Sunday Chat – Quilting, Food, and Fall Color

Glorious color adorns our driveway with the fall season reaching its peak. The reds and golds are brilliant even in this early dawn view. Fog settles into the valley sometimes, and I love that. This photo was taken two weeks ago, as the colors hit their peaks. When the sun came up over the east …

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Sunday Chat

It has been a minute since we had a Sunday chat. October was so jam packed with projects. November is a time to relax and enjoy the season. Autumn color is hitting its peak this past week or so, and the color is glorious. We did a wonderful drive on our mountain roads with a …

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More Fun at the Mountain State Fair

Tuesday night was the third cooking contest, this time with eggs. The rules specified a frittata, so I decided to make mine Mediterranean. It has Italian sausage, spinach, onion, garlic, mozzarella cheese and cherry tomatoes. Tomatoes often add too much water to a recipe, so I had the idea of cutting cherry tomatoes in half …

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More Fair Fun and a Tomato Tian

Today, I will share my third place winning recipe for the Tricolor Tomato Tian. A tian is a French peasant dish consisting of sliced vegetables, overlapped in an earthenware dish, then baked. The vegetables are meant to be the stars of the dish, so no sauces or cheese are added. I thought a tomato tian …

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Garden and State Fair

Rain fell off and on last week, and one drizzly morning these boys came by for a visit. Both males, they strutted around and loudly gobble-gobbled. I threw some sunflower seed hearts out for them. They were happy as clams to do a bit of hunt and peck. The goldfinches and a woodpecker got their …

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End of Summer Drive and Happy Mail

We had a nice drive recently with some friends. We wanted to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway when the weather cleared and cooled off, so we emailed our buddies and got a group to go. We met at a parking lot, then drove up to the parkway together. The scenery is lush and green everywhere, …

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Apple Festival Weekend

Labor Day weekend is Apple Festival time. This annual event celebrates our county's primary agricultural crop, with a downtown street festival that lasts four days. We usually try to get there for at least one day, often going for both the street festival and then coming back on Monday after they pick up all the …

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Mountain State Fair Final Prep

With all the entries I'll be doing in the fair, I have quite a bit of preparation to do. I pull things out I have made in the past year, go through my blog posts to make sure I have included everything I can, and maybe whip up a project or two for other categories. …

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Sunday Chat – Wildlife, Garden and Quilts

Another week of wildlife visits, this small flock of turkeys came by for a meal. I'm pretty sure these are four of the flock of seven that were here last week. They certainly came up running up from the lower meadow just like last time when I stepped out to the veranda and began tossing …

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Sunday Chat

Mornings have been delightfully cool, with temperatures in the low 60s F and even the high 50s yesterday (high teens C). Waking early, there are clear skies most days, but sometimes the humidity will cause fog in the valleys between the ridges of trees. Although the sky is light, the sun has not come over …

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