Our trip to Monticello part one

Monticello was amazing.   We visited on Sept 11 for their Harvest Festival.  It was a gorgeous day up on the mountain.  The garden was on a large terrace that they had carved out of the mountainside.  On it, there were beds going the width of the terrace with walkways in between.  Most of these beds had one type of plant per bed, although there were a few mixed beds.

The tomato supports were built from wood found on the property.  They had many different kids of heirlooms growing.  One thing that surprised me, was that there were tomatoes in various stages of development.  Some were fully grown, but there were several that had clearly been planted fairly recently.  I'm not sure of their growing season, but would imagine that in the mountains, they can't be far from frost.  I wish I knew why they had grown tomatoes that clearly would never make it to fruit. 

The orchard goes down the hillside from the garden.  There were multiple kinds of trees, although I'm not sure what varieties.

These bean towers looked like fun.  If I was a child, I think I would have liked to hide inside them.

More bean towers, not fully grown. 

These squash were huge.  Behind them you can see some of the herbs grown on the property.  They had many different types of herbs, both culinary and medicinal.

I wish we could get goats.  This one was a real sweetie.  Do you think Toby would like to play with her?

Home and ready to work

We got back from vacation last night.  It was glorious to sleep in my own bed.  It was strangely wonderful to wake up and have a million things to do. 

Toby had been dropped off at the house by my parents before we got home, so he and I spent the morning doing our usual routine.  We went and checked on and fed the chickens.  He sniffed around to see if there was anything good to eat that they had left.  Then we went to the garden.  I picked the tomatoes and overflowing peppers.  The pumpkins are really taking off now and coming back to life, where I thought they were dead.  The broccoli is heading up nicely and sending out side shoots where I picked it before vacation. 

While I was emptying the car, the neighbors came for a visit.  Toby got to play with his best bud, Brutus, a 9 month old boxer.  I chatted and caught up while the kids and dogs ran around and played. 

Then it was into the house for breakfast.  I can't tell you how good it was to have poached eggs on toast with eggs from my chickens and my homemade sourdough bread.  Real food is a wonderful thing.  You don't realize how wonderful, until you don't have it for a while. 

I have so many posts and things to tell you.  The picture is of the Monticello gardens.  We attended the Harvest Festival and had a wonderful time meeting Sharon Astyk and seeing all the fabulous things they had to see and taste.  We went to a farm where they cure hams the old fashioned way, saw how peanuts and cotton grow and just generally had a blast.  I'll be giving away a book later in the week as well, so keep your eyes open.  Today I need to get things straightened, tomatoes processed, peppers dealt with, pictures looked through and many other things.  It's wonderful to be home.

Walking with Toby

This morning Toby and I went for our morning drag walk out in the beautiful fresh air.  Here are a few pictures that he allowed me to take.

The ice hasn't formed on the stream here yet.  It's been a relatively mild winter so far, only in the upper 20's and low 30's for the most part.

There was a lot of sniffing of bunny trails.

Aren't the icicles on the roof pretty?

Vacation, all I ever wanted

I am currently sitting in the living room of a friend's cottage in New Hampshire.  Morgan is taking a break from coloring to give me hugs and kisses.  Noah is playing a game and Hubby is helping Noah with the game.  Toby is relaxing at my feet and there is a fire going in the woodstove.  We've just finished having chowder for dinner.  It's heaven. 

We have been desperate to have a break from the chaos of our everyday lives for a while.  It would have been lovely to relax at home, it would also be impossible.  Hubby runs 2 businesses out of our home, I homeschool the kids and do multitudes of other things daily, including helping Hubby.  We also happen to be the house where all the kids come to play.  For these and many other reasons, we needed to go away. 

So Edas Escape it was.  Our friend D has this wonderful place that once belonged to his lovely grandmother Eda.  We've come up here before and it is such a refuge.  Since it has a kitchen, we can bring food up from home, or go to the grocery store 20 minutes away.  Then we don't have to leave, unless we want to.  Just what we needed. 

We plan to hibernate here for a few days.  When we're good and ready, we'll go out exploring.  In the meantime, I plan to take a few walks with my camera.  Hopefully I'll have some good pictures to post in the next few days.  Ahhh, this is heaven