AUTUMN ADVENTURE

I think, today, I’ll take you back for more Autumn Adventure, but first, MUSICA (haven’t played this one in a while) . . . and now, is everyone comfy?  Do you have something to drink, maybe a cookie too? I’ll wait . . . . OK, here we go . . .

Very early this morning, Vanna, dressed in peach-colored chiffon jammies; still wearing the pink satin mask that keeps the morning light out of her precious private environment, reached into the hat, swirled and swirled to find just the right name . . . and pulled it out, gracefully, as only Vanna can.  Our winner is . . .

Diana Hall!

CONGRATULATIONS DIANA (and not related to Joe!) — I just signed your book, here it is!  I wrote you an email to tell you you’re the Lucky Winner . . . wishing once again, I had a couple thousand of these books lying around!!!  I hope you’ll leave a comment here and tell us all where you’re from; and let us congratulate you ourselves!

Diana’s package will soon be winging it’s way home to her . . . with a little extra surprise . . . inside, in addition to the lucky leaf I brought from Connecticut, a copy of my first book, Heart of the Home, which I rescued from the Library Book Sale, one of our new collectible Christmas Ornaments for 2012, the fat, cute, antique-store measuring cup, into which I sunk a green pear-shaped candle in sand we brought home from where we walk to the water every day, along with  some seashells and sea glass, for a little Martha’s Vineyard DNA, and,  because life is short, and girls just want to have fun . . . I put in a little surprise (teeny tiny), to light the candle, a box of “Cunard” matches we brought home from our trip on board the Queen Mary 2.  Hope Diana loves it all and it causes some redecorating to take place!

And now, I feel it’s my job to cheer everyone else UPPPPP!!!  I’m so sorry if you aren’t Diana Hall, but then again, you’re wonderful YOU, and that’s pretty darn fabulous too   . . . so let’s stop thinking about it and go back to Connecticut, OK?  Cause I have something to show you!

Here we are tooling along; it was a cool overcast day on a leafy country road, we have no idea where we are, we’re just following the dots on the map that say, “scenic.”  But I like barns, especially if they have an American Flag on them, so I say, “Joe!  Stop, let me take a picture of the flag on the barn!”  (Take note of the sign on the right, girlfriends . . . “Turkey Farm!”)

Joe pulls over, saying, “Wow, look at all the white turkeys!”  I get out of the car to walk around it and take the picture of the barn across the street, but suddenly these guys see me, and immediately jump up and start running towards me, really fast, using their wings for lift.  And because I’m unfamiliar with the habits of turkeys, I turn around and RACE back to the car, get in and close the door fast, because I don’t know if they will just fly over that short little fence and GET me.

But then, I begin to see how cute they are, with their fat bodies wobbling back and forth as they run . . . .  they are gentle adorable creatures who just want to look at me; they think I carry turkey food in that big red van.

Here they are, I want to sing a turkey song to entertain them!  I’m wracking my brain for a turkey song!

Then while I was standing there admiring them and talking to the babies . . .

A mule donkey ( 🙂 ) walked right into the picture . . . so, just in case the first one didn’t turn out, I took another video . . .

I liked reassuring them, I wonder if they believed me?

I loved this crazy peaceful kingdom.

So then I ran across the street to get my barn picture for my American Flag collection . . .

And because adventure requires sustenance, we went to the Ekonk Turkey Farm Store and got two of these cider donuts, still warm from the oven, and hot coffee with lots of cream to dip them in.  This Farm is wonderful . . . besides the bakery, it has pumpkins and dried corn and a truly fabulous Corn Maze too . . . if you’re near  Moosup, CT, this would be a very fun place to visit; I bet the leaves there are in full color by now!

I don’t think I showed you how Jack handled the idea of us preparing to go away . . .

I think he had something more like this in mind!  Of course, not on TOP of the car … 🙂

Here he tries to divert Joe from the subject of maps!

And this is what we had waiting for us when we came home . . . Girl Kitty!

. . . and Jack helped us unpack . . .

. . . while Girl looked on, reciting  The Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change . . .

Our trees have been talking constantly lately . . . shhhhhhh says the wind as it passes through the leaves; I can hear it right now, and see it, blowing through the treetops outside. I did more fall cleaning over the weekend, getting ready for my girlfriend’s visit this week, hanging clothes, blankets and sheets to flap on the line, being outside getting good advice from trees.

Look at his little paws!!

The wedding was just as romantic as I hoped.  The singing was successful!  The groom didn’t run from us, no one fainted, the guests had all had enough Peah Ci-da (or the equivalent) to be appreciative!  Joe videoed it too.  Only thing, he forgot there was a microphone on the camera, right next to his mouth, and sang the song, with what words he could remember, a capella, through the whole thing!  So funny!  We both burst out laughing when we heard it; he moaned, eyes rolling in his head, “What am I DOING?” 🙂  Cutie pie!

After his solo performance, he put the camera down and forgot it was still on, so it sat there staring at a candle for about fifteen minutes. Please pass him a Peah Ci-da!  I’ll post some photos of the wedding soon, and I’ll show you this video as soon as we learn how to edit movies on iMovie, but please, don’t hold your breath!  Have a wonderful day Girls!   Congratulations to Diana! xoxo me

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Another Ordin-ary Day

Just another ordinary day around here ….  MUSICA

Those shirts are bowing deeply!  You can see our leaves really haven’t changed too much on those trees.  I just wanted to say Hello this morning …. I think we should give the drawing a couple more days … so everyone has a chance to enter.   I’ll get Vanna to do her magic on Monday Morning!

We’ve been busy this week …. Tomorrow my girlfriend Jaime is getting married!  I have to sing, along with Jaime and our other BFF, Martha, a song, after dinner, to the groom!  I am not a public singer, but this is what Jaime wants, so I’m doing it, which means I’ve been at Martha’s practicing!  The song is I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight!   Close your eyes, shut the door, you don’t have to worry, anymore . . .  Martha and I are the back-up singers!  This  is Jaime’s wedding invitation, she asked me to take pictures, which I will love to do, because this is going to be one beautiful wedding . . . and I’ll see if there are any she might let me share with you. 🙂

Then, next Wednesday, four girlfriends come from California and fill up our guest rooms!  So I’m having fun making it cute around here.  So far, we only have a tinge of orange running along the treetops to give us a hint of what’s coming.  But tonight, things might be changing.

The leaves in our kitchen are in full color!  Pretty soon the big maple tree in the backyard will have just this same color. I’ve been calling around this week, trying to find a Honey Crisp Apple Tree on the island, we want to plant one in our garden.

While I’ve been spreading watercolors on our book and writing with my black ink pen, Joe hung the dried corn on the door and washed the porch ….

To decorate it with all the farm stand stuff we brought home from the trip — we’ve been walking in the windy woods too; there is a real chill in the air, the clean smell of the ocean, but the sky is clear blue and the sun is warm . . .

It’s beginning to feel a LOT like fall on Martha’s Vineyard!  But the scary thing is that we have a hard frost warning for tonight . . . so this evening we have to throw old sheets over the mums and zinnias still blooming in the garden, to keep them from turning black, so they’ll still be pretty when the girls come–it’s a long time until Halloween!  We aren’t ready to give up the garden yet!

I put a wreath on the door and Joe brought out the ladder to get the small pumpkins on the door ledge …. doing our part to cuten up the neighborhood.

And here’s the person who does his part to cuten up our house … it’s your Hello Kitty photo for the day …  Jack, this time last year . . . He is just as cute now, but smarter and even more precious if this is possible.

When I went to the grocery store yesterday I picked up some big fat pork chops, which made me think of you …. thought you might like to do what we’re doing this weekend and make this defraptious recipe that’s perfect for this time of year — your family will melt all over the floor for the love of you for making it.  Apples and sweet potatoes, raisins, cinnamon and stuffed pork chops?  All baked in one pan?  Who could ask for anything more!  The sweet simple things of life!

Bye for now girls, have a WONDERFUL weekend.  Don’t forget, if you don’t know yet, we have a wonderful giveaway going on here (scroll down to next post if you haven’t seen it) — you can leave as many comments as you want because Vanna knows to only count each one once …. so feel free!  Let us know what you’re up to!   I just called to say I love you! xoxo

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