Apples

Hi Dear Folk,

Yesterday I was walking over to my car in the parking lot at work, when I noticed a small apple tree absolutely laden with apples and all within easy reaching distance.  The tree sits in no mans land, within two office buildings, and a lot had already fallen to the ground and were rotting.  I don't know why I have not noticed it in previous years, but somehow I think this is a bumper year for tree crops.  Our oak tree is bombing down acorns at an alarming rate.

Within less than ten minutes I had two bag full, I was picking with both hands, there were so many on the tree. They are very nice, not all eaten out by worms, a little small, their taste is tart, but edible and will be great for cooking. I have no idea what they are. Today I peeled and put them in freezer bags.  Well half are done.

Each bag will make at least two large pies or crumbles.

Apples are so versatile, chutneys, pies, crumbles and my Jewish Apple Cake to name a few.

Good things for winter.

Christy

P.S.  I popped over to the thrift to see if they had one of those apple peelers, which they so often do, people seem to get fed up with keeping them, but I thought it might be good for a whole load of apple peeling, do you think they work?

To no avail though, when I went not a one to be seen.

Instead I came home with an old lithograph tin from the fifties, those graphics get me every time.  I think most the ones you pick up in the States that come from the UK have come down to us by way of Canada.  I'm sure this one did.  I'm looking at the cars and thinking that even though the tin was for Sharp's toffees and made in England the picture and especially the cars in the background look very North American, I'm looking at that Woodie on the right.  I know it has a piper on but Canadians love their pipers too and have a strong Scot's heritage.  So maybe a graphic especially for the Canadian market.

Old New York State

Hi Dear Folk,

Just a little peek at old towns in New York State.  This is Penn Yan the name is a combination of the people who settled here, mostly Pennsylvanians and New Englanders (Yankees), thus Penn Yan and sits on Lake Keuka, one of the Finger Lakes.

The Birkett Mills have been in continuous production since 1797 over 200 hundred years.  Take a look at the Birkett Mills website some good recipes there too.  Buckwheat always sounds so very American to me.

These are the buildings and style of Main Street in an old town New York State.

This took me back to my youth the stationery shop which sells just about everything you can think of, even those old book keeping ledgers, who uses those now?  Maybe the Mennonite and Amish, as a certain amount settled in this area from our area Lancaster County Pennsylvania.

Some nice note cards, printed in the USA that's a novelty.

This is part of the Cayuga - Seneca Canal system, which is in turn part of the greater New York/Erie Canal system. Basically a canal that runs East-West along the top of the Finger Lakes which run North-South.  This is a fascinating geological area.  It always amazes me that all the Lakes at the south end, end in some kind of beautiful gorge waterfalls, Watkins Glenn being the most well known but many other truly spectacular falls.

Being a lover of yarn I had to take a photo of the old Seneca Knitting Mills.  These mills provided socks for men in the Civil War, and other wars.  Also socks from this mill were the first to step on the moon.  It saddens me to see places like this closed.  The building is to be turned into The National Women's Hall of Fame, but since that depends on funding, I don't think that will be too soon.

During our travels I picked up an old cherry/olive pitter and a nut grinder, just little ones that sit on top of a small glass container.  Fun little useful things for the kitchen.

Hope you enjoyed our travels.

Christy

Eating Turkish and Tapas, Ithaca, NY

Hi Dear Folk,

I hope some of you dear folk are still there.  The trees are turning color already, we have had such a dry spell, although it rained all last night, all yesterday and all the night before.  When I walked out of my door this morning the garden smelled so fresh.  My newly sown grass seed will appreciate it.  What a job, so much of my lawn on the one side where the oak and ash tree dwell and dwelt, is bare.  Mr. B. had to take the rototiller to it, it was like concrete.  We are hoping it is successful, but this is meant to be the correct time of year to do this.

So thought I'd just share some highlights from my summer and finish off my trip to Ithaca.  On the way into Ithaca you see this little sign try the Istanbul Turkish Kitchen best Turkish restaurant in the area.  We found it in a little strip shopping center in Ithaca, certainly not in the main drag area.  The inside is tastefully decorated, and I fell in love with the beautiful Turkish glass lamps they had throughout the restaurant and also could be purchased, I was very temped but was restrained by The Boy, men.

I had the lamb with yogurt sauce, very good.

The Boy had this totally vegetarian platter below, we both had a taste of each others food.

I liked the table cloths.

What about these wonderful Turkish coffee cups, I'm so in love with these.  Of course we had to try those sweet honey deserts.

I had asked The Boy which restaurant he had wanted to try in town Just A Taste this is a Tapas restaurant opposite where he works.  We had to wait a while to get in and were able to get seating out back which was delightful on a summers evening, with a glass of port. 

When we were in Spain we wanted to try Tapas, but it never worked out.  This was American food served Tapas style, some items on the menu were authentically Spanish.

None of us get to eat out too much so this was a real treat for both of us.  Lovely shared memory with Rob.

Christy

A Study In Squirrels and Much More

Hi Dear Folk,

Where has the summer gone?  And now I notice even though the days are still hot, my drive to work is tinged with autumn.  Some trees already show a touch of red, and a few leaves are beginning to fall and it is not even September.

I called this a study in squirrels but it is just as much a study in how to use my new Mac.  Coming from years spent on a PC it is definitely a learning curve.  Such as in Photos how do I add a text watermark on my photos and almost everything is the opposite.  The thing is you need time and I don't seem to have had a lot of that.

My son laments that Mac called their new program Photos just that, it was iPhoto, so when you go to Google everything under the sun comes up for photos so you must put Mac Photos when you want to trouble shoot.

In any case I did figure out how to add text it was pretty simple when you have the time to spend.

I've been busy in the garden, eventually we got the tree man here to cut our white ash down, but oh what a mess afterwards, all that sawdust in the grass, and Mr. B. had to rent a log splitter to split the large pieces into fire size pieces.  Which is a monster of a thing, we had to take out a piece of fencing and roll it over all my hoster, which now look pretty worse for wear, although it was the end of the season and they were in demise.

I spent all day last Saturday in the garden cleaning up wood chips and moving at least a cord of split wood from off the lawn to under the oak tree for Mr. B. to stack.  Then I man-handled my giant china pots out of the garage and onto the tree stump, filled them with potting soil, ran over to the local produce and plant shop, covered in dirt and wearing my old gardening clogs, who knows what they thought, but I did get a lovely hibiscus to go in one pot and a showy orange zinnia to go in the other pot, mission accomplished.  More weeding, sweeping and cleaning in the yard.  By the time Mr. B. came home from work I said just run out and buy Chinese for dinner,  by then it was well past seven in the evening.  We sat together on the oak patio, under the oak tree and although tired it did feel good to have accomplished so much.

The thing is with working full time you have to jam so much into a weekend, and the previous Saturday I had been away all day at the shore.  I went down with my girlfriends to Belmawr, NJ, five of us in all, we had a great day.  It only took an hour and a quarter to get there.  You see Pennsylvanians almost always go to South New Jersey shore points, which is a two hour drive from us and New Yorkers go to the Northern New Jersey shore points and never the twain shall meet.  So when I said to the girl at work that I was going to Belmawr, it's like why on earth would you want to go there.

It is full of these beautiful old homes built earlier last century, the beach is long and very nice.  Our day just seemed to flow.  We found the last parking space right on the beach up near the bridge over to Avon-On-Sea, parked the car and took a while to figure out how to pay for parking, during which time a huge dragonfly alighted on the strap of my friends bag and didn't seem to want to leave. Brown with spots, exquisite with those gossamer wings.

By the way this is the friend I went to Hawaii with, I bought us both one of these bags, and when I saw Barb had hers I thought why didn't I think to use mine, it would have been just right.

So after we figured this out, we asked the local patrol where we could get breakfast and he said just walk over the bridge and a couple of blocks down right on the boardwalk. We ate at the Avon Pavilion here so off we go.  We did have to wait about ten minutes or more to get in, but right opposite was an art show so we took it in turns looking around while the others waited in line.  I had lox and eggs and very good it was too.

After breakfast back to the car to unload all our stuff for the beach.  Now you know how hard it is to walk in soft sand laden down, but here at all the entrances to the beach they have these long mat runners, making it so easy to walk on.  We found a little space among the crowd, set up our chairs and beach umbrellas and proceeded right down to the ocean to take a dip.  I positively love swimming in the ocean, love, love, love it.  Back to laying in the sun then a walk down the beach and before we knew it, it was past four and we had to get back to the car.

We drove south along the sea front past all these wonderful old mansions and eventually asked a policeman, there is a large police presence, where was a good place to eat.  He directed us to the Parker House here and we were not disappointed.  I had grouper tacos and a cold beer, just right.  We did however come to understand the large police presence, young people and maybe some not so young, go bar hopping.  We sat on the porch of this lovely Victorian House to eat our dinner and it was delightful under the fans, but in the back and this was just five o clock the bar was pretty noisy when you went back there.  Vans turn up all the time dropping people off and picking them up, so as the evenings get into night, it is probably not a place you want to be.

Now all little townships have their own laws.  So in Belmawr alcohol is served until two AM, but in Sea Grist where we ate only to twelve midnight, we found out all this while talking to a local policeman who directed us to an ice cream parlour to finish off our day before going home. Down in southern NJ such as at Ocean City, it is a dry town, no drinking what so ever, with a true amusement boardwalk, so it makes for a very family oriented atmosphere.  We do plan to go again next year, our day although not planned to the detail just flowed so perfectly.

Ithaca squirrel.

Garden squirrel taking a nap on my pergola.  Notice the band around her nose, I have not seen that before.

They are so bad though, so very bad.  I have yet to eat a large tomato from my garden because they a pulled off the vine and have been munched into by yes you know my oak tree squirrel population.  I have lots of grape tomatoes why not those, oh no, take the biggest and the best and leave the rest.

It has been very busy at work because one person was let go and his work has been divided so now I am even busier.

Lots of pictures to post.

Will be back when I'm back.

Christy

P.S.  Hope your summer is good.

Gladioli Glory

Hi Dear Folk,

Here I am in Blogland again, so much going on, but basically I've been giving my eyes a rest from anything computer screen related. I was away for five days in Ithaca visiting The Boy and stayed off my iPad and of course away from work so no computer screen, my eyes truly needed a rest I feel better for it.

Such a buy at Trader Joe's, ten stems of gladioli for $4.00 who could resist, I so enjoyed all their glory.

Today I am home, I've been fighting a soar throat for days now, and have felt so achy that today I just decided to give my body a rest a stay at home, and I feel better for it.

The Boy has been helping me set up my new computer.  He has spent the summer up in Ithaca working, but is spending a few weeks at home now before the new term.  He plans a trip to she shore camping at Henlopen State Park in Delaware, a favorite of ours.

Have a great weekend.

Christy

Ithaca Falls, NY

My first post from my new MacBook Pro.  I have long wanted to move into the Apple world, first I had my iPad which I love and use all the time and now my new laptop, a learning curve, but it's already a million times easier to download video off my camera, hence video of Ithaca Falls.

I love to visit the falls when in Ithaca, it is such a relaxing place to be by the water, even though the falls roar.

Christy

Ithaca College Library

Hi Dear Folk,

I probably need to announce that I'm on a semi sabbatical for the summer from Blogging.  I wish I was on a sabbatical, but no, just trying to keep up with everything.

This was sitting in my draft folder along with some other posts that I need to attend to, I wanted to share with you my trip to Ithaca and my visit with The Boy,

Here is the library at Ithaca College, it is really nice.  I love the tree out of the window, but if there was no tree there you would have a view of Lake Cayuga, but I expect in winter you can see the lake after the leaves fall, so maybe that is the best of both worlds.

The Boy checking out some DVDs for us to watch on his new projection screen, remember his summer project?  It works really well, he now has an 83" screen and he bought a second hand projector off a friend, to run the movies on.

I left on a Wednesday for Ithaca, did get everything packed the night before, always a challenge after a full day of work.  Out on the road by 6:00AM whoopee.  Since I was up in the area of Ithaca by 9:30AM I stopped off for breakfast at a very country café place, only three people in the restaurant, surrounded by corn fields.  I had an English muffin sandwich, egg, ham and cheese with home fries and coffee, very good, hit the spot.

I contacted The Boy and arranged a time to meet him, so had some time to kill before that, so decided to go to one of the thrift shops in Ithaca, where I found some lovely Japanese plates with a little cottage scene on them and a J Jill embroidered jacket, so very nice in shades of grey and blue embroidery, also a pink applique table cloth, so fun.

Met the boy unloaded the car along with a few of his requests, and then headed on downtown to pick up a Reuben sandwich for the boy.  Right next to where he works is this Jewish Deli, except you would hardly know it as the street presence at front to say the least is different.  Like looking into a sixties plate glass window with the sitting room there, only after you walk inside you realize that it is a deli and the restaurant part goes back a long way.

My Jewish grandma is sitting right there oh yes!  Taking orders and running the cash register.  The food is great and we will definitely have to go there again, time warped sixties globe lights and all.

Will return.

Christine

A Few Months of Thrifting

Hi Dear Folk,

Almost every Friday evening after work I stop off at our local thrift, it's just a fun thing to start the weekend.  Here are a few of my finds over the past months.

Old Patagonia Pottery, made in Western, Pennsylvania.  As soon as I picked this up I knew it was a keeper, by that I mean things that stay in the cart and you never have a second thought about them. 

At $3.85 it was a good buy, that became an even better buy when I saw that these pots sell between $60.00 to $100 or so dollars.  See here for other beautiful designs.  There is not much on the Internet about the potter.

I love the shade of green inside, it is very twenties.  This was a choice of colour for much household woodwork during that time period.  We sold our very first house to a friend, the trim in one room was painted this colour and he said it reminded him of his family's farm house at Island Pond in Vermont.

One lovely tea plate Strasbourg $1.85 and this too seems to be a collection piece, just a one off, that I will use every day with a cup of tea and a slice of cake.  It was hard to capture the turquoise green of the plate.

All the little wild flowers.

A prolific impressionist this print just appealed to me, will look the name up and add this in later, I can't remember it right now. I looked his name up before, he did many very appealing paintings, so this is for the basement, just to enjoy, roaming the streets of Montmatre.

Crochet, crochet and more crochet magazines and books.  I am well prepared for those winter evenings which do inevitably come around, when crocheting is such a cozy thing to do.  Although with 100% humidity and over 95 f today, it's not something you think about.  Although I do have one project that should be done this summer, involving string, will post more on that later.

Monet's cookery notebooks, how could I pass this by after having visited the gardens at Giverny and seeing the yellow dining room.

I have some yellow and blue plates very similar to this.

A little Japanese vase for a pretty posy, how delicate that is.

This was rather of a splurge buy at $12.00 but was brand new never used and so seventies.

Old ice maker ties in with my cream and brown items below, which were all wedding presents and still working perfectly after 34 years.

Doesn't this case look very sixties I think.  It's a circular adjustable knitting needle set, by Boye.

When I bought this little feller I thought it was a rabbit, but on taking it home I'm sure it's meant to be a hare, he sits here quite happily.

A Chinese pot with goldfish swimming around inside.  So I will not fill it with soil, I'm thinking a solar powered water piece, a little fountain or something, to look through the water at the fish, or just stick a little glass top on and make it a little outside table, or just leave it like this to enjoy.

So just catching up.

This week I have three days off and will be up visiting The Boy in Ithaca, then he will be returning home for a couple of weeks, before the new term starts.

We hope to attend the Artist Market in Ithaca see here and the Finger Lakes Cheese and Wine Festival on Saturday.  Plus a few meals out and a book by one of the many falls is planned.

Christy