Back in the Saddle Again

Couldn't help but think of that old Gene Autrey tune as Bob and I were finally able to resume our bike riding excursions.  Our Jeep has been out of commission for a month and it is the only means we have of transporting our bikes... but finally....we're back!!!

Though we missed September, a great month, perhaps even the best month for bike riding, we still should have a few good weeks left to enjoy the great outdoors before the temperatures become too cold to bear.  And enjoy them, we will!  Today we took  to one of our favorite walking trails in Frenchtown and went north toward Milford following the Delaware River.  Leaves have not gotten far in their brilliant fall process, just a few dried brown early birds littering the path.  Looking forward to the spectacle of fall.

The sun felt glorious after a full week of rain and temps in the 50's and 60's. The ride was pure bliss. Afterward, we prolonged the day by sipping some coffees on a bench outside a local shop on Main Street.   We love these quaint little river towns that adorn the Delaware. We watched the local pizza maker walk from his shop to the bank, deposit bag in hand. Two minutes later, another shop owner made the same trek.  How wonderful it must be to be able to walk from home to work, from work to errands, and back home again at the end of the day. The peacefulness of that scene was so enticing. It made me long for a simpler, slower world.

 Looking at the town's architecture too can make you easily envision  what life was like a hundred years ago.  I can almost picture the horse drawn wagons, the ladies in floor length dresses and bonnets and the friendliness that pervades a community where everyone knows everyone by name.  River towns have such history.  You can almost feel the history in the air.  You just know that Washington or some of his cohorts very likely passed through or maybe even slept in a local's home or the town's inn .  And the river, always the river, gives testament to the immigrants, the laborers, the tradesmen who toiled so hard to build the canals that gave birth to the commerce that sustained these towns.  Frenchtown honors this heritage through the sculptures of the barge mules. It's fun to see how various artists decked out their mules which are proudly displayed outside of area businesses.

The peace of our little coffee respite was disrupted by the awful and noisy Stem brothers!  More on them in a future post.  Until then, get out there and enjoy the weeks of autumn.  Snow, Ice, Nor'easters are commin' all too soon!!!!!

BOCCE BALLS!!!!

As part of our last hurrah to summer, Bob and I attended a local Community Day in a neighboring town.  As community days go, this one was fairly typical with funnel cakes and hot dogs for sale, dunking booths and Go Fish booths for entertaining the kiddies, and fundraisers for school groups and organizations.  However, what set this community day apart from others is that this one kicked things off with an early morning bocce ball tournament.  Yes...you heard right...BOCCE BALL!

Who knew bocce ball had such a ferocious following?  Here I thought bocce was an easy-going lawn game played by old Italian grampies (excuse my stereotyping please, but I've led a sheltered life).  Ho no, it is a serious and competitive sport played by young and old.  And the reason why I know it is competitive is that only ladies who are too good to play with other ladies are allowed to play with the men!

The tournament was replete with brackets (as in basketball brackets!) and team uniforms.  Rookie teams, like these fresh -faced young men, valiantly fought against wily veteran teams who sported t-shirts that proclaimed their many victories. Teams came from all over the state.  One even persevered through a closed interstate to arrive in time to avoid a forfeit. Now, that's what I call competitiveness.

 Play was intense....

 Deep strategizing and reflection went in to every throw...

And then there was the measuring....

And fancy throwing techniques...

But ultimately, there was just lots of fun and good -natured competition.

My son-in-law and his rookie teammates might not have won their matches, but they held their own against some veteran players and learned a few new moves to boot.  I learned something too...bocce is not what I thought it was.

Have you any experiences with bocce ball to relate?  What unusual events have you encountered at community days?

Saying Goodbye to Summer

It's the last weekend of the summer of 2015...sigh...days are getting shorter, blooms are spent, and fall is calling loudly.

My hubby and I decided to embrace the last few days of summer...a picnic lunch on the Delaware for starters.

 Bob and I chose a picnic table that faced a river view and enjoyed the scene as we munched on our tasty tidbits.  The air enveloped us in a cozy warmth.  The songs of ducks and birds provided running background music as we chatted and lazily enjoyed the scene. The river was gorgeous with a glimpse of the bridge between New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the distance...

and kayakers floating by...

After lunch, a leisurely walk across the bridge....

The river views from the bridge were simply lovely...

A quick visit to the PA side...

And a picture perfect day is complete.

Enjoy the last two days of summer!!!  Get out there and soak up some of the outdoors.

reading roundup

The Good. The Bad. The Helpful.  That's how I would sum up this month's reading.

 Let's start with the good.  Two of the five books I read this month were absolutely delightful, The Canterbury Sisters by Kim Wright and Attachments by Rainbow Rowell.

The Canterbury Sisters by Kim Wright

I loved this book for two reasons.  One, it appealed to the English teacher in me.  The setting follow's Chaucer's Canterbury trail for goodness sake! Two, the main character is struggling with coming to terms with her view of her dead mother.  Let's face it. What daughter among us has not struggled with her relationship with her mother, living or dead.  Mom is a powerful force, one that can't be denied, one that reaches beyond the grave. This book explores this reality in a special way.  The main character Che, has lost her mother to cancer and her fiance to another woman in one fell swoop.  Reeling from these blows, Che impulsively decides to fulfill her mother's request to complete the pilgrimage to Canterbury where it is said miracles and healing happens to those who make the journey. Che, empties her mother's ashes into a zip lock bag, hops a flight to England, and joins a group of traveling pilgrims (Broads Abroad) and determines to make the pilgrimage with mom safely tucked in her backpack.  True to Chaucer's "Prologue" to the Canterbury Tales, each of the pilgrims shares a story along the path to Canterbury.  Chaucer lovers will recognize some of the characters, even though they are in modern garb.

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

 Attachments was Rainbow Rowell's first novel, and it had me chomping at the bit to read more by her. Her writing is funny, witty and full of energy.  It manages to be modern and yet familiar at the same time. The main character, Lincoln, is a shy, quiet IT guy who works in the basement of a newspaper facility.  His job as Internet security officer, is to screen all employees' emails to ensure nothing inappropriate is being written.  Lincoln,  has created a program that red flags certain words (Ah ha! and you thought things like that were myths...think again, my friend, Big Brother is everywhere...FOR REAL).  Lincoln's boring life quickly takes a turn when he begins following the email correspondence between two of the newspaper's employees, Jennifer and Beth.  Can you really fall in love with someone you've never met? Atttachments gives you the answer.  An adorable story by a refreshing author.  I've put Rainbow's latest book, Eleanor and Park, on my To Read list!

On to THE BAD.  Only one of the books on my list this month really turned out to be one I couldn't wait to put down, The House I Loved by Tatiana de Rosnay.

The House I Loved, by Tatiana de Rosnay

 I thought I would love this novel because it was set in Paris during the late 19th century.  I love a good period piece, but in this case it wasn't enough to keep my interest. I was also intrigued by the title.  It reminded me of one of my favorite songs, The House That Built Me, by Miranda Lambert (love that concept). I could just imagine a house that was the centering force in a person's life.  For someone like me who lived in 13 different houses as she was growing up, the concept of a single home having a singular impact on one's life is intriguing. But, sadly, I was to be disappointed. The house was not a major force in the characters' lives, in fact, it was rarely even described in the course of the story! I must admit, the format of the novel was unique, an elderly woman, Rose Brazelet, writing letters to her dead husband, but this format ultimately turned out to be a disaster.  I never felt I got to know any of the characters deeply.  It read too much like a newspaper report. The crux of the plot centered around the imminent razing of Rose's house, the ancestral home of her husband, in order to make way for the modernization of the layout of the city of Paris.  Not even Paris, nor love, nor secrets could engage me in this one.  I must confess I skimmed the last 50 pages just to confirm the too obvious ending of a very disappointing read.

And finally, The Helpful.  I read two non-fiction books this month that I found to be very useful, Voracious by Cara Nicoletti, and Dave Ramsey's latest book, The Total Money Makeover.

Voracious (A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books), by Cara Nicoletti

Besides being an author, Ms. Nicoletti is a professional butcher, (following in her grandfather's footsteps), which gives this author the authority to write about food. Of course, what caught my attention about this book (besides being about food!) was the fact that all the recipes were inspired by literature. Ms. Nicoletti happens also to be a bibliophile (and if I'm not mistaken a kindred English major).  Voracious came to be after years of reading. She noticed that great books often revealed great food.  She would often host literary dinner parties (what a COOL idea) pairing books and food.  This lead her to develop a recipe blog: www.yummy-books.com which developed such a following that she decided to develop the idea further into a book...hence Voracious. The book is organized into three sections that mirror the life of a reader and feature beloved books of each era: Childhood , Adolescence and College Years, and Adulthood.  Each book selection features not only a recipe inspired by the book, but also fascinating and often little known information about the literature.  For example, in the Childhood section Nicoletti paired the recipe for Double Chocolate Walnut Sundae with the books of The Nancy Drew Series.  Sigh...I loved those books...I loved Nancy, and Bess and all of the other characters. Surprisingly, Ms. Nicoletti did not enjoy the 10 Nancy Drew books she received as a gift from her great aunt.  In fact, she only read them out of respect and was puzzled why her aunt enthused about them.  As an adult, Ms. Nicoletti decided to research about the ND series.  In Voracious, the author reveals her discovery that Carolyn Keene, the supposed author of Nancy Drew, was not a real person and that the books were actually written by a number of "ghostwriters" who were paid by Stratemeyer Syndicates. The mystery of the discrepancy of opinion between Nicoletti and her aunt lies, not in that they were born in different generations, but in that the books were rewritten after 1959 to suit a more modern audience.  The original first 23 books of the Nancy Drew series were written by ghost writer, Mildred Benson, in the 1930's and 40's.  Nicoletti tracked down copies of ND prior to 1959 and "Voila" love at second sight! If you love great recipes and great books, this is the book for you.  I think I will start planning my first "literary dinner party".

The Total Money Makeover (A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness), by Dave Ramsey

OKAY...I admit it...I am a terrible money manager...I have lots of evidence to prove it, too!  However, I can accept advice, and Dave Ramsey has some great strategies to help the weak and disabled (that's me when it comes to money).  His plan to acquire financial fitness is simple but not painless.  He fully admits this and asks you to embrace the pain.  No Pain. No Gain.  His plan is based on a seven step plan that he has broken down into what he calls Baby Steps (What About Bob fame).  It starts with Baby Step One: Save $1000 FAST (in what he calls an emergency fund).  This he claims should be done in no more than a months time.  YIKES!!!  It ends with Step Seven: Create Wealth but I will be happy to end on Step Six:  Pay Off Home Mortgage.  Forget wealth....I'll be happy with debt free.  I am going to give it my best shot.  I'll keep you posted.

Quack Me Up!

Today I spent a few hours soaking up the last gorgeous days of summer by strolling along the footpath along the Delaware River in Frenchtown, NJ.  It was a glorious morning with fewer people (kids are back in school!!!) and quieter surroundings.  I breathed in deeply the fresh warm air and thought how lucky I was to be able to spend free relaxing moments like this.

On my way to Frenchtown, I had passed a local business that sells seasonal plants and produce and thought I would stop by on my way back home and pick up some mums, as I had noticed  they were advertising a fall plant sale.

So, on my way home, I pulled in the driveway and started to peruse the many varieties of flowers.  The garden's owner is a lovely Korean-American lady.  She greeted me with a welcoming smile, we chatted briefly, and then she helped me put the chosen mums in my car.  As I was paying the bill, out waddles the most adorable group of black ducklings. I was speechless for a few moments as I took in the scene.

The cute little fuzzies had followed their owner out from the office onto the driveway as she brought me my change from my purchase.  I couldn't prevent my laughter. They followed her just like toddlers follow their mommy.

The owner told me they were Cayuga ducklings, and they were her pets! She had been keeping them in a pen in her house, but they had been making such a mess, she had decided to bring them to work with her today.  She is trying to socialize them so they will be pleasant around people. These four little lovelies are brothers and sisters each born a day apart from each other. The smallest one's name is "Baby". She's the one in the front of the pack here in the above picture.

The duckies' "Mommy" told me their father's name is Winston and that he has a beautiful green sheen to his feathers. Didn't get a look at him, but he probably looks something like this:

What a fun way to end a perfect waning summer morning.  Have you encountered any fun surprises lately?

Music Room Anyone?

Now that the wedding craziness is over, I thought I would share with you some of the house projects I have worked on in between wedding stuff.  In the two years I have been retired, I have managed to do a few projects, but not nearly close to the number I have sitting in my head! (I can hear Bob cringing as I write that line). One of my favorite projects just kind of came to me out of the blue... transforming my living room.

The above shows the finished product,(sorry, no before photo to share).


My home is a 1973 colonial.  When you walk in the front door, to the left of the foyer and stairs is a combined living room/dining room space.  I think it is a pretty advanced open-concept design for 1973, and one would think I would know exactly what to do with it being that everyone wants open concept design today.  Uh, welllll....I didn't.  The dining area was easy to design:  table, chairs, china cabinet...DONE!  But, what to do with the living room area.  The problem was we really spent so little time in that room, all of our together time was spent in the family room where the TV and computer are located.  I had filled the living room with haphazard pieces just to take up space.  There was no design plan...sigh.  Then inspiration hit!  The one piece in the room that dominated the space was the piano; it had to stay.  So, I thought, why not make it the purpose of the room...a music room.  LOVE IT!!! Once I had decided on a purpose for the room, the design all fell into place.  First I transformed some of the pieces I already had to fit the theme.

On the large outside wall, I created a music- themed photo wall.  I started by framing some music sheets from my daughters' band days.  I also was lucky enough to find sheet music that was stamped with black block prints of birds done by a local artist who also is part owner of a favorite antique shop on Main Street downtown Flemington. I thought it would create a nice mix of art and music.  Since the walls are a Wedgewood blue, I decided to keep all the frames light.

The center picture needed to be larger, so I scoured the music in the piano bench and found Phantom of the Opera...our very favorite Broadway play.  It brings back such happy memories.  My oldest daughter's marching band won first place with this music ( in fact it is her saxophone sheet music from high school that I framed.)

You can also see that I stylized the top of the secretary (an heirloom from Bob's mom).  I tried to keep things simple: a few books, silver pieces and alabaster statue.  I kept the music theme going by rolling up some sheet music and filling the large silver urn (actually an ice bucket we received as 25th anniversary gift).

On the drop down top I placed my oldest daughter's flute (sadly she no longer plays it) along with a vintage ink bottle and a few pages of random music. Next to the secretary you can see my youngest daughter's saxophone (again relegated to the past).

As I scoured garage sales last fall for items to furnish my youngest's new home, I scored this pair of wall sconces... music harps!  Perfect fit to round out the music wall collage.

 Next, I turned to the sofa area that I use as a divider between the living room and dining room areas.  I covered the sofa ( a 1980"s pink floral number...YIKES!!!) with a neutral pewter- colored slip cover.  I added some vintage doilies as arm covers and tossed on some neutral -colored pillows to freshen the look and blend in with the color scheme of the wall collage. I brought in a vintage pie crust table I had used in the family room and topped it with a converted oil lamp that I had purchased years ago and had been using elsewhere in the house.  I like it here in this room better; it adds to the old world charm that a "music room" connotes, don't you think?

 Behind the pie crust table I placed a hinged pair of glass doors that I had purchased a while back on an antiquing outing with Bob.  I just loved them and at the time didn't know where I would put them, but I knew they would look nice somewhere.  I was so right.  They make the perfect room divider here. Plus, I continued the music theme by decorating a few of the window panes with sheet music.  Also on the pie crust table you can see the crystal vase holds a collection of drum sticks that I scored for $1 a piece at the same shop I got the bird block prints.

In front of the sofa is a diminutive vintage glass-topped table.  I brought it into the design by simply slipping a few sheets of music under the glass top and simplifying the vignette with a footed silver bowl, mercury glass candle and Waterford crystal bowl.

To the right of piano is a vintage music cabinet I had found over ten years ago.  I used it to store all of the piano music my girls and I had accumulated over the years.  Plus, who could resist such a lovely lady...do you see the mirror peaking out on top and the lovely turned legs?  So, as I was transforming the room, I wanted to highlight the piece even more.  Two years ago, my daughter had given me a replica phonograph.  I decided it absolutely needed to be in my music room, so I placed it here on top of the music cabinet.  I opened the doors so you could see the lovely shelving, used some of the shelves for album storage (I won't tell you I have an original Abby Road album and the original Tapestry album...can we hear a you're that old!!!!), and threw a couple of vintage linens on the door.  Just love the monogram even though it's not my letters.

So, that's how my music room came to be.  I apologize for the photo.  There is so much light streaming through the windows and (sigh) I am still using my cell phone for photo taking.  But, I think you see the gist of the themes in the room.  Blue, creme, gray, neutral colors are so soothing. And of course...music, music, music.  I now love the room and you can find me at quiet times, reading on the sofa or tinkering away at the piano.  I have even been known to put on an old album and sip away on a glass of wine.

Do you have any rooms that never seemed to get use?  Can you think of ways to transform them into useful spots again?  I'd love to hear your ideas.

Reading Roundup

One of my very favorite pastimes is reading.  I like to get reading suggestions from other people.  It just makes it so much easier to pick out a book to read, and I'm sure there are others out there who are just like me.  So, I've decided to start a monthly post called Reading Roundup in which I will share with you, what I've been reading.  I hope it will inspire you with some titles or authors that you might like to try on for size.

So here is what I'm reading this month:

Song For Night by Chris Abani.  I'm reading this book because I am tutoring a student who was assigned this for Summer Reading. It is not for the faint of heart. The story's main character, My Luck, is a child soldier in Nigeria.  He is fifteen at the outset of the story but has been involved in the war for three years.  His job is to sweep the landscape for mines.  He, like the other members of his platoon, has had his vocal chords severed. This was done to prevent screaming when a landmine explodes...one doesn't want to scare the other mine sweepers with death screams!  The brutality of the war is stark and revolting.  The depravity of mankind is close to the surface of this book, but My Luck is the shining example of how one can cling to human goodness in the face of overpowering evil.  I haven't finished the book yet, but must admit I can't wait to be done with it.  So very brutal.  The writing is superb and borders on poetic, but I wonder why it is necessary to include it in a summer reading project.  Thank goodness my student is going to be a senior.  I guess the message is:  here's the real world kid...take a look!


Because Song For Night is so overwhelmingly oppressive, I needed something light to counteract it.  Enter The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen.  The book is set in Mullaby, North Carolina.  I just love Southern novelists, of which Ms. Allen is one.  Their prose usually drips with rich descriptions and details just like the Spanish Moss that droops from tree tops in the South.  This book lives up to my expectations of luxurious details, plus it has some very fun plot twists, some mystery, some romance, and even magic. The main character, Emily, has just come to live with her giant of a grandfather...uh, yes I mean giant...literally...he is almost 9 feet tall!  Emily's mother, Dulcie, has just died, and since Emily never knew her father, she goes to live with her grandfather, Vance. Emily has never met her grandfather and finds him shy and reclusive.  Everything is strange for Emily who has had to leave the rather austere life in an all-girls school in the North and acclimate to the down home, folksy life of a small Southern town where everyone knows the business of EVERYONE else.  Emily soon realizes the mother she knew (an activist who supported a dozen causes), who lead a very plain life, had a very different past.  Dulcie was rich, popular, and very much a materialist.  Something happened to change all that...and Emily will find out what everyone else in Mullaby already knows.  A very fun read.

                                      

Next on my list is The Traveling Tea Shop by Belinda Jones.  I haven't started to read this one yet, but it was recommended by the Modern Mrs. Darcy. I've been following MMD on Pinterest and her blog. Go check out her blog HERE. What a find!  She has great recommendations and great taste!  In fact, she spoke highly of Sarah Addison Allen, so that is why I picked up The Girl Who Chased the Moon. I loved the cover of The Traveling Tea Shop and love, love, love tea shops in general (gotta visit Teaberrys in Flemington if you are ever in the area) so I thought I would give this book a go.

Finally, I've decided to begin checking off one of the items on my Bucket List...to read every one of Shakespeare's plays.  I've read quite a few already, but many still remain.  I decided to start with one of his earliest Measure for Measure.  I dusted off my old Shakespeare anthology from college days...

It was cool to see some of the annotations I had made almost 45 years ago!!!  I even found some bibliography lists meant to be used in research done on those old purple ditto sheets...anyone remember those?

I decided to listen to a recording of the play as I followed along in the text.  A really good resource can be found at THIS website.  I was disappointed in Measure for Measure; it seemed simplistic and relied on silly and see through mistaken identities.  I chalked it up to Shakespeare starting to tryout his dramatic wings...after all I KNOW what he ultimately produced...he's not called the Sweet Swan of Avon for nothing!  I'm  looking forward to reading more of the bard.  I'll keep you posted.

So that's what I've been reading lately.  What great reads have you been delving into?  I would love to hear what you have on your reading list!