Pumpkin Sunrise

Someone said to me yesterday that I'm lucky I have a sister, and you know what?  I am!  Sure, in my youth I was mean to her (very mean).  I teased, I taunted, and even ignored her.  However mean I was to her,  she was willing to play any game I wanted when I needed a playmate. Once I grew up and we both had children of our own our sisterhood turned into friendship.  Our mother died in 1998 and since that time we have been sisters, friends and substitute mothers for each other. We talk daily sometimes multi-daily about the silliest of stuff. My sister is a better cook and a better gardener than me.  She sews amazing things and is generous with her time and talents.  Whenever I'm demanding she still lets me have my way (sometimes).  We love to knit.  She loves animals and has a little zoo in her house: birds, a fish, a guinea pig and two! dogs. I enjoyed our visit together and can't wait until the next visit.  However I hope the next visit has less excitemen

My weekend involved traveling to see my sister and my family.  My husband had a presentation in downtown Pittsburgh on Friday morning so we planned a weekend to mix business with pleasure.  What fun we had.  I was able to spend quality time with my sister relaxing, knitting and talking. The weather was perfect and I wore my jean jacket which looked pretty good. I even wore one of my knit shawlettes with comfort-oh fall, I do love you so! From the weather forecast it appears that we will continue to see cooler temperatures this week. There was apple cake, corn on the cob, brussel sprouts, the best tossed salad ever, homemade mini pizzas, and smores. Besides my sister and brother in law, we visited my aunt and uncle, my dad and step mother AND stopped to see our son for lunch at his school.  The weekend was packed with hellos and goodbyes quickly catching up on snippets of news. Yesterday we arrived home, unpacked, picked up a very wiggly happy dog, took a walk, did some laund

As far as I can remember, I've loved to walk anywhere.  When I was a girl growing up in Pittsburgh, I would walk with my mother and my sister down sidewalks made of red bricks in herringbone designs trying not to step on a crack and save my mother's back.  Eventually I would be reprimanded for dawdling-sadly my mom didn't know I was saving her back health.  Black patent leather shoes angling into brick outlines made a rhythm of hopping and hoping to land inside the lines. I grew up in the city and I recall one street that had many oak trees and a black cast iron fence edging a grand property.  In the fall my sister and I would walk through the fallen brown crunchy leaves kicking them high up in the air, laughing and giggling.  We also walked to school daily. five or six blocks passing crossing guards in blue and white uniforms. Near the end of fall, my mother would bundle me up in a hat and scarf and once around the bend when she couldn't see me-off would go the ha

Jingle bells, Jingle bells...... Here's a big announcement:  I have officially started my holiday knitting.  Yep, I was itching to cast on another project yesterday and knew it had better not be for me.  I chose Light and Up  shawl for its simplistic lines and lovely eyelets and paired the pattern with Shalimar sock yarn  from my stash.  I loved shopping the stash basket :) Did you see my finished shawl ? I am toe tapping impatient to wear it.  For some reason we have a heat wave occurring to snafu my plans. Patience is not one of my virtues.  I'm still knitting these  socks  and my other shawl . I recently watched the movie Little Women starring Winona Ryder and instantly had an urge to re read the classic.  The last time I've read this book was in my teens.  While reading, I'm transported to another time and place.  I was around 13-14 years old and just discovered how reading could be fun instead of drudgery.  After that discovery, I spent a summer on the fro

As you might have guessed, we are the kind of people that hardly ever take serious photos and this is one of them.  I'd like to think it's because I'm pouting about my horrible hair, but I was being silly.  Pulling one of many faces.  The fact is my hair was awful up in Lake Placid because it was drizzly every day.  I pulled it back and ignored it for most of the time. Thank goodness there aren't mirrors in the wilderness. While we were at Lake Placid, we did a "touristy" outing, who can resist?  This place is High Falls Gorge  and it was worth the admittance price.  The trails and bridges and walkways were perfectly maintained and we had fun.  Stairs going up, stairs going down, lots of landing porches for photography and signs explaining the gorge making process and some botany lessons. All of the photos were taken by my husband.  He was using his iphone but I had a fear of him dropping his iphone in the falls (I know I have to quit with the nega

My weekend: -I walked daily, well almost daily-embracing the change in the air.  You can feel fall just around the corner -we (meaning he) closed the pool-you know what that means....heat wave is coming! -Frodo is happy to have the pool cover on so he can walk across water :) -I caught up on laundry and tidied up the pile of papers on the counter -I've flipped through magazines and cookbooks getting hungry from all the ideas I've found. -favorite tastes this weekend:  avocado with radishes and apple cake-not together. -knitting with friends and knitting in silence in the morning. -being unplugged for the weekend and finding it very therapeutic for my soul How was your weekend? Joining Amanda

I'm thinking that summer is at its end.  Brown leaves are abundant on the sides of the road and sprinkled in are red and golden yellow leaves.  The wind sounds different when it breezes through the trees, have you noticed?  The weatherman mentioned a five letter word- F R O S T.  Not for my area but boy, the weather is changing.  I wouldn't mind a wee bit of frost to kill the weed pollen. We walked yesterday just the three of us, lots of talking and sharing our daily events.  Frodo is quite happy leading us and exploring.  Our new rhythm is to eat dinner, walk and then have our dessert if there is one.  I promise you, there is one! I am slowly going through a few cookbooks, pulling different recipes out to try and hopefully incorporate into our weekly menus.  We both are committed to whole food plant based and it's a journey that ebbs and flows.  Since I participated in  Heather's 30 day vegan course  in the spring, I have continued to be vegan for two out of thr