A bit of New England history

I have been meaning to post these photos for a while now but I have been such a blog slacker lately that I just haven't got around to it till now.

Living in New England there is so much history around that sometimes I take them for granted. I took Jake to Sudbury a few weeks ago to the area where all of the following historical buildings are located.

This grist mill was our first stop.

Isn't this such a beautiful old building? You can't tell from this photo but that water wheel is turning. And they are grinding flour inside. From what I understand local growers are allowed to use the mill in exchange for contributing their hours educating the public who come to see the facility.

Jake enjoyed learning about the history of this place...even if it was a dreary rainy day..

This photo is from the back side of the building...

fun to photograph at any angle...

These are the grinding stones used inside. There is a whole row of these old ones set into the hillside outside the building.

a view of the inside grinding area & grain elevators...

And the gears in the lowest level that are powered by that big water wheel outside.

Next stop just down the road is the Wayside Inn...if you go inside & tour the Inn you can see the room where George Washington once stayed. It is still a functioning Inn & Restaurant (the food is said to be fabulous here) If you want to learn more about this beautiful place you can find it here

Martha Mary Chapel is also on the same 1/4 mile stretch as The Grist Mill & the Wayside Inn. If you have seen Matthew McConaughey's recent movie "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" then you saw this church in a scene from that movie.

And just behind the church is The Little Red Schoolhouse. You've all heard the children's story "Mary had a little lamb" right? Well this is the schoolhouse from that nursery rhyme. Mary actually was from Sterling which is the next town over from where I live but in the 1920's Henry Ford had the schoolhouse moved here to this location.

Of course we couldn't go to the area without going to the place my grandparents took us to as kids when they came to visit...the Wayside country store.

Its very much the same as it was all those years ago...and I can remember that old cash register on the right side of the photo from my childhood trips here. Nana & Grandpa would give each of us a quarter & we were in heaven picking out our 25 pieces of penny candy to take home with us. It was really nostalgic for me to come here & to see Jake enjoying the same thing I had done as a kid.

The phrase "like a kid in a candy store" comes to mind here..

Of all those jars of candy I was only able to find these 2 that were still a penny.

Hope you all enjoyed this tour of Sudbury history. Have a great weekend.

Photo share

I took these 2 photos a couple of weeks ago on a hike with Tanner. Love how pretty the colors & reflections came out in them. Even a little mudhole in the woods can be a beautiful thing...

Caprese salad

We had this yummy salad for dinner recently. If you'd like to give it a try the recipe can be found on my other blog. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Noooooooooooo.....

No ! No! No! Its too soon...this is not right...I'm not ready. Its only October 15th..not November 15th... not December 15th.....

I looked outside earlier and my deck is not brown anymore....it's white !!! Covered with a layer of snow !!!

Ugh....I hate winter !! I hope this is not a sign of how rough this winter is going to be.

Fall in New England

This past weekend was peak foliage time around here so Jake & I decided to take a ride out to western Mass and up into lower Vermont. Before we left I needed to mail a package to Amanda with some fall goodies since she is most homesick this time of year. I needed one more thing to add to my care package...a small pumpkin.

We stopped at this pretty location near my house....but alas no mini pumpkins here. Aren't the colors in this photo gorgeous though? In Vermont I thought I would get so many great photos but this one right near home ended up being the best one of the day.

Next stop in the search for a pumpkin for Amanda was in Sterling at this farm...

Lots of pumpkins here to choose from. And we did find the perfect little one to add to our care package. So we were off to the post office & then on our way to Vermont.

Every town we passed through had a pretty little church. This one was in Jacksonville Vermont. We stopped at a winery here that was having a wine tasting. I don't like wine at all but it was a festive little gathering & they were serving complimentary cheese fondue, mulled cider & sliced apples with caramel sauce. Yum. A nice break from driving and a snack to hold us over till lunch time.

Jake made a friend there too...

We headed a little further north on Route 100 (voted one of the most scenic roads in America) We were trying to get to a little restaurant in Wilmington that a girl at the winery referred us to. Apparently we weren't the only ones out enjoying the colors of fall. We got stuck in this traffic for a while. At 2 miles per hour you can imagine it took us a while to get through it. Ugh !!!

Finally we arrived at the cafe and at 2 pm it was still packed so we had to wait a bit for seats. Jake passed the time amusing himself by taking goofy self portraits : )

After lunch we headed toward home and after a bit of a climb in the car the view opened up to the gorgeous scene.

and a bit further down the road we saw these on the hillside. Pretty cool to see them all spinning in the wind (10 total) My town is actually in the process of putting these in on the side of the mountain to generate wind energy here as well.

After getting back into Massachusetts in the Berkshires we came across these people kayaking in what I'm sure must be very cold water. It was only about 50 degrees out...brrrr. We watched them paddle upstream for a while practicing in the white water areas just ahead of them. Fun to watch but I wouldn't want to be them. I hate being cold.

It was a long day of driving on pretty country roads like this one...

and this one...

I was so tired when we got home...but it was a nice day spent with my favorite boy.

Do you like blueberry muffins?

If you do... this is the best recipe ever. And yours will look so much better than this blurry photo. Enjoy.

lucky number 28

I've come to the conclusion over the past few years that 28 is my lucky number. It comes up everywhere in my life....

I was born on the 28th
I have one phone number that ends in 6028
one that ends in 2815
I bought my house on my birthday the 28th of Sept in 2006
on that day my new phone number was given to me....ending in 2806 (the same day I bought my house...28th day of the month in the year 06) Freaky right?

So this year for my birthday I bought myself another gift....after all it is my lucky day.

I spent a long time making this decision...

Because I had been driving this Jeep.....and I loved this car.

We have so many memories with this fun vehicle...including a trip cross country for a 4 wheeling vacation in Utah. But much as I loved it...it was a huge gas hog and with the miles I drive for work each week I was spending $100 a week on gas. Crazy right?

So it just made sense to go green & trade it in for this hybrid Honda Insight. This car will save me almost $300 a month in gas. Bought on my lucky day of course....the 28th.

Its cute isn't it? And so far this week I am averaging about 55 miles per gallon. Whats not to love about that?

This boy is pretty excited about it too. His favorite part is the navigation system and the hands free functions that go with it. Pretty cool to be able to just say "call home" and your car makes your phone call for you, or 102.5FM and it switches to your favorite radio station. Very cool to be able to do everything from heat, phone, radio & navigation just by speaking what you want.

This car is just so much fun to drive. I'll miss my Jeep for sure....but I think this car is going to help me get over that pretty quick.

If I could ever stay awake long enough....

I'd post my big news on here...

But again I am falling asleep in this darn cozy recliner. I'll give you a hint though....Monday was my birthday & I got a pretty cool gift (from myself) Can you guess what????

I promise I'll share soon...

Snickerdoodles for soldiers

These went to my daughter & her friends in Iraq, but its the best recipe for snickerdoodles I have found yet. If you want to make some for yourself you can find the recipe here at my other blog. Enjoy!

A mother's pride

Feeling so proud tonight and missing this beautiful girl so much.

She's been on deployment in Iraq and due home in December.....she can't get here soon enough for me!!!

She's spends her working hours in these tracking submarines...

Even with the brutal heat she is living in wearing full gear she has kept in good spirits & has formed such a strong bond with her crew and still manages to have fun. I think she has also gained an even stronger love & appreciation for her country while there.

Even in this environment she is still smiling, having fun and loving life.

So very proud of you my beautiful brave girl !!!

working long hours in between the fun with friends...

While we are cozy at home in our with our soft beds & home cooked meals...this is where they are living...

And they are there for us, our country & our freedom. Let's not ever forget what they are sacrificing for us and if you pass a soldier on the street don't be too shy to thank them for all they do.