Happy Reformation Day

Reformation Day–”Ya say you want a revolution!!!”

About 500 years ago on October 31st Martin Luther, a German monk, turned from the Catholic church. Here is a very good description of the events…https://thideology.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/standing-against-superstitions/

He changed the course of the history of the church that day.

Since we are talking about Martin Luther, I thought I would share a little from another Luther celebration.

Our family took a trip to Germany last summer with my in-laws. The trip  coincided with Lutherfest, the celebration of Martin Luther’s marriage to Katharina von Bora. It was a festival like no other I have experienced.

Here is our hotel…

We started the day before the festival at the Wartburg Castle.

The Wartburg is where Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German.

This is his desk.

The castle is quite ornate in places. Of course it has changed throughout the years.

They only allowed a limited number of photographers to take pictures. Naturally, we designated Chip as our photographer. Notice his official, fancy, green sticker.

There was a little cafe just outside the castle entrance.

This is where they guys started the wurst count (or as we in the states call them…brats)

I’m not sure I remember how many they ate on our trip, but it was a lot!

After we returned to the hotel from the castle, we decided to check out the festival scene.

The main festival events didn’t start until Saturday. There were a few things to see and do that Friday night though.

We had dinner a small restaurant. The highlight was the picture posing we did!

One of the things I loved about German was all the flowers!

Everywhere you went there were flower boxes. The little restaurant had a flower cart that was too cute!

Saturday morning we were excited to get to the festival–maybe a little too excited. We got there before too much was happening. There were a couple of vendors open, so we looked around a bit.

Before we knew it we started to hear a commotion! Drums!

Two bands marched through the streets to a field. There were all kinds of tents set up in the field. Everyone was having their own party. It was kind of like how you might imagine a tailgate party in the 1500s would be!

Of course my band girls LOVED seeing the marching bands!

We didn’t have a program, well, not one we could read. There was a program–in GERMAN! We could make out bits and pieces. It was more fun to just hang out and see what happened next!

We had a time to tour the Castle Church.

This is the church were Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses.

The church was under a bit of construction at the time. Our tour was in German. Here is a tip, don’t answer your cell phone during a German tour! (any tour for that matter) There was one fella, who didn’t speak German either, who decided to have a conversation in the über resonant church! The tour guide told him, “Hello! We wait!”

All along the festival/parade route were vendors of all sorts–food, toys, herbs, jewelry. After our church tour, the girls and I felt the need to fit in to the atmosphere a little more.

There was a pretzel stand right outside of the church!

We had the chocolate one, of course.

Next we stepped into a visitor center for a minute. I don’t remember where the others were. I DO remember the sky opened up and rain poured!!! The details of when and where everyone was are a little faded. I just remember Chip and Bud getting drenched!

This movie poster was in the visitor center. We have this movie. It is REALLY good. Maybe we will watch it tonight!

It is a good thing we did a lot of walking on this trip because we did a lot of eating!!!

These potato pancakes with apple sauce were quite tasty!!

We obviously couldn’t eat from EVERY food cart, although we wanted to try them all!

Crepes with Nutella and bananas!

This little pizza was yummy. Instead of a traditional red sauce, it had a white sauce that was like a cross between alfredo sauce and ranch dressing.

Megan had spied this huge pan of sautéed mushrooms and couldn’t wait to try them!

More wurst!

Fresh fruit was a welcome change from all the fried food!

These little custard cups were AMAZING! Strawberries with vanilla creme. I still need to work on replicating this recipe. I think if I can ever make it as delicious as it was in Wittenberg, my family will never let me make another dessert!

The parade was such fun!

People of all ages participated.

I’m not 100% sure why I am making this face…

Maybe it had something to do with this…

The parade was a “wedding celebration”. There was a reenactment of the Luthers wedding ceremony. We missed the ceremony but caught them in the parade.

Toward the end of the parade route there were people passing around little cups of champagne. Katie didn’t think much of it!

That evening we went to a church service–in English!

Since it was the Lutherfest wedding celebration, there was a special ceremony for married couples to reaffirm their wedding vows. It was very cool. We all cried.

I hope you will go read the Martin Luther link. Here it is again so you don’t have to scroll forever! https://thideology.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/standing-against-superstitions/ 

Hopefully, you will have a new way of thinking about October 31st!

 

 

 

 

 

Artwork from Alsace

There is a new piece of artwork in our kitchen that I didn’t show you in the “big reveal”.

When we were originally discussing paint colors, I told Chip I wanted to paint the cabinets gray. He kinda looked at me like it was not a good idea. I told him it would be a “French Country” look. That idea he liked. The idea of a French Country kitchen got him to thinking about using some photos from our trip to France last summer. We finally agreed on a photo to use! I thought I would first share other photos related to our new artwork. We may even get some more printed!

Here is a map to show you where the Alsace region of France is located. As you can imagine, France and Germany argued and fought for many years to see who got to keep the area. So, while Alsace is in France, there are lots of German influences.

We drove in to Alsace from Wittenberg, Germany. Wittenberg is about halfway between Leipzig and Berlin. Our car time was about 7 hours.  The scenery was breath-taking! Gorgeous vineyards and quaint little villages were everywhere.

Vineyards were not the only crops we saw. We came across a lovely cherry orchard. Alsace is crazy about cherries!

 

I loved the flower boxes everywhere.

These trees looked like they were straight from a fairytale!

Finally, we arrived at our bed and breakfast. Part of the home was built in the 1700s!!!!

The weather was lovely! Our hosts welcomed us with coffee and delicious coffee cake.

Here are a few pictures of the inside.

This is the view from our room.

The girls stayed in the loft attached to our room.

After a little time of resting and getting acclimated to our new digs, we headed out to find some dinner.

The first place we stopped was a little out of our price range. We had already taken this cute picture to remember where we had eaten! Then we didn’t eat there.

We did not get the group shot at our actual restaurant. To tell you the truth, we looked pretty tired in most of the pictures.

We were actually lucky to get to eat. The folks at this restaurant only spoke French. Fortunately, Megan had worked with a French language app before our trip. She was able to order dinner for all of us. We were all very grateful and she felt pretty proud of herself.

We did learn to order water without “gas”. Carbonated water is apparently a big deal in Germany and France.

The food was very good. The fried egg on the pizza was a little weird. I ordered that for the local experience. I do not plan to repeat that experience any time soon, however.

We had our dinner outside. Right next to our table was a lovely patch of lavender. We noticed something buzzing around in the flowers. Katie is a bit scared of bees, so I went to check it out for her. It looked like a tiny hummingbird! I tried and tried to get a good  picture. Look closely at the picture below, just left of center.

I did a little research on what I thought was a tiny hummingbird. It turns out that what I saw was a hummingbird moth! Here is some good old Wikipedia info for you. I thought it was cool and had fun trying to capture it in a picture.

When we got back to the B & B we decided to stroll around the little village a bit.

The currants were beautiful!

We stayed in Alsace a little while and took day trips to the town of Riquewihr and the Haut Koenigsesbourg Castle. Hopefully, I will get around to sharing those pictures one day, too!

As we left our quaint little B & B to head to Paris, we stopped to snap a few more vineyard photos.

The grapes were far from ripe. I’d love to go back during harvest time.

Oh, I almost forgot to share the artwork we had printed for the kitchen!

The canvas is actually a little larger than the actual window was! You can see the original photo above with the other photos of the bed and breakfast.

I liked this photo because it reminded me of all the window boxes we saw while in Europe! I loved them! This picture kinda felt like it was part of our kitchen. The wall in the photo kinda matches our cabinets. We ordered the print from a place called canvasdiscount.com. When we ordered it we had the option of ordering a hanging kit. We had not planned to order it originally. However, it was only a few bucks, and by ordering it, we were bumped into the category of getting free shipping. Ordering more saved us money!

Well, that is all for now. I’m ready to go back to Alsace!!

 

In a Nutshell

Life is busy.

This summer was VERY busy–went to so many great places, we ate so much yummy food and saw so many people we love.

There were also things that I didn’t do this summer–like write any blog posts! Gasp!

My poor little Pork Chop Tuesday has limped along thanks to a couple of popular pins on Pinterest.

I have had the cloud of “gotta blog” hanging over me since May.

Another one of the things I didn’t do this summer was attend the Arkansas Women Bloggers blog conference. As I read through everyone’s conference recaps and chased them on Twitter and Periscope I wished that I could have gone. Money was a little different this summer. Big vacation+First child off to college+Purchase of an additional vehicle…I decided adding a conference was not the thing to do. I came across one of my fellow blogger’s post about the conference. She spoke about keeping the most important thing the most important thing. What an inspiration! Here I was all worried about the fact that I had not paid my blog any attention all summer and sad that I didn’t go to the blog conference. All along one of the biggest take-aways from the conference was what I was living! I spent wonderful, quality time with family this summer–keeping the most important thing the most important thing!

I’m trying to pick up blogging again. Boy it is rough. I’ve forgotten how to edit photos. I’m rusty at the keyboard. I am too embarrassed to tell you how long it has taken me to put this post together.

So, there you have it, summer in a nutshell. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I’ll be relearning Photoshop and WordPress. I only have 1762 more pictures from our Europe trip to edit!

 

 

Baltimore

I recently returned from my first-ever trip to Baltimore, MD.

WOW!

There is so much to see and do in downtown Baltimore!

I was there for the Sweet Adeline International Competition!

My chorus, Top of the Rock, was invited to compete in the Harmony Classic portion of the contest! For those of you unfamiliar with Sweet Adelines–it’s a BIG DEAL!

The entire week was full of activities and contests. However, I was unable to stay the whole week, so I had to do my touring FAST!

We arrived late Sunday night. Our first rehearsal wasn’t until Monday afternoon, so we had time for a little exploring!

Breakfast was at Potbelly. We discovered Potbelly on a trip to Houston a couple of years ago. They have yummy breakfast sandwiches and oatmeal. They are very reasonably priced, which is a good thing!

I saved my little Potbelly bag just because it had a “P” stamped on it. Yes, I’m a nerd!

Our hotel was right down the road from Camden Yards–where the Orioles play baseball! My husband is a big baseball fan, so I had to snap a couple of pictures for him!

The Baltimore Inner Harbor was really cool! Tons of restaurants and shops. I would have loved to tour the Domino Sugar plant! Boat tours of the harbor were available. Some of my friends took the tour and said it was great! I just didn’t have time.

This was not their tour boat. I guess it could have been though!

Some other friends hit the National Aquarium later in the week. I picked up some t-shirts for the kids at the Hard Rock Cafe.

The McCormick World of Flavors shop was a fun little shop in the Inner Harbor, lots of Old Bay seasoning! Mom and I enjoyed the salt sampling we did there. Our favorite was the lime salt. I asked if they had any other samples we could try. One of the gals working there is a cupcake maker. She brought me some samples of her frosting. They weren’t bad. Here is a link to her Facebook page.

Off to rehearsal-the reason we came! Weeks prior to our trip, chorus members exchanged words of encouragement and small gifts with a Secret Sis. Look what my Sis gave me at the big reveal–a Baltimore scrapbook! What a unique and thoughtful gift! She included all kinds of scrappy Baltimore goodies in it. Thanks, Becky! You were a great Secret Sis.

At one of our rehearsals several of us decided to dress alike–unintentionally.

Later, we all dressed alike–on purpose this time!

Why do we girls always squish our faces together in pictures?

Can you tell we are excited to hit the stage?!

We did GREAT!

Guess what? We came in 3rd place–IN THE WORLD!!!!

You can see for yourselves…

I have a couple more tidbits to share with you from my trip so stay tuned.  I can’t wait to go back to Baltimore one day when there is a little more time for exploring!

I did make it home in time for Senior Night with my girl! I even managed to make it though without tears.

 

The Root Cafe

Chip and I enjoy having a lunch date every now and then.

I have wanted to try out The Root Cafe for a while. It is on South Main in Little Rock, AR. The Root has several fun neighboring shops and restaurants.

The Root is all about “Building Community through local food!” They use as many products as possible from small local farms. Their menu even notes where items originate.

I arrived at the cafe before my date. There was quite a crowd, so I jumped in line.

The place is small. It used to be a dairy bar. Being elbow to elbow with other customers, I felt a little rude whipping out my phone to snap photos.

Keeping a sharp eye out for my date, I studied the menu while I waited in line.

I ended up having to let several folks jump me in line before Chip arrived.  Fortunately, we had studied the menu options on-line a bit the night before, so I knew what he wanted.

He showed up just as I was about to order his Deviled Egg Salad Sandwich and fries.

The bread for the sandwich came from one of the fun neighbors I mentioned, Boulevard Bread Company.

I had the Praline Salad. It was full of praline pecans. The dressing was a spicy cumin vinaigrette and it was very yummy. The salad was served with “seasonal” fruit. So, yours might look different when you go.

Dining indoors was a little cramped. We ended up on the side porch. There is also a front porch dining area as well as a small garden area. All were full!

I really enjoyed the atmosphere at The Root. It felt very urban.

The food was really good. I loved the salad dressing on my salad. I stole a couple of Chip’s fries. They were quite tasty, too. I think next time, I will have a burger and sweet potato fries. I saw several being delivered to tables. They looked amazing.

Chip enjoyed the bread and the egg salad. However, being an egg salad connoisseurs, he was disappointed with the way the egg salad squished out of the bun. He recommends toast.

They had a display case full of lovely desserts. Sorry, no picture of the case. I did snap a shot of the HUGE Chocolate Chip Cookie we split.

After mowing down the cookie, we headed across the street to MOXY Modern Mercantile. It is a fun little shop with lots of unique gift items…

like this giant pencil!

 

The Root Cafe is a fun lunch date destination. Check it out!

 

Moss Mountain Farm Part 7-Vegetable Garden

After hanging out on the porch for a while at Moss Mountain Farm, it was time to go home.

Our soggy tour had been a blast, even if we didn’t get to go to the vegetable garden.

But wait….

as we headed toward the car, we realized the vegetable garden was “just right there”. We decided to take a speedy look before anyone realized it was past 3:00!

I’m so glad we did. I think the vegetable garden was my favorite!

I love the “salad garden” planted in wheelbarrows.

Even the gardening sheds were neat to see.

There was an extra second or two for us to see the stone-fruit orchard–

and more chickens!

I hope you have enjoyed your virtual tour of Moss Mountain Farm. Trust me, it is even better in person! If you go, I want to hear all about it.

 

 

Moss Mountain Part 6–Rose Garden

With only about 30 minutes left in our self-guided tour window, Mom and I made a mad dash for the Rose Garden. We felt like we had to make a decision between the Rose Garden and the Vegetable Garden. Roses won!

I so wished for my great aunt to be in the rose garden with us. She had the most beautiful roses in her backyard in Atlanta! She always sends gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, and such wrapped in rose paper. The same rose paper! She must have a ton of it.

I’m sure Auntie could tell you the names of all these different roses. I just know them by color.

They were so sweet-smelling.

Raindrop on roses–now one of my favorite things!

The color and fullness of these double peach roses was incredible!

After the roses, we peeked over a fence to see the back-side of the vegetable garden. We still had the Summer Kitchen and Art House to see!

I failed to take any pictures of the art house. Wouldn’t you love to have a private little get-away place to go create?!

Wouldn’t you love to have a second kitchen?!

You may see a little reflection on these photos. I was shooting through the window!

Time was just about up on our Moss Mountain tour.

One last look at the roses on the side of the house. These are the same roses you saw from the upstairs bedroom here.

I guess the only thing we saw on the tour that we didn’t like was this…

Yikes!

Move along!

Mom and I took some selfies on the front porch-which all turned out horrible! So, here is a picture of just Mom on the porch.

I love the coral benches. I would have never thought to use that color.

Allen and Laura were busy heading to Allen’s next engagement. Mom snapped this picture of Allen taking a picture of peonies under the big tree out front.

Later I saw where he posted the picture that we saw him taking on Facebook. Kinda cool!

See it here.

As we headed toward the car, we stopped at the barn to take a picture of the carriage.

More cool lighting…

We enjoyed our tour so much. We were sad it was time to leave–

–or was it?

Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

Moss Mountain Farm Part 5–Lunch

Finally time for lunch. I had grown quite thirsty on our Moss Mountain Farm tour. I was starting to get a little hungry, too.

Our tour group was led into the barn for lunch.

Each reserved table was set with lovely white roses.

We sat with some nice folks from Little Rock, Conway and Fort Smith, AR as well as Atlanta, GA.

The barn holds some of Allen’s paintings from his Squash series.

It felt pretty fancy for a barn! If only I could get our shed cleaned out, I’d have a place just like this. HA! Okay, maybe not JUST like it.

I love how  antique farm tools were used as decoration.

Lunch was a bed of fresh, mixed greens topped with tomatoes, cucumbers, and grilled chicken.

I have a confession to make. I don’t like tomatoes. Tomato sauce, salsa, tomatoes cooked in soups I’m okay with all that. Well, as long as they are chopped up really small. I think it is a textural thing. When the plate showed up with all those beautiful tomatoes I got a lump in my throat knowing I was going to have to eat them. I tried not to turn my nose up too noticeably. Here I was, a food blogger, at a fancy farm! I’m supposed to love all vegetables, right? Sorry.

I decided to be a big girl and try my first grape tomatoes. Guess what–I kinda liked them! There was not as much slimy surface as on a slicer. I found them to be a little on the sweet side. Believe it or not, I ate almost all of them! I must say, I was proud of myself.

I also felt like I HAD to eat my salad before I dug into my dessert!

Buttermilk Pecan Pie with fresh whipped cream!

Here’s a closer look. Try not to drool on your screen, please.

YUM!

As we finished our dessert, Laura, our guide, answered questions from the crowd while we waited for Allen to arrive from Little Rock.

We stepped out on the drive for our meet and greet time. Allen is such an expressive person, it is hard to grab a good picture of him.

I looks like he is telling us a fish tale here. More than likely he is telling us about his chickens and their “poultry palace”.

Next, it was time for photos and autographs in the gift shop.

Mom and I still had to see the chickens, roses, and vegetables in a matter of about 30 minutes! We made a dash to be first in line. Fortunately, Mom had made her cookbook purchases when we first arrived at the farm.

We zoomed down to the end-of-the-earth to see the chickens.

They were chickens.

It was interesting to see all the different varieties. It was dark, so that made it difficult to photograph.

I liked the chickens. I just was anxious to see the Rose Garden before our time was up.

We trudged back up the hill toward the rose garden. Allen was finished with autographs, so we stopped for one more picture. Earlier, I had only taken pictures of Mom. I decided I wanted one too.

Looks like navy gingham was a good choice!

 

On to the roses!

 

Moss Mountain Farm Part 4-Gardens

The gardens on the back side of Moss Mountain Garden Home are just lovely. They called the area we toured next something specific like the South garden or something like that. For the life of me I can’t remember that name. Whatever it was differentiated this garden from the vegetable garden and the rose garden. I’ll share those with you soon.

Here is a view of the back of the house. I love the two-story screened porch.

In this photo we are standing on a path between the Summer Kitchen and the Art House. (I failed to take a picture of these.) These facilities were not part of our tour, but we were allowed to peek in the windows.

Here is one of the water features on the property. If you squint at the middle of the picture you can see the Arkansas River. Remember, it was overcast the day we went.

The plants and flowers were lovely. I really enjoy touring gardens. I think I like it because I have a bit of a brown thumb. Seeing someone else succeed in that area is inspiring.

A couple of years ago my friend, Cathy, gave me some herbs to plant. I actually had success! I even planted more this year. There is hope for me yet!

Being the “green” gardener that I am, I am not 100% sure of all the names of the plants. I tried to look them up on the internet. You know, if it’s on the internet it must be true! wink wink

I believe this is called Allium. I really like the height and shape of these. The looked great in the kitchen.

Lamb’s Ear always remind me of when my oldest was little. We would often stroll around the neighborhood after dinner trying to wear her out for bedtime. One of our neighbors had Lamb’s Ear around the mailbox.  Megan would always have to stop and pet the fuzzy leaves.

The pink roses with the purple “whatevers” layered in front was stunning.

This is Mrs. Big Fig, the huge fig tree in the middle of the path.

 

I never knew this is what asparagus looked like in the garden!

The lilies in my yard are no where near this tall.

There was a large variety of irises. I love the smell of irises. For some reason the smell reminds me of the taste of those marshmallow candy eggs we used to have at Easter when I was a kid. You know, the ones no one but Dad liked? Maybe the association has something to do with hunting Easter eggs while irises bloomed in the yard and I chowed down on candy! Dad wasn’t actually the only one who liked those things. The yellow ones were my favorite.

More irises around another water feature.

Some of the plants were ones I had never heard of or seen before…

…like Nicotiana. What a unique looking flower. I almost looks like a sea urchin.

Smoke Bush was a new one to me, too. I understand the textural difference in the landscape. However, I found myself wanting to bring this one into sharper focus for some reason.

I don’t know the name of this flower. It was just so tiny and cute, I had to include it.

Our guide showed us the way to the Rose Garden and Vegetable Garden, so we could tour on our own after lunch.

On our way to lunch, we visited the swans, Fred and Ethel. I saw on the P. Allen Smith Facebook page the other day that Fred and Ethel will be proud parents soon.

You can click on the gallery below to see these pictures better.

 

On to lunch–thank goodness!

How about you? Do you have a green thumb or a brown thumb?

Are you a Master Gardener or a novice gardener?

 

 

Moss Mountain Farm Part 3–Home Tour

Finally time to tour the home!

The welcoming foyer’s buffet table hosted three silver bowls filled with apples.

I was immediately reminded of this verse-even though the apples are green, not golden.

Our lovely guide, Laura, Allen’s personal assistant, led us into the front living room.

We were here for about 30 minutes learning all kinds of things about the home. Allen’s green, sustainable living philosophy was carried out in every aspect of the home. Attention to architectural history made the house feel much more than a decade old. Laura gave us some background information on Allen’s family and education as well as his current endeavors.

Allen’s love of painting can be seen throughout the home.

After our introduction to Moss Mountain, we were given time to explore indoors.

Duncan sent us on our way.

Mom and I decided to start at the top and work our way down.

I loved the casual runner stapled to the stairs leading to the upper floor.

The view wasn’t bad either!

Four beds plus a reading/working/playing area would surely be a treat for guests.

The master suite was on the level below. Elegant meets quirky in this “hat rack” in the bathroom.

The mirrors in their dark frames looked very nice against the pale blue wall. Heaven help me though! I wanted to straighten them so badly!

The use of “real” furniture in the bathroom was a nice touch.

My pictures of the bedroom and reading nook didn’t really turn our that great. You will just have to plan a visit of your own to see them!

Just off the library area was the sleeping porch. Ahhhh!

Do you see the tub there behind my Mom?!

Okay, here is a better picture.

Wouldn’t you just LOVE to hang out there a while, gazing out at the Arkansas River?

Ahhhh!

On to the guest room.

There is a great view of the 300+ year old tree from the guest bathroom.

As we headed back to the main floor, I snapped a couple more shots of the entry table. The symmetry is so appealing.

The ottomans under the table look great! They are nice to have for extra seating if necessary. The orange with the green apples and silver bowls makes quite a statement!

The kitchen was outfitted with beautiful Allium from the garden.

Unique kitchen lights–

Porch dining–

Some of our picture taking was cut short when we found our tour group was already headed to the garden!

I couldn’t resist one last shot–Mom on the curved settee.

See you in the garden next.