A Special Day

Yesterday was a special day.  A day long awaited.  My hubby actually hung a sign on the shop saying in bold red letters...  RETIRED !  I thought I would never see it !  Oh, He will not be sitting on the porch in a rocking chair!  For one reason, the porch has a stone floor and doesn't do much for a rocking chair!  HAHA.  He will always be busy doing or fixing something as long as he is able to get up in the morning.  BUT, also hope we will have some time now to do some of the little things we have talked about but just never seemed to find the time to do.

It was a double good day yesterday as our wonderful son in-law also retired and today is an even better day as Paul and Angel are packing up the U Haul as I write this and by supper time they should be back HOME in VT for good!!   No rocking chair for Paul either as he is planning to have a small Tax Preparation business and work out of their home.

I am spending today cleaning out some cupboards and am about to tackle the desk!  Now that could take awhile so will have to get to that after lunch.  Cousin Judy posted a wonderful recipe on Face Book the other day and I think I'll share it with you.  I just took this nice crispy, easiest ever loaf of bread out of the oven and after it cooled a bit, had a slice.  It really is good and SO simple.  Probably best served warm and same day but won't know that till tomorrow.

Crusty Bread

3 C. unbleached all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 1/2 C. water

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.  Add Water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12-18 hours, overnight is great.  Heat oven to 450 degrees and put a cast iron pot with a cover in the oven. While the oven heats,  pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let set for about 30 minutes..  Remove the hot pot from the oven and drop the rounded dough in.  Cover with hot lid and return to the oven for 30 minutes.  After the 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake for an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.  Makes a lovely crispy crusted, tender inside loaf !

While cleaning out the desk, down the road comes the returning Vermonters!  Horns tooting and just SO happy to be home again.  Four cars in all,  Colleen driving a pickup, Angel in her car, Gary driving the U Haul and Paul in his car.  Then the work begins as we all pitched in and had them unloaded in no time.  A lot of things had been brought up ahead of time and taken care of.  Now Dad and I are home and they are still busy sorting and settling.  Moving is never an easy thing.  We did stop to sit in the breeze way and have some appetizers and a good visit.  God is GOOD!

Maybe the rainy days are over, as it hasn't rained at all today.  The air is cooler now and a great time to take a walk around the back yard, check out the flowers and the garden. Very wet gardens for a lot of folks.  Our soil is well drained so my garden is pretty happy with all the watering.  Pole beans are beginning to climb but the tomatoes are really slow taking off this year.

I'll leave you with a little snippet from Henry VanDyke's

A Home Song

'Every house where love abides,

And friendship is a guest,

Is surely home, and home- sweet -home,

For there the heart can rest.'

I hope you have peaceful thoughts, a restful night and sweet dreams.  Come by again soon!

June Equals Parades and Parties!

What a nice time we had at my 55th Class reunion weekend!  Our float was finished on time, thanks to all the people who came and helped to make it so good.  It won a banner for First Place, Humorous!!
The parade was a 2 1/2 to 3 mile trek from the south side of town to the Jr. high school on the north side.  About 22 of the 'Young at Heart' class of '58 walked along with the float and the bandwagon on which a classmate played his trombone ( a GREEN one, just special for the occasion, as we are so proudly the Green and White).  Having such nice music to dance along with was a real blast.  And we did dance part of the way!  We were all dressed in our cardboard boxes, depicting building blocks.  The theme of the parade was TOYS and we dubbed our float "The Block Party".  I guess the judges found us humorous in our 'blocks' just a-jumping and dancing around like youngsters!  Some classmates rode on the float and in the truck that pulled it.  Raggedy Ann was there, on the float.   What a nice day it was too for a parade, after a whole week of rainy days.  It was a really good parade too with many fine floats involving much creativity and a lot of work!

The three posters on the back show three of our best floats from other years

A bunch of Blocks

Fifty Five Years Later

by Dottie Ann Richardson

Guys in white sport coats and pink carnations,

(Remember the song?)

Or in white bucks and a pink shirt,

A comb in his pocket ... that wave to tame.

Ah ... remember Vitalis?

Starched crinoline petticoats, the girls wore,

With bouncy ponytails swishing,

Its the way we were;

Things of the 50's, in times of yore.

Fond memories remain

Of the magical times of our youth and prime.

For some, the years have been kind,

For some, life's highways rough,

Dreams illusive and peace hard to find.

We think often of the dear ones

Who have gone on before us;

You are never forgotten,

We'll pause to mention your names

And speak of you with kindness.

Through it all, special bonds we've forged,

This awesome class of '58.

We've grown close with the passing years,

We've shared our joys, our sorrows and tears.

Has it really been 55 years in all,

Since leaving those sheltered halls

Of our beloved SHS ?

Time sure flies, I guess!

Yet, here we are ... Still young at heart:

Together again, gathered from near and far,

To celebrate, to remember, to laugh and to love!

Bless us, this class of '58, Oh Lord above.

After the parade and a bit of a rest at home, we were off to the Class Banquet.  It was a great meal in a great place, decorated so beautifully by more hard working classmates.  We enjoyed our time to visit and catch up with those coming from afar.  We had as our guest  music teacher, Jon Nicholson who had so many of us in his class and in the band etc.  He came with his instrument and played for us the school song which he had written the words to more than 55 years ago!  This is still the school song today.

What pretty decorations!!

Mr. Nicholson

The Morning After Breakfast was equally fine, held at the Fullerton Inn and hosted by our classmate, Diana who couldn't be with us as she was called away to a medical emergency involving her son.  We were all so saddened by this and we're praying for a speedy and complete recovery for him.  We  all thank you Diana for your generosity.

SO having survived the alumni weekend, we move on to the rest of the busy month of June!  Sunday, being Father's day, our daughter and son in-law took Dad out for dinner  (and Mom too)!  That was a lovely treat.   Monday was appointment day and today some housework must be done!  Getting ready for a trip to CT this Friday to attend the graduation of granddaughter, Lindsey.  Such happy happenings!

Today the thermometer on the patio reads 80 degrees and I can hear some swimmers above the dam in the river below the backyard.  By the sounds, that water is mighty cool still!  I need to get into my garden before the weeds take over completely so maybe I will do just that now.  

Thanks for stopping by and checking out All Things Homespun!  Comments always welcome !

Keeping Busy

Oh my,  "the hurrier I go the behinder I get!!"  Somewhere I've heard this very true saying.  It seems like I am just hurrying along so fast this Spring!  Lots of stuff going on in May and now June events have my calendar days filling up fast!
This week is alumni weekend and for a couple months, plans have been forming for a great celebration for our class of '58.  The float is now the most pressing project.  We work on it once a week and this week, two work sessions are scheduled. The parade theme this year is TOYS and we are doing a "Block Party" using building blocks, big ones, and toys from our era, to decorate our float.  We've also built individual blocks big enough to wear (held up by suspenders) as we march along in front of the float.  It is coming along nicely and will be ready for the Saturday morning parade.  Can it really be our 55th class reunion??  Many classmates are planning to attend the Parade, the Banquet and a Breakfast which is being hosted by a very wonderful lady classmate, Diane, at the Fullerton Inn in Chester on Sunday morning.

Spring has truly come here in our valley.  With the nice rains we've had, everything is a lovely lush green and the flowers are all blooming. The veggie garden has been planted and things are up reaching for the sun. It sure is a wonderful place to be.

A Bouquet from my gardens

We made plans for a trip to the Northeast Kingdom for the Memorial Day weekend.  The weatherman was promising nice weather while we were in the planning stage.  We had three stops to make and needed to be sure we could coordinate our visits to convenient times for the folks we wanted to see.  The weatherman was way off in his predictions!!  It was rainy and cold but since plans were in place, we went anyway.  We took the Gypsy Wagon and planned it to be our first camping trip of the season. Things weren't too bad as we reached Lyndonville and enjoyed a morning and lunch with our grandson and wife and the adorable little gr. granddaughters.  We left in the late afternoon to go on north to Barton where we were to stay with cousin Mick and DonnaMae for the night.  No let up in the rain and  the further north we went the thicker that rain became!  We decided to take Rt. 5 instead of staying on the Interstate which gets really high up.  Good thing.... it was soon no longer thick rain but SNOW!!  Now who wants snow the last few days of MAY?   Mick's driveway was pretty muddy with all the rain and nice and greasy with the new snow on top of the mud.  (He lives on TOP of Barton Mt.)  But the little Gypsy Wagon did a good job and got us up there just fine.  By now the wind was howling as well and about and inch of wet snow had fallen.  We got all set up anyway and went inside for a nice visit and yummy supper and a good game of Double King Pead...an old Vermont card game.  Finally at bed time we trudged out to turn on the heater which warms the place up in a jiffy and get ready for a good night's sleep.  Something about listening to the wind on top of a mountain and the splatter of the thick rain lulls you right to sleep as you cuddle beneath the comforter and a warm quilt.

Sunday morning dawned with a heavy gray sky but no more snow.  Still a drizzle of rain.  I like mornings in the Gypsy Wagon as I get first my coffee and a bit later my breakfast served to me in bed. It is sort of a necessity as only one person can do good things in the tiny kitchen at once!

Enjoying breakfast in bed!

                Yes, that is a winter toque atop my head!  But I did get a good sleep and nice breakfast

I had made arrangements to meet my friend from many years ago on Sunday.  For many years I didn't know where she lived and last winter, heard she was back in Vt somewhere in the north.  As it turned out, she lives just a couple miles from where we spent the night on the mountain!  Isn't that amazing??
We found her house and we spent several hours catching up and reminiscing and having a great time. Dennis left us to our chatter and made coffee, read his book and took a nap in the Gypsy Wagon.  We were pretty well visited out and decided to come on home to our valley instead of making our other call which wasn't an appointed one anyway.  By now the rain had ceased and as we came south, stopped for a light supper at the exit 17 P & H truck stop, a really great place to get homemade soup and mile high lemon pie!  So our weekend ended and Miss Lizzie was pretty glad to see us home again.

Catching up and reminiscing 

I've been making a few jars of rhubarb/apricot/pineapple jam since we have lots of rhubarb.  This and the tomato spice jam are my favorites.   Rhubarb crunch is a great dessert too.  Quite like apple crisp.  The comfrey is abundant as were the dandelions this year so I have made dandelion salve and am drying the comfrey and plantain for salve making later.  

At the end of June, Dennis will be retiring and the Fix-It Shop will close.  It seems to be time.  He won't be just lazing around, can you imagine that!!  He will keep busy as it is his nature to do that.  Hopefully we will get in some good kayaking too.  And we have a few little trips and places to see that we haven't made it to yet.  Son in-law, Paul will retire the same day and it will be so nice to have them back home in their house here in VT.  He too will be busy and have a new business, tax preparation, with an office at home.  So many changes.  Someone once said, " The only permanence we know is change."   How true.  Change can be good and we hope it will be good for all of us.

Quote for the day:      

The grand essentials of happiness are:  Something to do, Something to love, and Something to hope for.