Saturday, December 8, 2012

A Very Nice Afternoon

Yesterday, friend Delores Tucker and I went to Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill  (known locally as Shakertown) for one of their "Christmas Teas."  Of course anyone familiar with Shakertown knows how beautiful the buildings and grounds are.   They were decorated subtly and naturally for the season, but I had to think that those decorations were for us today and the Germanic and decidedly un-Shaker adornments would have been unknown to the residents in the early 1800's.



The teas are held in the Trustee's house, where the hotel and restaurant are.   



At the base of one of the famous twin spiral staircases, there was a beautiful - if un-Shaker - tree decorated and lit with fairy lights.

It was gorgeous, sitting at handcrafted cherry drop-leaf tables on ladderback chairs in the spare but beautiful room.  They brought tea, scones, then country ham biscuits, cheddar pecan wafers (everything was tiny - this was a tea after all), then tea sandwiches of country ham spread, chicken salad and pimento cheese, then date bread, pound cake and cranberry muffins.  Then, as if that weren't enough, there was dessert!  Lemon bars, chocolate turnovers and peppermint meringues.

photo by Delores Tucker

We rolled out of there - staggering a bit from the sugar high - and made our way on over to the Craft shop.   We actually went there both before and again after tea, because there was something I wanted that I had forgotten to buy earlier. Both times we were greeted outside the door by friendly cats, who had the uncanny knack of posing for the perfect photo until the instant you were ready to click the shutter - then they would walk away.  




photo by Delores Tucker 

It was a very gray and rainy day, but the rain stopped while we were there.  It wasn't too cold, and made for very pleasant walking around the grounds.  We saw some of the cattle and 'took a turn' (tea was making me feel very Jane Austenish) around their herb garden, still producing, even this late in the season.

On the way home, we discovered a "bulk foods" store - Kountry Kupboard - on Hwy 127 outside Harrodsburg.  It reminded us so much of our trip a couple of years ago to Amish country in northern Ohio, and as then, we came home with bags of food for very little money.

Shopping, eating (in an incredible setting), shopping, driving through beautiful countryside, shopping (for more eating) ....... my idea of a LOVELY afternoon.


Monday, December 3, 2012

New baby

Sara has her new baby Maisie, but I've got a new 'baby' at my house too.  On Friday,  the Woodford County Humane Society posted this on Facebook:


Now, who could not fall in love with this!!!!  I tried to talk myself out of it - it's Christmas time, of course they are going to show the really appealing animals, I have plenty (some would say too many) of pets already, and on and on.  In the end I could not talk myself out of it, made the call and went over to meet her.  She is a Chihuahua/Jack Russell mix. I have never liked Chihuahuas and although Jacks are cute - I tend to think of both breeds as 'crazy,' hyper, yappy and all things negative. She turned out to be the complete opposite. 

This girl was not the least interested in cats or other dogs, did not bark, and though she looks so sad in this photo (her "come and take me home" face) is very sweet, carries her ears perked up and is SUCH a love sponge.  So...........she is now mine.  They called her Prancer (the incoming animals were getting Christmasy names) and I thought I would keep it....but now it doesn't seem to fit her.    I've been trying on names with her and haven't found one that seems the right fit yet.   Poppy?   Sophie?  Trinket?   'Have any suggestions? 

She fit right in from the first minute.  She tells me when she needs to go out, and there was no question of her sleeping with me - she claimed her spot on the bed first thing.  When she gets cold, she dives under the covers.  On her first full day, she went with me to the open house/sale at Sweet Home Spun .  She travelled several hours in the car like a trouper and was the delight of the party.   

The cats are over their initial interest, and now share the couch/bed/chair with her wherever she is - not snuggling, but no problems. She and the buns are fine with each other, and she completely ignores the chickens. 

What a lovely Christmas present!!