My first (real) snow encounter!

To say that I have never seen snow wouldn't be true. I've seen snow two times before today. The first time I saw snow was in January 1977 when I was at Wilton Manors Elementary school (south Florida) and we witnessed white flakes floating to the ground. Not much happened. They melted as soon as they hit the ground or your hand. It was such a phenomenon that the school sent us home for the day! The second time I saw snow was May of 2006 when on a business trip to Utah one of the lovely dudes from Paper Wizard drove me up a mountain to let me see snow on the ground. He felt sorry for the Florida girl who had never experienced snow. Well, melt-ey flakes and melt-ey mounds on the ground were NOTHING to what I experienced today. My first REAL snow day!!
Yesterday the weather folk reported that most of PA would be cold and rainy. BUT that those in the northern part of PA, up in the mountains could be hit with some early snowfall. I posted to FB that I was waiting for snow. When I woke up today to 30 degree weather, there was no snow. As I was getting dressed, I was sitting on in my bedroom when I noticed something moving outside. It was snow! I ran outside with damp hair, socks only and my camera. It was just like the fluffy flakes I remember from the 70's. It melted right away. But this was still fun stuff, so I danced a little jig, snapped a few photos and came in to call everyone I know! (OK-I'll admit that I am a dork!) After about 1 hour, I noticed that it was falling faster and there was more of it. As the afternoon progressed, the snow was covering the whole yard, my car, the steps, all the trees and brush...everything. I just kept running in and out with my camera all day long. I wanted a very good photo record of my first day!
When Charles got home, we headed to supper and a trip to Walmart (I needed to shop and was afraid to drive alone). The temps were dropping so I made sure to wear the appropriate layers! Underoos and all! What was super cool was driving home. It is pretty dark up here, so we drive with the high beams on so the snow looks like it is flying right at the car. It is a cool effect! We are supposed to get 4-10 inches of snowfall between today and Saturday. Not enough for a snow dude, but plenty to get this Florida girl all hyped up!

A fern on the front porch throughout the day.



My car at the end of the day.



The ever dropping thermometer!



Oh! The dogs hated it!



The foot print of mystery on our front porch! Spooky...



Master of the art of layers!



For today I am really enjoying the seasons and all the new adventures it is bringing this Florida native! I know that I may change my tune come February and March, but I am going to relish this wonder while it is here!

Then & Than

Pet peeve alert! Please only read on if you have a healthy sense of humor and/or are not easily offended by grammar lessons. Oh! And please remember this is the pet peeve of a person who couldn't spell her way out of a bag, but is on a first name basis with spell check!

THEN & THAN. The difference? Only one tiny little letter. Well. One tiny little letter and the DEFINITION!! I hear nails on a chalkboard when I see or read these words interchanged so often!

Then is used in reference to time. You would use this word when you are talking about a sequence of events or placing one event in time relative to another. The word then can also be used in a context similar to using “in that case.”

Than is used in reference to comparisons. You would use this word when you are talking about the characteristics of one noun in relation to the same characteristics of another noun.

All you have to do is write two sentences using the correct usage of each word! Now back to FB to play along!

Note: The above post is meant only for entertainment purposes and is in no way to imply that I am a wordsmith, perfect, don't ever misspell words or use incorrect grammar myself.

Look what we found!

Charles found this old, abandoned cemetery on a drive along a country road awhile ago and driving home from fellowship this afternoon, we decided to visit. Here is what we discovered.

This is the view from the road.


One of the first markers we encountered after a small hike up the hill. (Aged 38 years)


A lot of the markers were really tiny. Some were not carved out in a traditional shape. Some were just smoothed out rocks. Some were tucked between two trees.




Charles brushes away some debris so we can read the inscription.


Walking around I kept stepping in or almost stepping in groundhog holes. Some of the holes were right over the area. Charles joked that he wanted to see a groundhog pop out of it's hole with a bone in it's mouth.


Sad.


This beat up flag was the only evidence that someone had been back in there in many, many years. It does show that people still do remember their kin.


Charles said that I really shouldn't go into the fenced off part, but it was rusted away in some parts, a huge rock had bent up another and some of the fence was just plain ol' missing...plus I don't listen too well. But I DO know the rule that when you visit a cemetery you cannot go without leaving a token for the occupants. So I was bringing home some leftover pumpkin biscuits and I shared them in thanks for letting us visit.

Random fall photos

Hey y'all! Here are some random fall photos for those of you who want to see the changes. Enjoy!

Charles walking Kiwi on the side of our house. A lot of the trees here were blown bare with the heavy winds on Tuesday and Wednesday.


Caramel Apple Pie I made for our 15th anniversary supper. Used apples from a local farmer.


One of the "cow-bors" (what I call our cow neighbors) just up the street from us.


Ginger in a pile of leaves.


Our place up the hill. Notice our "backyard"-a wall of trees!


The old farmhouse next door.


On my way home from WalMart.


Just turning on our road, another view of the old farmhouse.

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Browned Butter & Parmesean

I just created this on the fly from seeing other recipes in the past, so I didn't write down exact measurements but I'm gonna do my best to remember how I made this.

1 butternut squash

Split in half and put in baking pan. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with kosher salt, pepper, nutmeg,curry powder and a bit of brown sugar. Bake at 350 degrees until tender. Scrap out flesh, put in bowl and mush all up. There were a few small chunks still in there.

1/2 of large onion
1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic (I used the pre-roasted, from the jar)
1 tbsp. (real) butter

Chop onion. Melt butter over medium-high heat and cook onions & garlic until slightly brown. Add to squash.

1/2 cup fat free ricotta cheese
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
2 eggs

Add the above three to squash mixture and set aside.

1 package of won ton wrappers

Lay out one won ton square and add a teaspoon of squash to center. Wet all four sides of square with water and lay another won ton wrapper on top. Repeat until all done. Really smooch the two pieces together. If a bit oozes out now, it is ok. I used the tines of a fork to go around the edges to really seal the seams! I had a cookie sheet that I laid the raviolis in while I finished the rest.

Meanwhile bring a large pot of water with salt and a bit of oil to a boil. Cook the ravioli three at a time in the water. They are a bit big and will tend to stick together. Lift each ravioli out individually and drain. Transfer to a cookie sheet & cover with foil until ready to eat. These suckers really wanted to stick together!

3/4 of a stick of (real) butter

Put butter in pan (you can use the same pan you cooked the onions in without cleaning it!) over medium-high heat. Heat until the butter turns brown.

1 cup Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Add the above two to the butter. (Do not add salt!) Season if you like with a bit of pepper and a pinch or two of nutmeg.

The sauce is super rich, so a little goes a long way on the ravioli. Hope it turns out as good for you as it did for me! Let me know...

The Apple & Cheese Festival

When we were considering the move to PA I did tons of Internet research on the area. What I found was that they had tons of festivals happening in the fall, so I made a list of "Things To Do in PA". On the top of my "must do" list was the Apple & Cheese Festival. It was last weekend and we had a blast. We have been kind-of disappointed that all of these festivals do not allow you to bring your dogs. Florida was really good about that! The dogs would have really loved this one, the weather was perfect-not too chilly and there would have been many treats snuck to them!
The festival was held on an old farmhouse. We knew this would be a big one when we saw that they had about 15 people working just the parking area! Once inside we found all kinds of homey demonstrations like broom making, blacksmith, apple pressing and more. There was an old one-room school house and the actual farmhouse that you could tour.



Then there were TONS of vendors. They were selling tons of crafts-lots of wood carving, fabric crafts and one booth that was knitting and felting. BUT the real joy was all the food vendors. Not only were there the lunch stuff like Philly cheese steaks and BBQ sandwiches there was grilled portobello and crab cakes! Very yummy. There were also booths that sold homemade pies, fudge, maple flavored cotton candy, caramel apples, local honey and so much more. THEN there were the wineries and local cheese makers! Who-boy! Those cheeses were mighty good. We bought mostly cheese and have been eating cheese every day since. It was our first time to sample cheese curds. Had NO idea what they were, but they were very fresh and mild tasting.




We stood in a long line for the "famous" Apple Dumpling Gang apple dumplings a'la mode! Well worth the wait and shortly after we got ours, they had to shut down 'cause they ran out! They were made by a local church and were fantastic!


This festival was held in Canton, which is about 35-40 minutes from our place. For me the best part of the festival was running into people we know! How cool is that? We ran into two people from Charles' work, two gals from Night & Day Cafe and a lady I met at the antique store in Mansfield. That makes me feel so great to see a familiar face and to get to stop and chit chat. When I first got up here I would see that happening all the time. People just seemed to know each other and would talk in lines at the store, on the sidewalks, at events...I thought folks were just so friendly and couldn't wait for that to be us! Well! We now know folks and stop and chat! I'm lovin' it!

One Hit Wonder

I just love creating layouts and projects for Whim So Doodle. My small, work from home job is keeping me pretty busy. Today was spent creating the November calendar. Yesterday I mailed out the November One Hit Wonder sample and class kit. It is hysterical to take my XL pizza box to the post office twice a month to mail my stuff back to Floirda. The postal workers just laugh and wonder...
I LOVED the way that November's OHW turned out! The colors are so pretty and I was able to use some photos from up here...fall leaves and all! I am hoping that I can get this layout back! (Are you listening Kristen?!!)