Switching

Unfortunately I have been forced to switch from Blogger because I am unable to buy photo storage. Every time I attempt to purchase it I get a message saying my account is closed. I've tried to resolve it but just decided to switch to Wordpress. Here is the new address: Taste and See.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was the same but different. We have always gone to Mammy and Pappy's house for dinner then back over to "the" Pound for the Bolling's gathering at Granny's (Jen's) house. This year we woke to an empty house for the first time. Sarah went to North Carolina to her in laws. We had a relaxed morning. We read our Bibles, I made cranberry sauce (yes, that is the only thing I made) and breakfast, talked to Sarah on the phone (thank goodness no crying this year) and we showered and got ready to meet Seth in Wise. 

We were supposed to meet him at 12:30 so we could be at Mammy's in Big Stone by one but when we called him to let him know we were on our way he hadn't showered yet because he had been talking to Boog on the phone. Boog just finished his basic training and it was the first time Seth had talked to him since he left. So, we waited a few more minutes but it wasn't a big deal. Mom called to check where we were and Tim told her we were at Lowes and would be there soon. So, finally Seth came about twenty minutes late. We got to Mammy's at 1:07. And they had already started! I thought it was quite bizarre given Mom had just called us. There was a small group this year, smaller than ever I would guess. Only Mammy, Pappy, the four sisters, Ray, Van, Gabe, Sara, and us three. Everyone pitched in (I hardly think making the cranberry sause qualifies as pitching in) so Mammy and Pappy didn't have to do anything. Gabe got up early Thursday morning to start the turkey and Paula made several things. Mom made the dressing and cushaw pies. Even with a smaller crowd we still had a feast. Turkey and gravy, cornbread dressing (gluten free for Paula), mashed potatoes, ham, sweet potatoes, shuckey beans, corn, broccoli cauliflower salad, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, rolls, cushaw pies with whipped cream and pecan pie. There was enough room for everyone to eat at the dining room table or small table set up in the living room. Even Tim and Seth ate at the dining room table. I am guessing that was a first for both of them. We stayed and visited after the meal for awhile. I helped clean up in the kitchen a bit and then we left and came back to Pound by 4:30. 

As usual there was a big crowd at Jen's. A big loud crowd. ;) The difference between my family and Tim's is huge...the personalities, the topics discussed, and of course the noise level. ;) Erin had the sale papers spread out mapping out her Black Friday shopping. 

The younger generation had their faces stuck in their cell phones. ;) 

And the cousins played in the back bedroom. 

Sean, Dylan, Peggy and Gary had gone up to Flat Gap but came back and stayed longer. We had missed Shannon and Maddi. Josh, Cayden and Elijah had gone four wheeling. Seth went by and picked up Craig since Danny and Angie had gone to Texas to Boog's basic training graduation. We visited, heard new stories and old classics too and laughed. Laughter always abounds in the Bolling family! We stayed there for a lot longer than we had planned and didn't get home till about 9:30. It was a good Thanksgiving. Of course we missed Sarah and Dan but they will be here for Christmas this year.

Turkey Platter

Thanksgiving is a week away and I hadn't even put my turkey platter out until I read this post on another blog. I dug it out from underneath my other platters and displayed it in the dining room. I love this platter and I don't know why I hadn't gotten it out yet. Maybe because I didn't really do hardly any fall decorating. Maybe because I don't have Thanksgiving dinner at my house. Maybe because Sarah won't be in for Thanksgiving. Nah, I think it was laziness.

 

This turkey platter is special because Tim bought it for me years ago for Christmas. He heard me say one time how fabulous it would be to have a large turkey platter. So, even though I don't think he hears everything I say he obviously does listen and hears the important stuff!! He found this Royal Staffordshire Clarice Cliff turkey platter on ebay. It is rather large and I had trouble finding a stand to display it. I'm not sure it will ever have a turkey on it but I certainly plan to make sure I display it every year for now on. If for nothing else but to remember that Tim listens and hears what I say!! :)

 

 

 

Visiting Mammy and Pappy

I went to Mammy and Pappy's with Mom Friday. I hadn't seen them in awhile. When we got there they were already working on preparing lunch. No easy sandwiches at their house. they make more for lunch than I ever make for dinner. Simplify is not in Mammy and Pappy's vocabulary. Honestly, I am glad I have already embraced the word simplify!

I went downstairs to the dairy with Mammy to get some canned tomatoes. I snapped a couple of pictures of their canned tomatoes and green beans. From their garden of course.

 

Grape jelly from their grape vines and pickles.

Mammy was peeling the broccoli stalks to saute them with onions. She saw Martha Stewart do it. I could learn a lot from them about not wasting anything. Actually, it was pretty good.

Pappy was preparing some sweet potatoes. We had leftover bean soup, corn bread, canned tomatoes, canned kraut, broccoli with cheese, broccoli stalks with onions and sweet potatoes. They were foods I would have never served together but it seems like everything tastes good at Mammy's house. They try to serve good mix so they will get their nutrition. Guess that is why they are 82 and 88. :)

 

We ate lunch and sat around and talked. Pappy told a couple of stories from when he served in the Navy during World War II. He has just started telling some of those stories in the past few years.

 

We cleaned up from lunch and I was going to try to dust a little since we'll be having Thanksgiving dinner there in less than two weeks. But it's kinda hard to get one over on Mammy. She still thinks she can keep up with her housework even though she just went through a real health scare.

 

I always love to look at all of Mammy's stuff around her house too. This ladle hangs on her back porch. It was Mammy's grandmother's (she was called Mammy) and it used to be on her back porch with a bowl of water that they drank out of. Everyone used the same ladle.

 

This larger skillet hangs next to it and it used to be Grandmother's from her early years of marriage.

I love Mammy's brick wall too!!

And then there is this. The original kitchen cabinet from the house which was built in the late 1920's. To say I love this piece of furniture would be an understatement!

 

Cool old locks.

 

 

We went upstairs because Mom wanted me to see some fire damage she found in a window casing of the antique bedroom last year while cleaning windows. The original owners' sons had started a fire in that bedroom. There was minimal damage but I didn't know the story until Friday.

This table sets in the hallway upstairs. It was also Mammy's grandmother's. I love this piece too!!

When we eating lunch Pappy mentioned he had been looking for his ship log from World War II and Mammy said she had just come across it recently. So, before we left Mammy brought it downstairs. It was on thin paper so someone needs to make a copy of it as soon as possible.

 

Quartermaster Log of USS Potawatoni.

 

Here's the coolest thing though. I took this picture because it listed Christmas Day 1945 Turkey Dinner. I thought that was neat. When I looked at my pictures the second time it was then that I noticed above Christmas Day.

 

11 December 1945 Lt. Comdr. Charles H. Stedman (Commanding Officer) died from a self inflicted gun shot wound. Lt. Charles R. White assumed command.

 

Pappy has told a very interesting story about that day. Twas not what the official ship log states. Anyway...I am looking forward to looking at the entire log when a copy is made.

 

 

We left in the afternoon and since it was such a beautiful day Mom drove through the valley. I couldn't even remember the last time we have driven through the valley. Maybe we will on our way home from Thanksgiving dinner next week.

 

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Oh yeah, Tim and I went to our second concert at the college Thursday evening. It was Brandon Heath's Blue Mountain Tour with Matt Maher. Also a bluegrass group called The Church Sisters from Danville, Virginia was touring with them. they consisted of 16 year old twin sisters Sarah and Savannah Church and their brother Seth. You know I liked their names. ;) They were great! My favorite part of the concert was at the end when Matt Maher came back out and they all sang his song "hold Us Together" and at the end Brandon Heath flipped his guitar over and it said, "Friends of Coal." Of course the crowd cheered even louder.

Next concert: Jeremy Camp on April 11th. Can't wait!

 

I Voted

Tim and I went to vote when he got home from work around 5:30 p.m. Since it was such a hard fought presidential election and one that was near and dear to people in this area regarding the coal industry there were long lines. Long lines for Pound anyway. We probably waited forty five minutes. Normally the wait would have only been around five to ten minutes tops.

We came home and got comfortable and watched the election coverage all evening. Until we got sleepy. Since the time changed I haven't been able to stay up late. So, we went to bed without knowing the election results. Virginia hadn't even reported their results due to the high volume of folks voting. I checked as soon as I came in the family room this morning.

 

It wasn't the results I was hoping for but I believe God is in control and I refuse to get sucked into the complaining, venting, hate spewing that I later read on facebook. I was more disappointed, disheartened and saddened over Christians' reactions than I was the election results.

 

The verse God brought to my mind was Hebrews 13:8

Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.

 

Glad He is!! :)

October Snow

We were fortunate to miss the worst part of Hurricane Sandy/Superstorm Sandy/Frankenstorm but we still had a significant snowfall. I don't ever remember this much snow this early. I remember the kids trick or treating in the snow once but that's it. It started snowing and sticking before we went to bed Monday night. I checked a couple of times during the night and it was piling up and this is what we woke up to.

 

I'm guessing eight or so inches. We didn't measure it and actually I took most of these pictures through my windows.

 

 It was a heavy wet snow that stuck to the trees but luckily it fell or melted off so we didn't have any tree damage. Thank goodness no power outages either!! At least not in Pound. It went off a couple of times at 6:30 a.m. but came back on and stayed on.

 

 

Tim didn't make it to work. They were still predicting more snow so he was concerned about getting back home. He did start out to work around noon but the traffic was backed up from Jenkins Mountain and it took him an hour to get over and saw other vehicles off the road so he decided to turn around and come back home. We were right outside the area of highest snowfall prediction. Even though Pound only got about 8-10 inches depending on where you lived Wise got a foot and High Knob got two feet!

 

So, we just stayed in and stayed warm. I made cavatini and homemade rustic Italian bread for dinner.

I saw the recipe on the back of the bread flour bag. It was easy to make and really good. We'll eat it again tonight with leftovers.

Thank goodness we didn't get anymore snow last night and it even melted a tremendous amount by this morning. Yea for melting snow!! It's supposed to be up in the 60's by the weekend.

The best part of Frankenstorm...the annoying political calls stopped!! I guess they were all from the areas hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy!! Thank goodness. I hope they don't get phone service until after next Tuesday!!

Frankenstorm

Hurricane Sandy is moving her way up the eastern seaboard and due to her outer rain bands and a cold front this is what our weather forecast is:

... WINTER STORM WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT THIS EVENING... ... BLIZZARD WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM THIS EVENING TO 8 AM EDT WEDNESDAY...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MORRISTOWN HAS ISSUED A BLIZZARD WARNING... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM THIS EVENING TO 8 AM EDT WEDNESDAY.
* EVENT... SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 5 TO 20 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE BY WEDNESDAY MORNING... MAINLY ACROSS ELEVATIONS ABOVE 2500 FEET. NORTHWEST WINDS WILL INCREASE THIS EVENING... WITH GUSTS UP TO 45 MPH. BLOWING SNOW WILL LOWER VISIBILITIES TO A QUARTER MILE OR LESS AT TIMES.
* TIMING... SNOW SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT... WITH THE HEAVIEST SNOW SHOWERS EXPECTED TONIGHT.
* IMPACTS... THE WEIGHT FROM THIS SNOWFALL MAY DOWN SOME TREES AND POWER LINES... CAUSING POWER OUTAGES. DRIVING WILL BECOME HAZARDOUS DUE TO THE SNOW AND ICE COVERED ROADWAYS. STRONG WINDS WITH HEAVY SNOW MAY CAUSE LOCALIZED BLIZZARD CONDITIONS OVER THE HIGHEST ELEVATIONS AT TIMES.

I have vegetable beef soup cooking for this evening. We just bought a new space heater. Looking forward to a cozy night in tonight. Hope the power doesn't go off but just in case we already have batteries in our flashlights and our candles gathered because our electricity randomly went off yesterday evening. It only took the repairman five minutes to fix the melted fuse on our pole after he drove an hour and half from Grundy to fix it. Last week it was in the high 70's everyday. How quickly the weather can change.

All Good Things Must End

We had such a good visit with Sarah and Dan, but it had to come to an end. I had to get home to my babies!! Thank goodness for Seth staying here while we were gone to take care of Riley and Gabby.

Sarah had to go to her office Monday morning so she was out of her house by 9:15 but we waited a little longer to leave to let the morning traffic clear out. We were out the door by ten hoping for clear roads. They were still backed up quite a bit but just a few miles down the road they cleared out and we didn't have any trouble.

Awwww, driving back to the mountains.

 

Beautiful fall colors and warm temperature. We have had some glorious October weather this year. That is why October is my favorite month.

 

As we do so many times coming down I81 we had to make a stop on Exit 101. It's a tradition now since the days when Sarah was in college and we traveled up and down I81 so much.

Ice cream at the Dairy Queen. :)

 

Since it is an election year we saw lots of political sign all the way from Wise County to NoVa. I was surprised by which signs we saw even closer to NoVa. If Virginia (which is a huge swing state this year) is any indication I predict a win by:

Should be interesting. I'm ignoring my phone this week and avoiding all television ads. The political calls are driving me crazy!! The ads too!

 

 



Eastern Market

When I went to Sarah's two years ago to wedding dress shop we went to Eastern Market in D.C. I loved it then and knew I wanted to go back. Luckily, Dan and Sarah live right next to a golf course so when Tim and Dan played Sarah and I headed to the city. We parked at the metro and rode in. It was a glorious October day. Love this view of the Capitol as we crossed from the metro toward Eastern Market.

 

On weekends there is a flea market and a good amount of outdoor vendors set up.

 

 

I had to get a picture of these metal pink flamingos because Jen bought Sarah a couple of plastic ones for her wedding shower last year. These metal ones are a huge improvement!!

 

 Something for everyone...even Tim.

 

We walked around the outside area and just browsed. I didn't see too much that really caught my eye except a $35 yellow painted night stand. I couldn't get over the cheap price. We saw several more for $100 each. If we had a vehicle it would have been worth buying but not to haul on the metro. I did pick up a couple of old cookie cutters because I liked them and mom has some like them. We grew up making cookies and now I have followed suit and bake sugar cookies. I bought them (well, actually Sarah paid for them because I didn't have any small bills...I owe you Sarah. ;)) and walked away, then I thought, "hmph, if I asked mom for her cookie cutters she would probably give them to me." I don't know why I had never thought of it.

 

 

 Then we went inside. I love the inside market. I love looking at the baked goods, pastas and even the meats. Sarah did buy two steaks for Tim and Dan's dinner. We checked the seafood but prices were a bit higher so we bought scallops at Harris Teeter later. I loved all the fresh flowers too!! How beautiful.

 

For lunch Sarah had the crab cake sandwich just like last time we went and I picked the oyster sandwich. They were on a fresh homemade bun and were delicious!! We each shared a couple of bites of each other's sandwiches.

 

Then before we left we headed to the bakery for a little sweet. We were going to share a cupcake but I spotted a cannoli which I had never eaten before. It was good but next time I think I would pick the cupcake.

We walked back to the metro as we finished off our cannoli.  We stopped by Harris Teeter to pick up a couple of things and then back home to relax.

Barn Sales

Back in the summer the Hogan's invited us to visit when Sarah and Dan were there in August. With Tim's new job the timing just wasn't ideal so we didn't go. Well, of course Sarah was all sad and played the "but when will I get to see you again?" card. ;) So, we told her we would come up to visit in the fall since she wouldn't be in until Christmas. We planned to leave Thursday morning and drive back Sunday but Tim found out a couple of days before he had three meetings Friday morning he couldn't miss. So, we changed our plans and left Friday afternoon and came back Monday. I am so glad I have learned to be more flexible and just go with the flow. We didn't end up leaving until about two thirty because his meetings ran long. No big deal though.

We had an uneventful trip and arrived in Falls Church 9ish. We watched the rest of the baseball game...yes, still watching and waiting for the Cardinals to lose!! Thank goodness they were finally eliminated so I can get on with my life now. ;) Haha. I kid...kinda. =/

Saturday morning we got up and showered and headed to Frederick, Maryland to two barn sales!! Yes...barn sales!! Sarah had seen a story in The Washington Post a few weeks ago and suggested we go because of course she knew I would love it! Instead of playing golf Tim came along with us (not to worry he played golf the next day.) After all, he is my spotter! First stop was to the Stylish Patina's barn sale. There was a lot of good stuff. We bought a small ironstone platter, a silver candle snuffer and old pair of binoculars.
 

 

 

Then on to Chartreuse & co. It had several buildings to go through, including a large barn and old farm house. It also had some great stuff. I loved all the industrial pieces and lights. We ended up buying a metronome (we thought it was a radio until we got it home) made by Seth Thomas. I was sold when I saw that it said Seth Thomas because when I was a teenager I had a dream I had a baby and named him Seth Thomas. Obviously, that is where I go Seth's name. My parent's sold that brand clock in their jewelry store at one time. We also bought a clock that I loved too. I love old clocks but hadn't ever bought one. I loved the shape and color. It was different than any I had seen before.

 

I left there happy with our purchases! The area where the barn sales were was so beautiful. It was all farmland and farms everywhere. We also drove through a couple of little communities called Buckeystown and Adamstown which were so quaint with beautiful old homes. We passed several pumpkin patches too.

 

 

 

Since we were out that way we also stopped at Lucketts which I have wanted to go to for over two years. It was a great place to browse through but we were hungry for lunch and I had spent over my self imposed spending limit so we walked through a little quicker than I normally would have.

I definitely would like to go back to all three places sometime while Sarah still lives in NoVa. We stopped in Leesburg and ate a late lunch at a little pizza place. Then Sarah drove us around the Dulles Toll Road so we could see her Deltek office in Herndon. We listened to the end of the Virginia football game as we drove back to Sarah's. Whew, wish we hadn't. Virginia is having a ROUGH year! Such is the life of a Virginia fan. At least Tech lost too. Dan didn't have anything on us. ;)

 

We went back to Sarah's and just relaxed. We cooked dinner later and of course watched the baseball game.

 

Here are my barn sale finds in place at home.

 

Next up: Eastern Market.