much much longer to look presentable. and tonight I have to look presentable.  I will be working on the "presentable" most of the day.

And just why is that?

I am one of the 20 accepted artists to display their work at the Shrader Center at Oglebay Park in Wheeling for the next  about 6 weeks.  Our work will be on display and for sale.  They have bus load after bus load coming through the park for the Christmas Festival of Lights, and that is one of the stops.  Then there will be the private automobiles.  All of the above spend much of the day at Oglebay.

Spent part of the day Tuesday preparing my display.  Tonight is the artist's reception, beginning at 5 p.m.  You know, food and all that stuff. 

Now you know about the "gussied up" bit.  Going to be a major operation.  Really major.

I love every minute of it.  Best part, two of my friends, Russ and Vicki, also have their work on display.  We will definitely party tonight!!!!!!!!  The show and sale lasts until early January.

And since I am such a good step-mom, am making a pot of home-made vegetable soup for bossman for his supper tonight.  Am I good or what?  I also have ulterior motives, but will not go into that until later.

I am attaching two of my newest pics.  No - these are not at Oglebay but will be with me when I do the Aladdin Shrine Temple Christmas Festival in Columbus, Ohio.  Just thought you might like seeing them.

Quite an extreme, one ready to collapse into the water, another sparkling in the sun.  The floating away is at the 1000 Islands in New York.  The Victorian Mansion is in Pennsylvania.

Well, better get off of here and make the soup.  That way I can have some for my lunch.  Just taste-testing you know.

Have a great day and God Bless.

I SEEM TO BE MISSING

A LOT OF DAYS... NOVEMBER 20 2013...

That's right.  When I decided to blog I thought it had just been a couple of days - not a couple of WEEKS!

I know I am busy - but a COUPLE OF WEEKS.  What on earth have I been doing?  I always knew I was a "little bit off", "not quite all there", but losing a couple of weeks.  That is pretty pitiful.

Yes - I know I have been preparing for, and doing, my last couple of festivals for the year.  Yes, I have already been wrapping Christmas presents.  Tell you more about that later, if I don't forget.  Making my menu for Thanksgiving dinner so I know what to get at the grocery store.   If I remember to take my list. Getting ready for a houseful on Thanksgiving day.  Getting ready for another houseful 2 days later when the family arrives from Maine.  Getting ready for another houseful of hunters Monday after (first day of deer season) to join the houseful from Maine) for the traditional turkey noodle soup, sandwiches and desert lunch.  Been doing that for more years than I can count.

Does anyone have a clue as to what I just wrote?  If you do, please clue me in.

It is no wonder that I can't keep track of time.  It just seems to disappear.  Lucky me.  I am getting older way faster than I thought I was, and that was fast enough, thank you.

Somewhere in all this confusion I want to get the Christmas tree and decorations in place. 

If you hear on TV or read in the newspaper about this "elderly" woman (not that I am elderly) who went spastic - don't ask me what spastic is, and don't ask me what I went, as at this time I don't have a clue)  you can figure it was me.

If within a reasonable amount of time I don't do another blog, you will know it was me.   Now, who would like to bail me out of Jail?

Have a great day and God Bless.

I WONDER WHAT I WILL

TALK ABOUT TODAY???NOVEMBER 04 2013

Besides having a blank mind - it is cold (brrrr!) outside.  Still have some flower bed work to be done, but not today.  Maybe not 'til spring  -  you never know.

I know I will go vote tomorrow.  I know I will attend Bible study on Wednesday morning.  That's my total list of what I know.  You really don't want to see the list of what I don't know. 

Have cleaned up my matting and framing area - not that it needed it.  But with only 2 more festivals this year I will not be adding any new pictures at this time.  What I have is what you'll get..

That area is now my official Christmas Gift Wrapping area,  a  really easy place to sort, wrap, label, pack and get ready for shipping and/or placing under the tree.  Said tree will go up the day after Thanksgiving (I DO NOT SHOP ON BLACK FRIDAY, WHICH STARTS ON THANKSGIVING DAY THIS YEAR, WHICH SHOULD BE OUTLAWED) but the presents will not start appearing until the middle of December. I like to keep everyone guessing.

I usually have two boxes to ship - one to Maine and one to Arizona.  This year, if all goes as planned, I will have the Maine packages all wrapped, labeled, and packed.  The kids are planning on driving home the Saturday after Thanksgiving so the guys can go deer hunting.  Us girls get to play house, or some such thing.

Talk about perfect timing.  A few fewer boxes to lug to Staples - I like to ship UPS as the packages are delivered to the door - for shipment. 

Well, had better get cracking.  If my computer co-operates I will share 3-4 pictures down (up) on the farm.  Have a great day and God Bless.

WE BIT THE BULLET---

-- THIS TIME! ... OCTOBER 24 2013 ...

No snow, no frost, no ice on our mountain-top this morning.  A lot of areas did get some snow yesterday, but we were passed by.

Bit the Bullet.  I have heard this phrase all my life.  Wonder who came up with it, and what it really means.  I take it  two different ways.

First -  way back when, long long ago, when some  surgeries were performed, there was no anesthesia.  If nothing else was available (mostly in time of war, on the battlefield) the patient was given a bullet to bite down on during surgery.  I've never figured out just how that helps, but that is what they did.  Also in pioneer times.

Second - I've always had this crazy thought in the back of my mind.  I keep envisioning someone being shot at and catching the bullet in their mouth.  Therefore they were not shot.

I wonder how many more ways this can be described?

It IS a beautiful morning.  Bright sunshine, cold, flowers are still blooming.  Bossman just cut the grass again over the past weekend.  Yard looks the nicest it has all year.  Of course all I hear is "just look at who was riding the tractor".

Finished printing, matting, and in some instances, framing the pictures I need to take with me to the fairgrounds festival this weekend to replace what has been sold.  I have just two more weekends of festivals this year, both in November, one in Morgantown WV and the final in Columbus Ohio.  Then I can put everything away, and get out the Christmas present wrapping stuff.

In case you are wondering - my matting and framing area becomes the Christmas present area. 

Looking forward to the holidays - as they are fast approaching.  I think there should be a law against the merchants opening their stores on Thanksgiving.  Pretty soon we will not have any holidays. 

But enough of my rambling.  Have a great day and God Bless.

LIFE's TWISTS and TURNS--

AND THE BLESSINGS ... OCTOBER 22 2013 ....

What a twisty-turney road we travel on our life's journey.  You never know what might be around the next bend.  I want to tell you about one of those twists.

I've mentioned before  the many many folks I have met through the years from participating in the festivals.  I would like to begin telling of some of these blessings.

Today I am going to tell of this couple, not that they are more important than any of my other friends, but to tell you about courage.


They are Paul Estronza LaViolette and his wife Stella LaViolette.  She loves to cook and bake.  He writes books.  His books touch on the real-life challenges we all face, and the happiness we have all experienced at one time or another.

It has been, probably 5 or 6 years ago now, that I first met them at one of my festivals.  He was a vendor.  Selling the books that he had written.  He came by my booth, and, no other way to explain it, fell in love with one of my framed pictures.  He returned to my booth whenever he had a free moment and just looked, and talked with me.

He told me about his books, how they touch on life's experiences.  I visited his booth and saw his books.  Thinking "what the heck" I asked him if he ever traded any of his books for whatever.  His face lit up like a Christmas tree.  He got the picture, I got 3 of his books.

Needless to say I found his books were wonderful.  Mostly  short stories, but, oh my!  What stories.  The hardest to read was of their experiences of surviving the horrendous hurricane that  destroyed New Orleans and much of the Mississippi coast, where they lived.  Frankly I don't know how they coped, I don't think I could have.

We see each other twice a year.  He gets a picture, I get a new book.  He is in his 80's now.   He has been in a terrible tractor accident on  his farm in Blairsville Pa (where he moved when he lost everything in the hurricane).  His neck was broken, he was life-flighted to the hospital, was not supposed to survive, but there he was, with his wife and his books. 

We talked.  He got a new picture, I got  new books.

If any of you attend the second weekend at the fairgrounds this coming Saturday and Sunday, I hope you will look him and his wife up, and possibly purchase a book.  His stories are memories of what used to be.  And what memories/stories they are.

Have a good day and God Bless.

THE 4 SEASONS

AND LIFE IN GENERAL ... OCTOBEDR 21 2013...

What a beautiful fall morning, sunshine, dew glistening on the grass, a slight breeze.  To me fall is the best time of the year.

And I begin to think about life, and it's seasons.
Spring - the re-birth of the trees, turning green, the flowers beginning to poke thru the ground, some beginning to bloom.

Also spring is the season of being a new baby, just emerging from its shell, ready to grow and bloom.

Now it is summer.  Grass needs mowing.  Flower beds need weeded.  Garden is growing and there are flowers everywhere. 

Also summer is the season of having survived child-hood, the ups and downs, the lessons learned, education has been completed, time to become an adult - the summer of your life.

Then it is fall.  Spectacular beauty.  The spectrum of colors of the leaves.  The summer birds have left for warmer climates.  The winter birds are preparing for - what else - winter.

Also fall is the season of maturity.   We have survived spring and summer, now it is time to slow down and, which is not always an option, and reflect on our spring and summer.  Look back at our accomplishments, and yes, our failures.  Don't let regrets bog you down, you cannot change anything.  Just remember the good, the joys, the laughter and tears.  Know that you did the best you could do.

Now it is winter.  The winter of our lives.  Our days are growing shorter.  The hair, what is left of it, is white, the color has faded.  Just as the colors fade from the fall flowers as they approach their winter.  We know that soon now we will fade away, making room for all the new 'flowers' that will follow in our footsteps.  Just as the earth is covered with a blanket of snow, providing rest, we also will be covered with a 'blanket of snow', it is our time to rest.

We all will become just memories, as we remember the flowers of summer. 

The 4 seasons of all living things......

Enjoy your season, whatever it may be, and God Bless.

THE TRIP WINDING DOWN --

--- AND THE END OF SUMMER ... OCTOBER 14 2013

I apologize for the tine between blogs, but don't really know where the time has gone.  For someone retired for 14 years I seem to have no time.  I actually wonder how I ever had time to go to work  I also have retired friends who say the same thing.  Must be universal, or else we are enjoying life to the fullest.  When you are busy doing all the things you love to do time does fly.  And we all seem to be busy doing the things we love to do.

But, enough for the rambling.  First the trip winding down.  The pics are from some of the things as we were seeing on our way back to Boston.  They are of Baccus Winery and Canyon Ste-Anne on the Beaupre Coast and Montmorency Falls on the Isle of Orleans.

Now for the end of summer.  

Bossman got our potatoes dug and the garden mowed off, ready to be plowed preparing it for spring.  I mentioned that I really didn't want a garden - I can no longer play in it and one of my favorite things was digging potatoes.  Every hill was a surprise.  Bossman plows them out - he has some kind of an attachment on his tractor - then just has to pick them up.  He refuses to do the fun part of digging first.  His loss.  He said he was still going to have a small garden - just the things he likes.  Good for him.

Now for the VERRRY best part.  For supper last night we had homemade meatloaf and creamed NEW potatoes and peas.  One of our very favorite meals.  There is nothing like creamed new potatoes and fresh (in this case frozen) peas. 

Once the garden is mowed off it signals the end of summer.  He was lucky he got the potatoes over the weekend as we are predicted to have rain every day until Friday, maybe even then.

I am preparing for the final festival push of the season.  Will be at the Wash. Co. fairgrounds for the next two weekends.  Then in November will be at Morgantown WV and finally end up the season in Columbus Ohio the weekend before Thanksgiving.

In between, right after returning from Morgantown, I will be setting up some of my pictures at the Schrader Center at Oglebay Park for their Christmas show and sale.  Will attend the artists reception, and then the sale will last until January 5th.  This coincides with the Festival of Lights at Oglebay - there will be bus-load after bus-load of sightseers, and one of the stops is the Center and their Christmas art display. 

In January I will remove any pictures that did not sell, and everything will be in storage for the remainder of the winter.  But do I slow down?  Guess again.

Will have a houseful for Thaksgiving, family and friends from everywhere.

Then the Saturday after Thanksgiving the family from Maine will be arriving for the first week of deer season.  Will be preparing for them, and making the giant kettle of Turkey noodle soup for lunch on Monday.  It has been a tradition for more than 35 years that on the first day of deer season we serve all the hunters (and now some of their spouses, and some of their kids with their Jr. licenses) turkey soup, sandwiches, and either brownies or black bottom cup-cakes.  The latter alternates from year to year, and oh! the stories we have heard over the years.

Once this is over it is prepare for Christmas, when we will again have family and friends from all over. When New Year's Even finally arrives I am in bed at 9 p.m.  So much for celebrating.

Well, had better get cracking.  Things to do.  Have a great week, regardless of the rain (it could be snow) and God Bless.

SHHHHH!!!

DON'T TELL ANYONE ... OCTOBER 02 2013...

That's right.  Mum's the word.  I am taking over the blog today and don't want to get caught.  Who am I?  Why, Sam I am - you know - Lady Samantha Stryker - the bestest dog in the whole wide world.

I am sure you remember MY stories in the Talk Book series written by Bosslady?  If you don't it is your loss.

Anyhow enough is enough.  Yesterday was the pits.  Really.  

She had the nerve today it was a 3 rig circus and she was the middle ring, which I learned later was considered the best!  Who does she think she is?

I want to set the record straight.  Really straight.  Enough is enough.

Yesterday she took me and Coco downstairs.  She only does that when one thing is going to happen.  And it did.

First sown the steps, then the leashes were attached.  Ut oh?  Next came the van.  She only puts us in the van when we are going to make a trip to the vet for nasty stuff.  There goes my day, down the drain.  Little did I know.

We get to the van and decide to have some fun.  When we arrive and park, she gets out, first  as usual, comes around and opens the door for us.  We are such good dogs, especially ME!

Then the fun begins.  Coco goes one way, I, of course, go the other.  There she is, in the "middle" ring looking very foolish.  She can't even control two good dogs like we are.  

So we went inside, got weighed, and put in "the" room.  This is where we get poked, prodded, ears cleaned - ugghhh - mouth pried open, teeth examined, and then - THE NEEDLE.   I kept trying to get off the table, but is was slippery and I just slid around.  The vet said it was a good thing there was nothing on the table to give traction, I thought it was a very bad thing.

Finally I was back on the floor, leash attached, and it was Coco's turn.  Coco got to stay on the floor.  He did not have to be up on the slippery table.  Just because he weighs twice as much as I do.  Didn't seem as it if took as long to poke and prod him.    He got his shot and the vet said he would see us next year.  Goody! Time to go home.  

Then it happened!!! Bosslady had Coco's leash, but the other lady - not the vet, he was a man -  said she would take me downstairs, they would call when I was done.

What do they mean - downstairs?  What do they mean - they would call?  What do they mean - when I was done?

Coco didn't even try to help me.  

Well, I found out soon enough.  I was given a BATH! I thought those days were over.  Bossman used to bath me, and I made such a fuss, splashed water everywhere, shook water all over him, and just made his life as miserable as I possibly could, and he finally quit trying to bath me.  

Well, not only did I get a bath, they used all this funny smelling stuff all over me.  Then the dryer.  Did they think I was a load of clothes?  Then I was combed.  And last they put a bandanna on me - so I would look like Halloween.  Then they put me in a kennel.  Then they called Bosslady.

Of course she took her good old time coming to get me.  

I wouldn't tell, but I did enjoy the bandanna.  I had one and Coco didn't.  That makes me better than him, doesn't it?

Well my bubble burst when Bossman got home.  First thing he said was WHAT'S THAT THING ON HER?  The second thing he said was WHAT'S THAT SMELL.  Then he started laughing.

Yess, laughing at me.  I don't know when or how, but I WILL get even.

After all, I am LADY SAMANTHA STRYKER, and I am a very striking looking dog if I do say so myself.

Most of the time I am just Sam.  Sometimes Sammy Ann.  But when I am mis-behaving I am called SAMANTHA JANE!

Seems as if I hear Samantha Jane and awful lot.  I think they have me mixed up with some other critter.  Wellll, I had better go before I get caught.  I can always blame it on Coco.

DAYS 5-6-7-8-9

CRUISING and QUEBEC - PART 1 - ... SEPTEMBER 28 2013...

Days 5 and 9 were spent at sea - no land in sight.  Days 6-7-8 were spent in Quebec City Quebec Canada. and the surrounding area.  I am not a big city person, but I have to say I enjoyed getting to see Quebec.

The pictures I am sharing today are some of the buildings that I saw.  There was so much to see.   Later on I will share some of the places that I saw while doing some of the tours.  So much to see, so little time.   

Enjoy and God Bless.

DAYS 4 and 10

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, CHARLOTTETOWN. ANNE OF GREEN GABLES AND COW ICE CREAM TOUR... SEPTEMBER 27 2013

Rode the BIG PINK BUS around Charlottetown and surrounding area, seeing the sights and the scenery.  We visited a lovely park, did a regular bus tour visiting the Anne of Green Gables museum and then the house where the stories took place.  On the way back to town and our sip we stopped at Cows Ice Cream, toured the plant and, of course, ate ice cream. 

It rained off and on  day 10 but didn't put a damper on our fun.  What an educational, fun-filled two days.    Just remember this covered two days, one going and one coming.