AUTUMN'S BEAUTY

Autumn is my favorite time of year. I just had to take a picture of this ornamental cabbage in my flower bed. I planted it in the spring as a seedling and it so beautiful right now. I just thought I would  share the picture.

Beautiful ornamental cabbage

AUTUMN GATHERING

Last night I hosted a dinner gathering for our little sewing group. I always have the autumn one as this is my favorite time of year. I am pretty sure this is our 6th year of having these dinner/sewing gatherings. We take turns having them at each other's homes. We have appetizers, wine, dinner and then we hand sew until we get tired enough to go home. The menu last night consisted of Butternut squash and apple soup, broccoli and cheese quiche, mushroom and spinach quiche, mixed salad greens, and pumpkin pie and caramel banana cake served with hot tea for desert. Appetizers were served ahead of the meal, three cheese and onion dip with veggies and hot garlic, onion and asiago cheese dip with crackers. I think we all had a great time. I don't think I'll be able to eat until tonight. I am still full :)

The table was set

Linda, Mary and Michelle enjoying a glass of wine and some appetizers

Brenda

Shirley

and Me

CABIN

The cabin is just about finished, just have to put the side windows in and it will be complete. The inside will be finished, but not until next year. I have had lots of questions as to how it is coming, so here is a picture I took today. It was such a gorgeous day today.

 DH and Kit sitting at the cabin

DH and Kit

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all of my Canadian friends and followers.
Janet

TWO PEAS IN A POD

We call these two horses "Two Peas in a Pod". Magic has been here for almost two years and the other horse is a standardbred mare that I recently adopted to be a companion for Magic after our Clydesdale mare "Dolly" passed away last April.

Her name is "Corey" and she is enjoying her new life tremendously. The two are  now inseparable. I think they are enjoying growing old together. I was glad to be able to give her a home. They enjoy being out in the pasture all day from sun up to sun down, then coming in and enjoying apples, corn, oats and hay before going to sleep for the night in their cozy stalls. They are enjoying these cooler days.

Corey

Magic and Corey

Magic and Corey

WHAT'S GOING ON AT MY PLACE

Our girls are laying fast and furious. Nothing better than fresh eggs. I put this sign out at the end of our lane way. We are now selling "Fresh Eggs".

DAYTRIPPING

My friend Michelle and I have done some great Daytripping since last Friday and I even Judged a Horse Show over the weekend too. We went over to Marine City, Michigan on the Ferry at Sombra ON. and had a great day looking around Antique shops and visiting a great Quilt Shop that had their Open House going on. It was called "Quilting Dreams". We had a delicious lunch at a local restaurant. Michelle and I both love seafood chowder, so our lunch was a bowl of seafood chowder and a perch sandwich. Absolutely delicous! We walked the town and visited all of the Antique shops before getting back on the Ferry and heading back home to Canada.

Another day, we went to the Aberfoyle outdoor Antique Market in Aberfoyle, Ontario. I was in all my glory. You could spend hours just wandering around looking at all the great antiques and we did just that. We both found a few treasures to take home too. After we left Aberfoyle, we headed over to New Hamburg, Ontario and visited a little Quilt/Gift shop in town, then had a wonderful lunch at Meme's cafe. Here are some pictures of our excursions. We had a great time.

This is me just after we arrived in Marine City, Michigan.

One of the historic buildings in the town.

From the US side looking over to Canada.

Quilting Dreams Quilt Shop.

I loved these flowers and I asked Michelle to take a picture of them.

Seafood chowder we had for lunch :)

A Barber shop in town.

On the Ferry heading back to Canada.

A Farmer's Market we stopped at on the way home to get some squash and Indian corn.

Aberfoyle, Ontario... outdoor Antique Market.

Some great Antiques.

McCully's Farm Market.

PROGRESS

After dinner DH, the dogs and I went for a walk back to the cabin. An absolutely gorgeous evening here in southern Ontario. DH has almost finished putting the pine on the outsides. Next is the batten strips and then the roof. Can't wait till the first snowfall and the wood stove is going and I am sitting inside hooking or stitching :)

Janet

 The cabin with the pine on the sides. Batten strips and the roof to be added soon. Notice that little white critter to the left of the picture :) Kit loves going back to the cabin. 

I call her my "Cabin Critter" LOL

Kit

CHURCH BEEF BARBEQUE

Tonight was the yearly beef barbeque at the fairgrounds in our town to raise money for the church. I baked a couple of apple pies to donate. The dinner was absolutely delicious. Roast beef, baked potato, baked beans, coleslaw, pickles, fresh tomatoes, rolls and butter. Homemade pies and coffee for desert. DH and I had a great time. Here is a picture of the apple pies I made.

It was a gorgeous day here in southern Ontario, just the way I like it......cool enough for a sweatshirt.

Apple pies for the church beef barbeque

SWEET ANNIE

This morning is being spent harvesting my Sweet Annie. I have part of my crop done, but will have to finish it tonight. I could have it finished in a couple of hours, but I have to go to work for 12. I have just started working in a Quilt shop not too far from me and I am really enjoying it. I also have some Tansy to harvest and dry. Here is a picture of the Sweet Annie bundled and hanging to dry.

It is such a  beautiful day here today:) I hope it is a beautiful day where you live too.

Janet

Part of my Sweet Annie crop hanging to dry

Kit and Sydney had to help of course :)

MY DREAM IS COMING TRUE

My dream is coming true. I have always wanted a little cabin in our woods so this year DH is building me one. I am so excited! He has it all framed and he has ordered the pine for the walls and the steel for the roof. There will be a pine floor and a wood stove in it. Our neighbor behind us gave me an old door and windows so they will be installed. He has been working diligently on it and it looks wonderful. I can't wait for it to be finished. Here are a couple of pictures so far.

The "Olde Crow's Cabin"

The "Olde Crow's Cabin" ..... a view from above

Last Thursday we had our sewing gathering and dinner at Linda's log house. Linda made us such a delicious dinner. We had home made sweet potato rolls, salad, and a choice of french onion soup or seafood chowder. Seafood chowder was my choice and it was so delicious. I just couldn't stop eating those sweet potato rolls :) For desert there was rice pudding or bread pudding. We enjoyed dinner with a nice glass of wine. I had to leave bright and early the next morning to go to Michigan to judge on Saturday. I stopped in to say hello to Dawn, owner of Holly Hills Primitives on the way. She was busy setting up for an open house with her friend Peggy at Peggy's home in Goodrich Mi. What a wonderful setting for an Open House. So many great primitive things they had for sale. I was lucky to see a preview before they opened. It was great meeting Peggy and her mom and everyone else that was helping, and great to see Dawn again.

Our sewing gathering at Linda's log house last Thursday night.

Mary with her latest quilt. She is putting the binding on.

THE FIRST EGG

Today, I heard this awful noise coming from the HenHouse. I went out to check what the fuss was and this is what I found. Finally! the first egg from our flock. Hopefully now we will have a steady stream of them.

Our first egg.

HARVEST TIME

You have to love this time of year when everything is plentiful in the garden and it is time to do some canning. Well, I have spent the last three days making and canning grape juice and grape jelly. My friend Brenda was kind enough to lend me her juice steam kettle not to mention, showing me how to make the juice. She also gave me three huge boxes of concord grapes, so for the last three days I have been in the kitchen on a juice making marathon. 5 am this morning, the steam was rolling :) 

Some pictures of what I have done. This is not all of it.........I have some jars in the fridge for using now and these are for my pantry to enjoy over the winter. The grape juice is pure with nothing added and it is naturally sweet. I love it mixed with grapefruit juice.

 This is the juice steamer that my friend Brenda loaned me. 

I have it all cleaned up and ready to give back to her.

 Jars of concord grape juice and half pints of grape jelly to enjoy on lemon cranberry scones over the winter.

PUFFBALL

I have had a request to post a picture of a puffball, so here it is. You have to pick them when they are pure white. If they are yellowish they are no good. You find them in the woods and they taste a lot like mushrooms. I am on a canning marathon this week. Making grape juice like crazy!

PUFFBALL

WHAT WAS FOR DINNER TONIGHT?

I know I have posted in the past about the puffballs that we find in our woods. Yesterday DH found three of them and we have been enjoying eating them. I made omelets tonight with red onion, puffball, spinach and cheddar cheese. They were delicious. I just love puffball. We had some steamed green beans on the side and sweet corn on the cobb. 

Omelet made with cheddar cheese, red onion, spinach and puffball

MINI VACATION

A couple of weeks ago DH, Kit and I went up to northern Ontario to visit Sandy and Brian, Sandy is DH's sister and Brian, her husband. We had a great time. Sandy is a wonderful cook, so we enjoyed some great meals while staying there. We had an afternoon of Antique hunting and a visit to one of my favorite shops, The Old Tin Shed. Here are some pictures of the trip.

 One of Brian and Sandy's vegetable gardens.

Brian is checking the potato plants.

Their beautiful home and flower gardens. 

 A walk through the woods. Kit had to stay on her leash all weekend as there are lots of bears in the area. She would pick up a scent and take off and I wouldn't be able to find her. 

 Sandy and I at the OLD TIN SHED.

Kit......licking her chops :)

WHY IS IT???????????

Why is it that whenever a quilt is being put together there is a cat involved :) Today was wet and cool, so I thought I would put together this log cabin quilt top. I had the blocks finished but hadn't put it all together yet. I put it together in the Barn Raising pattern. Kenya decided to supervise the process. Did I ask for a Supervisor?????????

HAY SHORTAGE

This year has been so hot and dry that there is a huge hay shortage, not only in southern Ontario, but through the US also. Our second cut was so sparse that DH found a way to get it into a windrow so that he could bale it. If he had used the hay rake, the alfalfa would just have fallen off of the stems into the ground. He creatively used the sweeper from the lawnmower hooked to the ATV to gather it up, and bale it. We only got 12 bales, but it was better than what we would have it he had not used this method, and that would have been 0. He is a picture.

A FINE TRIP TO NEW YORK

I just returned late last night from a weekend trip to Syracuse, New York. I was there judging a horse show and what a great show it was, so many wonderful horses. The other three judges I worked with were great and so was the ring steward and show committee. That helps a lot when you are trying to judge so many horses in so many classes over two days. The weather was so hot. On Saturday with the humidity factored in, it was 106 degrees, and Sunday was almost as hot, but very windy and we had a couple of showers go through in the morning.

On my way to Syracuse, I made a couple of stops. There is a little Quilt shop in Caledonia, NY. called the "Chestnut Bay Quilt Shoppe" that I stop at whenever I visit New York state, and last year, compliments of my GPS taking me into Caledonia the back way, I came across a little Primitive shop called "Primitive Country Gifts" www.primitivecountrygifts.com in the little hamlet of Mumford. I definitely had to stop there again. I was in all my glory last year when I found this shop. It consists of two floors in a historic building filled to the brim with wonderful primitive goods, lots of them hand made. The wares are displayed beautifully and there is coffee and samplings of different jellies etc. that they sell. When you walk into the store, the shopkeeper gives you a warm welcome and lets you know there is fresh coffee on and to help yourself. As you browse the shop, there is so much to see...........Antiques, candles, braided rugs, handmade primitive dolls, prim magazines, primitive greeting cards, wool and patterns for penny rugs etc. (I even saw some of Karen's patterns, KM Primitives for sale there). With the permission of the shopkeeper, I took a few pictures of the shop. If you are ever in Western New York, please visit this shop. You won't be disappointed. I found myself a wonderful granite wear bowl at a great price and a few other goodies.

The shop from the outside

Barn stars, wreaths, coverlets, lamp shades

Lots of baskets, curtains, and flicker lights

Fresh complimentary coffee and samplings

I call this the "Crow Corner" Lots of crow items for crow collectors

Lots of dough bowls, candles and lamps

A great selection of braided rugs

Colonial lamps and furniture

Cards and magazines

The shop from the outside

A great selection of wool and patterns

Signs and homespuns