October happenings, 81happens

Ha-ha, I know I have said this often: we enjoy our outdoors. Sometimes when we want to sit on the backporch and we open the box to take some cushions out for the chairs we find "Freddy" in it. He is a little green tree frog. What a surprise when I tended to my roses and suddenly saw a very tiny "Freddy" inside a rose. Isn't he cute? I kept checking him and he (or she) was there quite a while ... and then gone.

What he surprise to find him two days later a few branches further. Can you find him?

Our generation knows that we have to listen to our children or even grandchildren when it concerns our "gadgets". By chance I learned that there is a little thing at the bottom of each photo on my iphone that can give me a lot of information. When the circle with the i inside has a star it means that there is more info. When you click on it and it opens it might say Plant or Artwork or Landmark. 

When I was visiting my sister in Germany I admired this groundcover in her garden. The flowers were beautiful and when we took some cut to my niece they lasted quite some time. My photo "told" me that it was a Bergenia crassifolia with many other names. When I looked it up on the internet I saw that it would be a good perennial for our garden too and started searching for it.

I was lucky on the telephone and found it at Sally's plants. One nice day James and I decided to go there. It was fun. At the parking we were directed to take a golf cart and drive to the office. 

At the office we got a list of all the plants they have right now and a plan were to find them. It is a very large place and we had fun driving around. Everybody was very helpful and we came home with two plants which I planted soon. One in the back and one next to the walkway in the front. I can't wait to see how they are doing and hopefully blooming coming spring.

Our goal is to have mainly perennials.

October 6 - an important day! This year it was a Friday. Sarah was worried when we could celebrate Papa's birthday. They actually would have something scheduled that day and we usually go Fridays with friends to a restaurant. So we made family plans for Sunday.

The Friday evening dinner with friends had the rare occasion that it didn't take place so we were free to make our own plans.

Of course there had to be the casual breakfast with the opening of birthday cards.

The weather was favorable and we decided to have an outing and selected to visit historic Hopewell and the Old City Point Waterfront Park. We were there about 11 am and had a nice walk along the River James. Yes, here is James at the James!

Right there we could almost see where we were planning to have lunch later at the Upper Shirley Vineyards. You can see the blue dot at the bottom. That's were we were first. It wasn't much of a walk but it was nice and we had a lovely talk with a man who was fishing from the deck.

I was the driver today to chauffeur the birthday boy. I took a short cut, ha-ha. It was a bit bumpy because it was actually a dirt road which went through a vast field of cotton. I should have stopped and taken better photos. If it wasn't for the car you could feel transported in history. 

We found the Upper Shirley Vineyard which is right next to Shirley Plantation which we probably should have visited too. Next time.

First we entered into a large dining room which was very nice but so cold. Air conditioning? Would not have been neccessary that day in our eyes. We wanted to eat outside on the large veranda. Do you have reservations? No. Ups. 

We were told we could order the food at the bar and take it down onto the lawn area. Down a huge stairs. We were disappointed but were told by the hostess she could look whether somebody who reserved doesn't show up etc. We decided to have some local beer and an appetizer. We found some shade it it was quite nice. 

After our appetizers I inquired at the bar. There was a different person and she found us a table right away. It was perfect. 

Our server Dominique was so cheerful and nice and took this nice photo of us. See the James River?

The menu was limited but James found a Chicken Pot Pie (roasted chicken / root vegetables / puff pastry).

I had the Pan Seared Rockfish (apple & quinoa salad / roasted spaghetti squash / carrot & ginger butter). You don't find rockfish often on a menu. 

Afterwards we walked down to the river.

It went steeply down with lots of growth but it was a nice view and some birds.

On the way to the car park James took this photo of me pretending to feed the horse (statue). Got to have some fun.

Saturday Sarah texted whether it was ok for Caleb to bake the birthday cake for Sunday. He asked and really wanted to do it. What a question. We were delighted. Later she texted these photos. 

He might have gotten a little help from his brother (s?) but basicly did it all by himself.

Sunday evening we had dinner with friends from church. I prepared "meal #1" and even found some flowers in the garden.

Totally forgot to take a photo of the birthday cake. It was a totally from scratch Blackforest Cherry Cake including the 12 tablespoons of Kirschwasser.  

But I cropped the above photo and here is the birthday boy. Needless to say that I could not find any birthday candles so this one had to do to blow out.

We had so much fun with Nancye, Jim, Martha and Jerry. Nancye had brought a card game and we learned something new. I think it was called Skyjo. Very tempted to buy it but I don't think it is as good for just two people. 

Sarah had been worried about Papa's celebration but we suggested for them to come on Sunday to church. After the service there was a spaghetti luncheon which happens every year and is a fundraiser for the church youth mission trip in the summer. I was sure the boys would love it. And they always love to come to our church. 

Afterwards we all went to our house, the boys finished decorating the cake.

Papa was happy. Everybody was happy. 

As always ... we are so blessed!

Busy busy September

September 16 - We woke up to seeing THIS outside our bedroom window.

 

I climbed out of bed and took a closer look very carefully. I even managed to take a  Video  (0:59 minutes) and I am very proud of that.

Our weather is quite nice again, definately autumn but we take every opportunity to get some steps. While we were walking in the neighborhood we chatted with a lady who is also from Germany. Renate is not very mobile and likes to sit in her open garage with several large flower pots on the driveway. Her daughter came also out of the house and she too spoke very good German. She told us that she had just baked a "Zwetschgenkuchen", German recipe. She told us that those special plums had been available at the Publix supermarket which is in walking distance to us. In all those years living in the USA, even in different states, I have seen Zwetschgen for sale only a very few times. 

I was so excited that we walked to Publix the first chance we had and bought all they had (smallish 5 bags). I found a recipe for it, baked these two sheets and put the rest in the freezer. 

It was a very nice dessert ... especially each portion smathered with whipped cream. But we did share with friends. 

The only thing with this recipe was that it was quite soggy the next day. I asked for Renate's recipe. She (now actually her daughter) uses a recipe for a springform (not sheet cake) but it tasted very much the same and worked well. I think the baking temperature and time made the difference. 

Yes, we had gone back to buy more of the fruit several times and put enough for several cakes in the freezer. By the way, I learned that those plums are called Italian plums or prune plums. I had not known that.

Lots was going on in the second half of September. On Saturday the 23. we had a presentation at our church by a county clerk about PROBATE. I had been very involved in arranging it and was a bit worried about attendance, especially since we ended up with a storm coming through. But it was all well and James and I thought it was very important for us to hear. 

Oh yes, another of our (almost) daily routines is playing our card game. How many games have we played by now? In all those years? No telling. But this was the first time that I had not a single bad point.

Monday September 25 our three "local" grandsons had no school. We actually got them Sunday evening for the night.

This is how we were whoken up Monday morning (at 6:30). OMG, a miracle that I have no blue spots on my body. But who cares when you are having fun.

Breakfast!

And then we went for a walk. At 10 am we had parked at the James River downtown. Two of the boys didn't have proper shoes so we didn't know how far we would go. We went across the bridge to Belle Island. We love that walk. 

Since we had torrendous rain just two days ago the river was flowing pretty fast. 

On the other side the boys were eager to climb on the stones whenever possible. But they were very good and listened to us when we thought it was not safe. 

There was a lot of driftwood from the storms but the boys liked it all. Sorry to say that they helped the driftwood a little further along the river. Since it is not littering we didn't see any harm in it.

We went back to the car but there was still time so we continued along to the other side. There is the Memorial Bridge for pedestrians which starts at the historic area close to the American Civil War Museum from Tredegar Street. Right there we found a picnic table and had our lunch.

Afterwards we went across the bridge. It is very interesting and on the other side is a bit of river which is away from the flowing water, more like a pond. This is area wildlife, especially turtles, like. The boys had great fun trying to count them all. That was not so easy since some of them kept moving. 

Finally we had enough. We also didn't know when Wade would come to pick them up. He had been away for the weekend and they had not seen him for several days.

Well, I had hoped that our favorite donut shop was open but it is always closed on Mondays. Second best had to do. Each of the boys selected the donut they wanted. They also asked whether we could buy one for their Dad. They knew exactly his favorite. We enjoyed them on the back patio ... after we had washed our hands thoroughly with soap (I hope). 

Wednesday the 27th I had committed myself to demonstrate bobbinlace making at the VA State Fair in Doswell with my friends from the Colonial Lacemakers. Most of them live in Williamsburg. We used to do it every year before the pandemic. I had not seen them in a very long time since their monthly meeting is now on Sundays and I can't make it in time after church.

I had a really good time, even figured out how I had worked that pattern on my German lacepillow I had taken last time to that fair.

To stretch our legs we did take time to walk around a little bit. Here are some samples of what there was to see. 

Oh yes, we could venture out to have some lunch too. Lots of teenagers walking around who had come in schoolbuses. I could not resist the funnel cake. Honestly, I shared with the others.

Back at demonstrating. A selfie!

Only a small part of what we are busy with. Not enough hours in the day to do all. But at least we are NEVER bored. I consider that an ugly word.