Happenings on the Homestead in the Appalachian Mountains

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from Georgia. How you doing this 26th week of 2024? We're halfway through the year, whew, how time is flying by. It's a very pleasant 69 degrees here this Friday morning as I prepare myself to do a much needed clean of the bathroom & fix the onions today. There is a new romantic comedy that just came out on Netflix called A Family Affair that I'm going to try to watch sometime this weekend. I picked up sticks, pulled weeds & went along as an extra chaperon on a field trip this week with Daughter's Summer Day Camp. I was delighted to experience some Christmas in June, especially since Christmas is now just 6 months away. It's the time of year that I start Christmas shopping, looking up ideas for Christmas activities & gathering thoughts for a winter bucket list. Grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & I'll tell you a little about my week in the garden & about my day at a place where it's Christmas every day, come sit by the creek with me...

 

I gave Santa a big ol hug & asked him how
he was tolerating the heat down here in the
south being away from the North Pole.

*  The field trip was to Santa's Land Fun Park & Zoo, the home of the famous Rudicoaster. It's a fun place for kids of all ages, including my aging gracefully inner-kid self. We rode the rides, train & paddle boats. We went to the magic show. We explored the zoo area & fed some of the animals. We played on Candy Mountain & the other playground areas. The kids got a souvenir ring made out of a reindeer/horseshoe nail at the blacksmith exhibit. Each ring was made to size as we watched. Of course, we talked to Santa & got a candy cane.  

In our imagination, we called
these Santa's reindeer.

The kids wanted to paddle
the boat, so I relaxed in the back
 seat & watched the fish. 

There were several Christmas trees on display here & there.
These dolls reminded me of the Raggedy Ann &
 Andy I had as a kid. Season's Greetings.

*  Vegetables in the garden have started coming in. Kevin planted the garden, worked it & has kept it watered. I'm helping with the picking, gathering & preparing the goodness to be fixed for supper or put up in the freezer. Not pictured are the cucumbers. Kevin has kept them eat up before I get a chance to include them in a veggie photo shoot. He likes his cucumbers cold. The colder the better he says, almost to the point of being froze. 

A little unexpected surprise that there were green beans ready.

Eversweet Everbearing strawberries
that are true to their name.

These tommy toes/cherry tomatoes made
 me think about needing to get out the
 tator tot casserole recipe & have it
 ready for when these tiny mators are
 ripe here in a few more days.

"Rose, do you want to help string
the beans?"

 

The berry cobbler turned out good
using the muffin mix.

The grocery store had locally grown blueberries for a good price, so
 I thought I'd add them with our blackberries & strawberries to
 make a couple bags of mixed berries to put up in the
freezer to have later.

The onions are ready to be harvested.

Is that fall leaf color I'm seeing? I 
wonder what is going on with that.

We had Arby's for supper 
one night.

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been?