Family

~ Lessons In Patience ~

April 17, 2017 by Patricia Fisher

We are having beautiful weather in our little corner of the world. Which we all appreciated yesterday for Easter Sunday. We assembled as many family members as we could at my sister & brother-in-law’s house for a delicious and much appreciated meal. It is always a blessing to be together, but a little bittersweet when it isn’t everyone. I’m sure it’s the same for all families. This year my aunt and uncle, our father’s younger brother, joined us. The two brothers are 84 and 82 years young, and it seemed special to see them sitting across the table from one another. We had four generations gathered to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. God is good!

Saturday we picked up 30 packages of bees in Pennsylvania, for us and a friend. Our hives are full again, let the buzzing commence! They are here just in time the forsythia is out in force and the apple blossoms will be in full bloom soon.

The kitchen project continues to progress. We are further along than this picture suggests. I wait more patiently some days than others. That seems to be one of those lessons that just keeps popping up in all different areas like the Whac-A-Mole game at Chuck E Cheese! Do you ever completely learn this lesson and the “game” shuts off? Or does it just follow you around until the end of your time? These are rhetorical questions. No need to reply.

We are “do-it-yourselfer” kind of people, no surprise there right? I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit as of late. Questioning whether this lies in the “blessing” category or the “other” category, you know which one I’m speaking of! Maybe that is a little extreme, but sometimes in the middle of a big project one does begin to wonder….”is it Really such a good thing that “he” can do just about anything!?!”. I’m sure from the stand point of someone who is married to someone who isn’t handy, this seems ungrateful. It isn’t meant to be! It’s just that there are only so many hours in the day and energy in the body, so why not choose the best use of yours? My definition of “blessing” in this instance would be choice. The ability to choose the projects or parts of a project you wish to do and the ability to hire out the ones you don’t wish to do, without the feeling of “I should or could be doing this myself”. Freedom, is a blessing….anyway you look at it! So then, all gifting (talents) are blessings, but not meant to lord over you. That is my “take away” from this kitchen project….and that I’m blessed with a very talented husband!

Today is my baby boy’s birthday, so I’m off to make him dinner.

Bye for now!

Filed Under: Family

~ Summertime ~

August 10, 2016 by Patricia Fisher

Summertime….the pool, bee swarms, and lots of fresh fruits and veggies.

My “little’s” (I had that book as a kid, “THE LITTLE’S“, and loved it. I just realized that as I typed it!)…but I digress (to quote Pastor Bujno), are all learning to swim this summer. Such fun! The bees have not been behaving! The beekeeper has had to drop everything to catch swarms several times. Sometimes, literally in his hands. Diona and Delilah found the first swarm of the year, in my little blue spruce tree, which was sacrificed for the cause. My potager (kitchen garden) is doing well, but more weeds than I would prefer…… three year old’s don’t stand around in the garden long, and Greta, well, she is quite wonderful!

The motor home/playground is new at a park up the road, and I just couldn’t help but take a picture it’s so cute! I tried my hand at stuffed squash blossoms at my neighbors suggestion. Some were just blossoms, some had the baby zucchini still attached, so cute! They are time consuming, but tasty. The “Hubs” prefers fried green tomatoes. We have loads of blueberries again, so blueberry crisp and blueberry pie were in order. The pesto is garlic scape pesto and it is great on pasta.

As you can see “The Beekeeper” had to be pretty creative to get the upper hand on one of our honeybee swarms. Success was the word for the day! Those little buggers better be producing a lot of honey for the trouble.

Summer is speeding by fast, as usual. This coming weekend will be the first one in a month and a half that we don’t have a commitment. Yay!!! Maybe by Monday morning I’ll have a few less weeds. One can dream, right? I haven’t canned the first thing this summer, and I really don’t feel bad about it. I have found myself at my art desk more, which doesn’t usually happen in the summer. Carving out a creative space in the living room is proving to have been a good idea. Who knew when I did it that I would be entertaining a three year old this summer!?! Who by the way has her own “art desk” in the living room also. Start them young!

I’m reading a series of books that I found by default on Amazon. You know how you go on to search for one thing and they suggest another that sends you down a bunny trail, where you end up with a totally different thing than you started out looking for? Yeah that! That’s what happened. I found this book that looked interesting, read the reviews, bought it, read it, loved it, and then found out that it is the middle book in a series. As it turns out they don’t have to be read in order, in fact the author didn’t even write them in order. So, now I’m reading the second, which is actually the third, ha! I truly enjoyed the first one I read, which is actually the second. The books are her(Susan Branch) story, her life so far. They’re also filled with her watercolor illustrations and some photos. A lot going on, on the page. Maybe too much for some people, but it keeps the right side of my brain very engaged. I’m thinking that the one I started with may very well be my favorite, but I’ll continue on to see after I have actually read the first one..

The Beekeeper and I are coming up on our 10th anniversary, and I surprised him with reservations at a seaside resort in Maine. Needless to say, I can’t wait to go back to the rocky coast of Maine. It truly is one of those places that is a must for a bucket list. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures to share, and of course the hunt will be on for some great treasures to bring back.

Enjoy the sunshine!

This post contains my affiliate links.

Filed Under: Family, Grandchildren, Honey Bees, In the kitchen, My Potager

~ A Long Time ~

January 28, 2016 by Patricia Fisher

It’s been a long time since I’ve sat here and done this. Sometimes it seems hard to just think of what I have to say…what is “post worthy”. I often tell myself, “nothing, I have nothing to write about.Nothing new has happened.”

Just life, day after day. Not that life is bad, on the contrary, life is going along quite well. Sometimes it seems to be a challenge to put everyday life into words that would be interesting enough for someone else to want to read about it. But being a lover of journals, the “old-fashioned” pen and paper kind or the online “newfangled” way, it just doesn’t matter, it’s the concept that I like. So, here I sit typing out my thoughts for random (unknown in some cases), passers by.

It’s the end of January, and I find myself thinking, “where did this first month of the year go….and what have I accomplished?” January is usually my hunker down, get creative, take an online class, forget the rest of the world month. But this year seems very different. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it feels like winter hasn’t started, or at least not what we were use to the last two years. I mean we didn’t light an inside fire until after Christmas. We have no snow. The beekeeper hasn’t plowed once. It’s all good, I’m not complaining or anything. It’s just different. So, maybe this is why I’m out of wack with my normal January train of thought.

So to quote Pastor Bujno, “I digress”. About this blog and my absence…..It’s unexplainable or maybe unacceptable! I just went looking for a picture to post with this and realized that I had some shots that I hadn’t uploaded to my computer yet…ummm, 534 to be exact! Opps…well I guess there may have been a couple of things to blog about after all! MY BAD!!! Here’s a few……

The Beekeeper doing his thing!

The island being beautiful.

My boy…just being a boy.

My girls…..being country girls.

All three together being A-dorable!

Having fun with Grandad.

Me being artsy.

Squash being delicious! I made this more times last fall than I care to say. Here is the recipe.

I’ll try to do this more often…no promises though. Just enjoying life…..

Filed Under: Adirondack Mountains, Family, Grandchildren, Honey Bees, In the kitchen, Nature, Photography

~ Count Your Blessings ~

December 23, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

All a buzz… this can be the busiest time of year for a lot of us. We seem to want to cram as much as possible into a few short weeks of time. We know from past experience what this does to us and those around us, but we seem to get caught up into it year after year. Still, even with all the added tasks and outings that can drain the energy out of you, if you can manage to find those still, quiet moments to contemplate the “reason for the season”, it’s undeniable what a special time of year it really is. Sitting mornings by the warmth of the fire, with only the glow of the Christmas lights interrupting the darkness, this is my time each day to reflect on all of the blessings that have been lavishly poured out on me…and, I’m grateful!

We celebrated one of those many blessings over the weekend. Our grandson was turning five and we all gathered together, enjoying the special little man that he is.

The background to this is….”Nana makes cakes”, according to John Michael. So, he decides what his party theme is for the year and…Nana makes a cake to go with it! What someone failed to explain to him was, for the previous generation, when Nana was Mom, there were several shows that were “off limits”. Among the list was, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which to my amazement has come back around full force…and guess who likes it!?!( I have two older nephews that will enjoy how the tables have turned, and I quote…”stupid Little House On The Prairie!”). Well, since Nana is a much softer touch now than she was as Mom, the quest was on for the, TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle) cake pan. I have since found out that I needed to start this search much sooner, instead of dragging my feet. Wilton has retired their 1989 TMNT cake pan and now it is considered “vintage”. Being the lover of old things that I am, you would think this would make me happy. No, what this means is that this cake pan that I really don’t want in my collection is two or three times it’s original price! When my Amazon search turned up one for over $100.00, I gave the search over to my “ebaying” husband. He found one with the auction up that night and won the bid, Yay him! Unfortunately, it wasn’t shipped out for three days! So, when Saturday morning came around and the TMNT cake pan wasn’t in the morning mail, I knew the worst had come! (haha) I would have to get creative around a theme that as a mom I had opposed. Alas, Nana couldn’t disappoint, so Papa and I were off on a shopping trip for a cake topper. (Might I add, there are wedding cakes with less expensive cake toppers than this.)

He liked his cake…’nuff said!

P.S. The “TMNT” cake pan came the day after the party!

Filed Under: Family, Grandchildren

~ All of The Flowers in My Life ~

June 2, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

There is one female family members missing in this photo (you know who you are….hurry home, we miss you!)

P.S. Your son took this picture for us. What a blessing he is.

Jan knows how to host a get together.

Sam, keeping away from the little girls.

~ And this happened ~

Coming soon to the Beehive Shoppe!

Beeswax lip balm & hand cream.

(As soon as I figure out labels!)

….and then this happened….

My baby girl and her baby girl went back to the sunshine state.

My skies are a little less blue….

Till next time…..

Filed Under: Family, Fishers Beehive Shoppe, Grandchildren, My Potager, Photography

~ Out of Hibernation ~

May 17, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

Eek….I haven’t blogged in two months! I told myself that “I haven’t had anything to say”, which may or may not be true. Trust me I have said plenty over the last eight weeks! I’ve even written some things down…in my journal. But, I did however take a breather from the blog world, posting myself and reading others. But I’m back, at least reading what others have to say, and maybe adding my two cents here and there.

Spring has finally come to the Northeast, and I think I can speak for most of us…..we’re thrilled, relieved, excited and very thankful! I’m sure this Winter wasn’t that much different than the ones of my childhood, but frankly that’s been awhile and I guess I’ve become a wimp. I was among those saying “UNCLE” this year!

So here’s what’s happening in our little world…..

We had three hives of bees that survived the long cold winter. We ordered in five more packages, they’re in the hives and doing well, and we have four more nucs coming soon.

Spring around here reminds me of when the movie The Wizard of Oz goes from black and white to color. Such a happy, hopeful, magical (not that I really believe in magic) moment. Likewise, we too have color again….YAY! Our Magnolia tree was beautiful this year, such a welcoming sight in the front yard, along with the Forsythia as a backdrop.

Lots of new plants “springing” out of the warm ground….Sunflower seedlings (from fallen seeds last year), I need to thin these and find new homes for some…Rhubarb (so cool looking)….peas just starting….and kale, that will produce through the late fall (gotta love that!)….and those sweet little survivor Johnny Jump Ups, that pop up even in the stones between my raised beds.

Riley and I have a lot of work to do!

We’ve been busy buying and reorganizing the shoppe, lots of fun new things to see.

I’ve been playing around with these wood blocks, leftover from one of the Beekeeper’s projects.

I finished this little afghan (thinking of lining the back with fabric, we’ll see). This is the same pattern as Angelina’s baby afghan.

This is my current project. I started this on the drive back from Florida. I think I have ripped out as much as I have completed. For some reason this pattern was tweaking my brain. It really isn’t difficult. I’m on a roll now. The pattern is called Daisy Garden, from this book, Crochet Afghans by the Pound .

This is what is taking precedence in my world right now…..my daughter and granddaughter flew in from Florida for a two week visit. I’m enjoying having all five of my children and three grandchildren in the same state. God is good!

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Filed Under: crochet, Family, Fishers Beehive Shoppe, Honey Bees, My Potager

~ Up To Speed ~

January 5, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

It seems I took an unplanned break from blogging. It’s really been on my mind and I’ve been taking pictures. I guess the holiday busyness just got in the way. But I’m back and ready to share a little of what happened over the last month. So here we go…

Not too many inside pictures I realized after, the lighting in our house is a challenge. We live in what was my grandparents 1930ish Sears, Craftsman style house (with an addition to fit a family with 5 kids), which I love, but it is a little on the dark side for picture taking. We still have all the original unpainted woodwork, which I also love, but it is dark. Here, by the way is a link to a book I found on Sears houses, in case anyone is interested. Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company. Back in the day they had a catalog of house kits you could order from. The train use to run down the center of our little village and that is how our house came to be. I like that, it’s fun. While hunting this link I found a children’s book on Sears houses also The House in the Mail.

So we’ve had a lot of cold weather. It snows, then turns a little warmer and rains… melts the snow…turns cold again and leaves us with ice! Life in the great northeast!

We went to a couple of Christmas parties. One hosted by my very talented sister and niece. Above is just a sampling of the deliciousness that was there to tempt us.

We also attended a Christmas wedding for the son of some very dear friends, a beautiful evening.

A couple of Christmas pages from my journal. The Beekeeper wrapped all my gifts in coordinating paper, so I glued a piece of each in my journal with a note of what gift was wrapped in each kind. Kinda goofy looking, but a good memory! He is a good gift giver.

These are the Christmas pictures of my grandbabies. Love my three sweeties!

Here are a couple of cookies recipes that I made this year. The raspberry almond shortbreads were a big hit with the Beekeeper. The red velvet crinkle cookies are super easy and just looked Christmasy.

So now that I’ve said all that…let’s move into 2014!

Filed Under: Art Journaling, Family, Grandchildren, In the kitchen Tagged With: christmas, cookies, Sears houses

~ Home Again, Home Again ~

December 3, 2013 by Patricia Fisher

From cool northern air to warm southern sun and back again. Again this year my sister and I made the trip with our Dad to Florida, where he stays to keep warm while we head back north to ~~endure~~ enjoy the seasons. The transition as we (they) drove (while I crocheted in the backseat) from cold to slowly warming up temperatures was one thing, but hopping a plane in T-shirt weather and being picked up by your Hubby holding a winter coat….well let’s just say it takes a while to adjust!

There wasn’t time to complain, I hit the floor running. I had three days till Thanksgiving, and family dinner was at our house this year. I decided to add to the fun by getting our Christmas tree early and having the house decorated for the event (so early I might add that no one around us was set up selling trees yet. The perk was that our friendly, local tree farmer escorted us into the woods, helped us pick out our tree, and then gave it to us! Gotta love favor!). Let me just say…I have NEVER had my tree up for Thanksgiving, even when the kids were little! My oldest son reminded me that it was two days before Christmas when we put up a tree last year. So WHY, do you ask, did I decide this was the year to surprise everyone with being ahead of the game? I’m blaming it on the temperature drop between Florida and home, maybe shock. But in hind sight…I’m now relaxing by a warm fire as I write this, sitting next to a beautifully decorated tree in the warm glow of its lights. So that’s one thing crossed off the December to do list. Here are some highlights from the trip…

First and foremost- I got to spend a week with my girls (my youngest daughter and her now 9 month old baby girl)-highlight for sure!

Of course there are never any complaints about having to spend time at my brother and sister-in-law’s place.

He even popped the cork on some bubbly while we celebrated some much needed sibling fellowship time on the dock.

Not to mention their 35th wedding anniversary!

I’m oh, so grateful for both of them!

We took the baby girl to the beach…..

...and we visited one of our favorite places in St. Pete, Mazzaros Italian Market. All that goodness under one roof! LOVE this place! It would be dangerous to live close to.

So I took some pretty pictures…

and ate some good food.

Unfortunately the neighbors were away, so no fun visits with them. (They were sorely missed!) I took this photo for you, Bob & Pat, hope you are having a great time!

We did get to meet the neighbors on the other side and it seems they are Mazzaro fans also. So lots of great “foodie” talk.