Apple Festival

So, welcome to the Ithaca Apple Festival! This year they added something new, their own version of the Iron Chef Competition. Three Chefs, from local restaurants faced off against one another.
These are the Chefs, the other three were Judges. All the food they used was locally grown or produced. Including water buffalo! Who knew?!?! Don't ask me who won, I didn't stick around. The guy with his back to us was the announcer, a DJ from Ithaca college radio. The short one on the end is the Chef from Cornells dining hall, yes, you read that right.


Look! Little tree! Love this place! Best apple doughnuts in the universe! No surprise they were here!


I swear _everyone_ in Ithaca shows for the apple festival!!
This is just 2 of the 3 arms of the Commons...



As promised, a picture of the princess. She has some rockin' markings!


Well, just a quickie today. Have fun!

And as usual,

Thanks for Noticing me!

Brrrrr!

Okay, no pics yet, but I have too many observations for facebook statuses, so you guys are stuck with them!

I _LOVE_, love, love, love, autumn! Halloween is my favorite holiday of the entire year! Mostly because you can do any kind of celebration, and you _can't_ mess it up. No worrying about a dry turkey and undercooked turnips. No worrying if you got the perfect gift for someone, and if one of your decorations gets lost and rots, well, you have a plant already ready for spring!

So far I have about half my decorations up, and it is a beautiful, overcast, windy, autumn day. I'm wishing I was going to leave the house in a pair of jeans, a warm cozy sweater, and kick-ass boots, instead of dressed for work, but, *sigh*.

The sad thing is, this year, we seem to have gotten fall, before getting autumn, and the leaves are falling faster than they are changing color. RATS!

Well, instead of mourning the passing of the warm weather, celebrate the coming of the slower pace of winter, evenings spent at home, warm, with family. Cozy hot meals of comfort foods, hot chocolate with marshmallows, and as a nod to my buddy Tam... knee socks!!

And again...
Thanks for Noticing me!

Up here by Cornell U., there are a million things to do!

This is "Judys' Day". They pick a theme, and the whole day is devoted to learning about it. This years theme was grass. Rice is a grass, and this is son #2 husking rice. I'm told he spent nearly the whole day doing that little panful. (I had to work.)

They also made grits, out of corn, which apparently is also a grass, who knew?! And for some unknown reason, they made chocolate "grass masks" (African) That would be son #1 in the first pic.

My favorite Judys' day was a few years ago, they took us back 100 years ago. Every one was encouraged to dress in period dress, and they had a schoolhouse, and a bunch of amazing things to do and see!

It's always good to make learning fun, for both kids and kids at heart!

Again, Thanks for Noticing me!

OMIGOD! I didn't realize I'd put off doing this for _so_ long! Well, back to school year craziness I guess!
So, the Harvest Festival we go to every year, is cheezy, and campy, but a great place to catch up with your neighbors and do silly things in an acceptable venue.

That first pic is the hay ride, a big ole tractor pulling along a flat bed with a bunch of hay bales on it. _Always_ do this last, or you'll have perfect strangers trying to pick pieces of hay off your butt for you!

And the cake wheel of course! they nail down numbered paper plates, you put a quarter or $.50 (depending on what they tell you) and if the wheel lands on your number, you win your choice of donated baked goods from a certain shelf. Silly, but an effective way to get money for your charity.

And the biggest charity money comes from the quilt raffle, and silent auction. I dunno why, but people feel the need to pay good money for a quilt. I just wait for crafty friends to make them for me. (Yes, we've covered this, I don't sew well.) Okay, I've held your attention long enough, once again,
Thanks for Noticing me!

Look at this little beauty.

This is a blue heron. We first saw it last year, it was hanging out in a pond down the road, but this year he decided to grace our creek. Sorry about the quality, but there is a window screen between it, and the camera.

We've decided to name him Henry.

Yes, that is a tree stump painted bright blue. And that is a butterfly house on top of it, although it ended up housing snails, and bees instead.

The tree came down the first year we lived on the property. It was early spring, and there was still snow on the ground, but, it was warm enough to hang clothes on the line, (LOVE that smell!) All around the base of the tree were these pocks in the snow... and after a bit of investigation, we saw bees committing suicide, flinging themselves from somewhere. The very next day we had a tree removal service there! Then the most amazing thing happened. When the tree fell over, it split in half and the entire middle part of the trunk, was completely hollow of what was supposed to be there, and was _filled_ with honey, and honeycomb.. POUNDS and pounds of it!
Sadly most of it was old and nasty, but there was enough of the golden tasty stuff to let the workers take as much as they wanted, and for us to collect, and give away a bunch, and keep a bunch too.

That's one of my favorite memories of this place!

So, loooong enough, and as usual... Have fun, and
Thanks for Noticing me!

Oy! It has been _seriously_ manic here lately! But, I finally managed to download my pics, and well, starting from the beginning...


So these are my "very excited about school" kids, LMAO! Okay, so they weren't. But, they go, and wonder upon wonders, not even 2 full weeks into the school year and the little one already got an ET.

An ET (as in ET phone home?) is exactly what it sounds like, you get in trouble, and have to phone home to tell on yourself. *Sigh* Homework issues already!

My Son #1, picked out his outfit all on his own! We were so proud! He picked nice clothes without being beaten into it! And I must say, he looks SO awesome in it!

The little one was _dying_ to wear that tie, My poor, poor, twisted Mets fan. He also wanted to wear it with a T-shirt, that one had to be inspected before leaving to be sure he wasn't hiding one in his bag!

Well, First day of school covered, Have fun! and ...
Thanks for Noticing me!

Ahhhh, the cooler weather has returned, with a sad goodbye to my sandals, and ponytail holders, I squeal with happiness at the sight of my fuzzy Eeyore pj's, and thick sweaters and sweatshirts.

And why is it, that knitting always seems to go faster when I'm not steaming to death in the summer humidity? And that's a good thing! I have _lots_ of projects to finish off! I'm looking forward to showing off pics of said projects as the weeks go by, including one that I was actually commissioned to do!

But first, the next real project is my hair. After all but ignoring it all summer, it's time to pamper the poor mane! Women are nuts. Can anyone else imagine a man caring at all about any of this?

So girls, now that the kids are in school, go give yourself a moment to primp and pamper, and dig out the warm and cozies!

And as usual...

Thanks for Noticing me!