the tree

Yesterday, Ben & Bill chopped down a a 10-foot tree. How lovely to have a vaulted family room!

Grandma Jean helped trim the tree. She hadn't decorated a tree for many a year, so this was special.
Jon was in charge of stringing lights. Good job, Jon!

Poodie lent her artistic touch decor. Then she fell asleep on the couch while I read "Amahl & the Night Visitors" aloud to the fam.

Please don't ask me to explain the mess on the other side of the room.

I mean, wow, people.....

our first

We celebrated out first Thanksgiving in our old stone home.
We dined on turkey with all the trimmings.
We ate beets & butternut squash from the garden.
We wrote what we were thankful for on slips of paper & read them aloud after dinner.
We sang hymns around the piano.
We played games & watched a little football.
We enjoyed the company of family, friends, & neighbors.
We sighed with contentment.

It was a wonderful day of giving thanks!

gratitude

Psalm 105:

1 Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples!
2 Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works!
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!

Wishing you & yours a gratitude-filled Thanksgiving.

home-sick remedy

"I like when you post pictures of home," said she. Done deal.

I know its merely a rug. But it makes me happy every time I look at it.

A real snapshot of the kitchen. That's five days of mail on the island.

Isn't is nice to know that the old chalkboard is finally up? It's the same board that resided in 3108, only now it's smaller.

Of course, in its previous life, it was in room 203 at the old Madrid School.

Today, I tacked the closet. THE closet. We only have one in the entire house.

As for recent vignettes, here is one my Texas girl will enjoy. We got the globe in a thrift shop in Cape Cod for $5.
The funky green couch. It's prettier than it is comfortable, but whatever.

Our soggy front porch with a rescued rocking chair.

The view from the front door. I wish she was walking through it. Right this very minute.

the river guide speaks

After church, I stole away on my little green kayak.

steal: to move, go, or come secretly, quietly, or unobserved: She stole out of the house at midnight.

Thank you, dictionary.com. I might add: She stole out of the house at midnight with her kayak.
-because it is something I might do. I just haven't done it yet.

e house at

Thank you, dictionary.com.

I might add: she stole out of the house at midnight with her kayak -
because it is something I reall would do. I just haven't done it yet.

May I share with you a few shining moments from my trip?

The above scene is the view as one rounds the corner of Cow Island. I call it Cow Island because there are usually cows along the shore. No cows today, but I did startle a lone blue heron in the marshy grass.

He must have missed the last southbound Blue Heron bus. Poor guy.

The trees are bare, but they are still beautiful to me.

My beloved railroad bridge comes in to view. I have never jumped off of it into the water. But my kids have.

As I pass under its rusted trestles, I see the homestretch.

I paddle past my beloved church, too. There are a dozen cars in the parking lot, which makes me wonder if I am missing something.

From here, I guide my little boat as near the falls as I dare. It's as close to living dangerously as I ever get.

After I drag my trusty craft up across the road and stow the paddle in the garage, I go inside & make a fire in the wood stove.

The End.

breaking bread

There are so many things I enjoy about our old stone home. One of them is simply the play of morning light across the dining room table.

Last evening, I reveled in the beautiful faces that dined here:

Hubby, tired & somewhat sunburned from a satisfying day's work. He ripped shingles off of a roof in the Indian summer sun.

Ben, the best boy in the whole world of boys. After a morning of college classes, he joined his dad on the roof.

Ana, who is such an very very good girl. She worked from 10-3 and then went kayaking with

Philip, who lives up the street. We love having his dazzling smile around these here parts.

Summer, who wrote & directed a most stunning film which is in its last legs of editing. You just WAIT until you see this film!

Jonathan, who pulled into the drive while we were lifting our forks to our mouths. Lucky for him, we had plenty to go around. He enriched our discussion of Conditional Immortality over dinner.

It tickles my fancy to no end that such lovely faces break bread around our table.

for what it's worth....

For curiosity's sake, I searched online for "antique general store counter",
and found this.

Gracious me! $4,500???

Ours looked so very much like this one. We rescued it from a friend's barn in exchange for some plumbing work. I think we got a sweet deal.

green tomatoes

It has been a great summer for tomatoes.

I put in around thirty plants; twelve of them being "Amish Paste". This has proven to be a winner for sauces and all kinds of cooking, as there is a lot of meaty paste & very little seeds.

We experimented by canning home-made ketchup. Why not?

It got the thumbs up from me; the rest of the family thought it was a great dipping sauce, but it's still not the same stuff as Heinz.

Ketchup Babies.

Anyway.

Last week, I trolled in all the green tomatoes & prowled the web for what to make with them. I was enamored with this recipe, perhaps only because of the web design. But really, the recipe sounded great.

I made 14 pints and dubbed it "Green Tomato Salsa" -because that's the way we will use it! We scarfed up two pints already, accompanied by two bags of white tortilla chips.

Now some of you will say, "this entry doesn't say ANYTHING about the new addition!" and you woulds be correct. The back wing looked really good for two days, and then all the mess began again: trim, carpet, paint, wood-stove pipe, and putting together the Lord of the Manor's office.

It is presently in a state of disarray, believe me. Better to talk about green tomatoes!

loving....

...our new guest room.

the color on the walls: Olive Branch
the coverlet: Pottery Barn
the crocheted blanket: circa 1970 from my Aunt Elsie
the framed print: North country Neighbors flea market
the brass bed: yard sale

the new addition

I was waiting until we were ready for House Beautiful before I posted pics.
-you know, potted ferns, perfect lighting, every detail attended to.....

Then I decided to quell the online begging & post pics just the way it is. Gloriously unfinished!
The woodstove needs a stovepipe. Cardboard boxes & piles of tools abound. We don't have a TV cabinet yet. The end tables are borrowed from Ben's bedroom....


But I am so happy with the almost-finished product.

We wasted no time opening our doors to entertain....
As a matter of fact, we unfurled the rug, ushered the couches in ( which I might add, led us to the discovery of a lost itouch and our extra phone...), and plugged in the thrifted lamps MOMENTS before 25 guests arrived on Sunday evening for a church leadership gathering.

We like to run things right up to the wire around here.

It was a perfect meeting: sharing, prayer, food, fellowship, laughter, the best folk in the world, and a time of worship that raised the rafters.

Check this spot for more! The guest room is being assembled over the weekend.
-because we have a guest coming, of course!

the news

We eat tomatoes from our garden EVERY DAY, in some shape or form. They are heavenly!

My fears about the shelving looking "cluttery" were unfounded. Boy, I likey these shelves!

After obsessing for months about the right rug for the family room ( and one that we could possibly afford) I found this one online. I ordered it around midnight on Wednesday & it was delivered to my front porch on Friday morning. ($2.95 shipping. I am a believer in overstock.com!)

It's absolutely perfecto.

It is late. 11:27 pm. And these three guys are installing the handrail to the spiral stairs.
One might admire their work ethic and rightly so. But the whole story is this: the boys didn't want to wake up early to help Bill, so they talked him into doing it tonight.

And that's the news from Madrid NY!

old is new

Not all the progress is going on in the back wing around here. Oh no.

In the dining room (which is now REALLY a dining room; not a make-shift family room or kitchen) a true feeling of serenity is beginning to reign. Last weekend we moved the pantry cabinet back into the kitchen (again, the REAL kitchen!) and finally my recently-inherited hutch was hoisted into its new home.

My generous mom gifted me with this lovely piece. Before she owned it, my aunt displayed white ironstone in it. There in her New Jersey home, it was surrounded by her antiques which brought her & others years of joy.

After my dear aunt passed away, my mom took this hutch into her possession for a number of years before she INSISTED that it belonged in the dining room of our 1843 stone home.

I think it looks perfectly at home here.
Thanks, Mom!

full speed ahead

Finally things are getting quite interesting around here. It's full steam ahead on the back wing!

This was the view looking to the back wing from the kitchen island on Saturday morning. The flagstones are scattered on the floor. They are awaiting the Young Master's touch to become the wood-stove hearth.

Over to the left is the Old Master ( the LOTM, as he is known) kneeling in the mudroom hallway. I have chosen the hue of this hallway: Chocolate Raspberry.

I figured if it didn't look good, I could always eat it.

Behind me, in the bowels of the kitchen, my domestic slave is sorting through our pantry goods. We moved the pantry back into the kitchen from the dining room, where it had resided for a month.

Don't ask why.

In the back yard, the LOTM expresses himself with spray paint.

This is not a modern sculpture for the garden. This is the handrail for the spiral staircase.

These are the treads.

The Young Master is putting his jigsaw puzzle skills to good use. He is numbering the flagstones with chalk so he can build the framework.

See with what artistic gestures he attends his craft?

Afterward, he sweeps. I like that in a guy.

Speaking of things I like in a guy, how about rolling two coats of paint in a gigantic room? He did a fantastic job! The Lady of the Manor will now trim the windows with a dainty trim brush.

We have a new fan, too.
We have EVERYTHING.

We even have an expired building permit. Cool.