Missing Willow Farm

Is something we attended every day at 3:30 in the ballroom.  Finger sandwiches and pastries were served with English Breakfast tea, then followed by scones with clotted cream.  All accompanied by a string quartet.  Heaven!  Now that we’re home, I miss it (but not the calories).

As I sort through all of the photos we took on our vacation, I’ll post a few here and there.  We’re still working our way through a mountain of laundry.  🙂   In our cabin, we found a bottle of champagne, fruit basket, orchids, chocolate covered strawberries and canapes.  A promise of a magical journey ahead!  The sail away was very unusual for Cunard.  The Queen Mary 2 usually sails at 5PM from Brooklyn but it was a particularly busy cruise embarkation day so we sailed from Manhattan just at sundown.  It was a clear, warm, gorgeous night.  We chose the late dinner seating so we would be able to experience our ship’s funnel passing just 10 feet below the Verrazano bridge.  What a thrill!

At sea!  Three weeks on the Queen Mary 2, across the Atlantic, up through Northern Europe and then back across the pond.  When I get a chance to catch my breath, I’ll post some highlights.  Many many thanks to my parents who took farmsitting duties on while we were away on our first ‘real’ vacation, first cruise and Brian’s first trip to Europe.   Best. Vacation. Ever.

Summer is over and our raised beds are done but the greenhouse is still going gangbusters.  It’s so nice harvesting tomatoes while it’s crisp and cool outside.  Too bad the deer got our pumpkins.  Again.

We cooked at the Euphoria wine and food festival in Greenville, SC last weekend and shared a cowboy cauldron with LaFarm Bakery.  We were cooking lamb ribs and kebabs while they were cooking lamb sausage and feta baguettes (yes, they are as good as they sound)!  At the end of our evening, we were gifted one of their signature sourdough loaves that is now living in our freezer waiting for my parents to visit later this week.  Yum!

If Bindi isn’t in my lap or Brian’s, she’s hijacked a blanket somewhere in the living room (but she prefers a lap).   It’s been our experience that sphynx cats are generally very social. We’ve had one (or more) around since 1994. She loves meeting new people and has been known to jump up on a guest’s shoulder in the middle of dinner.  Bad kitty.

We spent the day helping friends harvest their grapes yesterday.  We filled five of these delivery containers with cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon grapes.   Each bunch had to have any damaged grapes removed before including it in the bin.  It was overcast and in the 70’s all day, just perfect weather for being outdoors.

We had the pleasure of participating in a blind sparkling hard cider tasting carried out on our back deck.  What we learned is that Virginia cider reigns supreme, absolutely no surprise to us.   If you can find Foggy Ridge Cider at your local wine purveyor, we highly recommend it.

Lizzie is so rambunctious and full of energy, she’s hard to photograph.  Here’s the best of the most recent batch.  😀

This is my first go at a wonky quilt.  The fabric is from the Alexander Henry Ghastlies collection.  The entire line is a lot of fun, they even have a Christmas edition.  I think I  need some more in my fabric stash.