Pretty much my view for most of today. Ripped a muscle in my shoulder yesterday and have been in pain today. Felt good lying on top of a hot water bottle though.

Double trouble hanging out on the sofa.

My first attendance at a pow wow. With the Chickahominy tribe near Richmond.

I do a lot experimental cooking, throwing stuff in a pan to see how it turns out. Most of the time I'm delighted with the results and tonight I had another delicious success so I thought I'd share.

Sautéed Pork & Apple

Thick slice a couple of potatoes and cook in pan with water until firm, not soft.

In large frying pan add olive oil with 21 Season Salute, basil, coriander, garlic, ginger and some chili flakes. Cook for a couple of mins then add chopped onion. Mix in then put lid on pan and cook for 5 mins. 

Then place pork cutlets (1/3" thick) on top. Over these scatter grape tomatoes, the potatoes, sliced mushrooms and a sliced or chunked apple. Put the lid back on and cook for 10 minutes. Then give pan a stir and flip cutlets, replace lid and cook for another 5 - 10 minutes. Turn off heat and dump a handful of spinach leaves on top, replace the lid and let these wilt for a minute or so. Then add cream cheese, sour cream or natural yoghurt, stir the pan and serve!

Wow Mom, you stacked even more wood?

Boss Man came around this afternoon giving everyone headphones. They're pretty good quality too. And then he was ordering a bunch of high end hoodies and tees for us too. Of course they'll have the Emblemax logo on them but none of us mind about that, we know how to decorate clothing in a cool way. I often wear my Emblemax  apparel outside of work.

The dogwood trees are always the first to sport their autumn colors here at Meadow House.

Monday, September 23, 2013

So have to admit to cheating a but here. This photo was

taken today but represents yesterday, a day of hell trying

to get my tires sorted and resulting in running around during

my lunch hour and after work with over $400 spent, but finally,

all was resolved. Except for the daily photo...
 

The spectacularly magnificent and beautiful dahlias from the Dahlia Show that was judged at Longwood Gardens, PA yesterday, and were still on display today when we visited.

Fall starts tomorrow at 4:44pm so I was early today getting wood delivered. I spent 3 hours stacking over a cord. There's more stacked on the other side of the chimney breast.

I want all of the wine comments for my house, hilarious!

Oh yum, 3 sirloin steaks cooked to perfection. 1 for me, 1 for Kota Kat and 1 for Rosie Lee. Not. 1 for me, 1/2 for the pussy cats to share and the rest for me tomorrow. Yum!

Found this in my letter box when I got home. Our poor mail lady got jumped on and very fortunately managed to get away unharmed but I'm sure the episode has affected her. Hoping the Gillian's are caught very soon.

I love these feathery trees that are on the way home. I keep photographing them and here they look almost Japanese.

I was nearly at work when I saw this amazing cloud formation and detoured onto Rte 50 to get a better view. I asked my Facebook friend, Adam Caskey, who's a weather man on ABC 7 News what it meant, and was told it was heralding in a cold front. It only lasted about 3 minutes or so and then flattened out but another came up behind it. The clouds moved so fast that within 5 or so minutes, this cool spectacle had finished and we were left with a grey sky. It had seemed like a sci-fi scene for a while. Adam showed my photo on the evening news, woo hoo!

An actual headstone of a Confederate soldier who died at Antietam Battlefield. Carved by hand, it's now in the museum there.

Great model railway at Strasburg Museum.

Had to wait over 40 minutes to pass this accident on the way home, but waited patiently, thankful that it wasn't me.

I love the morning mists in the countryside, everything looks magical.

So Mum sends me a package and inside is an envelope on which she's written, 'open carefully'. Inside is a stink bug. So they've made it to England! 

Had to stop at Walmart on the way home as I urgently needed hummingbird food. Saw the weirdest thing ever, these wacky    balloons filled with Halloween junk and selling for $15. Why? What for? WTF? And what's worse is I'm sure there will be  plenty of fools who will think they're the coolest thing ever. Walmart really is the Superstore for Suckers, the store that sells crap for the ultimate sap!

Had to search the house thoroughly for snakes this afternoon after finding a couple of babies in the house. This pretty big skin is hanging on the outside of the house, but where's the snake?

3 sets of paws doing nothing on this lazy Sunday afternoon.

Part of Hillwood House in DC, the beautiful house that belonged to Marjorie Merriweather Post.

A beautiful sunrise on the way to work this morning.

Met a gang of turkeys on the hill as I came home. I had to wait while they slowly trotted across the driveway, gobbling and chuckling as they went. So cute.

Had to get some material to make patches for a client today, and saw this pretty display of fabric. I'd wear it!

Back to work after 4 glorious days off. 

Had this little chap hanging around while I was cooking pork, veggies and pineapple on the BBQ. Sorry, not sharing!

Sunday, September 1st, 2013

Kelly sharpening my axe, so I'm  ready for chopping wood this fall.