A Finished Project and NYC Coming Up!!

I just finished a miniature quilt this evening and am adding these same pictures and info to my needlework "quilts" page. 

 I used a panel print and then quilted it by adding embroidery embellishments.  I outlined some of the vines, the door mullions and a bit in the pumpkin, used French knots on some of the red berries, a long and short straight stitch on the broom handle, with a satin stitch banding the bristles which are long stitches that I cut after the broom was finished.  I did all the embroidery through to a backing, then added the burnt orange border, and added a new, backing that I brought around to the top to make the second border.  I'm happy with the way it turned out, but my favorite bit is the broom. :)

Now, tomorrow I have to get things cleaned up a little around here, have an appointment with the eye doctor, need to get gas, and then pack.  And Thursday morning it will be off to D.C., stay the night with Chris, and then we take the train to NYC for the weekend.  Hopefully, I'll get some good pictures at the miniature show and any wandering around we might do in the city.  It's been a long while since this was actually a "travel" journal!

And, thankfully, I have finally had a settlement from the insurance company (a month after my "flood"), and have chosen a contractor to do the work.  It has really worn me out and kept me fairly stressed trying to ever get estimates and a final figure from the insurance company, so I'm not even going to think about it while I'm gone.  Told the contractor I'd call him when I get back home and we'll get things rolling.

And now, bed!

Saturday in Asheville, Part I

Saturday was a wonderful day in spite of several mess-ups on my part and on-again, off-again showers.  Chris wanted to get to a good photo-op place he likes fairly early in the morning before bunches of people were on the scene so we started out around 8:30 or so, and went to this little "temple of Diana, Goddess of the Hunt" which is just a sort of gazebo type structure made out of vines (I'd assume either wisteria or grape) with a small statue of Diana inside.  But it stands at the top of a hill (up which we trekked) and looks directly across to the Biltmore mansion on another hill so it is a nice place for pictures.  I, of course, discovered when we got to the top of the hill, that I had forgotten to put my memory card back in my camera the night before but I used my phone and took a couple pictures.

and here is a view of the Biltmore mansion from Diana's hill:

And the next is just one of the many little fences all over the grounds and woodland walkways and I found them delightful.

We then made a quick trip back to the hotel to get my card because this was going to be a picture taking day.

Next stop was the greenhouse and it was just fantastic.  A huge, beautiful structure crammed with all varieties of plants, all very lush, some exotic, some familiar, lots of colors, lots of aromas, and beautifully displayed.  For example, there was one small room that had almost all of the plants displayed in old suitcases and steamer trunks!  Another small room was just succulents.  I'm just going to post a picture of the greenhouse first of all, then post all the pictures I took inside the greenhouse just as a show - no tell. :)

 I will say I thought this looked like a tiny miniature silver dollar plant - they were probably only about 1/4".

The next batch of pictures are of the gardens in front of the greenhouse.  The pictures just don't do them justice at all, particularly the ones where I try and get a large area in the picture.  The colors were so bright and pretty!

  The gardener's house - a delightful perc for some lucky gardener!

Lots of large beds of alyssum and oh, what a delicious aroma...

The lattice work at the back of this bed is part of a long arbor walk from the front of the greenhouse to the back wall of the enclosed garden.

 and, espaliered trees of various types along the back wall of the garden.

And this was just the start of our day!!  I have probably way too many pictures - for sure too many to upload to one post, so I will post another batch in "Saturday, Part II".

I WAS in Savannah - Just Late With a Report...

Yep, we left Florida bright and early on Monday morning and had an easy trip to Savannah.  We stopped for a quick, light lunch right before we got to the city cause we figured we were going to have a nice dinner that evening.

Our hotel was about 3 or 4 miles out from the historic center of town but with Peggy's GPS, we found our way to the visitors' center and set out on a roundabout walk to the Savannah River.  I didn't take too many pictures because with all the beautiful old trees and houses and buildings right near the street, it was difficult getting good shots.  But here's what I did take:

 

This the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and I would have loved to be able to get all of it in the picture.  It's a really beautiful building, I think.  It's painted a soft white with non-metallic gold trim so it's not opulent or incredible or anything.  Just very lovely.  And I took a few of the interior which was also very beautifully decorated - gorgeous stained glass windows which, of course, never show up well in my pictures because of the light shining through them.  But here's what I have:

The altarpiece was like a mini cathedral itself...I've looked it up now that I'm home and the original parish for the current cathedral was established in the late 1700's, so it's about as old as our country is.  Apparently, the parish was established because of the large numbers of refugees coming in from Haiti and France.  The current cathedral was dedicated in 1876 and building then continued on the spires.  I very much enjoyed seeing it.

Oh, and this is just an old house that was across the street from the church - a little cafe on the first floor, I think.  But I thought it would sure be a nice place to have an apartment cause I forgot to mention there is one of Savannah's many pleasant squares right at the end of this street - just past the cathedral. 

Gosh, and seeing it again now, I really would like to live there!  Well, except for the summers...

So then we continued our walk down to the river and sometime during all this, the beautiful blue sky and sunshine had disappeared so my pictures became grayer and grayer, but what the heck, is what I always say.

And I couldn't even begin to get all of this building in a picture but it's another beautiful church - this one Presbyterian.  I love the spires on both of these churches - they really reach for the clouds...

And this is City Hall with its brilliant gold dome.  I thought I had straightened this picture pretty well, but it's looking crooked...

And from this street level, you finally come to a long island-area in the street and there are several old, steep staircases here and there that take you down to the old cobblestone River Street right at the river.  The shops there were not much to speak of but we had been forewarned that they were pretty much for tourists to buy tourist stuff so we didn't mind. 

Af

After our trip downstairs, but not on the river side of these buildings yet - but you can see how old it all is.  Very atmospheric...

And my favorite thing once we got there I think was this gorgeous tall ship.  And turning around from that you see this:

Which doesn't show up well against the gray sky but it's the same kind of bridge we have in Huntington (ours is only one span) and I love them.

There were lots of restaurants down here too but I had my mind set on going to Vic's - a restaurant we had passed on the way to the river that looked real inviting.  Peggy said she had eaten there before and enjoyed it and I liked the idea of it's not being in the "tourist strip".  So after having a nice hot cup of tea and sitting at Starbucks until a decent dinner hour, that's where we went and it was really nice.  Our food was delicious and the staff were also very friendly and pleasant.  Even the people at the table next to ours were friendly.  I had a salad that was pear slices, roasted butternut squash cubes, roasted pistachio nuts (and good grief, they were good!) and feta cheese served on arugula with I forget what kind of dressing, but a good one.  It was just delicious.  Then for my entree I had pan-seared scallops served with a creamy, cheesy risotto.  And when the waitress brought me my glass of wine I said "and cheers to me because it's my birthday" and she said in that case, we'd be getting a cupcake with a candle for dessert which was nice.  But, at the end of the meal she told us they had run out of cupcakes and so we were getting a piece of their praline cheesecake instead.  And here it came with its candle and a little blob of whipped cream with blackberries, red raspberries and blueberries - what a treat!  Peggy's entree was a blackened fresh salmon which she said was incredible so we were both happy campers.  And we had planned to take the free shuttle back to the visitors' center and when we left the restaurant and walked to the "dot spot", here it came.  All in all, a good day and evening.

Next day (Tuesday), an uneventful, long trip home and here's a picture of our last stop on the WV Turnpike:

Yes, SNOW!!!

The Train Trip Was Great...

but I've been sick ever since I got home, so this will be a brief report.  I woke up Thursday morning feeling that tightness in the back of my throat and thought "uh oh" and by Friday it was pretty much a full-fledged sore throat.  Made me glad I wasn't going to be driving home and could just enjoy a new experience.

It was a long trip - left at 11:00 a.m. and got into Huntington I sometime after 10:00 p.m.  But the little roomette was so comfortable and my private little "facility" was so clean, that I can truly say I didn't mind at all that we ran late practically the whole trip.  I had brought along a little cross stitch, a book, a game on my phone, and just kept myself nicely entertained.

This is looking out my window at Chris who not only took me to the train station, but got on the train with me, explained everything and made sure I was all settled.  Sure is nice to have such very nice children.  I did say he used some of his Amtrak points to get the ticket for me, right?

And this is the smaller of the two seats which is actually where I sat for the whole trip cause I wanted to see where we were going rather than what we had just passed.  And my own private commode is right there under my purse and then above it is a pull-down sink that you run water into, wash up, and then when you close it back up, the water drains out to who knows where?  I preferred to leave my door and window curtains open, so the only iffy part was having to close them when I needed the privacy and figuring that my neighbors across the aisle probably had a pretty good idea why!

And this was the other wider seat and a good picture of the nice big window.  Very nice overall and certainly more comfortable than having to sit right next to someone for 11 hours.
























We were "called" to lunch and I discovered that there weren't very many tables so we were asked to sit with people which was fine.  The woman I sat down with was going to Ashland, KY (next stop after Huntington) and had lived in Huntington for a good part of her life and then in a bit two younger than we were women sat at our table and they had been college roommates and were meeting up with a couple of other roommates at the Greenbrier Resort - a very posh, fairly historic resort/hotel/spa, etc., place near Lewisburg, WV.  So, we seemed to have a lot to talk about and I don't think anyone felt uncomfortable.

Each time we came to a station, I tried to keep track of when we left because there was a schedule in the brochures that I'd been given that showed departure times from each station. 

This was the station at Manassas and about the only one I saw.  Mostly when we stopped, if it was at a station, it must have been on the other side of the train.  I think we made a number of stops for other reasons too, though.  We stopped a lot.   We left Manassas about 25 minutes late and it finally reached about an hour late not too long after that and stayed that way til the section between Charleston and Huntington where we pretty much flew along and made real good time til we had to stop probably about a mile from the Huntington station and sit waiting for a freight train to move which took about 20 minutes.  But even that wasn't too bad - the car attendant asked me if I would mind moving to a room at the front of the car because someone was getting on and would be assigned my room, so I went up there and the occupant there was a Marshall University student coming back to Huntington after the holidays.

Here's just a couple of pictures I took out my window as we went along.  All the other ones I tried to get just didn't work - going too fast, reflection in the window and such.  But it was a lovely day.  I think I almost made myself a little motion sick staring out the window so much!  How nice not to have to be keeping my eyes glued to the same old highway...

After the hold-up right at the edge of Huntington, we got into the station and off the train into quite a heavy snow-fall.  There were no cabs and it took quite a while before the first one called showed up.  But I finally stepped into my apartment a little after 11:00 p.m. and it was good to be home.  Still was snowing heavily so, of course, I tried to get a picture or several out my windows.  Probably only snowed an inch or so and then none yesterday or today but supposedly more is on the way.

I switched this one to black and white cause in order to get the snowflakes to show up, I discovered I had to use my flash and then everything ended up looking very yellow.  But you can get the idea with the black and white, I think.

Today, I finally totally lost my voice - Heather called a while ago and managed to hear my whispered "hi", said "oh my gosh you sound awful" I said "yeah - I can't talk" she said "I'll call again - hope you feel better" and we hung up.  I get tickled cause being a person who lives alone, I do tend to talk to myself or the TV or whatever I'm working on, and now I can't hear myself.  Told a friend of mine in an e-mail that it's a good thing I know what I'm saying!

A Little More Travelogue

After our lengthy visit to the cathedral, we started home and as we approached the Air Force Memorial near the Pentagon Chris said he was going to get off at that exit and take some pictures so that's what we did.  It was completely overcast by now and getting on toward sundown, but the memorial looked wonderful under those conditions too.  I love this memorial - to me it speaks exactly to what it is meant to portray.  The memorials in the Mall are all wonderful and much better known, but this one is mostly seen as one is whizzing by on I-395 and, at least for me, it's always kind of a "wow" moment.  So, I took pictures too, of course, again with my phone, and here are the ones I've decided to post.

Isn't it beautiful?!

The contrails sculpture is based in a large area paved with marble and with an inscribed marble wall behind this group of four airmen.

This is my attempt at an "arty" shot...

And last, I wanted to try and give an impression of the size of these three pieces.

So then, it was back to the apartment and play with all the pictures we had taken.  On the way home, though, we had to stop at a nearby Home Goods store cause Chris still needed to get Sophia a birthday present (will we ever get done shopping in this family?!)  Sunday we just hung out until it was time to drive up to Heather's.  She had just returned from a turn-around flight to and from Seattle to pick up Johnny following his Christmas visit with his dad.  She had planned on bringing back fresh seafood from the Pike Street Fish Market but they were closed.  So we decided we'd do a raclette for dinner instead.  January and Maggie didn't get back from North Carolina in time to get to Heather's but we went ahead and got Christmas presents exchanged between those who hadn't exchanged presents yet.  And, of course, with Sophia and Johnny in on it, it was all the more hectic and fun.   They are dear, good grandkiddies.  And, wonder of wonders, one of my presents was the rolling stand I've been wanting for my magnifying lamp ever since Chris bought that for me I think the Christmas before last.  Hopefully, I will now be inspired to start stitching up a storm when I get back home.

Chris went back home that evening and I stayed on at Heather's until Tuesday when she drove me back down to Chris's apartment.  Oh, and I almost forgot!!  Monday was Sophia's fifth birthday (I made a special post for that) and so that evening we had her birthday party and January and Maggie came up for that and to exchange their Christmas presents with Heather, Alex and the kids.  Then after dinner and the ice cream cake (yummm!), Sophia got to open her birthday presents.  This has been the most present opening week of my entire life, I think!  I took a couple of pictures of Sophia in her (as she calls it) "birthday dress".  She does love the glitz!  (That's the little crown we made together.)

The birthday princess...

joined by her favorite knight, Johnny.

And that is pretty much my Christmas 2010 (overflowing into 2011).  It was a nice one from beginning to end - the extra treat of January and Maggie coming to Huntington, the non-stop mini-Christmases with Chris, Heather and her family, the special sight-seeing, lots of good food - just a great holiday.  Now, I am just on hold til it's time to take the train back to Huntington - can't wait to see my little roomette!!  And I hope I can get a decent picture or two out the windows, although I tried that in Italy and wasn't successful...